From the BCCT.
New school for at-risk students opens
The Delaware Valley High School, a private alternative school for at-risk students celebrated its grand opening with a reception and open house Monday.
The school, which will educate approximately 250 students this year, is a branch of a campus that has operated in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia for almost 40 years.
DVHS contracts with school districts to educate students and takes referrals from families. The new campus includes a 25,000-square-foot facility on 4 acres off Jacksonville Road. It will serve students in Bucks and Montgomery counties. The Bustleton location will provide services to Philadelphia students exclusively.
The high school educates each student for $8,750 per year and boasts a teacher-student ratio of 17-to-1. It works with a technical institute, psychological center and service organization to steer students toward a vocational school or college education.
“We're going to facilitate that the moment they arrive,” said Davie Shulick, DVHS president. “What we're trying to teach these kids is how important education is and how important civic responsibility is.”
Shulick said the DVHS student-management services software was designed by school administrators to track every student's emotional and behavioral issues and automate a report that is forwarded to parents and school districts.
DVHS has a 93 percent graduation rate, a figure that includes 24 William Tennent High School students referred by the school district in the last three years.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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Unrelated topic, from today's Phila. Inquirer. The property tax posts were too far back....
Property-tax case goes to Pa. justices today
By Anthony R. Wood
Inquirer Staff Writer
In a case that could have dramatic consequences for school districts and towns across Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments today on the constitutionality of the commonwealth's property-tax system, which raises more than $14 billion annually for education and local government.
The court's decision could fundamentally change the way counties assess real estate for tax purposes, forcing them to conduct frequent mass reappraisals of homes and businesses.
Some counties, including Bucks, have not done large-scale reassessments in 35 years.
In June 2007, an Allegheny County Court judge decreed that such a system guarantees unfairness and, among other injustices, punishes owners of lower-priced properties, a phenomenon documented in an Inquirer series in June.
Allegheny County Solicitor Michael H. Wojcik is asking the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling by Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr.
In his 119-page opinion, Wettick noted a basic flaw in Pennsylvania's system: Assessments, on which tax millages are applied, are fixed in time, but property values are not.
As properties appreciate, assessments decrease as a percentage of a home's market value, creating a tax break for owners of pricier properties in higher-end neighborhoods.
"That actually happens the day after your assessment starts," said William Moon, the Delaware County assessment manager, who, along with other assessors, acknowledged that the system was problem-plagued and needed fixing.
All Pennsylvania counties operate under a "base year" program that experts say may be unique. In place in some form for a century, it became law in 1982. Counties must assess all properties at once, and those values are then frozen.
Montgomery County, for example, last revalued all its real estate in 1996. This has been a boon for appreciating neighborhoods and a burden in those where values have stagnated or dropped.
For instance: Effective tax rates - annual tax bills expressed as percentages of market values - are 25 percent higher, on average, in Norristown than in more affluent West Norriton, although both towns are in the same school district.
The $1,280 tax bill on the house Al Williams bought at the end of last year in the 800 block of Cherry Street in Norristown is double what it should be because the property has not appreciated.
Radically different rates of appreciation are also an issue in Philadelphia, though the city purportedly reassesses every year. Some property owners in West Philadelphia are being socked with effective tax rates that are triple those being paid by Center City residents, based on an Inquirer analysis.
Tax experts say continual freshening is the best antidote to inequity. But they also caution not to expect quick change from the Supreme Court. The consensus is that the justices will take their time in ruling and likely kick the problem to the General Assembly.
The case has prosaic roots, beginning with a group of appeals filed to the Allegheny County assessment board. Lorrie Cranor, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who was among the appellants, said she never envisioned her complaint growing into a landmark case.
Cranor and her husband bought a home in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh in December 2003 for $730,000. A few months later, her assessment was increased from $466,000 to $730,000 after the school district, contending the tax was too low, filed an appeal on the property. The Cranors argued they were paying way too much.
After their appeal was denied, they joined the class-action suit that led to Wettick's decision.
Assessors say that while the system needs reform, annual mass appraisals would be costly if not impractical.
"I'm a proponent of frequent reassessment," said Steve Howe, the Dauphin County assessor, who is treasurer of the state assessors association. He pointed out, however, that a typical countywide reappraisal costs from $50 to $70 a property. Unless the state put up the money, he said, the counties would balk.
Howe said he favored a system that required revaluations when statistical analyses indicated that assessments were significantly out of whack.
Delaware County's Moon said state officials needed to take some action to keep assessments fresher, regardless of what the Supreme Court did.
"The solution is probably to do everything on an even basis," he said, suggesting "every five years or so."
There hasn't been much chatter about the Hellmann "farm out" plan lately. Anybody hear anything? Is no news bad news?
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