From the BCCT.
Voters won’t be asked about tax limits
Five districts are hoping state-authorized exemptions will allow them to exceed the property tax increase limit.
By JOAN HELLYER
School boards in Lower Bucks County will, once again, avoid asking voters for approval to raise property taxes above a pre-determined state limit for the next school year, district officials said.
The boards had until Jan. 29 to decide if voters’ approval to go above the limit would be needed during the May primary, according to the state’s property tax relief law.
Most districts are allowed to raise taxes 4.1 percent above their current millage rate, according to the state. Bristol’s index is 5.3 percent, and Bristol Township can raise taxes 5.2 percent without voter approval. The amount of increase allowable for each district is calculated by averaging the statewide average weekly wage with employment cost index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, state officials said.
Local districts have not had to go to referendum since the tax relief law known as Act 1 went into effect in 2006. However, this year it was a close call for several districts struggling to cover projected expenses in the midst of the economic downturn.
To make ends meet, the Bensalem, Bristol, Centennial, Neshaminy and Pennsbury boards are considering a suggested tax increase that combines the district’s predetermined index rate with different exemptions.
The exemptions include expenses such as special education, health benefits and debt service costs incurred before Act 1 went into effect, officials said.
Bensalem, for instance, is asking the state for permission to claim exemptions for special education and health benefits. Those exemptions would push the district’s total tax increase to 6 percent of the current millage of 130.4 mills.
That equates to 7.77 mills and would mean the owner of the average property in the district would pay $170 more in taxes in 2009-10 should the board impose the maximum increase possible without voter approval.
As per Act 1, the five area districts looking to combine the index increase with exemptions have until mid February to adopt a preliminary budget specifying how they expect to cover 2009-10 costs.
The other three area boards, Bristol Township, Council Rock and Morrisville, have passed resolutions promising to keep any property tax increases for 2009-10 to the state-imposed limit.
Those school boards have until late May to adopt a preliminary budget. All districts have until June 30 to adopt their 2009-10 final budgets.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Parents criticize board in writing
From the BCCT.
Parents criticize board in writing
By MANASEE WAGH
Morrisville residents have written letters to school officials expressing fears for the district’s future.
“I demand to know what is in store for my children’s education and most importantly their proper safety?!” parent Tammi Bresnen wrote.
Five people responded to district solicitor Michael Fitzpatrick’s encouragement for additional written testimony after a Jan. 29 public hearing about the closing of M.R. Reiter Elementary School.
“It’s not a lot, but it’s not bad,” board member John Buckman said of the number of people who wrote.
Bresnen and other residents criticized the board for poor communication with the public.
“This board has shown time and time again that it does not act with a publicly discussed, debated, and enacted long-term strategic plan in place. It acts in fits and starts without an overarching goal,” wrote parent Kevin Leather.
The board plans to refurbish Grandview, the district’s other elementary school, and it’s investigating putting grades kindergarten through eight in the high school building. Leather called those two initiatives “opposing avenues of action.”
Resident Carol J. Bargery proposed renovating Reiter and selling Grandview. Morrisville could send grades kindergarten through eight to the high school and grades nine through 12 to Reiter, she wrote. The district should hold a public referendum before closing Reiter or any other building, she suggested.
About 250 students attend Morrisville Middle/Senior High School in grades nine through 12. Until a December furnace explosion, Reiter housed more than 250 students.
They are sharing space currently with other students in various district buildings for at least the rest of the school year. The explosion is not the sole rationale for closing the school. Board members had planned to close at least one elementary school in the district and use the money from its sale to renovate the district’s two other school buildings. The Reiter incident and an earlier evaluation of the building provided the board justification to pick Reiter for closing.
About 20 people expressed their opinions verbally at the public hearing. Then residents had until 3 p.m. on Feb. 2 to submit written opinions as part of the public hearing record.
Representatives from Vitetta, the engineering and architectural firm hired to evaluate the district schools, said at the public hearing that Reiter was in worse shape than Grandview Elementary. It has serious cracking in the walls and water seepage indoors.
“To fix that building doesn’t seem too probable at this point. Whatever the testimony’s saying, we have to look at the problems,” said Buckman. He said he sympathized with parents who expressed frustration with Reiter’s issues.
