The Morrisville School District is performing the same dance I've seen in business quite often, and even participated in a few times. The organization is making the transformation from a vibrant and viable entity to something we talk about from the dim mists of the "good old days."
Sometimes the death throes come in a blaze of glory, as we learned recently with Bear Stearns. The comet blazes mightily and flames out leaving everyone stunned and confused. No, MSD is not going to go out with a bang, but with the metaphorical whimper.
The board of directors (our intrepid Stop the School board, also known as the Emperor and his Accomplices) is providing uncertain and confusing direction for the future. Remember the Frankenfield question: "What is your plan?" In every single job interview and at least once a year in my annual reviews, the question is asked: "What is your plan? Where do you see yourself in five years?" Everyone works toward a goal. That goal has to be defined by the vision makers at the top.
Since the vision is undefined, we have to read between the lines, and the lines speak of destruction: Don't hire teachers or staff. Lower the taxes, no matter the cost. Close the schools. Tuition out the students. Treat the administration like untrustworthy lackeys. That attitude filters through the organization and sets off the alarm bells of self-preservation in everyone. When they start asking the "five years" question of themselves, they are faced with what the district is expected to look like in 2013. "It's the end of the world as we know it" is not an unexpected conclusion.
These people have families, homes, cars, and visions and plans of their own for their lives. They all depend on an expectation of continued employment to make these dreams come true.
So now, those who are able or willing will be making the circuit on Monster.com and sending out their resumes. We're going to see a drain of some of the best and the brightest from MSD leaving for other greener pastures.
That happens all the time, but the reverse side of the exodus is that replacements come in. Here's where the dynamics fall apart. The future of MSD is cloudy and murky, and even the medium on Pennsylvania Avenue can see that. I think Helen Keller would have had a 90% chance in seeing it.
Imagine an applicant coming into a board meeting to see what the district is like. I would expect that a cartoonish outline of the person would be left in the wall as they made the hastiest exit known to man since Bugs Bunny.
The first interview question would be, "Do you want to work for the Emperor and his Board of Accomplices?" How many of us would answer yes? Tends to cut down the interviewing time, doesn't it?
Let's fast forward a year from now. Who replaced any of the departed people? Were their positions left vacant and the "do more with less" slack taken up by the survivors? How many of these survivors saw the handwriting on the wall and lit out for greener pastures of their own? No disrespect meant to any future district hires, but what of the caliber of the people who came in? We're not paying the best wages and overall job security is pretty minimal.
It was easy to attract applicants to the RMS Titanic when it was the indestructible behemoth. When you hire on a crew to staff a doomed ship, the applicant flow diminishes slightly.
Can this still be reversed? Possibly. Without more parents and concerned taxpayers showing up to challenge the self-destructive behavior of this board, this is the future. The PDE or the state appointed undertakers will just sift through the wreckage. Let's remember that our kids are in that wreckage.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Resignation: Rumor or Fact? (Apparent Fact)
I received one comment regarding a very recent higher profile resignation within the school district. Without more information or confirmation, there's no post.
ORIGINAL POST 10:15 A.M.
UPDATE: 2:15 P.M. Apparently the exodus is beginning. With the retirement of elementary principal Karen Huggins comes the apparent resignation of Melanie Gehrens, principal of the Middle/Senior High School. It is being reported that she will be moving to the Bristol Township School District as the Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction.
I do not have official word of this, but have received too many different reports for this to be completely made up.
ORIGINAL POST 10:15 A.M.
UPDATE: 2:15 P.M. Apparently the exodus is beginning. With the retirement of elementary principal Karen Huggins comes the apparent resignation of Melanie Gehrens, principal of the Middle/Senior High School. It is being reported that she will be moving to the Bristol Township School District as the Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction.
I do not have official word of this, but have received too many different reports for this to be completely made up.
“This is ridiculous.”
Here's a background article on Wednesday night's meeting from the BCCT this morning.
Raucous? That's mild understatement. It started in the past with an extremely hostile audience led by those same people who now grace the dais. Soda cans and food packages made their start here too, provided back then by the stop the school side as a disruption for the pro school board members. The change in board majority ensured that the practice would eventually shift over to the other side now.
The food thing is a little over the top from BOTH sides. A quiet drink or small snack might be in order. After all, these are four or five hours marathons, but the practice THEN and the practice NOW of using these snacks as disruptive tools is childish at best.
The identification of the Hellmann-Radosti-Mihok voting axis is accurate but is missing a few members. Brenda Worob and Bill Farrell talk a big game about "independence" and "self-directed thought", but in the end come down on the short-sighted side far more often than a true "independent" would.
Jack Buckman has had an issue with late night meetings through his borough council days, so this is not a new position for him. I would like to know how he had enough information about the budget to be able to cast a vote approving it. Was he aware that he can be held PERSONALLY liable for civil damages as a result of his vote?
