From the BCCT.
Contractor ordinance criticized
By DANNY ADLER
A half-dozen people Tuesday night blasted Morrisville’s proposed responsible-contractor ordinance for all public construction and maintenance contracts worth at least $10,000, claiming the law favors union work.
They also pointed out alleged conflicts of interest: Two councilmen, David Rivella and Edward Albertson, are union men; also, Rivella and the Morrisville Democratic Club received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from unions during the 2007 election.
Rivella denied that the ordinance was an attempt to promote union work, once again stressing that “there’s not one word in the ordinance that says union.” He added, “I really wasn’t thrilled when there was a lot of financial figures read that imply that labor paid me off, if you will, to vote for this. This is not a labor issue.”
Supporters of the ordinance say it’s designed to ensure that the contracts are awarded to responsible, qualified firms. One requirement is that the firms participate in an apprenticeship program.
Rivella said borough laws don’t define what a responsible contractor is. This proposal, expected to come to a vote Monday, would change that, he said.
The eight-page ordinance says contractors must confirm they hadn’t defaulted on any project or been prohibited from bidding on any federal, state or local government contracts in the last three years. They also must confirm they’re free of “willful violations” of federal or state safety laws, among many other things.
“It seems that this would be a very exclusionary ordinance to me, and would exclude established, reputable contractors with small businesses that cannot provide an apprenticeship program,” said resident Marlys Mihok, who sits on the Morrisville school board. “I feel that there’s more than a slight appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Jeff Zeh, president of the southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, called it a “discriminatory arrangement.”
“You have many contractors in the area that are not union and don’t participate in apprenticeship programs as defined in your ordinance that have done good work for you,” he said.
Albertson, who was appointed to the council a few months ago, noted that he did not run in the 2007 election when Morrisville Democrats accepted campaign contributions from unions.
“The training that I have received from being in a union shop I believe makes me a safe and educated employee,” Albertson said.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Teacher strike ban to be reintroduced
From the BCCT.
Teacher strike ban to be reintroduced
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Get ready for take two in the struggle to eliminate teacher strikes.
Though Strike-Free Education Act House Bill 1369 failed to see any legislative action after he introduced it about two years ago, state Rep. Todd Rock, R-Franklin, said he'll reintroduce it today.
"The key to it is getting it out of committee. It could sit there for years," said Rock.
If passed, the bill would overhaul the negotiation process between a school district and its teachers union and would impose financial penalties for strikes and school lockouts.
"My bill still aims to provide for mediation, fact-finding and arbitration to resolve most contracts. If both sides still can't come to an agreement after certain dates, it forces them to meet four times a month and to have a public forum to lay out both sides of the case every six weeks. By the nature of all these meetings, you'd want to come to an agreement," said Rock, the bill's chief sponsor and author.
A teacher for a decade and a school board member for three years, Rock said he expects opposition to his bill - again - in the Legislature, though he believes most people are enthusiastic about stopping teacher strikes.
"The union is very big, and they have a lot of money and a lot of influence. I'm up against a lot of different factors. But every time a strike happens, I think it's a bigger negative for the teaching profession. They should have another option," said Rock.
Thirty-seven states prohibit teacher strikes.
Statewide, more than 20 school districts are at risk of a strike, according to information on Rock's Web site. More than 60 percent of all teacher strikes since 2000 have occurred in Pennsylvania, even though its teacher salaries are among the top 10 highest in the country.
"This is one of those issues that Rock is saying he's not going to let go. We're going to keep driving it into public awareness until one day it becomes law," said bill supporter and Lower Makefield resident Simon Campbell.
He became a local proponent of stopping teacher strikes after a 21-day strike in 2005 in his children's district, Pennsbury. Campbell said he plans to speak during Rock's press conference today in Harrisburg.
Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, is a cosponsor of the bill. The geographic areas he represents are near the Souderton School District, where teachers went on strike during a bitter dispute for 13 days in the fall.
"I'm opposed to strikes by public employees at large, because we provide services that are important to our citizens. When you assume a position in the public arena, you do not go on strike. That doesn't mean I'm anti-union," Clymer said.
