Last night the next to last (penultimate, for those sesquipedalians out there) graduating class from Morrisville High School was presented with their diplomas. Apparently the class of 2009 will be receiving walking papers.
Kudos to Superintendent Yonson and the institution of the Edward H. Frankenfield Memorial Award. A good man like that deserves to be remembered by the measure of a student's service to others. It's too bad that his memory is being trampled upon by the likes of the Emperor and Angry Al as they seek to dismantle the community they claim to be protecting.
Congratulations and best wishes to the Class of 2008.
Take a look at the statistics from these young women and men. Why is this school board trying to push them away? Why aren't their achievements and successes being celebrated?
Taking lessons into the future
“As we leave here, we should remember the lessons we learned and use them to the best of our ability,” one speaker said.
By MANASEE WAGH
While Morrisville High School’s graduating class was small, its seniors truly enjoyed the close-knit community they formed.
That was the consensus of many of the 73 graduates at Wednesday evening’s commencement ceremony on the high school grounds.
“It’s nice. You get to talk to everyone and you know everyone,” said graduate Ashley Woodhouse.
This year marked the 110th commencement of a high school in which teachers could connect with a small student body on a more personal level, said several students. Salutatorian Lauren Ramos, who’s planning a career in forensics, thanked several of her teachers for guiding her through the trials of four years of high school and for making learning fun.
“As we leave here, we should remember the lessons we learned and use them to the best of our ability,” she told her classmates.
The speaker giving the commencement address this year, sportscaster Don Tollefson, garnered much applause from listeners for his words of inspiration.
“Never let a single human being tell you there’s something you cannot do,” he told students. Tollefson brought up the Democratic election as an example of how minorities Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bucked tradition to run for the White House.
He also advised them that failure is “a stepping stone,” and that they should never give up.
As a tribute to the graduates’ community involvement, Morrisville Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson introduced an award in honor of recently deceased school board member, Edward Frankenfield.
“He contributed to the community in so many ways,” said Yonson. With Frankenfield’s wife and son, she presented graduate Sarah O’Connor with the honorary Edward H. Frankenfield Memorial Award for many hours of volunteer service with a variety of community services and organizations.
Presenting one graduate with the award plaque and a monetary gift will become an annual tradition, said Yonson.
This year’s class earned nearly 6,000 hours of community service altogether.
Senior class President Justin Howell said that the community and the schools are closely connected in Morrisville.
“I’ll always feel I’m part of the community here,” he said. “We can move on with the knowledge that we can be proud of our hometown and we have a hometown that’s proud of us.”
Morrisville High School
Graduates: 73
National Honor Society members: 3
Valedictorian: Matthew Miller
Salutatorian: Lauren Ramos
Student speakers: Justin Howell (President of Class), Brittany Caldwell (Vice President), Christina Doan (Secretary), Andrew Brake (Treasury)
Percent going on to higher education: 81
Percent going into the military: 1
Percent going to the workforce: 18
Amount of scholarship money offered (to entire class; not just the amount accepted; this is the total amount offered) $257,734
Number of community service hours (by the entire class of "08): 5,933 hours
Noteworthy accomplishments of the graduating class: The seniors organized a charity Powder Puff Football Game for a local family whose daughter had cancer; Bicentennial Athletic League Championships in softball and baseball; 31 seniors earned 197 dual enrollment college credits.
15 comments:
It was a great ceremony. Robin and I represented the board and in the absence of a board president, we both shook the hands of the graduates. It was an honor. It was the first time I saw Pat Frankenfield since Ed's loss and she looks good, but, like many of us, she's still in shock. She and Eric, their son, gave the award away.
Was the King spit shinning his crown?
Kudos to Joe and Robin. Thank you so very much for being, not only good civil servants, but for being honorable persons.
Back in the day the whole board would sit up there and take pride in their accomplishments. Then the president, with honor and integrity, would address the class and send them on their merry way to adulthood, shaking each of their hands and congratulating them for a job well done.
It would be interesting to look back through the journals. Is William Hellmann, CPA, the first ever school board president to spurn the students and refuse to take the dias?
I honestly believe that the emperor couldn't face the graduates. That is why he didn't show up. I also think the graduates were much better off without him.
Many thanks to Joe and Robin for attending. Shame on the rest of the School board as usual.
How can Hellmann, Radosti, Mihok, Worob, Heather, or Farrell say they are for the students when they couldn't even take out an hour or two to show up for graduation? The regular agenda and committee meetings were canceled and they would have been at the school for them anyway.
Wake up Morrisville. You voted these yahoos into office.
This is great stuff. We have over the last few years seen a steady increase of students attending college which is fantastic. I wish I had the data to see it over time (say, since Dr. Yonson came on board). It is also nice to know that this year's students are 197 credits closer to their degree (and $257,734 closer to paying for it) before they ever step onto campus. The community service hours stat was also very interesting. One thing the article is missing is the percentage of the senior class that graduated.
Congrats to the seniors. This is great stuff.
Trivia question. Does anyone remember the name of the superintendent who did not attend grduation because allegedly he/she was out in California working hard on the HUBS project. Hint, the person addressed the students via audio/visual state of the art tele-communications but the audio and video were out of sync and the whole thing turned out to be a big joke. Here's another hint. This person was really in California performing paid services for a private company while also being paid by the Morrisville txpayers. We even chipped in for travel expenses. This person did this about 30 times during his/her tenure as superintendent. Anyone care to take a wild guess? Come on Borows, you were there. You didn't seem to have a problem with it though. Maybe the Emperor should just say he was in California on the evening of graduation. You blogheads should then want to reimburse him his travel costs.