Until this school board remembers that they are NOT the local board of taxation, but the SCHOOL board, we're in for more late night meeting follies. The irony is that the Emperor and his accomplices themselves have created the firestorm they find themselves enmeshed in. When they were in the audience, they discarded reasoned discourse and discussion in favor of shouting, screaming, and outright mis-characterization of facts to make their points. Now that they are in charge, the wheel of karma has spun and they are now reaping what they have sowed in terms of audience behavior.
I'd like to say that the anti-board audience is wrong (and in the real world they are!), but it's also the only language these yahoos on the dais understand. Confrontation, maximum disruption, and agitation are their signatures. IRONY ALERT: We've elected a board largely made up of the village idiots to control the schools where we educate our young. And we did it only because we wanted to save a few bucks.
They also never, ever, even to this day, thought about a long term plan and released it to the public. "Stop the school" was all they had. They did it. Now what? I've been asking that question for almost a year now and silence is still the only response. Has it occurred to the Emperor and the board of accomplices that if they dialed back the angry rhetoric a bit and actually opened their mouths to EXPLAIN, that the results would be better?
"Those sitting near the front could hear Yonson say under her breath, 'This is ridiculous.' ” Oh, no, Dr. Yonson. Ridiculous is still a few miles down this pothole riddled highway. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses...
Raucous atmosphere at school board meeting
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Morrisville meetings are known for their raucous mud-slinging. But Wednesday's meeting was one for the books.
From the shortening of Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson's contract from five to three years to the board president's proposal of across-the-board hiring freezes in the district, diehards on both sides of the issues stuck it out to watch events unfold past midnight.
One spectator started singing “It's the end of the school as we know it,” to the tune of rock band REM's “It's the End of the World as We Know It.”
At least eight people stood at the microphone to protest the board majority's decision to cut Yonson's five-year contract. Some said it was “a slap in the face” and “an insult.”
The routine replacement of aides and teachers who leave the district became fuel for a debate that raged for more than an hour.
Board President William Hellmann got worked up over hiring new staff. To save money, he suggested a hiring freeze, which elicited gaping mouths and stares of disbelief from administrators and boos from audience members.
Yonson explained that the employees are necessary, that they fulfilled vital educational functions, helping to make significant academic gains in the last couple of years.
For example, elementary math performances have risen in the past couple of years. This year's raw unofficial PSSA data shows considerable improvement in 11th-grade scores, from 11 percent proficiency to 55 percent proficiency, said Yonson.
“Do not expect to have the same results if we reduce staff,” she said.
Hellmann's determination to freeze hirings stems from the district's teachers contract, which stipulates a roughly 12:1 student to staff ratio.
Though most general classes are more than 20 students in size, according to Yonson, some kids who need particular help have more aides or teachers.
The bottom line for some board members was the ratio, though.
“It's too much. It's a problem,” was Hellmann's constant refrain about the number of staff needed to teach fewer than 1,000 students and run the district at an annual cost of $19.88 million.
“Our budget's way too high,” he said repeatedly.
Residents who didn't like what Hellmann had to say settled back with containers of goodies, opening them loudly and rumpling them during Hellmann's remarks.
The approximately 75 spectators filling the meeting room in Morrisville's high school during the five-hour meeting seemed as if they were a sporting event.
They booed and cheered repeatedly depending on who was talking.
Some demanded that Hellmann be heard. Others talked over him.
In the end, at least some of the votes did swing toward staff replacements, though Hellmann and board members Marlys Mihok and Alfred Radosti tended to vote against them. Their practice of siding together on just about every vote prompted a resident to demand that the board not “follow the leader.”
Throughout the noisy meeting, Hellmann and opposing board member Robin Reithmeyer drowned each other out, and Hellmann seemed to turn a deaf ear to Yonson's explanations of how the school system works.
Those sitting near the front could hear Yonson say under her breath, “This is ridiculous.”
John Buckman, who replaced the late Edward Frankenfield on the board last week, thought the meeting dragged on too long.
“It was way too long, that's crazy. If I was getting paid and paid by the hour, maybe I wouldn't care,” he said Friday, chuckling. “We've got to find a way to cut the time.”
Buckman, a former school director and borough councilman, said taking so much time is unfair to board members and the public. But he noted asking questions and airing grievances is good. He believes it's valuable to be up-front and communicate.
However, the board and the administration seem to clash frequently.
“In politics, forget it. It's just that way,” said Buckman. “They talk the subject over and over and over. You're not going to get away from it totally.”
Raucous? That's mild understatement. It started in the past with an extremely hostile audience led by those same people who now grace the dais. Soda cans and food packages made their start here too, provided back then by the stop the school side as a disruption for the pro school board members. The change in board majority ensured that the practice would eventually shift over to the other side now.
