From the BCCT.
My cracked and dusty crystal ball sees two future articles. One starts out like this: "Business managers of school districts served by Bucks County Technical High School agreed today to delay the revision of the school’s funding formula until the 2010-2011 budget.
" 'We've been examining this for over a year', said XXX. 'Taking the time to do this right will best serve all of our districts: student and taxpayer alike. The holidays are upon us, and the first budget drafts are due in January. Before you know it, it's June and we're starting all over again.' "
The other article? Miracle upon miracles, unanimity reigns and they actually agree upon a new plan. I didn't bother to write a draft of that article. That's the unlikely outcome.
Save the emails: This isn't bashing Neshaminy because they are mentioned. This isn't even bashing the Emperor and his board of chosen accomplices from Morrisville. It's a recognition that these six suburban districts have many similarities and several deep differences. The only course here is whether or not they can find a way to unite like the 13 colonies of 1776, or splinter apart like the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia of today.
I have four simple steps to fix this:
Put them back in the meeting room.
Serve lots of water and coffee.
Lock the bathrooms.
Agree on the plan.
See what a little motivation can accomplish?
Back to the drawing board for tech school funding formula
Posted in News on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 4:25 pm by Joan Hellyer
Business managers of school districts served by Bucks County Technical High School agreed today to take another stab at revising the school’s funding formula.
At issue is whether some costs should be separated from the overall contributions of the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts. Right now, the costs are split among the six districts based on a formula involving fixed and variable costs.
The business managers suggested in 2007 to separate costs associated with special needs students from the formula because special education expenses are potentially more expensive than basic education costs.
However, one of the sending school districts did not support the proposed formula change because its school system could potentially face additional expenses. Neshaminy was the lone hold out to the change after projections suggested the district would have had to pay about $450,000 more in 2007-2008 had the new formula been in place for the comprehensive technical high school.
Any change to the school’s Articles of Agreement, including a funding formula revision, has to be unanimously approved before it can be implemented, school officials said.
Representatives of all six sending districts got together with tech school officials today to decide if something else could be done.
The managers agreed to meet within the next few weeks with Sharon Rendeiro, the tech school’s business administrator, to further break down the special education costs.
In addition, they also will break down the costs of each of the more than 30 trades offered at the school. Those costs vary depending on staff salaries, which are based on years of experience and level of education, and equipment, textbooks and supplies used in each trade, officials said.
The business administrators also agreed to take a look at how other comprehensive technical high schools in the state are funded.
They will then decide if any changes should be made to the current formula and suggest them to the tech school’s joint board committee. The committee, made up of school board members from each of the sending districts, will have to agree unanimously to make the changes before they can be implemented.
Attendees at today’s funding formula summit agreed the changes must be made by late November in order to be incorporated into the 2009-2010 budget.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
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4 comments:
Who is our rep to the Tech School. I am rather certain that unless it's Joe that it is our school district that is holding up the process.
RTFA!!! The hold up is that under the proposed revisions, Neshaminy will have an increase of $450K, so they refuse to approve the change, and any change requires a unanimous vote by all of the districts. The Morrisville SB has plenty of problems, don't cloud them by making false and uninformed statements, or you become just as bad as the QRSE.
What a great idea! We sit there listening to them idiotically talk on and on until well after midnight and all we have to do is lock the bathrooms? Lets get the keys made.
If you were a hard-headed, uncompromising, self-proclaimed steward of the taxpayer dollar in Neshaminy, would you give in and let your district take a $450k hit just to keep the peace with your fellow districts? I don't think so. Our hard-headed, uncompromising, self-proclaimed stewards of the taxpayer dollar in Morrisville should expect just this from Neshaminy - nothing.
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