Do you want the answer to be "YES"? Then here's another way that we can get behind a renaissance in Morrisville. Keep this Thursday night open.
*** ATTENTION ***
ALL MORRISVILLE RESIDENTS / BUSINESS OWNERS / REALTORS / COMMUTERS
YOU ARE INVITED TO A SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING HOSTED BY THE MORRISVILLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (M.E.D.C.)
“A TRANSIT REVITALIZATION INVESTMENT DISTRICT (T.R.I.D.) STUDY FOR MORRISVILLE BOROUGH”
WHEN: THURSDAY JANUARY 8TH 2009 @ 7:00 P.M.
WHERE: MORRISVILLE BOROUGH HALL
T.R.I.D. IS FUNDED IN PART BY A SPECIAL STATE GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED GRANT PROGRAM CREATED TO IDENTIFY FUTURE LAND USE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SCENARIOS FOR PROPERTIES AND SITES SURROUNDING EXISTING AND PROPOSED TRANSIT STOPS. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW A NEW PROPOSED MORRISVILLE TRAIN STATION COULD BENEFIT OUR RESIDENTS AND LOCAL BUSINESSES WHILE SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCING THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF MORRISVILLE BOROUGH.
“THE T.R.I.D. STUDY FOR MORRISVILLE”:
THURSDAY JANUARY 8TH 2009
7:00 P.M.
MORRISVILLE BOROUGH HALL
SEATING WILL BE LIMITED
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT AND SUPPORT OF THIS PROPOSED T.R.I.D. STUDY
SEE YOU THERE!
Monday, January 5, 2009
District scrambles to house students
From the BCCT
District scrambles to house students
MANASEE WAGH
Tonight the Morrisville School Board will discuss where to place some of its elementary school students.
The district quickly needs to figure out where to hold classes this semester for the more then 250 children of M.R. Reiter Elementary School. A mid-December furnace explosion in the Reiter boiler room shut down the school, forcing the administration to scramble to find temporary instructional spaces.
The students attended classes until the winter break in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, the Morrisville YMCA and Grandview Elementary School.
Nobody was hurt in the late-night blast that blew out a window. A fault in the fuel valve operation probably triggered it, according to Tim Lastichen, the district's director of facilities.
Schools reopen today, but the district is busy starting repairs and cleanup at Reiter. The board is considering housing students in modular units at Grandview several blocks away, at least until it figures out how to deal with Reiter, said board member Robin Reithmeyer Friday.
"We will get options on Monday, like where can the kids go and how much will it cost," she said. She doesn't yet know what other alternatives will be brought up at the meeting, but thinks the modular units at Grandview may be the best available way for the students to resume instruction.
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in the high school, at 550 West Palmer St.
On Jan. 14, the school board will hold a public hearing as the first step toward permanently closing Reiter. Both elementary schools have been experiencing systems problems for years. The Reiter explosion is the latest major symptom of breakdowns in the aging structures. Out of all three ailing district school buildings, the 1920s-era Reiter is in the worst shape.
Selling an elementary school building would generate money for renovating the district's other schools, board President William Hellmann said last month.
The explosion precipitated the school board's efforts to shut down a school.
School code mandates that the board cannot make any decision to close a building for at least 90 days after a public hearing to discuss community concerns.
Morrisville school district at-a-glance
* District educates about 1,000 students in 2 elementary schools and one high school serving grades 6-12. District employs about 140 people.
* Average teacher salary is about $70,000, according to the state Department of Education. Teacher contracts count for half of district's $19.8 million budget.
* District's cost per student is $13,023 for elementary and $14,215 for secondary.
* Median income in the district is $53,316.
* District finding it difficult to gather enough income tax funds, in part due to Morrisville's large transitory population. The current dip in the housing market is added strain likely to show up in next year's budget.
* The borough's schools are old and have been having problems with multiple systems for years, including electrical and heating units.
* The former school board took out a $30 million loan to construct a consolidated school housing every grade. Many residents disapproved of tax increases tied to the project for the next several years. The board spent about $2 million of the original $30 million bond for architectural and engineering fees related to the proposed building.
* In December 2008, several new school board members entered office on the promise of not raising taxes. It canceled the new school venture and returned most of the bond money, keeping about $7 million to renovate the high school. Returning the bond money cost about $2.4 million.
* Taxes are expected to drop $321 this year. The average homeowner would pay $3,371 for an average assessed property of $18,000. However, school administrators say educational programs may suffer because of pared-down budget.
* Pennsbury School District, which surrounds the much smaller district of Morrisville, has historically refused to absorb Morrisville schools. Less than a month ago Pennsbury school officials said its facilities are already at capacity and that the district cannot take on the added complication and cost of supporting 1,000 more students and additional staff.
* In 2008, some community members started putting together an education foundation to partner with businesses and private individuals for funding educational projects. The foundation recently received its nonprofit status and is on its way to generating funds from interested donors.
District scrambles to house students
MANASEE WAGH
Tonight the Morrisville School Board will discuss where to place some of its elementary school students.
The district quickly needs to figure out where to hold classes this semester for the more then 250 children of M.R. Reiter Elementary School. A mid-December furnace explosion in the Reiter boiler room shut down the school, forcing the administration to scramble to find temporary instructional spaces.
The students attended classes until the winter break in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, the Morrisville YMCA and Grandview Elementary School.
Nobody was hurt in the late-night blast that blew out a window. A fault in the fuel valve operation probably triggered it, according to Tim Lastichen, the district's director of facilities.
