From the BCCT. Now it begins to make sense why the Emperor wants to merge with Pennsbury.
He would feel right at home.
Free pass: Pennsbury officials answer to no one
By JONATHAN SHAIN
The Pennsbury school board recently held its first regular meeting of the new 2008-09 school year. As usual, the meeting was held at 8 p.m. in the gym of the Fallsington Elementary School. And, sadly, as usual, I was surrounded by a sea of empty folding chairs. In fact, the five or so residents who bothered to attend were easily outnumbered by members of the school board and the administration.
True, there were no major controversies on the agenda for last Thursday’s board meeting; no teacher strikes, no elimination of full-day kindergarten, and nothing else to arouse the community. But, do not be fooled into thinking that the actions taken by our school board only matter when a strike is in progress or a cherished educational program is at risk.
For example, at last week’s board meeting, the administration presented its goals for the coming school year. Among the goals was the negotiation of a new contract next year with the Pennsbury Education Association, the teachers union. How does the administration plan to conduct the negotiations? How will they work to avoid another strike? What are the financial limitations that will inform their bargaining with the PEA? Who will represent the district in the negotiations and how much will he be paid?
These are all questions that could and should have been put to the board and the administration, but without public attendance at the board meeting, the board and the administration were left to their own devices. I, for one, do not want to get the answers to these questions after a strike starts.
Similarly, with virtually no community members in attendance, the board held a last-minute “special” meeting in August and decided to spend more than $20,000 on a “public opinion survey.” This is the same board that consistently claims Pennsbury cannot afford the equipment needed to broadcast board meetings on cable TV, but yet somehow managed to find enough money to fund an opinion survey.
No doubt some members of the community might have challenged the wisdom of spending money on a survey when there are so many other pressing priorities — if anyone had shown up either that night, or at the recent board meeting.
A final example: Pennsbury spends tens of thousands of dollars a year (if not more) on tuition payments for special needs and other children who are educated at taxpayer expense at private schools in the area. These payments are routinely approved at almost every board meeting. These payments are not publicized, and are only listed in the agenda packets handed out at board meetings. Yes, students and parents have a right to confidentiality, but the community has a right to receive considerably more information about where and why these payments are made, and the standards that are utilized to evaluate the propriety of these payments in a manner that will not violate the privacy or confidentiality rights of students.
Yet again, without community participation at board meetings, the hard questions are never put to the board or the administration, and the payments are always approved without comment.
The unresponsiveness of the Pennsbury school board and the administration have, unfortunately, led most folks simply to throw up their hands and give up, believing that nothing they can say or do at a board meeting will make a difference. I understand that feeling, and I share the frustration.
But, I know that change can only occur if more people get involved, come to board meetings, fill up those empty folding chairs and force the decisions of the board and the administration out into the sunlight.
Friday, September 19, 2008
School Starts Today in Souderton
From the Inquirer.
School reopens Friday in Souderton
By Dan Hardy, Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
Striking teachers in Montgomery County's Souderton Area School District will be back in their classrooms tomorrow, with the two sides agreeing to enter into non-binding arbitration.
The Schools will reopen at their regular times.
State law mandates that the teachers would have had to go back to work next Wednesday, in order to get in 180 days of instruction by June 15. The strike began Sept. 2.
But with negotiations between the teachers and the board in the 6,900-student district at a virtual standstill on wages and healthcare, the main issues, the two sides reached an agreement last night for the teachers to return to work a few days early. The union membership voted this afternoon to end the strike while the arbitration process plays out.
The arbitration process which is dictated by state law, works like this: a three-member panel will be established, with each side appointing one member and a neutral member selected from a list. The panel will receive each side's proposals, which will be made public, and will hold hearings. Then it will issue a proposed agreement, based on the two sides' positions. The process normally takes several months.
Either side can reject the arbitration board's proposed settlement; the district's 512 teachers could then go back on strike but would have to return to work in time for students to get in 180 days of classes by June 30.
The two sides remain far apart on wage and benefit issues.
