BCCT and Emperor Spar

Today's BCCT carries a double shot of goodness today. First is the editorial that blasts the Stop the School "open and transparent" board members for their lack of openess and transparency.

The second is a guest opinion printing the statement that the Emperor read at a recent meeting.

We report, you decide.

Secret society: Unschooled board
Morrisville school board members are pursuing unpublicized agendas at private locations with little regard for the public’s right to know.

Officially, Bill Hellmann and the new majority on the Morrisville school board were given power by the people who voted them into office. Unfortunately, the people have been kept in the dark as the board routinely conducts business not only behind closed doors — but behind private closed doors.

As Courier Times columnist Kate Fratti reported, school board members are beating the state Sunshine Law’s quorum stipulation by meeting tag-team style at private locations. Sunday, it was at board member Brenda Worub’s home. Four of nine board members acknowledged being present at one time. A fifth attended earlier, but left before others arrived.

Questioned about the propriety of the secret meeting, Hellmann dismissed it as an issue: “I’m not sure there is anything to comment on. This is a gathering of friends, some of whom … happen to be on the school board. … We will continue to meet with each other, mindful of the law, whenever we wish.”

We’re not sure what Hellmann means by “mindful of the law,’’ but the tag-team meetings suggest a focus on the letter of the law rather than its spirit. In the process, the requirement that elected officials keep the public informed seems to have been forgotten, if not ignored.

Dedicated to undoing plans to build a new $30 million K-12 school, Hellmann and his supporters on the board have routinely worked behind the scenes since his anti-new school majority took over in January. But beyond stopping construction, the board apparently wants to scrap its high school program altogether — without any public input.

In her Monday column, Fratti reminded us of a string of backroom decisions, beginning with the board secretly contacting other districts about taking Morrisville High School kids on a tuition basis. Also secretly, engineers were asked to review conditions at all three borough schools. Now, the school district solicitor attorney who protested the secret hiring is expected to be replaced at the next board meeting. Hellmann originally directed that resumes for a new attorney be sent to his private office rather than the school district.

Bill Hellmann is a smart man. There’s no doubt about that. He’s a certified public accountant and in the Guest Opinion below, Hellmann confronts some of the criticism he’s faced. But there are matters he doesn’t address, including his recent demand — so far unfulfilled — that administrators reveal the names and addresses of special education students. Hellmann recently has preached the need to control the costs of special education.

The cost of special education is a common complaint among school officials. But Hellmann’s demand for the identities of students and their addresses is, well, frightening.

In our view, this unschooled board needs to learn some respect for the public’s right to know. Meanwhile, we encourage citizens — the parents of students, in particular — to stand up for their rights.


Cost of dissolving school bond debt pales next to savings

Regarding the recent Courier Times editorial, “Costly lessons,” as it pertains to the Morrisville School District. The article stated that the K-12 building project should have gone to a referendum. I agree with this statement and spoke several times at public meetings, imploring the prior board majority to do just that. They ignored me and many other people on this issue.

There was overwhelming opposition to this project and bond issue and it was emphatically proved at the polls in May 2007 and again in November 2007. I strongly disagree that our school buildings, at least the high school, are in awful condition. The high school needs some renovation and upgrades only. The school district is in the process of doing an evaluation of the school buildings.

I do not believe that we can build a quality K-12 school for $30 million. The Philadelphia Archdiocese plans to build two new high schools in our area, at a size not much larger than our planned school building but at a cost of $65 million each. I believe I was elected, in part, to help the school district provide a quality education for our children at a cost the community can afford.

The following is an explanation of dissolving the debt and how much was saved:

That the school district had to put up more than $24.4 million to dissolve $22 million proves how expensive the original bond issue was. But we also received an extra $1.67 million in bond premium with the original issue. There is no free lunch; this had to be paid back. This present board did not issue this expensive debt. The prior board majority issued this expensive debt. This bond issue has a 10-year call, which means we have to pay interest to the bondholders for 10 years whether we like it or not.

This is a long time and expensive. The prior majority board was told many times by this town not to issue this expensive debt. In fact, there was a citizen lawsuit to try to stop this expensive debt issue. We have no control over current interest rates. I, for one, am not going to play the interest rate game with public funds. If this was my money, maybe I would gamble, but not with public funds. We have to cut our losses and move forward.

Since the new school is not going to be built, IRS regulations require this debt to be dissolved within a certain time period — I believe three years from date of issue. We have to give it back. I believe this community elected the new board members to help the school district bring back fiscal and operational order. Eighty-five percent of the bond proceeds need to be spent within three years of issuance.

This partial dissolution freed up approximately $1.2 million in the current budget of the general fund. These funds can be used for more upgrades, a possible tax reduction for the ’08-’09 budget year or other items the board decides upon. We also plugged a probable $400,000 budget hole in the ’08-’09 budget. We also reduced the millage for the ’08-’09 budget year by approximately 7 mills. We also saved future tax millage by partially defeating this debt. We also probably saved (depending on current interest rates) approximately $460,000 (the difference between what we have to pay bondholders vs. what we would earn ($1.3 million vs. $855,000).

In summary, we saved $12.6 million in future interest costs by dissolving this $22 million in bonded debt. The bond premium money mentioned above in the amount of nearly $1.7 million, plus the nearly $1.2 million sitting in the general fond equals almost $2.9 million. This is more than the $2.4 million that was put up as extra money to dissolve the $22 million bond.

Disclosure of the bond dissolution was first made at a committee meeting back around Dec. 17. Another analysis was included in the board packet in January before the Jan. 30 vote. I am only one board member. We have nine members all together. If there were any questions on the dissolution, I would hope any board members would have asked our financial advisor or our bond attorney prior to or at the Jan. 30 public meeting.

Bill Hellmann
is president of the Morrisville school board and is a certified public accountant.