Sunday, January 25, 2009
Christmas Story Redux
From the BCCT.
I believe that the phrase Pennsbury is struggling not to say is "Physician, heal thyself."
After years of neglect from our own boards of education, here Morrisville is, standing in the bail-out line with Citibank, AIG, and the three Detroit auto manufacturers. No wonder people outside of the district are concerned.
Morrisville taxpayers note: Is there any place in this article that suggests we would be paying less in tax?
Officials: No room for more students
Rep. Galloway suggested referendums be held in Morrisville and Pennsbury on any proposed student transfers.
By MANASEE WAGH
Pennsbury says it simply doesn’t have room for an infusion of students from outside the district.
Though Morrisville is once again knocking on its door for help, some Pennsbury board members say that nothing has changed from previous efforts to merge the districts.
This time, Morrisville solicitor Michael Fitzpatrick is asking Pennsbury and other local districts to consider taking about 300 students in grades nine through 12 on a tuition basis.
That money doesn’t translate into extra cash for Pennsbury, said board member Linda Palsky. She said she doesn’t believe the buildings can support the extra students, and services such as guidance counseling are already stretched thin over the high school’s 3,400 students.
“The money isn’t free money for us. It’s to educate those students. It’s not going to be a windfall for us,” she said. “I understand it’s the neighborly thing to do, but it’s going to be on the backs of the Pennsbury taxpayers.”
Unless the state forces some sort of merger and makes it advantageous to her district’s taxpayers, Palsky said she doesn’t support taking on additional students.
State Rep. John Galloway, D-140, said both Morrisville and Pennsbury should hold voter referendums about the proposed student transfer. If Morrisville ends up with a financial situation it can’t handle, it could need to ask the state to intervene.
“But the state can’t unilaterally act on its own,” Galloway said.
Declaring itself a distressed district is a last resort under 1998’s Public School Empowerment Act, said state Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, the minority chairman of the House Education Committee. One qualification of financial distress is the inability to pay teacher salaries for 90 days, he said.
At this point, Morrisville could simply ask to speak with the secretary of education to explore ways to attain more resources, Clymer added.
Fitzpatrick has said he plans to talk to state representatives, but he didn’t return phone calls and e-mails Thursday and Friday requesting further comment. He has been communicating with Pennsbury for the past six months and is reaching out to other local districts as well.
Housing grades pre-K through eight in the high school building and sending grades nine through 12 to other districts on a paid tuition basis may be Morrisville’s best hope for survival, Fitzpatrick said. He compared it to the crisis that’s forcing some local private schools to merge due to lack of funds and enrollments.
The cost of educating one Morrisville secondary school child is about $15,000, a price tag that’s close to the highest in Lower Bucks. Pennsbury’s cost is just above $12,000.
Board member Gene Dolnick said he’s not sure about class size and building utilization projections. He was also unsure about how Morrisville PSSA scores might affect his own district’s averages. This past year, Morrisville High School students’ reading and math PSSA scores made great strides but were slightly lower than Pennsbury’s.
“I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not ruling it in,” Dolnick said.
Gregory Lucidi, Pennsbury board president, says that until Pennsbury built a two-story, 55,000-square-foot addition and renovated its West campus building in 2004, “we were busting at the seams.” Now, he said, students just “barely fit comfortably.”
Pennsbury’s two high school buildings have a capacity of 3,414 students, according to the district. That means the spaces are already nearly filled. In 2006, the high school averaged 25 students per teacher, according to the district. That’s more than Neshaminy’s high school ratio of 14 students to one teacher and Bristol Township’s ratio of 22 students to one teacher.
Pennsbury’s already considering enlarging class sizes to reduce expenses, said Lucidi. Adding 300 more students next year “would be a major impact on resources,” he added.
However, the state Department of Education’s January 2009 estimate projects a 14.5 percent drop in Pennsbury’s high school population by 2017.
The district’s own projection for that year is 2,979 students, a 12.4 percent drop from this year. That’s based on a variety of factors, and the number may change in time, according to the district.
Lucidi thinks Pennsbury will experience increases in all grades, including children from families who don’t want to pay for private schools anymore. Pennsbury doesn’t have data on how many of its students used to attend private school but more than 2,000 new students register each year in Pennsbury, according to the district.
In the meantime, Morrisville has been dealing with spiraling financial problems. The same issues have been cropping up for years, including the need to renovate or replace its three buildings. It is about to consider closing one of its two elementary schools permanently. Most other solutions, such as rebuilding or renovating all the buildings, imply a tax increase, based on past board discussions.
In 1990, the Pennsbury school board voted against a merger after a feasibility study found it would cost $1 million in transportation costs and would significantly raise taxes in Pennsbury. Around that time, the district offered help providing advanced courses to Morrisville, but “for some reason the ball was dropped on their part,” said board member Palsky.
“We’ve gone around and around with Morrisville for years now,” she said.
Galloway represents Tullytown and Falls (Pennsbury School District), Morrisville, Bristol, two districts in Bristol Township and one district in Middletown. Clymer represents Durham, East and West Rockhill, Haycock, Milford, Perkasie, Quakertown, Richland, Richlandtown, Riegelsville, Sellersville, Springfield, Telford and Trumbauersville in Upper Bucks.