The school board estimates that the two sides are about $1.5 million apart on the cost of their health care proposals and about $10 million apart on the combined costs of health care and salaries. The union leadership says it is willing to reduce its salary demands, but only if the school board improves its healthcare offer.
The teachers' last wage proposal was for a four-year contract with average payroll increases of 5.98 percent in the first year, 9.4 percent in the second year, 7.14 percent in the third, and 6.9 percent in the fourth. The school board is proposing a three-year contract with increases of 2.5 percent each year.
On health care, the district now offers three insurance plans, with teachers contributing 10 percent of the premium for the most comprehensive one, 5 percent for one that has fewer benefits and more co-payments, and no premium contribution for a bare-bones plan. The board wants to eliminate the most comprehensive plan, to charge teachers a 4 percent premium contribution for the plan that used to have no contribution, and to charge a 12 percent premium contribution for the other plan.
The school district is now self-insured; the union wants to switch to a Blue Cross / Blue Shield plan, leave the percentages of premium contributions the same and add some improvements.
School reopens Friday in Souderton
By Dan Hardy, Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
Striking teachers in Montgomery County's Souderton Area School District will be back in their classrooms tomorrow, with the two sides agreeing to enter into non-binding arbitration.
The Schools will reopen at their regular times.
State law mandates that the teachers would have had to go back to work next Wednesday, in order to get in 180 days of instruction by June 15. The strike began Sept. 2.
But with negotiations between the teachers and the board in the 6,900-student district at a virtual standstill on wages and healthcare, the main issues, the two sides reached an agreement last night for the teachers to return to work a few days early. The union membership voted this afternoon to end the strike while the arbitration process plays out.
The arbitration process which is dictated by state law, works like this: a three-member panel will be established, with each side appointing one member and a neutral member selected from a list. The panel will receive each side's proposals, which will be made public, and will hold hearings. Then it will issue a proposed agreement, based on the two sides' positions. The process normally takes several months.
Either side can reject the arbitration board's proposed settlement; the district's 512 teachers could then go back on strike but would have to return to work in time for students to get in 180 days of classes by June 30.
The two sides remain far apart on wage and benefit issues.
The school board estimates that the two sides are about $1.5 million apart on the cost of their health care proposals and about $10 million apart on the combined costs of health care and salaries. The union leadership says it is willing to reduce its salary demands, but only if the school board improves its healthcare offer.
The teachers' last wage proposal was for a four-year contract with average payroll increases of 5.98 percent in the first year, 9.4 percent in the second year, 7.14 percent in the third, and 6.9 percent in the fourth. The school board is proposing a three-year contract with increases of 2.5 percent each year.
On health care, the district now offers three insurance plans, with teachers contributing 10 percent of the premium for the most comprehensive one, 5 percent for one that has fewer benefits and more co-payments, and no premium contribution for a bare-bones plan. The board wants to eliminate the most comprehensive plan, to charge teachers a 4 percent premium contribution for the plan that used to have no contribution, and to charge a 12 percent premium contribution for the other plan.
The school district is now self-insured; the union wants to switch to a Blue Cross / Blue Shield plan, leave the percentages of premium contributions the same and add some improvements.
Buns and Rolls
Strip clubs, bakeries, and church schools. What a great mix. From Long Island Newsday.
Here in Morrisville, didn't our plan call for a bakery to accompany the strip club?
Strip club blows top off charter school plan
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND | September 18, 2008
An establishment with a Web site advertising the "absolute best" in topless entertainment, Taste of Honey bar in downtown Hempstead would hardly rate as an ideal neighbor for grade-schoolers.
So state officials were scrambling to explain their policies yesterday, after a Hempstead school board member pointed out that the state had approved an independent charter school to open with a listed address next to a local strip club.
State officials added they hadn't visited the site but would, and would never let a school operate in such a location.
"We're always working to better our practices. That's something we take great pride in," said Cynthia M. Proctor, spokeswoman for a state university institute that handles charter school applications.