Passage of the bill wouldn't eliminate contract disputes, said Rep. Steve Santarsiero, D-31.
"You can outlaw strikes and still have a labor dispute that festers on for years," said the former Bensalem High School teacher and Pennsylvania State Education Association member.
Both sides should be required by state law to negotiate "around the clock" if an impasse occurs, he said. The two sides should have to submit their last, best offers to a Commonwealth Court judge for a final decision, Santarsiero added.
"I think it's necessary to have the threat of a judge to make a binding decision that could go against one of the parties, he said.
Rock disagrees with that.
"He's talking about binding arbitration. We have nine school board officials elected to make that decision for our community. It should not be made by an outsider to the community," he said.
The issue of whether it's best to make teacher strikes illegal is complicated, said Rep. Frank Farry, R-142, whose legislative district includes the Neshaminy School District.
Neshaminy's teachers union recently rejected a school board offer and is still negotiating its contract.
"If a bill had the proper dispute resolution to ensure that education was uninterrupted, then I think it's something we need to consider. But I still need to take a look at the language in this bill," Farry said.
Among local school districts, Pennsbury's union and school board decided to extend its current labor contract for another year with no cost-of-living increases.
Teacher strike ban to be reintroduced
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Get ready for take two in the struggle to eliminate teacher strikes.
Though Strike-Free Education Act House Bill 1369 failed to see any legislative action after he introduced it about two years ago, state Rep. Todd Rock, R-Franklin, said he'll reintroduce it today.
"The key to it is getting it out of committee. It could sit there for years," said Rock.
If passed, the bill would overhaul the negotiation process between a school district and its teachers union and would impose financial penalties for strikes and school lockouts.
"My bill still aims to provide for mediation, fact-finding and arbitration to resolve most contracts. If both sides still can't come to an agreement after certain dates, it forces them to meet four times a month and to have a public forum to lay out both sides of the case every six weeks. By the nature of all these meetings, you'd want to come to an agreement," said Rock, the bill's chief sponsor and author.
A teacher for a decade and a school board member for three years, Rock said he expects opposition to his bill - again - in the Legislature, though he believes most people are enthusiastic about stopping teacher strikes.
"The union is very big, and they have a lot of money and a lot of influence. I'm up against a lot of different factors. But every time a strike happens, I think it's a bigger negative for the teaching profession. They should have another option," said Rock.
Thirty-seven states prohibit teacher strikes.
Statewide, more than 20 school districts are at risk of a strike, according to information on Rock's Web site. More than 60 percent of all teacher strikes since 2000 have occurred in Pennsylvania, even though its teacher salaries are among the top 10 highest in the country.
"This is one of those issues that Rock is saying he's not going to let go. We're going to keep driving it into public awareness until one day it becomes law," said bill supporter and Lower Makefield resident Simon Campbell.
He became a local proponent of stopping teacher strikes after a 21-day strike in 2005 in his children's district, Pennsbury. Campbell said he plans to speak during Rock's press conference today in Harrisburg.
Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, is a cosponsor of the bill. The geographic areas he represents are near the Souderton School District, where teachers went on strike during a bitter dispute for 13 days in the fall.
"I'm opposed to strikes by public employees at large, because we provide services that are important to our citizens. When you assume a position in the public arena, you do not go on strike. That doesn't mean I'm anti-union," Clymer said.
Passage of the bill wouldn't eliminate contract disputes, said Rep. Steve Santarsiero, D-31.
"You can outlaw strikes and still have a labor dispute that festers on for years," said the former Bensalem High School teacher and Pennsylvania State Education Association member.
Both sides should be required by state law to negotiate "around the clock" if an impasse occurs, he said. The two sides should have to submit their last, best offers to a Commonwealth Court judge for a final decision, Santarsiero added.
"I think it's necessary to have the threat of a judge to make a binding decision that could go against one of the parties, he said.
Rock disagrees with that.
"He's talking about binding arbitration. We have nine school board officials elected to make that decision for our community. It should not be made by an outsider to the community," he said.
The issue of whether it's best to make teacher strikes illegal is complicated, said Rep. Frank Farry, R-142, whose legislative district includes the Neshaminy School District.
