An article from the Inquirer on how the school year is getting longer in Pennsylvania.
Some school years go beyond state-required 180 days
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer Posted on Mon, Sep. 1, 2008
By tradition, Labor Day marks the great divide between an 11-week summer vacation and the start of school for most students.
For a small but growing number of children in the Philadelphia area and around the country, however, it's just another three-day holiday weekend.
Students at the KIPP Philadelphia Charter School have been in class since Aug. 11. The school's 340 students, in grades five to eight, get 193 days of instruction, far more than the state-required 180 days. It also has a longer school day and students come in on Saturdays for extracurricular activities.
School CEO Marc Mannella said the added time was needed because many students were years behind academically when they enter fifth grade. "As far as I know, there's no pixie dust that I can sprinkle over a child's head to make up for years of wasted educational opportunity. It simply takes more time to catch them up," he said.
Students buy into the idea. "The long hours are so they can actually teach you and help you achieve your goals and do good in class," said fifth grader Alissa Smith. "They want to help us learn and help us get a better education so we can go to a good high school and college."
Others say all American students need more time in class to compete with students from other countries who often get more instructional time and score higher on standardized tests.
The United States ties at 28th out of 29 countries in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development at 22.2 hours of instruction per week. South Korea ranks first at 30.2 hours.
"We believe that the extra time in school in other countries has had a significant impact" on their achievement, said Jennifer Davis, who heads the National Center on Time and Learning in Boston, which advocates more time in school.
Strong American Schools, an education reform group, advocates more school time to increase America's ability to compete in the global economy. Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and other nations have school days that are on average as much as 25 percent longer than in the United States, the group said.
Though the attention being paid to the issue is growing, the topic is not new: 25 years ago, the Nation at Risk study of American education called for seven hours of classroom instruction each day and 200 to 220 days in school.
In most schools, not much has changed. A recent survey by the National Center on Time and Learning had 28 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, requiring 180 days of instruction, 12 with fewer days and only four - Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan and Ohio - with more. Six states set only total hours of instruction or leave it to school boards to decide.
Still, an increasing number of states, districts and charters have extended-time programs. In Massachusetts, 26 schools, most of them low-performing, will begin this year with students spending at least 30 percent more time in school. The state pays $1,300 more per student.
That initiative inspired Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy to introduce the Time for Innovation Matters in Education (TIME) Act in August; it calls for $350 million in federal funding to set up similar programs.
In New Orleans, former Philadelphia schools CEO Paul Vallas extended the school day until 4:30 p.m. for the 12,500 students in the Recovery School District. He seeks to extend the school year by 20 days.
In Florida's Miami-Dade district, students in 39 struggling schools have an hour a day more in school and five more school days a year.
In Pittsburgh, eight low-achieving schools added 45 minutes to the school day and 10 days to the school year.
Charter schools around the country often feature longer school days and years. "There are no shortcuts for success. If we want our students' scores to grow academically, we have to put in a lot more time and effort," said Jeremy Esposito, the head of Freedom Academy Charter in Camden, a KIPP school in session since Aug. 11.
In Pennsylvania, 254 districts reported an average school year of 181 days, up one day from four years ago. New Jersey does not keep student year statistics, but Department of Education spokesman Richard Vespucci said that most have 180-day schedules.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey require students to spend less than six hours per day in class: five hours and 53 minutes in New Jersey and five and a half hours a day in Pennsylvania.
Central Bucks Superintendent Robert Laws favors a shorter summer vacation and increasing the school calendar to around 200 days. His district now has 184. "If education is to be valued in this country, we should look at the calendar," Laws said. "I don't think it's an urban issue, and I don't think it's just for the low-achieving. If we compare ourselves with other countries, we've got fewer days."
The cost of extending school time works against change, because teachers unions say they want their members to be paid for more school time.
In Pennsylvania, 31 out of 501 districts have gotten state funding to expand school time, including Unionville Chadds Ford in Chester County and Jenkintown in Montgomery County. Jenkintown added 15 minutes to the school day, eliminated some half-days and plans to add two days, going from from 183 to 185, during the next two years.