For example, she added, the institute might in the future ask applicants for more details regarding planned school locations, such as nearby businesses.
Proctor stressed, however, that the institute is already cautious in approving new charter schools, through a process that lasts for months and includes painstaking checks of applicants' academic and financial records.
Tuesday, state university trustees approved the creation of seven new charter schools - out of 19 applications. Among those approved was Academy Charter School in Hempstead, which is to open next fall with 168 students in grades K-2.
Typically, charter schools are not inspected until a month or two before they open, to give operators time to obtain required building permits.
The school lists its future address as 253A Fulton Ave., next to Taste of Honey. Hempstead school district authorities, who worry that the charter school will draw away students and property tax revenues, quickly criticized the location.
"I definitely wouldn't want to see anyone's children next to the Taste of Honey," said board president Charles Renfroe.
Not to worry, say charter school sponsors, who include leaders of Calvary Tabernacle, a local evangelical church. They note other sites are available, including a three-story building at 80 N. Franklin St., which houses the church's Sunday-school classrooms.
"We have plenty of space that's not next to a topless bar," said Robert Stewart, the church's chief operating officer.
Sponsors say they originally listed the Fulton Avenue site after an architect said the building, which the church owns and once served as its youth center, could be easily converted to an elementary school. Sponsors now concede the site is unacceptable from a political standpoint, and an attorney for the bar owner said the site was also inappropriate because of heavy vehicle traffic.
Still, sponsors regard all the furor as a bit silly, considering that Taste of Honey is in an area where bars are common. It doesn't open until 5 p.m. and its stucco exterior reveals nothing about its activities.
Said Stewart, "Many of the kids thought it was a bakery."
Here in Morrisville, didn't our plan call for a bakery to accompany the strip club?
Strip club blows top off charter school plan
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND | September 18, 2008
An establishment with a Web site advertising the "absolute best" in topless entertainment, Taste of Honey bar in downtown Hempstead would hardly rate as an ideal neighbor for grade-schoolers.
So state officials were scrambling to explain their policies yesterday, after a Hempstead school board member pointed out that the state had approved an independent charter school to open with a listed address next to a local strip club.
State officials added they hadn't visited the site but would, and would never let a school operate in such a location.
"We're always working to better our practices. That's something we take great pride in," said Cynthia M. Proctor, spokeswoman for a state university institute that handles charter school applications.
For example, she added, the institute might in the future ask applicants for more details regarding planned school locations, such as nearby businesses.
Proctor stressed, however, that the institute is already cautious in approving new charter schools, through a process that lasts for months and includes painstaking checks of applicants' academic and financial records.
Tuesday, state university trustees approved the creation of seven new charter schools - out of 19 applications. Among those approved was Academy Charter School in Hempstead, which is to open next fall with 168 students in grades K-2.
Typically, charter schools are not inspected until a month or two before they open, to give operators time to obtain required building permits.
The school lists its future address as 253A Fulton Ave., next to Taste of Honey. Hempstead school district authorities, who worry that the charter school will draw away students and property tax revenues, quickly criticized the location.
"I definitely wouldn't want to see anyone's children next to the Taste of Honey," said board president Charles Renfroe.
Not to worry, say charter school sponsors, who include leaders of Calvary Tabernacle, a local evangelical church. They note other sites are available, including a three-story building at 80 N. Franklin St., which houses the church's Sunday-school classrooms.
"We have plenty of space that's not next to a topless bar," said Robert Stewart, the church's chief operating officer.
Sponsors say they originally listed the Fulton Avenue site after an architect said the building, which the church owns and once served as its youth center, could be easily converted to an elementary school. Sponsors now concede the site is unacceptable from a political standpoint, and an attorney for the bar owner said the site was also inappropriate because of heavy vehicle traffic.
Still, sponsors regard all the furor as a bit silly, considering that Taste of Honey is in an area where bars are common. It doesn't open until 5 p.m. and its stucco exterior reveals nothing about its activities.
Said Stewart, "Many of the kids thought it was a bakery."
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