The food thing is a little over the top from BOTH sides. A quiet drink or small snack might be in order. After all, these are four or five hours marathons, but the practice THEN and the practice NOW of using these snacks as disruptive tools is childish at best.
The identification of the Hellmann-Radosti-Mihok voting axis is accurate but is missing a few members. Brenda Worob and Bill Farrell talk a big game about "independence" and "self-directed thought", but in the end come down on the short-sighted side far more often than a true "independent" would.
Jack Buckman has had an issue with late night meetings through his borough council days, so this is not a new position for him. I would like to know how he had enough information about the budget to be able to cast a vote approving it. Was he aware that he can be held PERSONALLY liable for civil damages as a result of his vote?
Until this school board remembers that they are NOT the local board of taxation, but the SCHOOL board, we're in for more late night meeting follies. The irony is that the Emperor and his accomplices themselves have created the firestorm they find themselves enmeshed in. When they were in the audience, they discarded reasoned discourse and discussion in favor of shouting, screaming, and outright mis-characterization of facts to make their points. Now that they are in charge, the wheel of karma has spun and they are now reaping what they have sowed in terms of audience behavior.
I'd like to say that the anti-board audience is wrong (and in the real world they are!), but it's also the only language these yahoos on the dais understand. Confrontation, maximum disruption, and agitation are their signatures. IRONY ALERT: We've elected a board largely made up of the village idiots to control the schools where we educate our young. And we did it only because we wanted to save a few bucks.
They also never, ever, even to this day, thought about a long term plan and released it to the public. "Stop the school" was all they had. They did it. Now what? I've been asking that question for almost a year now and silence is still the only response. Has it occurred to the Emperor and the board of accomplices that if they dialed back the angry rhetoric a bit and actually opened their mouths to EXPLAIN, that the results would be better?
"Those sitting near the front could hear Yonson say under her breath, 'This is ridiculous.' ” Oh, no, Dr. Yonson. Ridiculous is still a few miles down this pothole riddled highway. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses...
Raucous atmosphere at school board meeting
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Morrisville meetings are known for their raucous mud-slinging. But Wednesday's meeting was one for the books.
From the shortening of Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson's contract from five to three years to the board president's proposal of across-the-board hiring freezes in the district, diehards on both sides of the issues stuck it out to watch events unfold past midnight.
One spectator started singing “It's the end of the school as we know it,” to the tune of rock band REM's “It's the End of the World as We Know It.”
At least eight people stood at the microphone to protest the board majority's decision to cut Yonson's five-year contract. Some said it was “a slap in the face” and “an insult.”
The routine replacement of aides and teachers who leave the district became fuel for a debate that raged for more than an hour.
Board President William Hellmann got worked up over hiring new staff. To save money, he suggested a hiring freeze, which elicited gaping mouths and stares of disbelief from administrators and boos from audience members.
Yonson explained that the employees are necessary, that they fulfilled vital educational functions, helping to make significant academic gains in the last couple of years.
For example, elementary math performances have risen in the past couple of years. This year's raw unofficial PSSA data shows considerable improvement in 11th-grade scores, from 11 percent proficiency to 55 percent proficiency, said Yonson.
“Do not expect to have the same results if we reduce staff,” she said.
Hellmann's determination to freeze hirings stems from the district's teachers contract, which stipulates a roughly 12:1 student to staff ratio.
Though most general classes are more than 20 students in size, according to Yonson, some kids who need particular help have more aides or teachers.
The bottom line for some board members was the ratio, though.
“It's too much. It's a problem,” was Hellmann's constant refrain about the number of staff needed to teach fewer than 1,000 students and run the district at an annual cost of $19.88 million.
“Our budget's way too high,” he said repeatedly.
Residents who didn't like what Hellmann had to say settled back with containers of goodies, opening them loudly and rumpling them during Hellmann's remarks.
The approximately 75 spectators filling the meeting room in Morrisville's high school during the five-hour meeting seemed as if they were a sporting event.
They booed and cheered repeatedly depending on who was talking.
Some demanded that Hellmann be heard. Others talked over him.
In the end, at least some of the votes did swing toward staff replacements, though Hellmann and board members Marlys Mihok and Alfred Radosti tended to vote against them. Their practice of siding together on just about every vote prompted a resident to demand that the board not “follow the leader.”
Throughout the noisy meeting, Hellmann and opposing board member Robin Reithmeyer drowned each other out, and Hellmann seemed to turn a deaf ear to Yonson's explanations of how the school system works.
Those sitting near the front could hear Yonson say under her breath, “This is ridiculous.”
John Buckman, who replaced the late Edward Frankenfield on the board last week, thought the meeting dragged on too long.
