Kate: Thank you! For way too long, too many small minded hypocritical people have been at work in much of Morrisville, and it's nice to see the rock lifted off of some of them to see exactly how they work.
The "People's Board" is nothing of the kind. The people are left out in secrecy and back room deals for board member buddies, cronies, and contacts.
It may not be Tom Cruise who is the school board's "Top Gun", but Emperor William "Maverick" Hellmann CPA is. He loves rules...sit down, shut up...but when the rules apply to him? "Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules!" I wonder if he says that to the IRS when one of his clients is audited?
You all know that if the board had voted to table the $2500 payment, then defeasement would have failed, right? That's why the Emperor was emphatic in his continued less than sotto-voce "NO" as the tabling question continued to be called. Without a payment, there was no report. Without a report, there was no defeasement.
Have you read the Hellmann Report? It tells us NOTHING that we did not already know. The "inspection" was also a sham. It was not an "inspection" (think white-gloved Marine master sergeant) but a "tour" (think a stroll through the park). The list of what they didn't do is impressive.
I would hope that even some of the Q are embarrassed by the Emperor's activities to date.
Kate Fratti also makes one more mention in her column. It's about halfway through where the Hellmann supporters say he's a decent man so immersed in the business world that he doesn't understand democratic government. Let me get this straight...Hellmann, who was the elected Morrisville borough controller, doesn't understand government? Maybe someone should be independently auditing the books on Union Street as well as on Palmer Avenue.
12 comments:
Wow. I thought the 'farm out' option was dead. A visit to the Delaware Valley High School website was interesting.
1) The word school conjures up images of learning, student government, band, plays, and athletics. The words "Student Education Center" as DVHS is known seems much more astringent to me. A full high school experience requires the student to be involved in extra-curricular activities; further most universities and colleges won't give a student a second look without a proper balance of grades and activity. I don't see that here.
2) There are a number of different programs at DVHS, including Adult Education. If I remember some of the talking points about the K-12 school well enough, I believe that there was near hysteria about blending Kindergarten students with Middle and High School students. Can you imagine allowing our 9-12 graders into an educational environment where they could be sharing a classroom with an adult? What kind of screening programs are done for the adult students? Could we see former convicts or registered sex offenders in a history class with my son or daughter?
3) The Castor Avenue location appears to be the closest to Morrisville. That appears to be a long bus ride (in rush hour, I'm thinking 90 minutes round trip).
4) This line is very troubling: "The high school diploma program prepares students for post-high-school careers in the shortest possible time". If our 11th graders are having problems testing now, just wait until 10th grade lasts a month and half!
There's much more on the site:
http://www.delawarevalleyhighschool.com/home/
For my part, and a couple of other board and administration members, we are very, very, very, very skeptical of DVHS and its capacity for educating ALL of our high school students. And as far as I know, there's been no talk about even meeting with the director. Finally, he contacted us after reading the paper, we didn't go to him. (As far as I know.)
When Bill Hellmann canceled the town walk-thru, the reason given was that he wanted an engineer(s) present or it wouldn't be worth it. Now an engineer has walked through. What about the town?
Check out p. 4 of the report - why are the toilet rooms only for use by gangs? Can't law-abiding students relieve themselves at school anymore?
I know, I know, I'll stop.....
I wanted to mention Ed Frankenfield's prophetic comment during the defeasement vote at the Jan 30th mtg:
"The $30 million new school is going to look like a bargain".
I happen to agree with him.
Please defease me, let me go
For you don't want me anymore
To keep me 'round makes you upset
Defease me, and I'll reduce your debt.
I'm sure I'll find a better place
That bond defeasement guy's an ace
His assets warm while your's are cold
Defease me, and break the bonds they sold.
Please defease me, can't you see
You'd be a fool to cling to me
To live a lie just brings you pain
Defease me, your loss will be my gain.
This is how DVHS describes themselves as posted on the PDE's website:
In 1969, we were a small tutoring school offering enrichment courses geared toward "at-risk" youth with motivational or behavioral problems that interfered with their ability to successfully perform at local public high schools. From that modest beginning, our school has grown into one of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's largest private, licensed, accredited and "approved" secondary schools specializing in "at-risk" high school youth with motivational and/or behavioral issues. We offer a full service educational facility, offering a range of unique educational services for "at-risk" youth. WE OFFER SCHOOL DISTRICTS the ability to seamlessly refer “at-risk” youth in need of behavioral, emotional, academic and/or special education services to our highly effective programs at a cost that is far LESS than what districts spend INTERNALLY. We also offer the unique ability to separate “at risk” students from their public high school peer groups, by transitioning them into OUR facility and programs AWAY from the public school where they previously encountered difficulties with their peers and/or staff. Districts can increase “A.Y.P.” under the “No Child Left Behind” law, and secure increased performance and funding, and enable these students and their families to access critical services provided and/or coordinated by our school. The result is a win for the student, a win for the parents, a win for the district and a win for the taxpayers. WE OFFER THE PRIVATE FAMILY the ability to enroll directly through our private tuition payment programs. This enables students who have failed classes and are otherwise not “on track” to catch up to their peers, graduate on time, and/or accelerate their graduation from high school due to our flexible block and semester scheduling, day programs, evening programs and summer programs. WE OFFER OVER-AGE STUDENTS AND WORKING ADULTS our night programs and our day programs for scheduling flexibility around family or work related needs, so that they can earn their high school diploma and pursue continuing education or vocational training.
FELLOW MORRISVILLIANS, DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN
This is amazingly disturbing. I am also distressed by Hellmann's statement that we simply can't provide services needed by special education students. He feels that they should go without a proper education in order to keep his money in his pocket. He doesn't want to invest in MOrrisville, that's fine, go away and let us do it. Mr. Hellmann and his wife collectively own five properties in Morrisville, which is why he is so 'tense' about taxes. They impact him five times. His decisions, in my opinion, are based on his financial interests, not the good of others (obviously not the good of the students). When he first filled out his financial statement when running for the Board, he lied to the community about these properties. He didn't want people to know he was/is a community landlord, not simply a homeowner like most of us.
STS: Gotta get today's BCCT column by Manasee Wagh on here ("Board OKs engineering study after being kept in the dark").
Also featured: text of Bill Hellmann's statement from last Wed's mtg. Contains some juicy statements that people should see and remember.
So what can we actually do about all of this? Or do we just let them hang by their own rope? They are actually doing a pretty good job of hurting themselves on their own, but my fear is that the town may still support their actions?
Mr. Hellmann and his wife collectively own five properties in Morrisville.....
I believe by Morrisville rules, this is quite OK. It only becomes wrong if any one of the following apply:
1. you aren't a long-time Morrisville resident (> 25 years);
2. you don't agree with the likes of the current school board majority on a controversial, emotionally-charged issue - if you do agree on such an issue, the Rule #1 residency requirement drops to 45 minutes;
3. you actually improve any of the properties;
4. you attempt to sell 1 of the properties, unless to help pay off a law suit that you lost - if you do not meet this requirement and still attempt to sell, it makes you a greedy carpetbagging yuppie elitist.
UPDATE: The only reason Mr. Hellmann had not previously expressed interest in using DVHS for our high school students was because they got his email address wrong and he hadn't known about it until recently. We will most likely be bringing David Shulik in to speak to the community regarding his proposal.
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