Morrisville is installing eight modular units on Grandview’s property this month to give some of the displaced students their own space. Bad weather has delayed the units’ installation, Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said last week.
The district has reserved $7.4 million for renovations to the high school and one elementary school.
Vitetta is about to start the design phase of window and boiler renovations for the high school. The work shouldn’t cost more than $4.8 million, said district business administrator Paul DeAngelo.
Since Reiter may be closed, Grandview is next on the list to be renovated. Vitetta’s current estimate for fixing the smaller Grandview is $2.6 million. Resolving Reiter’s problems would cost about $4 million, according to the company.
The board can only make a decision about closing a school building 90 days after the public hearing, according to school code.
“Our board will come to a well thought out decision about what is best for our educational program, the children and the taxpayers and hopefully satisfy most of the community,” board President William Hellmann wrote in an e-mail exchange Tuesday.
Bargery hopes the board will be more candid about its thinking.
“Maybe if you would be more open and forthright with the community the community would reach out, and when Americans work together there is nothing we can’t do,” she wrote.
Parents criticize board in writing
By MANASEE WAGH
Morrisville residents have written letters to school officials expressing fears for the district’s future.
“I demand to know what is in store for my children’s education and most importantly their proper safety?!” parent Tammi Bresnen wrote.
Five people responded to district solicitor Michael Fitzpatrick’s encouragement for additional written testimony after a Jan. 29 public hearing about the closing of M.R. Reiter Elementary School.
“It’s not a lot, but it’s not bad,” board member John Buckman said of the number of people who wrote.
Bresnen and other residents criticized the board for poor communication with the public.
“This board has shown time and time again that it does not act with a publicly discussed, debated, and enacted long-term strategic plan in place. It acts in fits and starts without an overarching goal,” wrote parent Kevin Leather.
The board plans to refurbish Grandview, the district’s other elementary school, and it’s investigating putting grades kindergarten through eight in the high school building. Leather called those two initiatives “opposing avenues of action.”
Resident Carol J. Bargery proposed renovating Reiter and selling Grandview. Morrisville could send grades kindergarten through eight to the high school and grades nine through 12 to Reiter, she wrote. The district should hold a public referendum before closing Reiter or any other building, she suggested.
About 250 students attend Morrisville Middle/Senior High School in grades nine through 12. Until a December furnace explosion, Reiter housed more than 250 students.
They are sharing space currently with other students in various district buildings for at least the rest of the school year. The explosion is not the sole rationale for closing the school. Board members had planned to close at least one elementary school in the district and use the money from its sale to renovate the district’s two other school buildings. The Reiter incident and an earlier evaluation of the building provided the board justification to pick Reiter for closing.
About 20 people expressed their opinions verbally at the public hearing. Then residents had until 3 p.m. on Feb. 2 to submit written opinions as part of the public hearing record.
Representatives from Vitetta, the engineering and architectural firm hired to evaluate the district schools, said at the public hearing that Reiter was in worse shape than Grandview Elementary. It has serious cracking in the walls and water seepage indoors.
“To fix that building doesn’t seem too probable at this point. Whatever the testimony’s saying, we have to look at the problems,” said Buckman. He said he sympathized with parents who expressed frustration with Reiter’s issues.
Morrisville is installing eight modular units on Grandview’s property this month to give some of the displaced students their own space. Bad weather has delayed the units’ installation, Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said last week.
The district has reserved $7.4 million for renovations to the high school and one elementary school.
Vitetta is about to start the design phase of window and boiler renovations for the high school. The work shouldn’t cost more than $4.8 million, said district business administrator Paul DeAngelo.
Since Reiter may be closed, Grandview is next on the list to be renovated. Vitetta’s current estimate for fixing the smaller Grandview is $2.6 million. Resolving Reiter’s problems would cost about $4 million, according to the company.
The board can only make a decision about closing a school building 90 days after the public hearing, according to school code.
“Our board will come to a well thought out decision about what is best for our educational program, the children and the taxpayers and hopefully satisfy most of the community,” board President William Hellmann wrote in an e-mail exchange Tuesday.
Bargery hopes the board will be more candid about its thinking.
“Maybe if you would be more open and forthright with the community the community would reach out, and when Americans work together there is nothing we can’t do,” she wrote.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)