"It's simple: Kids learn more when we have more time to teach them," said Tim Wade, superintendent.
Arlene Ackerman, Philadelphia's new superintendent, says lagging students in particular need more time. "We have to give them more time if they need more time," Ackerman said. She's put the issue on her wish list for teacher negotiations.
Unions say they are not opposed to longer days but caution that more time in school is not the only solution to low achievement. "Everyone wants to find one silver bullet to close the achievement gap. There isn't one," said James Testerman, head of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
Nicholas Ignatuk, Ridley superintendent, says extending the school year is not possible without federal funding.
"If it means raising local taxes, it is not going to happen," he said.
Ignatuk said districts already extend the day and year with after-school tutoring and summer school. "The question is: do all students need it? If the vast majority of our seniors are graduating, getting good jobs and going on to good colleges, it may not be necessary for everybody."
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Labor Day in Morrisville
Yesterday was Labor Day. Morrisville undertakes quite a number of activities on Labor Day.
First was the 10K race, sponsored by the Morrisville Fire Company. The race wound its way through the borough streets to the finish at Williamson Park. Congratulations to all the participants.
Then there were the festivities in Williamson Park, including the some of the local service organizations, churches, and community groups. There was the inevitable mix of Boy Scouts, fire fighters, borough politicians, and kids in sack races, along with the beautiful weather.
Let's not forget the car show along the downtown section of Bridge Street. I remember some of those older cars from when they were the "New! Improved! Better!" model fresh from the factory.
It was pure small-town corn, and it was great. This is the type of thing that Morrisville excels in. If you missed it, you missed a great show. This was the time to meet your neighbors (you know, the ones you sort of nod toward as you drive by...yeah, them) and say hello in person. It's civic events like these that renew the fraying fabric of community.
This is why Morrisville is a good place to raise a family. While we try to salvage our school system from the ravages of the Stop the Schoolers, let's not lose focus on what makes Morrisville.
Does anyone want to share their stories? What local officeholders or celebrities did you spot? Who was conspicuous by their absence?
First was the 10K race, sponsored by the Morrisville Fire Company. The race wound its way through the borough streets to the finish at Williamson Park. Congratulations to all the participants.
Then there were the festivities in Williamson Park, including the some of the local service organizations, churches, and community groups. There was the inevitable mix of Boy Scouts, fire fighters, borough politicians, and kids in sack races, along with the beautiful weather.
Let's not forget the car show along the downtown section of Bridge Street. I remember some of those older cars from when they were the "New! Improved! Better!" model fresh from the factory.
It was pure small-town corn, and it was great. This is the type of thing that Morrisville excels in. If you missed it, you missed a great show. This was the time to meet your neighbors (you know, the ones you sort of nod toward as you drive by...yeah, them) and say hello in person. It's civic events like these that renew the fraying fabric of community.
This is why Morrisville is a good place to raise a family. While we try to salvage our school system from the ravages of the Stop the Schoolers, let's not lose focus on what makes Morrisville.
Does anyone want to share their stories? What local officeholders or celebrities did you spot? Who was conspicuous by their absence?
Budget woes spark school district merger talks
An update on the Center Area-Monaca merger from the Lebanon Daily News
Budget woes spark school district merger talks
By MARTHA RAFFAELE and RAMESH SANTANAM Associated Press Writers
MONACA, Pa.—Pennsylvania will be shedding a school district by the end of this school year—a significant development even after years of nationwide efforts to nudge and sometimes force school systems to share services or merge.
The merger unfolding between two western Pennsylvania public school systems with sharply declining enrollments is the state's first district consolidation in at least 20 years, and most notably, its first voluntary one.
Officials say the move will save money and improve educational offerings, yet parents in both districts worry that some losses will accompany any gains. In any case, the consolidation is expected to be closely watched.
The willingness of two school districts to dissolve boundary lines is rare in states where local school board control is sacrosanct and school traditions that define a community are deeply ingrained. In recent years, at least a few states have tried to force mergers, with mixed results.
