From the BCCT.
In a completely standard move, the Morrisville board launched another surprise. Attention Morrisville teachers: Yes, YOU! The one with the grey hair and the college diploma chiseled into a stone tablet. We pay you too much and can replace you with someone at half your salary. Thanks for the memories. Now get out. You have one month to decide.
This is mitigated by union prez King mentioning that he initiated the talks and I do not blame him. Looking out for these people is his job. If I had the time in, I'd escape this district too. The chaos and uncertainty this board leaves in its wake is reason enough.
The administration had a hard time finding replacements for teachers one at a time. Can you imagine filling nine spots or more?
Good point. WILL these teachers be replaced? The (patent pending) Do More With Less Magic-8 Ball says *shake*shake*shake* "Fewer seats needed at 2009 staff Christmas party"
Board to offer retirement packages
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
In an effort to save money, the Morrisville school board agreed Wednesday to allow eligible staff members to take advantage of an early retirement incentive plan.
The move, approved 6-2, was not without its critics.
Board members Gloria Heater and Robin Reithmeyer opposed the offer. Reithmeyer said board President William Hellmann had acted on his own to offer the incentive plan and that other board members were not aware of it until last week, several days after Hellmann sent a March 5 letter with incentive plan details to the teachers union.
In addition, the plan was not brought up in a board committee meeting or in executive session, Reithmeyer said.
At Tuesday's meeting, union President Drew King said he had initiated talks with Hellmann and the district by presenting them with a rationale for such a plan.
Hellmann and the administration had responded to King's request and worked closely to come up with a proposal for the union, said district solicitor Michael Fitzpatrick. School code was not broken because their offer could not have gone into effect until a consensus of the board voted on it, he said.
Reithmeyer said Hellmann does not openly let the board know what he is doing and thinking. He said he had communicated his intentions regarding the retirement incentive plan to the board in February.
The incentive plan is valid for full-time permanent professional employees who have had 15 years of continuous service with the district and want to retire on June 30. It offers two options: either a lump sum of up to $70,000 or medical premium reimbursement to age 65, capped at $1,200 per month. That's if nine or more eligible staff members take the offer. The lump sum payment amount will be less if fewer people opt to take the offer.
How much the district would save depends on how many decide to take advantage of the incentive and how and if the district decides to replace them, said Paul DeAngelo, the district's business administrator. Individual teachers have until April 30 to apply.
March 26, 2009 02:11 AM
Thursday, March 26, 2009
"Just trying to help other people"
From the BCCT.
Real heroes. That sums it up. And these four live right here in town riding the big red trucks when YOUR house or business is threatened.
Give up a big round of applause for all the firefighters.
'Just trying to help other people'
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
Four firefighters are among a group of 39 people to be honored as "Real Heroes of Bucks County."
Four volunteer firefighters headed home in the early hours of one September morning knowing they did everything they could.
Twenty-five-year-old Morrisville Fire Co. Chief Matt Wiedenhaefer, then the deputy chief, and fellow firefighters Jason DeShields, 29, John Weiss III, 25, and Tim Jones, 38, pulled an unconscious young couple from their flaming garden-level home at Colonial Gardens Apartments on Plaza Boulevard,
The firefighters never got to know much about the couple, though. The two, who were burned and inhaled smoke as a kitchen fire destroyed their apartment, died in the days following the incident.
"It's a damn shame," the chief said recently, while sitting with his comrades in the fire station's office, which is adorned with pictures of Morrisville fires, including the fatal Colonial Gardens blaze. "But it's one of those things where you know that you did everything you could."
He never questioned what else they could have done. "We did absolutely everything," he said.
As Weiss led the way, dousing the fire in the blacked-out apartment, Wiedenhaefer, DeShields and Jones helped with the hose and patted around looking for bodies, although no reports of entrapment had reached them.
Once inside, Jones said, the firefighters evaluated the whole situation, the heat, the smoke, the darkness.
And then, "Oh + we got a body, now we gotta get him out. There's 7,000 things going through your [mind]. You're playing every scenario out in your head in about 15 seconds, if that."
DeShields first found the young woman in the living room. She was taken out the front door. Shortly after, in a rear bedroom, he found the man, whose heart was not beating. Firefighters got him outside through a rear window, and rescue workers got his heart pumping again. Both were rushed to area hospitals. It was the first time DeShields found people inside during a call.
"It's like feeling a big pile of clothes, but then you realize that it's not a pile of clothes. You feel that arm, you know you got somebody," DeShields said. "It's a totally different ballgame once you feel that."
And it wasn't easy. The only light the firefighters had was the glow of the flames they were fighting. "If you literally cover your eyes, that's what you see. You see nothing. You can walk straight into a wall," Weiss said.
The firefighters - among 39 people to be honored by the American Red Cross as "Real Heroes of Bucks County" Thursday - all joined the company for various reasons, family ties, community safety, the adrenaline rush. But they'll admit, what they did was just part of the gig.
"It's not a glory thing, or anything like that," Wiedenhaefer said. "You're just trying to help other people and make sure they're OK."
March 25, 2009 02:10 AM
Real heroes. That sums it up. And these four live right here in town riding the big red trucks when YOUR house or business is threatened.
Give up a big round of applause for all the firefighters.
'Just trying to help other people'
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
Four firefighters are among a group of 39 people to be honored as "Real Heroes of Bucks County."
Four volunteer firefighters headed home in the early hours of one September morning knowing they did everything they could.
Twenty-five-year-old Morrisville Fire Co. Chief Matt Wiedenhaefer, then the deputy chief, and fellow firefighters Jason DeShields, 29, John Weiss III, 25, and Tim Jones, 38, pulled an unconscious young couple from their flaming garden-level home at Colonial Gardens Apartments on Plaza Boulevard,
The firefighters never got to know much about the couple, though. The two, who were burned and inhaled smoke as a kitchen fire destroyed their apartment, died in the days following the incident.
"It's a damn shame," the chief said recently, while sitting with his comrades in the fire station's office, which is adorned with pictures of Morrisville fires, including the fatal Colonial Gardens blaze. "But it's one of those things where you know that you did everything you could."
He never questioned what else they could have done. "We did absolutely everything," he said.
As Weiss led the way, dousing the fire in the blacked-out apartment, Wiedenhaefer, DeShields and Jones helped with the hose and patted around looking for bodies, although no reports of entrapment had reached them.
Once inside, Jones said, the firefighters evaluated the whole situation, the heat, the smoke, the darkness.
And then, "Oh + we got a body, now we gotta get him out. There's 7,000 things going through your [mind]. You're playing every scenario out in your head in about 15 seconds, if that."
DeShields first found the young woman in the living room. She was taken out the front door. Shortly after, in a rear bedroom, he found the man, whose heart was not beating. Firefighters got him outside through a rear window, and rescue workers got his heart pumping again. Both were rushed to area hospitals. It was the first time DeShields found people inside during a call.
"It's like feeling a big pile of clothes, but then you realize that it's not a pile of clothes. You feel that arm, you know you got somebody," DeShields said. "It's a totally different ballgame once you feel that."
And it wasn't easy. The only light the firefighters had was the glow of the flames they were fighting. "If you literally cover your eyes, that's what you see. You see nothing. You can walk straight into a wall," Weiss said.
The firefighters - among 39 people to be honored by the American Red Cross as "Real Heroes of Bucks County" Thursday - all joined the company for various reasons, family ties, community safety, the adrenaline rush. But they'll admit, what they did was just part of the gig.
"It's not a glory thing, or anything like that," Wiedenhaefer said. "You're just trying to help other people and make sure they're OK."
March 25, 2009 02:10 AM
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