Neshaminy's teachers union recently rejected a school board offer and is still negotiating its contract.
"If a bill had the proper dispute resolution to ensure that education was uninterrupted, then I think it's something we need to consider. But I still need to take a look at the language in this bill," Farry said.
Among local school districts, Pennsbury's union and school board decided to extend its current labor contract for another year with no cost-of-living increases.
Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
From the New York Times
Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
Article Tools Sponsored By
By DAVID STOUT and JEFF ZELENY
Published: March 10, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama called for sweeping changes in American education on Tuesday, urging states to lift limits on charter schools and exhorting teachers, parents and students to embrace a renewed commitment to learning from grade school through adulthood.
The president said it was time to erase limits on the number of charter schools, which his administration refers to as “laboratories of innovation,” while closing those that are not working. Teachers’ unions oppose the schools, saying they take away funding for public schools.
“I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place,” the president said, in his first major speech on education since he took office seven weeks ago. Caps now exist in 26 states and the District of Columbia, he said.
Putting limits on charter schools, even in places where they are performing well, “isn’t good for our children, our economy or our country,” the president said. He said recently in his budget message that he hoped to double financing for charter schools eventually, and that the Department of Education would help create “new, high-quality charter schools” while supporting the closing of those guilty of “chronic underperformance.”
Mr. Obama’s promotion of charter schools was virtually certain to be greeted with skepticism, at best, from teacher unions, as was his call for a system of merit pay for good teachers, which the president said would mean “treating teachers like the professionals they are, while also holding them more accountable.”
“New teachers will be mentored by experienced ones,” the president said, in an address to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here. “Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools.”
Teacher union leaders reacted cautiously. Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said his union’s 3.2 million members “welcome the vision” laid out by the president and look forward to working with him and Education Secretary Arne Duncan “to transform public education to prepare students to compete in a global economy.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, said her union embraced “the goals and aspirations” outlined by President Obama. “As with any public policy, the devil is in the details, and it is important that teachers’ voices are heard as we implement the president’s vision,” Ms. Weingarten said.
In his address, the president said the United States’ prosperity, security and even the American dream itself are at risk unless the country reverses years of decline and restores its education system to pre-eminence. “Let there be no doubt,” Mr. Obama said. “The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens — and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation.”
“It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career,” Mr. Obama said. “We have accepted failure for too long — enough. America’s entire education system must once more be the envy of the world.”
In promoting a merit-based system of pay for teachers, which unions generally dislike because they say it could foster favoritism, the president was following through on positions he took during his campaign — and implicitly laying down a challenge to unions, traditionally reliable supporters of Democratic candidates.
The president said too many people in his party have resisted the idea of “rewarding excellence” with extra pay, while too many Republicans have opposed spending money on early education “despite compelling evidence of its importance.”
“The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here,” Mr. Obama said. “What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students.”
While the overwhelming number of teachers are “doing an outstanding job under difficult circumstances,” states and school districts should be able “to move bad teachers out of the classroom,” the president said.
While teacher unions have generally resisted merit-pay programs, there have been some successful experiments with them across the country, especially in districts where unions are involved from the beginning in developing them.
The address on Tuesday was the first step in laying out the president’s agenda to improve American schools, officials said, with more specifics to be outlined to Congress in the coming weeks. The president noted that the recently enacted stimulus package calls for spending some $5 billion on the Early Head Start and Head Start programs — an investment that he said would be rewarded by lower welfare rolls, fewer health care costs and less crime, as well as better classroom performance.
Mr. Obama set a goal of the United States having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Nothing less than that will suffice in the 21st Century, when Americans are competing in a world made ever smaller by the Internet, the president said.
The president said the Education Department “will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative but whether it works.”
Charter school proponents were elated by the president’s speech. “With 365,000 students on charter waiting lists, there is no excuse for state laws that stifle the growth of these schools,” Nelson Smith, the president and chief executive of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a statement.
The president said new approaches to education should extend to the traditional school day and the school calendar, both of which should be longer. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land,” he said.
Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
Article Tools Sponsored By
By DAVID STOUT and JEFF ZELENY
Published: March 10, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama called for sweeping changes in American education on Tuesday, urging states to lift limits on charter schools and exhorting teachers, parents and students to embrace a renewed commitment to learning from grade school through adulthood.
The president said it was time to erase limits on the number of charter schools, which his administration refers to as “laboratories of innovation,” while closing those that are not working. Teachers’ unions oppose the schools, saying they take away funding for public schools.
“I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place,” the president said, in his first major speech on education since he took office seven weeks ago. Caps now exist in 26 states and the District of Columbia, he said.
Putting limits on charter schools, even in places where they are performing well, “isn’t good for our children, our economy or our country,” the president said. He said recently in his budget message that he hoped to double financing for charter schools eventually, and that the Department of Education would help create “new, high-quality charter schools” while supporting the closing of those guilty of “chronic underperformance.”
Mr. Obama’s promotion of charter schools was virtually certain to be greeted with skepticism, at best, from teacher unions, as was his call for a system of merit pay for good teachers, which the president said would mean “treating teachers like the professionals they are, while also holding them more accountable.”
“New teachers will be mentored by experienced ones,” the president said, in an address to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here. “Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools.”
Teacher union leaders reacted cautiously. Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said his union’s 3.2 million members “welcome the vision” laid out by the president and look forward to working with him and Education Secretary Arne Duncan “to transform public education to prepare students to compete in a global economy.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, said her union embraced “the goals and aspirations” outlined by President Obama. “As with any public policy, the devil is in the details, and it is important that teachers’ voices are heard as we implement the president’s vision,” Ms. Weingarten said.
In his address, the president said the United States’ prosperity, security and even the American dream itself are at risk unless the country reverses years of decline and restores its education system to pre-eminence. “Let there be no doubt,” Mr. Obama said. “The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens — and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation.”
“It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career,” Mr. Obama said. “We have accepted failure for too long — enough. America’s entire education system must once more be the envy of the world.”
In promoting a merit-based system of pay for teachers, which unions generally dislike because they say it could foster favoritism, the president was following through on positions he took during his campaign — and implicitly laying down a challenge to unions, traditionally reliable supporters of Democratic candidates.
The president said too many people in his party have resisted the idea of “rewarding excellence” with extra pay, while too many Republicans have opposed spending money on early education “despite compelling evidence of its importance.”
“The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here,” Mr. Obama said. “What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students.”
While the overwhelming number of teachers are “doing an outstanding job under difficult circumstances,” states and school districts should be able “to move bad teachers out of the classroom,” the president said.
While teacher unions have generally resisted merit-pay programs, there have been some successful experiments with them across the country, especially in districts where unions are involved from the beginning in developing them.
The address on Tuesday was the first step in laying out the president’s agenda to improve American schools, officials said, with more specifics to be outlined to Congress in the coming weeks. The president noted that the recently enacted stimulus package calls for spending some $5 billion on the Early Head Start and Head Start programs — an investment that he said would be rewarded by lower welfare rolls, fewer health care costs and less crime, as well as better classroom performance.
Mr. Obama set a goal of the United States having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Nothing less than that will suffice in the 21st Century, when Americans are competing in a world made ever smaller by the Internet, the president said.
The president said the Education Department “will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative but whether it works.”
Charter school proponents were elated by the president’s speech. “With 365,000 students on charter waiting lists, there is no excuse for state laws that stifle the growth of these schools,” Nelson Smith, the president and chief executive of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a statement.
The president said new approaches to education should extend to the traditional school day and the school calendar, both of which should be longer. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land,” he said.
School buses seen as potential terrorist targets
From the BCCT.
Finally...something Morrisville doesn't have that's a good thing.
School buses seen as potential terrorist targets
By AMANDA CREGAN
Bucks County Courier Times
Terrorism experts say homeland security begins at the school bus stop.
It's a school security gap that most parents, police and school officials don't always see, but terrorists do.
School buses can be vulnerable to a potential attacker, but are often overlooked in a school district's security plan.