Yet the marriage of the Center Area and Monaca school districts northwest of Pittsburgh is part of a gradual, ongoing national progression toward fewer districts educating public school students.
Over roughly the last two decades, the number of school districts nationwide has declined 10 percent, from 15,714 in 1985-86 to 14,166 in 2005-06, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
With local school boards facing spiraling prices for fuel, employee health insurance and
Advertisement
other operating costs—and opposition to increases in property taxes that largely pay for them—the idea of consolidating to save money is becoming an increasingly common discussion topic.
"These conversations are going to be inevitable," said Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, who has been gently encouraging Pennsylvania's smallest rural school districts to at least consider merging or sharing services. "School districts are realizing that the cost of doing business won't get any cheaper."
Proponents say small district mergers can streamline administrative costs and achieve economies of scale. But even in the most difficult economic times, resistance can be strong.
The arguments against consolidation aren't just rooted in nostalgia for the old alma mater or skepticism about any promised savings. Critics also question whether educational quality will improve under larger school enrollments that mergers inevitably produce.
"It's not that consolidation is bad, but big schools are bad, and the notion that you can make education better by making schools bigger is just plumb wrong," said Marty Strange, policy director of the Rural School and Community Trust, based in Arlington, Va.
Enrollments in Monaca, a borough of about 6,000 people along the Ohio River, and in Center Area, which consists of two neighboring townships, have dropped steadily along with the region's population following the steel industry's decline.
Monaca superintendent Michael Thomas has seen his district's enrollment decrease from 900 to 672 students during his 11-year tenure, while Center Area has lost 175 students during the five years Daniel J. Matsook has been superintendent.
With fewer students, the menu of academic choices becomes limited. Monaca does not offer Advanced Placement classes, no mathematics beyond calculus and no science beyond physics, and Center Area cannot afford to continue offering courses that typically have 10 or fewer students. The merger is expected to produce about $1.5 million a year in combined savings for the districts.
"It is not financially responsible to offer courses that have three, four, five students in them," Matsook said.
Some states have forced the issue by mandating the consolidation of all districts, or ones that fall below a certain enrollment threshold.
In Maine, Gov. John Baldacci's administration is overseeing a plan to consolidate the state's 290 school districts into 80.
A 2007 Maine state law ordered the reorganizations, and although local voters get the final say, a "no" vote will reduce state aid.
Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the state had to take a hard line after its earlier efforts to ease the local property-tax burden with a greater infusion of state money failed. The plan is expected to save the state more than $36 million in the first year, she said.
"Districts were incentivized to do business differently, and they chose not to," Gendron said.
Opposition to the mandate has fueled a petition drive to overturn the law.
"There has been zero ... discussion about the impact on education quality throughout this whole debate," said Skip Greenlaw, a former state lawmaker leading the petition drive.
In Nebraska, a federal lawsuit was filed over a 2005 state law that forced elementary-only school districts, located mostly in rural areas, to combine with K-12 districts.
A federal appeals panel in April upheld a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuit, but it has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Mike Nolles, who leads a group dedicated to preserving the small schools and whose wife is one of the plaintiffs.
The one-room school that Nolles' 12-year-old daughter attends in north-central Nebraska is still operating, but the loss of local control has discouraged parental involvement, he said. Before consolidation, parents used to help with tasks such as maintaining playground equipment and ordering supplies.
"The teacher told my wife last evening, 'Parents don't even come to the school building anymore,'" Nolles said.
Arkansas lawmakers passed legislation in 2004 requiring the mergers of school districts with fewer than 350 students as part of a broader reform effort. That effort was prompted by a state Supreme Court ruling that declared the state's school funding system unconstitutional.
The law has reduced the number of districts from 311 to 245. In most cases, districts made the transition successfully, said Dan Farley, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association.
One downfall, however, was a decline in the numbers of black school board members and administrators due to changes in racial demographics, Farley said.
"I don't think it was a deliberate thing, but it was an unforeseen consequence," Farley said.
