From the BCCT.
Don't get me wrong. The aim here is healthier students and I'm all for that. It's just that you can't MAKE kids healthy by becoming the celebrations police. It takes a personal commitment and personal responsibility.
Parents: Wake up and be a parent. Monitor what the kids eat and stop OVERbuying the stuff they shouldn't be eating.
Students: Drop the Wii controller and get outside. Find a sport. PLAY. Have fun.
District distributes wellness pamphlet
Foods with sugar are supposed to be limited for classroom celebrations.
By JOAN HELLYER
STAFF WRITER
Joan Hellyer can be reached at 215-949-4048 or jhellyer@phillyBurbs.com.
What rewards can a Bristol Township teacher use to celebrate a student’s success in the classroom? What can Bristol Township parents send in with their kids for a classroom party? What are the nutritional guidelines for Bristol Township schools to abide by during fundraising activities? Answers to those and other questions are spelled out in an informational booklet that’s being distributed this week to district students, teachers and administrators, spokeswoman Eileen Kelliher said. It includes healthy-choice guidelines that are part of a wellness policy approved several years ago by the school board, she said.
A recent survey by the district’s Healthy Kids initiative suggests that while the policy was previously adhered to, efforts to maintain the wellness mandate have waned, Kelliher said.
The district began implementing the Healthy Kids project earlier this year in an effort to reduce an obesity rate of roughly 30 percent among district elementary school students, according to project officials.
Given the results of the wellness survey, District Health Coordinator Avis Anderson teamed up with Pam Duffy, the Healthy Kids coordinator, to produce the informational packet, Kelliher said.
In it, Anderson and Duffy explain the wellness policy is based on nutritional standards. For instance, it limits the amount of foods that contain sugar to two or three items during classroom parties. The offered items also need to include fresh fruits, vegetables, water, 100 percent fruit juice or milk, according to the booklet.
Anderson and Duffy provide numerous healthy alternatives to sweet treats as rewards or during celebrations and to help raise money for district schools.
For classroom rewards, they suggest giving toys or trinkets like rubber balls or finger puppets. Instead of selling cakes and candies during fundraisers, they suggest selling magazine subscriptions.
Nominal expenses to produce the blue-covered information booklets were covered with money from a $300,000 Tufts University grant the district is using to fund its Healthy Kids initiative, Kelliher said.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Baby, It's COLD Outside!
From the BCCT.
Donate your new or gently used hats, gloves, mittens and scarves this season.
The Morrisville Middle/Senior High School’s 21st Century Service Learning/Interact Club will collect cold weather items through January.
People can drop them off at the school, 550 Palmer Ave., and at The Ivins House, 80 W. Trenton Ave., both in Morrisville. The American Red Cross Lower Bucks County homeless shelter, The Salvation Army and The Ivins House will distribute the donations to those in need.
The senior high Service Learning/Interact Club is made up of student in grades nine through 12 who live in Morrisville and do projects throughout the year to help the community.
Donate your new or gently used hats, gloves, mittens and scarves this season.
The Morrisville Middle/Senior High School’s 21st Century Service Learning/Interact Club will collect cold weather items through January.
People can drop them off at the school, 550 Palmer Ave., and at The Ivins House, 80 W. Trenton Ave., both in Morrisville. The American Red Cross Lower Bucks County homeless shelter, The Salvation Army and The Ivins House will distribute the donations to those in need.
The senior high Service Learning/Interact Club is made up of student in grades nine through 12 who live in Morrisville and do projects throughout the year to help the community.
Honors for CB East and West
From the BCCT.
CB East and West ranked among top schools by U.S. News
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Central Bucks East High School and Central Bucks West High School are among the best high schools in America.
U.S. News & World Report and School Evaluation Services placed them in the top 604 out of more than 21,000 public high schools recognized in 48 states, based on their students' college readiness.
“We are incredibly proud of our student body, our staff and our surrounding community. An achievement of this nature is the result of a caring school community, and we're excited by the opportunities our school creates for its students,” said Abe Lucabaugh, the principal at Central Bucks East.
CB West and CB East serve about 3,000 Doylestown-area students in grades 10 through 12.
School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's, only assigned individual rankings to the top 100 Gold Medal schools.
No other area school was ranked on the America's Best High Schools list. However, not all high schools provided sufficient data to be rated for the list, according to School Evaluation Services.
In Pennsylvania, two schools won a Top 100 distinction. Masterman Julia R Secondary School in Philadelphia is No. 53 and Conestoga Senior High School in Chester County is No. 79.
Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., is No. 1 in the country for the second year in a row.
School Evaluation Services placed participating schools at gold, silver or bronze levels or honorable mention, depending on how well they achieved the following criteria:
* Achievement levels for all students in reading and math core subjects on state accountability tests.
* Ability to achieve proficiency rates on state tests for the school's least advantaged student groups.
* Providing students with a challenging college-ready curriculum, measured through a college readiness index derived from participation and performance on AP tests.
The ranking system by School Evaluation Services is the only one that considers the performance of students at every level within a school, according to the organization.
CB East and CB West were placed in the silver medal level.
The top 100 high schools include 18 charter schools and 16 magnet schools. Student populations in the top schools vary greatly, ranging from 125 in Limestone, Maine, to 4,296 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
CB East and West ranked among top schools by U.S. News
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Central Bucks East High School and Central Bucks West High School are among the best high schools in America.
U.S. News & World Report and School Evaluation Services placed them in the top 604 out of more than 21,000 public high schools recognized in 48 states, based on their students' college readiness.
“We are incredibly proud of our student body, our staff and our surrounding community. An achievement of this nature is the result of a caring school community, and we're excited by the opportunities our school creates for its students,” said Abe Lucabaugh, the principal at Central Bucks East.
CB West and CB East serve about 3,000 Doylestown-area students in grades 10 through 12.
School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's, only assigned individual rankings to the top 100 Gold Medal schools.
No other area school was ranked on the America's Best High Schools list. However, not all high schools provided sufficient data to be rated for the list, according to School Evaluation Services.
In Pennsylvania, two schools won a Top 100 distinction. Masterman Julia R Secondary School in Philadelphia is No. 53 and Conestoga Senior High School in Chester County is No. 79.
Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., is No. 1 in the country for the second year in a row.
School Evaluation Services placed participating schools at gold, silver or bronze levels or honorable mention, depending on how well they achieved the following criteria:
* Achievement levels for all students in reading and math core subjects on state accountability tests.
* Ability to achieve proficiency rates on state tests for the school's least advantaged student groups.
* Providing students with a challenging college-ready curriculum, measured through a college readiness index derived from participation and performance on AP tests.
The ranking system by School Evaluation Services is the only one that considers the performance of students at every level within a school, according to the organization.
CB East and CB West were placed in the silver medal level.
The top 100 high schools include 18 charter schools and 16 magnet schools. Student populations in the top schools vary greatly, ranging from 125 in Limestone, Maine, to 4,296 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Money crunch hits Central Bucks
From the Intelligencer.
Money crunch hits CB
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District is freezing spending on curriculum and athletics, borrowing and hiring new teachers next year and discretionary spending at each of its schools.
“We’re looking at everything we can to try to save as much money as we can,” district business manager David Matyas said this week.
“We’re going to look at what can we not buy this year. … Is it library books, textbooks? We’re looking at everything.”
Asked if the district is looking at a property tax rate increase for next school year, Matyas said, “We don’t have much clarity on that at all. …We probably won’t until February.”
Central Bucks’ budget for the 2008-09 school year is approximately $267 million.
Revenue hasn’t been coming in as district officials expected when they first drafted the budget at this time last year. The state Department of Education cut its subsidy to Central Bucks by about $1 million earlier this year, and district officials can’t begin to guess what the state might provide next year. Matyas told the school board he anticipates real estate transfer tax revenue will be about $765,000 less than the $4.27 million in the budget.
The district will likely earn about as much interest on its investments as officials expected — approximately $2.28 million.
Matyas said the district might get about $100,000 more in property tax revenue than the $174 million officials budgeted.
“You might as well call that flat. That’s nothing for a budget of our size,” Matyas said.
And earned income tax revenue is expected to be about $700,000 more than the $17.3 million in the district’s budget.
Expenses for this school year have been “pretty much on target,” Matyas said. But, as with everywhere else, expenses are expected to rise next year.
District officials are also trying to prepare for an expected spike in Central Bucks’ contribution to the state retirement program in 2012-13. Matyas said the district currently contributes approximately $10 million, and will have to contribute about $20 million in 2012-13.
The building, curriculum and athletic budgets — the budgets over which Matyas said the district has “some discretion” — will be frozen for the 2009-10 budget year. Finance director Tom McCambridge said the budgets make up about 3 percent of the school district’s overall budget.