I believe that the phrase Pennsbury is struggling not to say is "Physician, heal thyself."
After years of neglect from our own boards of education, here Morrisville is, standing in the bail-out line with Citibank, AIG, and the three Detroit auto manufacturers. No wonder people outside of the district are concerned.
Morrisville taxpayers note: Is there any place in this article that suggests we would be paying less in tax?
Officials: No room for more students
Rep. Galloway suggested referendums be held in Morrisville and Pennsbury on any proposed student transfers.
By MANASEE WAGH
Pennsbury says it simply doesn’t have room for an infusion of students from outside the district.
Though Morrisville is once again knocking on its door for help, some Pennsbury board members say that nothing has changed from previous efforts to merge the districts.
This time, Morrisville solicitor Michael Fitzpatrick is asking Pennsbury and other local districts to consider taking about 300 students in grades nine through 12 on a tuition basis.
That money doesn’t translate into extra cash for Pennsbury, said board member Linda Palsky. She said she doesn’t believe the buildings can support the extra students, and services such as guidance counseling are already stretched thin over the high school’s 3,400 students.
“The money isn’t free money for us. It’s to educate those students. It’s not going to be a windfall for us,” she said. “I understand it’s the neighborly thing to do, but it’s going to be on the backs of the Pennsbury taxpayers.”
Unless the state forces some sort of merger and makes it advantageous to her district’s taxpayers, Palsky said she doesn’t support taking on additional students.
State Rep. John Galloway, D-140, said both Morrisville and Pennsbury should hold voter referendums about the proposed student transfer. If Morrisville ends up with a financial situation it can’t handle, it could need to ask the state to intervene.
“But the state can’t unilaterally act on its own,” Galloway said.
Declaring itself a distressed district is a last resort under 1998’s Public School Empowerment Act, said state Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, the minority chairman of the House Education Committee. One qualification of financial distress is the inability to pay teacher salaries for 90 days, he said.
At this point, Morrisville could simply ask to speak with the secretary of education to explore ways to attain more resources, Clymer added.
Fitzpatrick has said he plans to talk to state representatives, but he didn’t return phone calls and e-mails Thursday and Friday requesting further comment. He has been communicating with Pennsbury for the past six months and is reaching out to other local districts as well.
Housing grades pre-K through eight in the high school building and sending grades nine through 12 to other districts on a paid tuition basis may be Morrisville’s best hope for survival, Fitzpatrick said. He compared it to the crisis that’s forcing some local private schools to merge due to lack of funds and enrollments.
The cost of educating one Morrisville secondary school child is about $15,000, a price tag that’s close to the highest in Lower Bucks. Pennsbury’s cost is just above $12,000.
Board member Gene Dolnick said he’s not sure about class size and building utilization projections. He was also unsure about how Morrisville PSSA scores might affect his own district’s averages. This past year, Morrisville High School students’ reading and math PSSA scores made great strides but were slightly lower than Pennsbury’s.
“I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not ruling it in,” Dolnick said.
Gregory Lucidi, Pennsbury board president, says that until Pennsbury built a two-story, 55,000-square-foot addition and renovated its West campus building in 2004, “we were busting at the seams.” Now, he said, students just “barely fit comfortably.”
Pennsbury’s two high school buildings have a capacity of 3,414 students, according to the district. That means the spaces are already nearly filled. In 2006, the high school averaged 25 students per teacher, according to the district. That’s more than Neshaminy’s high school ratio of 14 students to one teacher and Bristol Township’s ratio of 22 students to one teacher.
Pennsbury’s already considering enlarging class sizes to reduce expenses, said Lucidi. Adding 300 more students next year “would be a major impact on resources,” he added.
However, the state Department of Education’s January 2009 estimate projects a 14.5 percent drop in Pennsbury’s high school population by 2017.
The district’s own projection for that year is 2,979 students, a 12.4 percent drop from this year. That’s based on a variety of factors, and the number may change in time, according to the district.
Lucidi thinks Pennsbury will experience increases in all grades, including children from families who don’t want to pay for private schools anymore. Pennsbury doesn’t have data on how many of its students used to attend private school but more than 2,000 new students register each year in Pennsbury, according to the district.
In the meantime, Morrisville has been dealing with spiraling financial problems. The same issues have been cropping up for years, including the need to renovate or replace its three buildings. It is about to consider closing one of its two elementary schools permanently. Most other solutions, such as rebuilding or renovating all the buildings, imply a tax increase, based on past board discussions.
In 1990, the Pennsbury school board voted against a merger after a feasibility study found it would cost $1 million in transportation costs and would significantly raise taxes in Pennsbury. Around that time, the district offered help providing advanced courses to Morrisville, but “for some reason the ball was dropped on their part,” said board member Palsky.
“We’ve gone around and around with Morrisville for years now,” she said.
Galloway represents Tullytown and Falls (Pennsbury School District), Morrisville, Bristol, two districts in Bristol Township and one district in Middletown. Clymer represents Durham, East and West Rockhill, Haycock, Milford, Perkasie, Quakertown, Richland, Richlandtown, Riegelsville, Sellersville, Springfield, Telford and Trumbauersville in Upper Bucks.
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