Plenty to read today in the BCCT. Angry Al, Kate Fratti's column, and the Gateway project are all hot topics. There's also the body slam applied by the BCCT to Hellmann's Heroes. It's too good to pass up posting it below.
Also thanks to the anonymous graphic artist. :)
Do you have anything to add?
No more secrecy
More than a hundred people jammed Wednesday's Morrisville school board meeting. Probably half of them wanted to be heard. After all, the board was meeting just days after it leaked out that members were secretly considering shutting down the borough's 116-year-old high school program, and that Morrisville kids were being shopped around to other school districts.
Hey, if you take 'em, we'll pay you!
No wonder people stormed the meeting. But rather than patiently listening to folks who wanted to be heard — every one of them, as the board should have — board President William Hellmann invoked a rule to limit public participation. He allowed only 15 citizens to sign up to speak. And he gave them just three minutes each to be heard — 45 minutes total.
And he wouldn't budge.
Nice way for a community leader to treat the people he's supposed to be serving. But folks didn't just lose an opportunity to vent, an opportunity they deserved. The board squandered the possibility that citizens might have had some practical suggestions.
Maybe board members don't realize it, but they don't know everything.
Indeed, this arrogant bunch has little consideration for anybody who disagrees with them. By law, the school closure/student exportation discussion should have been held publicly. Instead, it occurred behind closed doors. And if Hellman gets his way, the general public will continue to be shut out.
Hellman promised at Wednesday's meeting that no decision will be made without a referendum. We're glad to hear that. We weren't happy to hear there will be more closed doors — and neither should residents. We refer to a meeting the board president intends to organize between board members and a select group of citizens, students and teachers. The plan is to brainstorm ideas and discuss options.
Better late than never.
Problem is, he intends to make it a so-called executive session, meaning the general public would be barred.
That's illegal. And Morrisville citizens shouldn't accept it.
Hellman clearly likes to set rules. But there are also rules that he must respect and follow. To that end, we suggest he review the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.
And then, by all means, hold a meeting. In fact, hold a few. The school board should schedule as many meetings as it takes for every citizen, students included, to be heard.
Maybe no ideas will surface that are any better than the one the board was secretly pursuing. But at least the community will have been heard at open forums where input is invited. Then and only then should the board propose shutting down an institution that is part of what makes a community whole.