The last major state-ordered consolidation of Pennsylvania school districts occurred in the 1960s, when the state had more than 2,000 districts. By the 1980s, the number was reduced to 501.
With the consolidation under way in Monaca, the number will edge down to 500.
Zahorchak, Pennsylvania's education secretary, says his philosophy emphasizes encouraging small districts to pool resources in some way to spend their money efficiently, but to keep their enrollments manageable.
"Let's buy big, and deliver small," he said.
The merger plan for Center Area and Monaca calls for grades K-5 to consolidate in the 2009-10, with grades 6-12 following in 2010-11. The combined district will enroll about 2,600 students.
Residents are eyeing the change with a mixture of hope and anxiety.
Estee Cron, 31, who has three children in Monaca's elementary schools, worries that her community's student athletes won't have a chance to compete on teams in a larger district.
"We'll lose our football team," said Cron, a municipal parking officer.
Monaca homemaker Laura Gray favors the merger, even though her children don't. Gray's daughter, a sophomore, would be affected by the consolidation; her son will graduate in the spring.
"If they had told me when I was going to high school (the districts were going to merge), I would have said, 'No way. I am staying right here,'" Gray said. "But I think it's a good thing. I think it'll be better for both schools."
Even though the merger is voluntary, Thomas, the Monaca superintendent, concedes many challenges lie ahead on the way to creating a new school district. Several committees have been formed to sort out issues such as picking a new school mascot, school colors and a new district name.
"There are a lot of traditions tied to schools and dealing with that is difficult," Thomas said. "There has never been a voluntary merger in Pennsylvania. There is no blueprint for us to follow."
———
On the Net:
Center Area School District: http://www.casd.k12.pa.us
Monaca School District: http://www.monaca.k12.pa.us
Rural School and Community Trust: http://www.ruraledu.org
Budget woes spark school district merger talks
By MARTHA RAFFAELE and RAMESH SANTANAM Associated Press Writers
MONACA, Pa.—Pennsylvania will be shedding a school district by the end of this school year—a significant development even after years of nationwide efforts to nudge and sometimes force school systems to share services or merge.
The merger unfolding between two western Pennsylvania public school systems with sharply declining enrollments is the state's first district consolidation in at least 20 years, and most notably, its first voluntary one.
Officials say the move will save money and improve educational offerings, yet parents in both districts worry that some losses will accompany any gains. In any case, the consolidation is expected to be closely watched.
The willingness of two school districts to dissolve boundary lines is rare in states where local school board control is sacrosanct and school traditions that define a community are deeply ingrained. In recent years, at least a few states have tried to force mergers, with mixed results.
Yet the marriage of the Center Area and Monaca school districts northwest of Pittsburgh is part of a gradual, ongoing national progression toward fewer districts educating public school students.
Over roughly the last two decades, the number of school districts nationwide has declined 10 percent, from 15,714 in 1985-86 to 14,166 in 2005-06, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
With local school boards facing spiraling prices for fuel, employee health insurance and
Advertisement
other operating costs—and opposition to increases in property taxes that largely pay for them—the idea of consolidating to save money is becoming an increasingly common discussion topic.
"These conversations are going to be inevitable," said Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, who has been gently encouraging Pennsylvania's smallest rural school districts to at least consider merging or sharing services. "School districts are realizing that the cost of doing business won't get any cheaper."
Proponents say small district mergers can streamline administrative costs and achieve economies of scale. But even in the most difficult economic times, resistance can be strong.
The arguments against consolidation aren't just rooted in nostalgia for the old alma mater or skepticism about any promised savings. Critics also question whether educational quality will improve under larger school enrollments that mergers inevitably produce.
"It's not that consolidation is bad, but big schools are bad, and the notion that you can make education better by making schools bigger is just plumb wrong," said Marty Strange, policy director of the Rural School and Community Trust, based in Arlington, Va.
Enrollments in Monaca, a borough of about 6,000 people along the Ohio River, and in Center Area, which consists of two neighboring townships, have dropped steadily along with the region's population following the steel industry's decline.