Hi Steve. Thanks for reading. How's the work on the resolution going? Stop living in the past. Or at least just be quiet and go back to sleep.
Hello back at you "save the school." Thanks for the advice about not living in the past however, I'm really curious about something and maybe you can help me. When I first began scratching the surface of the vast improprieties in public education,(Some things that we're still paying for today) the almost immediate response from some was "it's time to heal and move on for the good of the children." I discovered this was a defensive reaction to essentially conceal the truth. Now let's say hypothetically (Did I spell that right?) that you were a victim of an investment fraud scheme and your family was cheated out of a substantial amount of money. Then say that five years later investigators told you they identified suspects but need your help to put them away. Would your reaction be to tell them no thanks because that was in the past and you've moved on? I don't think so, I believe that you would seek retribution and desire that others not be hurt as you were. In reality, students and taxpayers were cheated in at least three counties and the predators were protected by a tainted justice system and media. None of these people were held accountable and some are now serving in higher positions of authority. You know "Save the school, I don't want to live in the past but the past does not begin until after the REAL truth comes out. That time will be after my book comes out.
Go and enjoy the sand and surf, Steve. This isn't Oprah and this is your last free plug for your book.
I just want to thank Robin and Joe for attending the ceremony. It was nice to see people that care about the students take time out of their busy schedules to attend the graduation ceremony. The others made time during the day to negotiate benefits packages for teachers, but could not make time to be there for the grads.
Anonymous #3, I assume the trivia answer is John Gould.
I admit that I wasn't as involved as I should have been when I first moved here at the end of 1998 and became a homeowner in January 2001, but I do remember these letters to the editor in the Courier Times about the district written by a guy named Steven Worob, who apparently had recently been on the school board but wasn't anymore. I started wondering "If this guy's right, and he sounds very authoritative, what the heck is going on in this school district? It sounds pretty corrupt."
And when I started attending occasional school board meetings after my daughter was born in My 2002, time after time I remember this guy Steve Worob loudly and publicly denouncing John Gould and accusing him of various illegalities and improprieties. He got lots of applause. Next thing I knew, a new board was wept into office, and John Gould resigned and was replaced by Dr. Yonson. I was at the board meeting where John Gould finally defended himself from the withering personal attacks. I don't know why he didn't do it sooner - some may say "because he was guilty", others may say "he thought that verbal debate would have only encouraged more attacks, so he kept it to a minimum hoping the attacks would stop but they didn't".
Then I started reading about a "slander per se" lawsuit filed by John Gould against Steve Worob for damage to his reputation and character from Mr. Worob's personal attacks and accusations. Next thing I know, it goes to court and Dr. Gould wins a judgment of about $110-120,000 - more than he even requested.
For whatever reason, Mr. Worob represented himself in court. I don't know why he chose to do that - no other lawyer would represent him, or he kept firing the ones he hired, or he just thought he was the best person to represent himself - but he did. Maybe he can explain it - maybe it's in the book...
Somewhere in this timeframe there was press coverage of a "beef and beer" fundraiser held at a public place (Summerseat, a 501(c)(3) entity, I believe) to defray Mr. Worob's legal costs that involved a 50/50 raffle or some kind of "game of chance". The cops were called in about the booze and gamblin' at a public venue and ......well, I digress.
From the newspaper accounts, it seems as if Mr. Worob's defense strategy was to keep trying to rehash and prove the accusations, as opposed to trying to disprove that his remarks were made with malice and caused Dr. Gould reputational harm. If he was anything in court like he is at school board meetings, I can see why a judge would get tired of him.
My understanding is that everything Mr. Worob accused John Gould or the district of was investigated up to the PA Attorney General's office, and nothing of great consequence was found. Yes, there may have been some circumstances of sloppy bookkeeping or less-than-stellar financial controls, but nothing that rose to the level of criminality that Mr. Worob claims.
But Mr. Worob presses on, demanding retribution. And he won't take no for an answer, claiming it's part of a vast conspiracy by John Gould, the media, elected officials, the Republican Club, etc. I don't buy it. The common denominator in all this is Mr. Worob. You can love him as a fighter for the little guy, going up against powerful forces not for personal gain, but for the good of the everyday Morrisville citizen. Or you can loathe him a a loud-mouthed attention-seeking muck-raker who has a loose relationship with reality and the truth who has propelled himself into a position of power and control (hello, Boro Council, Planning Commission, spouse on the school board, yo!). Unlike him, I'm not a black or white, all or nothing kinda guy. I think most things are somewhere in between. But with Mr. Worob, I think he's much closer to the former than the latter. But he's here to stay.
Oops! I mixed up my latters and my formers. My mistake, and I'm even willing to admit it. You thought I fell under his charismatic spell for a moment, huh?
Jon, you hit the nail on the head. It's a certain high public official against the world. Everyone else is wrong, and he's right. When it's all said and done, book or no book, how will this person be remembered? As a fighter for good? Or as a loud mouthed, egotistical, opinionated bully, who only sees as far as his own myopic perspective? I guess history will be the judge, but if Vegas were making odds, I know where I'd place my money.
Excerpt from an October 17, 2004 New York Times article about the George W. Bush & his Administration. Sound familiar, but on a local scale?
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
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