Schools reopen today, but the district is busy starting repairs and cleanup at Reiter. The board is considering housing students in modular units at Grandview several blocks away, at least until it figures out how to deal with Reiter, said board member Robin Reithmeyer Friday.
"We will get options on Monday, like where can the kids go and how much will it cost," she said. She doesn't yet know what other alternatives will be brought up at the meeting, but thinks the modular units at Grandview may be the best available way for the students to resume instruction.
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in the high school, at 550 West Palmer St.
On Jan. 14, the school board will hold a public hearing as the first step toward permanently closing Reiter. Both elementary schools have been experiencing systems problems for years. The Reiter explosion is the latest major symptom of breakdowns in the aging structures. Out of all three ailing district school buildings, the 1920s-era Reiter is in the worst shape.
Selling an elementary school building would generate money for renovating the district's other schools, board President William Hellmann said last month.
The explosion precipitated the school board's efforts to shut down a school.
School code mandates that the board cannot make any decision to close a building for at least 90 days after a public hearing to discuss community concerns.
Morrisville school district at-a-glance
* District educates about 1,000 students in 2 elementary schools and one high school serving grades 6-12. District employs about 140 people.
* Average teacher salary is about $70,000, according to the state Department of Education. Teacher contracts count for half of district's $19.8 million budget.
* District's cost per student is $13,023 for elementary and $14,215 for secondary.
* Median income in the district is $53,316.
* District finding it difficult to gather enough income tax funds, in part due to Morrisville's large transitory population. The current dip in the housing market is added strain likely to show up in next year's budget.
* The borough's schools are old and have been having problems with multiple systems for years, including electrical and heating units.
* The former school board took out a $30 million loan to construct a consolidated school housing every grade. Many residents disapproved of tax increases tied to the project for the next several years. The board spent about $2 million of the original $30 million bond for architectural and engineering fees related to the proposed building.
* In December 2008, several new school board members entered office on the promise of not raising taxes. It canceled the new school venture and returned most of the bond money, keeping about $7 million to renovate the high school. Returning the bond money cost about $2.4 million.
* Taxes are expected to drop $321 this year. The average homeowner would pay $3,371 for an average assessed property of $18,000. However, school administrators say educational programs may suffer because of pared-down budget.
* Pennsbury School District, which surrounds the much smaller district of Morrisville, has historically refused to absorb Morrisville schools. Less than a month ago Pennsbury school officials said its facilities are already at capacity and that the district cannot take on the added complication and cost of supporting 1,000 more students and additional staff.
* In 2008, some community members started putting together an education foundation to partner with businesses and private individuals for funding educational projects. The foundation recently received its nonprofit status and is on its way to generating funds from interested donors.
How Do You Solve A Problem Like M.R. Reiter?
It's not quite as catchy as the original, but you get the point.
Tonight. In the high school auditorium, 7:00 P.M. What do we do about Reiter?
Here's my Nostradamus impression: Reiter will never re-open. Grandview will become a K-3 or 4 building. The high school will be a grades 3-4 to 12 building. And once those high school students are farmed out, everyone will be in the K-8 former high school.
When the safety and stability of a school building has been ignored by your own orders, and you're the one who is holding onto the pieces of what's left, it's hard to quietly sweep the problem under the rug.
So tonight, the Emperor and his board of chosen accomplices will have to splutter and hem and haw and somehow explain why they did what they did and how they're going to mop up this monstrous lake of spilt milk.
Come on out and watch the performance. Comments from the public will likely be limited to about the first fifteen people, so first come, first served.
Some of the expected highlights:
* Watch the Emperor explain about not wanting to repair Reiter when he knew it was "a rat trap". The safety of our kids was never a concern. Only the money. That's all it was ever about. Show me the money!
* Listen as the "no K-12 school on my watch" stop the school board majority, who really did stop the new school, explains how a K-12 building in the old school is a good thing. Flip-flopping isn't a sport limited to Washington DC anymore.
* Watch the action as the board explains where all of the $7 million dollars earmarked for renovations has gone. And it ain't enough to do the job. That's OK...it was never enough in the first place. It was all about cutting taxes.
* Oh...while we're talking about those lower taxes, ask about the new budget and how big the increase is going to be this July.
Tonight. In the high school auditorium, 7:00 P.M. What do we do about Reiter?
Here's my Nostradamus impression: Reiter will never re-open. Grandview will become a K-3 or 4 building. The high school will be a grades 3-4 to 12 building. And once those high school students are farmed out, everyone will be in the K-8 former high school.
When the safety and stability of a school building has been ignored by your own orders, and you're the one who is holding onto the pieces of what's left, it's hard to quietly sweep the problem under the rug.
So tonight, the Emperor and his board of chosen accomplices will have to splutter and hem and haw and somehow explain why they did what they did and how they're going to mop up this monstrous lake of spilt milk.
Come on out and watch the performance. Comments from the public will likely be limited to about the first fifteen people, so first come, first served.
Some of the expected highlights:
* Watch the Emperor explain about not wanting to repair Reiter when he knew it was "a rat trap". The safety of our kids was never a concern. Only the money. That's all it was ever about. Show me the money!
* Listen as the "no K-12 school on my watch" stop the school board majority, who really did stop the new school, explains how a K-12 building in the old school is a good thing. Flip-flopping isn't a sport limited to Washington DC anymore.
* Watch the action as the board explains where all of the $7 million dollars earmarked for renovations has gone. And it ain't enough to do the job. That's OK...it was never enough in the first place. It was all about cutting taxes.
* Oh...while we're talking about those lower taxes, ask about the new budget and how big the increase is going to be this July.
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