Monaca superintendent Michael Thomas has seen his district's enrollment decrease from 900 to 672 students during his 11-year tenure, while Center Area has lost 175 students during the five years Daniel J. Matsook has been superintendent.
With fewer students, the menu of academic choices becomes limited. Monaca does not offer Advanced Placement classes, no mathematics beyond calculus and no science beyond physics, and Center Area cannot afford to continue offering courses that typically have 10 or fewer students. The merger is expected to produce about $1.5 million a year in combined savings for the districts.
"It is not financially responsible to offer courses that have three, four, five students in them," Matsook said.
Some states have forced the issue by mandating the consolidation of all districts, or ones that fall below a certain enrollment threshold.
In Maine, Gov. John Baldacci's administration is overseeing a plan to consolidate the state's 290 school districts into 80.
A 2007 Maine state law ordered the reorganizations, and although local voters get the final say, a "no" vote will reduce state aid.
Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the state had to take a hard line after its earlier efforts to ease the local property-tax burden with a greater infusion of state money failed. The plan is expected to save the state more than $36 million in the first year, she said.
"Districts were incentivized to do business differently, and they chose not to," Gendron said.
Opposition to the mandate has fueled a petition drive to overturn the law.
"There has been zero ... discussion about the impact on education quality throughout this whole debate," said Skip Greenlaw, a former state lawmaker leading the petition drive.
In Nebraska, a federal lawsuit was filed over a 2005 state law that forced elementary-only school districts, located mostly in rural areas, to combine with K-12 districts.
A federal appeals panel in April upheld a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuit, but it has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Mike Nolles, who leads a group dedicated to preserving the small schools and whose wife is one of the plaintiffs.
The one-room school that Nolles' 12-year-old daughter attends in north-central Nebraska is still operating, but the loss of local control has discouraged parental involvement, he said. Before consolidation, parents used to help with tasks such as maintaining playground equipment and ordering supplies.
"The teacher told my wife last evening, 'Parents don't even come to the school building anymore,'" Nolles said.
Arkansas lawmakers passed legislation in 2004 requiring the mergers of school districts with fewer than 350 students as part of a broader reform effort. That effort was prompted by a state Supreme Court ruling that declared the state's school funding system unconstitutional.
The law has reduced the number of districts from 311 to 245. In most cases, districts made the transition successfully, said Dan Farley, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association.
One downfall, however, was a decline in the numbers of black school board members and administrators due to changes in racial demographics, Farley said.
"I don't think it was a deliberate thing, but it was an unforeseen consequence," Farley said.
The last major state-ordered consolidation of Pennsylvania school districts occurred in the 1960s, when the state had more than 2,000 districts. By the 1980s, the number was reduced to 501.
With the consolidation under way in Monaca, the number will edge down to 500.
Zahorchak, Pennsylvania's education secretary, says his philosophy emphasizes encouraging small districts to pool resources in some way to spend their money efficiently, but to keep their enrollments manageable.
"Let's buy big, and deliver small," he said.
The merger plan for Center Area and Monaca calls for grades K-5 to consolidate in the 2009-10, with grades 6-12 following in 2010-11. The combined district will enroll about 2,600 students.
Residents are eyeing the change with a mixture of hope and anxiety.
Estee Cron, 31, who has three children in Monaca's elementary schools, worries that her community's student athletes won't have a chance to compete on teams in a larger district.
"We'll lose our football team," said Cron, a municipal parking officer.
Monaca homemaker Laura Gray favors the merger, even though her children don't. Gray's daughter, a sophomore, would be affected by the consolidation; her son will graduate in the spring.
"If they had told me when I was going to high school (the districts were going to merge), I would have said, 'No way. I am staying right here,'" Gray said. "But I think it's a good thing. I think it'll be better for both schools."
Even though the merger is voluntary, Thomas, the Monaca superintendent, concedes many challenges lie ahead on the way to creating a new school district. Several committees have been formed to sort out issues such as picking a new school mascot, school colors and a new district name.