“It was way too long, that's crazy. If I was getting paid and paid by the hour, maybe I wouldn't care,” he said Friday, chuckling. “We've got to find a way to cut the time.”
Buckman, a former school director and borough councilman, said taking so much time is unfair to board members and the public. But he noted asking questions and airing grievances is good. He believes it's valuable to be up-front and communicate.
However, the board and the administration seem to clash frequently.
“In politics, forget it. It's just that way,” said Buckman. “They talk the subject over and over and over. You're not going to get away from it totally.”
Schools News Around the Blogosphere
The next big thing: smaller schools
Baltimore Sun
Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.
To be a good parent requires a firm, affectionate patience
Providence Journal
Julia Steiny
Standing on the beach, on one of those recent scorching days, I saw a little boy in blue swim trunks careening across the beach, a 4-year-old with a mission. He had a white rock shaped roughly like a round loaf of bakery bread. He presented it with pride to a woman I assumed was his mom.
Documentary Chronicles Pitfalls of American Education in Global Economy
Diverse Magazine
by Michelle Nealy
Diverse reporter Michelle Nealy chats with Indianapolis venture-capitalist-turned-filmmaker, Bob Compton, about his provocative new documentary, "2 Million Minutes." The film chronicles six students from India , the United States and China during their high school years. Compton highlights the pitfalls of American education in today's global economy and praises those cultures that revere academic achievement.
NEW READING FIRST DATA FROM STATES SHOWS IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN READING PROFICIENCY
United States Department of Education
Students From Nearly Every Grade and Every Subgroup Show Improvement
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced new data from the states showing impressive gains for Reading First students. The achievement data submitted by state education agencies (SEAs) and compiled and analyzed by the Education Department's contractor, American Institutes for Research, showed improvement in nearly every grade and subgroup, including English language learners and students with disabilities.
Restraint and Seclusion on Children with Disabilities in Florida Public Schools
There are many families from counties all over Florida who have children with Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders that are being restrained, put in time-out and forced locked seclusion rooms in the public school system. Our children are being injured physically and mentally because of their disabilities and the lack of appropriate programs and highly qualified teachers and aides available to educate them. Most of the aides that are hired have little or no background in children with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Across US, schools feel budget pinch
Christian Science Monitor
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
Slashed funding and rising costs are forcing school districts to cut back, even close down. Lynn, Mass. - The Fallon elementary school is a joyous place. But last week, some parents, students, and staff felt as blue as the hallway walls. On Friday, the small school in Lynn, Mass., shut its doors - not just for the summer, but for good.
EducationNews National Coverage
Poll: Half say schools aren't preparing kids
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not much of a report card. Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.
Baltimore Sun
Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.
To be a good parent requires a firm, affectionate patience
Providence Journal
Julia Steiny
Standing on the beach, on one of those recent scorching days, I saw a little boy in blue swim trunks careening across the beach, a 4-year-old with a mission. He had a white rock shaped roughly like a round loaf of bakery bread. He presented it with pride to a woman I assumed was his mom.
Documentary Chronicles Pitfalls of American Education in Global Economy
Diverse Magazine
by Michelle Nealy
Diverse reporter Michelle Nealy chats with Indianapolis venture-capitalist-turned-filmmaker, Bob Compton, about his provocative new documentary, "2 Million Minutes." The film chronicles six students from India , the United States and China during their high school years. Compton highlights the pitfalls of American education in today's global economy and praises those cultures that revere academic achievement.
NEW READING FIRST DATA FROM STATES SHOWS IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN READING PROFICIENCY
United States Department of Education
Students From Nearly Every Grade and Every Subgroup Show Improvement
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced new data from the states showing impressive gains for Reading First students. The achievement data submitted by state education agencies (SEAs) and compiled and analyzed by the Education Department's contractor, American Institutes for Research, showed improvement in nearly every grade and subgroup, including English language learners and students with disabilities.
Restraint and Seclusion on Children with Disabilities in Florida Public Schools
There are many families from counties all over Florida who have children with Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders that are being restrained, put in time-out and forced locked seclusion rooms in the public school system. Our children are being injured physically and mentally because of their disabilities and the lack of appropriate programs and highly qualified teachers and aides available to educate them. Most of the aides that are hired have little or no background in children with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Across US, schools feel budget pinch
Christian Science Monitor
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
Slashed funding and rising costs are forcing school districts to cut back, even close down. Lynn, Mass. - The Fallon elementary school is a joyous place. But last week, some parents, students, and staff felt as blue as the hallway walls. On Friday, the small school in Lynn, Mass., shut its doors - not just for the summer, but for good.
EducationNews National Coverage
Poll: Half say schools aren't preparing kids
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not much of a report card. Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.
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