Did anyone attend the special meeting last night and want to add anything?
From the BCCT.
Modular classrooms approved for Reiter
By: REGIS D'ANGIOLINI
Parents in Morrisville were angry the boilers at the damaged school were allowed to fall into disrepair.
Tempers flared Monday night as the Morrisville school board approved modular classrooms for the displaced students of M.R. Reiter Elementary School.
The board unanimously approved eight modular classrooms on the property of Grandview Elementary School at a cost of $433,472. Board treasurer Brenda Worob was not in attendance.
The money for the classrooms will come from the insurance policy on M.R. Reiter Elementary School, which was heavily damaged by a boiler explosion Dec. 13. Students have since been housed at the Morrisville YMCA and the Morrisville Middle/Senior High school.
The modules, which will be rented from Mobilease Modular Space Inc. of Thorofare, N.J., will each include its own restroom and will be surrounded by a fence for added safety, according to Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Yonson.
"They look absolutely brand new," she said, explaining that they are less than five years old. "When you go in there, you will be amazed."
During public comment, some of the 50-plus parents in attendance were critical of the school board for not acting sooner on the repair and maintenance of Reiter as well as the district's two other schools.
"We told you so, we told you so, we told you so," said parent Joanna Manning. "You knew the furnaces were well past their life expectancy. Shame on you."
Board President Bill Hellmann said the board attempted to approve a "cursory" engineering study last year to pre-empt such a crisis, but it was voted down. One of the board members who voted against it, Robin Reithmeyer, said she did so because the district was ready to take action on repair and maintenance of the schools, and she did not see the point of another study.
"I did not want to vote for anything in a cursory report," she added, explaining that the report was a brief overview with no specifics.
Manning was also critical of the board approving temporary housing before a long-term plan to house the students is in place. A public hearing on whether to permanently closer Reiter will be held Jan. 14.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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Nobody, I repeat nobody, should buy what Marlys Mihok said in her "statement" at last night's board meeting. In it, she tried to throw Robin Reithmeyer, Joe Kemp, and the late Ed Frankenfield under the bus for the MR Reiter (MRR) furnace mishap and the predicament we're in now.
She claimed that she and her board cohorts Hellmann, Radosti, Worob, Farrell, & Heater (probably not so much Heater anymore, since she spoke out strongly against their antics at the 12/17/08 board meeting) were on the side of the angels because they tried to vote to fix MRR at the 2/27/08 board meeting, but the voted failed because of Reithmeyer, Kemp, and Frankenfield.
Here's what really happened, and it's well-documented in earlier posts on this blog, and in the minutes of the 1/30/08 and 2/27/08 board meetings:
The problems at all 3 schools were already documented in detail in the 2005 buildings report. See the 12/18/08 (Middle-High School), 12/17/08 (Grandview), and 12/13/08 (MRR) postings on this blog for details. There really was no need to do additional studies, especially not cheap, half-baked ones not authorized up-front by the board. There was a need to have a thoughtful, properly executed long-term plan for addressing the physical condition of the school buildings. A year later, that need still exists.
But in January 2008, Board President Hellmann, on his own and without prior board authorization, ordered up a $2,500 study by the firm Wick Fisher White (WFW) to look at the Middle-High School ONLY, not MRR or Grandview. You know what kind of a study $2,500 buys you nowadays? The kind that says:
“Our observations were limited to those portions of the building which were viewed during the walk-thru. Wick Fisher White did not
remove covers of any electrical panels, switchboards, take any samples, perform any tests on
building materials or equipment, or perform any calculations to verify the capacity of existing
equipment.”
Even Hellmann finally admitted last night that it was "cursory". And remember, it was only for the Middle-High School, not MRR or Grandview. At the 1/30/08 board meeting, the board had to bail him out of this improper action by voting to pay WFW for the flimsy report WFW had already produced, or maybe risk a lawsuit by WFW. The report was dated 1/30/08, the same day as the board meeting, and it hadn't even been distributed to the full board at the time of the vote.
Did Hellmann & Co. learn anything from this experience? No. At the 2/27/08 board meeting, Hellmann tried to:
1. Go out to bid for items mentioned in WFW's cursory 1/30/08 report - again, for the Middle-High School ONLY;
2. Order up 2 more cursory WFW walk-through reports just like it for MRR & Grandview, for a total of $8,000.
Both motions were defeated 3-3. Hellmann, Farrell, & Worob cast the yes votes. Reithmeyer, Kemp, and Frankenfield cast the nay votes. Mihok, Radosti, & Heater were absent. Yes, that's right, Marlys Mihok was ABSENT, and so were Al Radosti and Gloria Heater. Mihok & Radosti pretty much vote in lock-step with Hellmann (back then Gloria Heater did too, but she has been slowly breaking away). But if any 1 of those 3 could have showed up, they could have passed those 2 half-a**ed motions, and maybe we'd be talking about a mess of a slightly different kind now.
No mention of this at last night's board meeting, but it looks like the Public Hearing on closing MR Reiter has been rescheduled to Thurs. Jan. 29 (it originally was Wed., Jan. 14). From MSD website.
Board of Ed
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Special Board Meeting
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING OF BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF MORRISVILLE BOROUGH TO CONSIDER PERMANENT CLOSURE OF M.R. REITER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
This notice supersedes the previously advertised notice for January 14, 2008 – the date of the hearing has been changed.
Pursuant to Article VII, Section 780 of the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949, as amended, notice is herewith given that the Board of Directors of the School District of Morrisville Borough will hold a public hearing on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 7:00 pm in the Auditorium of the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, 550 West Palmer Avenue, Morrisville, PA 19067 upon the question of whether or not to permanently close the M.R. Reiter Elementary School located at 150 Clymer Avenue, Morrisville Borough, Bucks County, PA 19067 at the end of the school year 2008-09 or at the end of some subsequent school year. The public is invited to attend and participate in the hearing. Marlys Mihok, Secretary Board of School Directors of School District of Morrisville Borough
Site: HS LGI
Time: 7:00PM
Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow
Episode 908 (Original Air Date: Oct 19, 2005)
A GLOBAL WARMING STATE OF EMERGENCY is declared in South Park. The world's largest beaver dam breaks and floods the adjacent town of Beaverton. As the victims wait for help to arrive, everyone in South Park tackles priority number one: who is to blame? Only Stan and Cartman know who's really at fault.
The above is a South Park episode tailor-made for Bill Farrell, based on his quasi-coherent "tomorrow is the today of the day after yesterday" diatribe at last night's school board meeting. But it works for the whole Hellmannite board as well, what with it's STATE OF EMERGENCY declaration, and priority #1 who's to blame mentality.
Farrell's rant was a lame, ineffective jab at "Morrisville Tomorrow". Morrisville Tomorrow's crime - putting up a thoughtful, nice-looking billboard on Bridge St. congratulating students, teachers, staff, administrators, & parents for improved PSSA scores.
Hey, I can relate - I crapped on penicillin when it came out.
Man, he does go on about what an expert he isn't......
You think Comedy Central will start covering the meetings?
If Yesterday was today and if only tomorrow was another day like yesterday, then yesterday would be today!
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