Fratti: One school down. Two to go.

Kate Fratti in the BCCT.

Come see the Emperor and the Board of Chosen Accomplices in concert TONIGHT, 7:30 P.M. in the LGI.

Please make them move the meeting to the auditorium. Bring a friend. Bring a neighbor. Bring your kids. Show the kids what democracy is all about and show the board members that the students of Morrisville are worth fighting for.

Morrisville going down?

If you think Morrisville school board members are wringing their hands after learning the borough will block the reopening of M.R. Reiter Elementary School until engineers deem it “safe,” you’ve been had.

While grade-schoolers are displaced, staff is scrambling, the maintenance guy is explaining and parents are up in arms, the mood of the board leadership following the boiler room explosion at Reiter is celebratory. Dollar signs everywhere. The explosion was a Christmas gift.

In an e-mail written to the rest of the board fewer than 24 hours after the boiler blew, board President Bill Hellmann indicated a shuttered M.R. Reiter is just what he’d hoped for. The emphasis is all his.

“If we close both elementary schools and put everybody in the high school, we will save a FORTUNE in operating costs. EVERY YEAR. The pro new-schoolers wanted a K-12 school. Well here it is. The other people who might not want a K-12 are a minority and when they see their reduced tax bill on July 1 of each year, they just may change their minds in these new tough economic times. We will save ANOTHER fortune by not repairing either of those two buildings. We will solve the M.R. Reiter problem. CLOSE THIS RAT TRAP NOW.”

Hellmann’s e-mail makes it clear why in June he eliminated Reiter from a list of buildings to be examined by engineers in preparation for eventual renovations that might have prevented the explosion. And, it’s clear, now, why the board’s been dragging its feet on fixes to Grandview Elementary School, too.

Rat traps.

Hellmann, Brenda Worob, Marlys Mihok, Al Radosti, Bill Farrell and Gloria Heater were voted into office by an electorate that desperately wanted to stop construction of a new K-12 building it could not afford. The winning slate promised voters they’d renovate existing buildings instead.

They lied. Some of them have said privately they’d like to rid the borough of the entire school system.

One school down. Two to go.

So what until then?

It’s rumored school board directors have spoken with council members about using county open space preservation funds to purchase the Reiter property and that county Commissioner Jim Cawley has offered to assist them with such a plan.

Cawley insists he has not had any such conversation with anyone from Morrisville — though the county’s always willing to help when it can, he added.

Which, I suppose, suggests the open space suggestion isn’t so farfetched. How else to unload rat trap real estate? Morrisville will need to spend its open space allotment or lose it, and what other open space is there?

The stumbling block to eliminating the whole district immediately? A teachers contract that blocks lay-offs and furloughs for the next few years. The Reiter boiler explosion blew open a path to save at least some “FORTUNE” now by eliminating operating costs.

It will mean cramming gradeschoolers into space at the high school and eventually reconfiguring high school classrooms to create a grade-school wing.

Learning in the midst of all that commotion? You never hear this board use the word. It’s not their concern.

They came into power with an agenda to be rid of schools entirely. They should have said so up front. They might very well have been elected, anyway.

Either way, stating their intention was the honorable thing to do. This sneaky approach is disruptive, chaotic and bad for the borough’s reputation as a place to live and work. It could have been dangerous.

“If this school district does not wake up, this town is going down,” Hellmann e-mailed the rest of the board as he urged consensus.

His critics argue the descent already has begun. The cart’s being driven by sneaks and bean counters.

UPDATE December 18, from the BCCT.

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS
Morrisville School Board member Brenda Worob was voted into office in 2005. Her term expires in 2009. Incorrect information appeared in Kate Fratti’s column Wednesday.
The Courier Times strives for accuracy. However, when we do make errors, we want to correct them as soon as possible in this space. To help us, please call 215-949-4161 (days) or 215-949-4211 (nights).