That's why 75 police officers, detectives, emergency workers and school administrators from across Montgomery, Bucks and the rest of the Philadelphia region spent Monday learning how to shore up the gap in a course on "School Bus Safety in a Post 9/11 Era" held at the North Montco Technical Career Center in Towamencin and hosted by the Southeast Region Terrorism Taskforce.
Bus safety is an issue that presenter Curtis Lavarello says needs be to taken seriously.
"Based on the assumption by the FBI, there will be further terrorist attacks and school buses are soft targets," said the 23-year law enforcement veteran from Florida. "It's been found that children could be the next target for terrorists."
Because school districts are so fragmented in Pennsylvania, districts each decide if they will contract out for transportation or operate their own bus system, which makes it harder to streamline bus security across the state, he said.
Police and school administrators need to better monitor their school bus yards and need to know if the buses are in a secure compound, who has access to the buses, are they monitored by guards and are the lots properly lit.
Recently, a police officer happened to drive by a dark, unsecured school bus lot in Florida and spotted someone cutting the buses' brake lines, said Lavarello.
"It's a very real threat to our children across the country in terms of homeland security," he said.
But the first line of defense in school security can start with parents at the bus stop and the school bus drivers.
Parents need to be observant of individuals they've never seen before or strange vehicles in close proximity to their child's bus stop.
A potential attacker would also notice if parents habitually chat at length with bus drivers, prolonging the bus' stop and opening the site up to attack.
Bus drivers also need to be more aware of the emotional state of students on the bus, if they are crying or seem upset or depressed. Reporting disturbed students to school officials could be a way to stop them if they plan to carry out a violent school act.
"You have to realize that what happens in school, happens on the school bus. Everyone is focusing on the protection of schools, but the bus safety is really lacking," said Sean Burke, president of School Safety Advocacy Council. "I think we're sadly misinformed to think that people who plan to do our children harm don't know this."
Finally...something Morrisville doesn't have that's a good thing.
School buses seen as potential terrorist targets
By AMANDA CREGAN
Bucks County Courier Times
Terrorism experts say homeland security begins at the school bus stop.
It's a school security gap that most parents, police and school officials don't always see, but terrorists do.
School buses can be vulnerable to a potential attacker, but are often overlooked in a school district's security plan.
That's why 75 police officers, detectives, emergency workers and school administrators from across Montgomery, Bucks and the rest of the Philadelphia region spent Monday learning how to shore up the gap in a course on "School Bus Safety in a Post 9/11 Era" held at the North Montco Technical Career Center in Towamencin and hosted by the Southeast Region Terrorism Taskforce.
Bus safety is an issue that presenter Curtis Lavarello says needs be to taken seriously.
"Based on the assumption by the FBI, there will be further terrorist attacks and school buses are soft targets," said the 23-year law enforcement veteran from Florida. "It's been found that children could be the next target for terrorists."
Because school districts are so fragmented in Pennsylvania, districts each decide if they will contract out for transportation or operate their own bus system, which makes it harder to streamline bus security across the state, he said.
Police and school administrators need to better monitor their school bus yards and need to know if the buses are in a secure compound, who has access to the buses, are they monitored by guards and are the lots properly lit.
Recently, a police officer happened to drive by a dark, unsecured school bus lot in Florida and spotted someone cutting the buses' brake lines, said Lavarello.
"It's a very real threat to our children across the country in terms of homeland security," he said.
But the first line of defense in school security can start with parents at the bus stop and the school bus drivers.
Parents need to be observant of individuals they've never seen before or strange vehicles in close proximity to their child's bus stop.
A potential attacker would also notice if parents habitually chat at length with bus drivers, prolonging the bus' stop and opening the site up to attack.
Bus drivers also need to be more aware of the emotional state of students on the bus, if they are crying or seem upset or depressed. Reporting disturbed students to school officials could be a way to stop them if they plan to carry out a violent school act.
"You have to realize that what happens in school, happens on the school bus. Everyone is focusing on the protection of schools, but the bus safety is really lacking," said Sean Burke, president of School Safety Advocacy Council. "I think we're sadly misinformed to think that people who plan to do our children harm don't know this."
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