"Make the time for your kid. Get out there!"

From the BCCT.

"Make the time for your kid. Get out there and find out what's going on," I've been asking that for a very long time. These yahoos with their back room deals wouldn't be able to remain if more parents came out to see who is running the education of their children.

"During the summer, the administration will spend some time to determine a longer-range plan..." This is a long haul, folks. We have been waiting over a year now for the stop the school people to tell us what's next. When we fold this little emergency into the mix, not only is it the Emperor's Christmas present (antiChrist-mas present perhaps?), but the temporary work around solutions become more and more the daily reality: One K-12 school.

Did you ever notice that EVERYTHING the stop the school people campaigned against is exactly what they have done? Yet there's so sense of embarrassment from any one of them.

Modular classrooms should be ready next month
By: MANASEE WAGH

A public hearing will take place Jan. 29 to discuss closing M.R. Reiter Elementary School permanently.

Displaced Morrisville students should be attending school in modular classrooms and other district locations by Feb. 2. A school furnace explosion forced them out of their classrooms.

Since Dec. 17, the M.R. Reiter Elementary School emergency compelled the district to place more than 250 students in the middle/high school, the Morrisville YMCA and Grandview Elementary School. They have been there since Dec. 17, but those locations were meant for very short-term use.

Nobody was hurt in the late night explosion.

Paul d'Angelo, the district's business administrator, said the eight modular classrooms should be in place outside Grandview Elementary School by Jan. 23. Part of the delay between getting the classrooms and using them is due to two teacher in-service days at the end of this month, he said.

As of Feb. 2, the district plans to place the first and second grades in the modular classrooms. Kindergarten, third and fourth grades will attend classes in Grandview. Pre-K students are still in the nearby YMCA and may remain there, said d'Angelo. Fifth-grade students will go to the high school. Young children in the high school are kept separate from the older kids, Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said when Reiter students initially were placed at the high school.

Insurance on Reiter is paying for the $433,472 cost to deliver, rent and operate the classrooms. Each will include its own restroom and be surrounded by a fence for added safety, Yonson said at a Monday meeting to approve them.

"It's a plan for the rest of the school year," d'Angelo said. "During the summer, the administration will spend some time to determine a longer-range plan. We're not looking for the kids to be in the modulars long-term."

But Greta O'Keefe, the parent of a Reiter second-grader, believes the students may be stuck with their temporary placements much longer. "I see it as them leaving this as a permanent situation. I don't see this board majority as fixing anything," she said.

O'Keefe said that her son's education has been stripped down to math worksheets and spelling. Other parents also said their children's regular lessons have been suffering since their displacement.

The problem is that teachers aren't allowed to enter Reiter to retrieve lesson materials while the school is being cleaned of carbon dust left behind by the explosion.

Tim Lastichen, director of facilities, said the district started getting teaching materials to Reiter instructors Wednesday. The pre-K teachers should get their materials today, he said.

Once a thorough cleaning is done, the school will undergo tests to detect toxic substances, Lastichen said. Reiter's insurance company is paying for the cleaning and tests.

Insurance will also cover an engineer's evaluation of the heating system. Until then, the district won't know if the system is salvageable, Lastichen said.

Both O'Keefe and board member Joseph Kemp would like to see the board plan renovations of the high school so it can house all grades.

That plan would have to start with a public referendum and would likely involve substantial renovations to keep elementary, middle and high school students separate, said Kemp, the parent of a Reiter second-grader.

"What I hope for in at least the next couple of years is that the board will decide to keep Grandview open, and we can update some systems there," he said. "I could certainly live with modulars there for a couple years. If it's feasible and we do move everyone into the high school, we'll have time to do it right."

In the meantime, the district may sell Reiter.

It's in worse shape than the district's other elementary school and its middle/senior high school. The board has scheduled a public hearing on Jan. 29 for community input about possibly closing Reiter permanently.

"I hope they shut Reiter down," said O'Keefe. "I think it's a piece of crap. They should be renovating the high school."

A former school board member, O'Keefe said she is shocked at how few parents attend school board meetings.

"Make the time for your kid. Get out there and find out what's going on," she advised.

The board has to wait 90 days after the hearing before it can make a decision about closing down the school, according to school code.

Kemp hopes the Reiter property in the residential district of Grandview Avenue near Palmer Street is sold to a housing developer.

Penn-Jersey Real Properties, a local real estate developer, approached the district about building 20 town homes on the Reiter property after the previous board decided to build a brand new school housing all grades, said Kemp. The new board majority canceled that plan to stop rising taxes.

Kemp thinks the board should approach the developer again and entertain "any and all" offers.

"That would help not only the district but the town," he said. "We just don't have enough taxpayers."