The building budgets, Matyas explained, are managed by school principals and include the number of hours teacher aides work, how much copier machines get used, textbook purchases, library book purchases and cosmetic changes to the buildings.
The curriculum budget is the money the district spends on new curricula and training for teachers to implement it.
“For example, this year, we’re implementing a new science curriculum at the elementary level. That’s part of the curriculum budget. There’s a lot of staff development in that, a lot of new materials,” Matyas said. “That’s part of this year’s budget, so that will go through. The timing was good on that.”
The athletic budget is the money the district spends on coaches’ salaries, field-painting, and athletic uniforms and equipment.
Student enrollment in Central Bucks has been leveling out (the district gained only two new students this year), so district officials have decided not to create any new teaching positions.
Matyas said district officials don’t know yet what enrollment might be next year.
“We’re hoping it’s flat. We’re hoping we’re not going to experience any enrollment pressure. Enrollment pressure means new teaching positions,” Matyas said. “If we have one new kid or 500 new kids, our philosophy today is that we’re not hiring any new teaching positions.”
There is one exception to that rule, Matyas said.
District officials expect to hire five new autistic support teachers and one gifted support teacher.
“We have more special ed students we know that are coming into the K-12 population from pre-school. We also have students that are moving from the elementary to secondary level,” Matyas explained.
Matyas will present a draft budget of expenses to the school board at its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Money crunch hits CB
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District is freezing spending on curriculum and athletics, borrowing and hiring new teachers next year and discretionary spending at each of its schools.
“We’re looking at everything we can to try to save as much money as we can,” district business manager David Matyas said this week.
“We’re going to look at what can we not buy this year. … Is it library books, textbooks? We’re looking at everything.”
Asked if the district is looking at a property tax rate increase for next school year, Matyas said, “We don’t have much clarity on that at all. …We probably won’t until February.”
Central Bucks’ budget for the 2008-09 school year is approximately $267 million.
Revenue hasn’t been coming in as district officials expected when they first drafted the budget at this time last year. The state Department of Education cut its subsidy to Central Bucks by about $1 million earlier this year, and district officials can’t begin to guess what the state might provide next year. Matyas told the school board he anticipates real estate transfer tax revenue will be about $765,000 less than the $4.27 million in the budget.
The district will likely earn about as much interest on its investments as officials expected — approximately $2.28 million.
Matyas said the district might get about $100,000 more in property tax revenue than the $174 million officials budgeted.
“You might as well call that flat. That’s nothing for a budget of our size,” Matyas said.
And earned income tax revenue is expected to be about $700,000 more than the $17.3 million in the district’s budget.
Expenses for this school year have been “pretty much on target,” Matyas said. But, as with everywhere else, expenses are expected to rise next year.
District officials are also trying to prepare for an expected spike in Central Bucks’ contribution to the state retirement program in 2012-13. Matyas said the district currently contributes approximately $10 million, and will have to contribute about $20 million in 2012-13.
The building, curriculum and athletic budgets — the budgets over which Matyas said the district has “some discretion” — will be frozen for the 2009-10 budget year. Finance director Tom McCambridge said the budgets make up about 3 percent of the school district’s overall budget.
The building budgets, Matyas explained, are managed by school principals and include the number of hours teacher aides work, how much copier machines get used, textbook purchases, library book purchases and cosmetic changes to the buildings.
The curriculum budget is the money the district spends on new curricula and training for teachers to implement it.
“For example, this year, we’re implementing a new science curriculum at the elementary level. That’s part of the curriculum budget. There’s a lot of staff development in that, a lot of new materials,” Matyas said. “That’s part of this year’s budget, so that will go through. The timing was good on that.”
The athletic budget is the money the district spends on coaches’ salaries, field-painting, and athletic uniforms and equipment.
Student enrollment in Central Bucks has been leveling out (the district gained only two new students this year), so district officials have decided not to create any new teaching positions.
Matyas said district officials don’t know yet what enrollment might be next year.
“We’re hoping it’s flat. We’re hoping we’re not going to experience any enrollment pressure. Enrollment pressure means new teaching positions,” Matyas said. “If we have one new kid or 500 new kids, our philosophy today is that we’re not hiring any new teaching positions.”
There is one exception to that rule, Matyas said.
District officials expect to hire five new autistic support teachers and one gifted support teacher.
“We have more special ed students we know that are coming into the K-12 population from pre-school. We also have students that are moving from the elementary to secondary level,” Matyas explained.
Matyas will present a draft budget of expenses to the school board at its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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