"There are a lot of traditions tied to schools and dealing with that is difficult," Thomas said. "There has never been a voluntary merger in Pennsylvania. There is no blueprint for us to follow."
———
On the Net:
Center Area School District: http://www.casd.k12.pa.us
Monaca School District: http://www.monaca.k12.pa.us
Rural School and Community Trust: http://www.ruraledu.org
I'm From The Government and I'm Here To Help
This story from the Omaha World-Herald has nothing to do with education, and it has nothing to do with Katrina-ravaged New Orleans and the help received then (or with Gustav now). This is just a prime example of why people dislike and distrust government.
Ordeal becomes test of man's will
BY MATTHEW HANSEN, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Monday, September 1, 2008
Imagine the worst bureaucratic nightmare you've ever endured - a customer service rep that speaks robot, hours spent on the phone trying to fix the cable, an audit performed by the friendly folks at the Internal Revenue Service.
Sure, it's just $350, but Ted Johnson is now pressing his fight on principle. He has been making calls and filling out forms for six months, trying to recoup a $350 money order that was stolen.
Now, imagine this repeated every Tuesday for six months, an endless loop of frustrating phone calls and strongly worded letters set to a soundtrack of the jazzy music they pipe into your phone while you hold. And hold. And hold.
Welcome to Ted Johnson's life.
Every Tuesday, his day off, the Omaha man sets out to recover $350 he sent the federal government in February, money that never reached its intended recipient. Every Tuesday, he comes up $350 short.
At first, the 40-year-old maintenance man just wanted his money back. Then he decided he'd fight on out of principle.
And now it's an all-consuming quest whose players include the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation - pretty much everyone but the friendly folks down at the Internal Revenue Service.
Ted can't win. He also can't stop.
"They've been jabber-jawing and jacking me around every which way," Johnson said. "They cover each others' behinds like molasses."
Johnson's problems started, as many problems do, the day he fell in love.
Her name was Maria, and they met through friends and went on their first date just before Valentine's Day last year.
Ted couldn't believe how easy it was. They went to church together, grilled out all summer and rarely argued. Maria's 6-year-old son and Ted's 17-year-old son snapped snugly into the new family puzzle.
Only two problems. One, Ted doesn't like Mexican food. And two, Maria entered the country illegally 18 years ago and had never applied for U.S. citizenship.
Ted proposed anyway. Maria agreed.
And then, after they married, the newlyweds decided they should do the right thing.
On a freezing February day, they entered the Ralston Post Office and mailed off a $350 money order to start Maria's immigration process.
Maria made her new husband save the receipt, just in case. On the back of that receipt, there's a guarantee: If your mail order is lost or stolen, it says, you get your money back.
A month later, a letter arrived from the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. The office had received Maria Johnson's application, it said, but the Johnsons had failed to send the $350 check.
Ted stalked back into the post office.
"The money order must've been stolen," he said. "I want my money back."
Can't do that, the postal employee said. You need to prove the money order was stolen.
So Ted paid $5 to trace the money order.
The search turned up a name: Rick Nelson, who lives at 4800 S. 65th St. in Omaha. Except there is no 4800 S. 65th St. - that address is between a mobile home dealership and a car lot. There's no Rick Nelson, either.
But the search also turned up a bank account, and after a fair amount of sleuthing, Ted had another name and address, this one a real man living in Lincoln.
Turned out this guy had been busted for stealing other money orders from a government office - Marilu Cabrera, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, confirmed that the mail processing employee had been fired, though not yet charged.
Ted and Maria Johnson's money order had been deposited in this man's account two days after they sent it at the Ralston Post Office, the trace of the mail order said. Ted called a postal inspector he'd been dealing with.
I figured out who did this, Ted told the inspector. I want my money back.
Can't do that, said the postal inspector on the other end of the line. You need to fill out some forms.
So Ted Johnson filled out the forms. A postal inspection office in Sioux Falls, S.D., sent them back.
He filled out the forms again. They returned to sender again with a note saying the information on the form was incomplete.
To Ted, it looked fully completed.
He filled out yet another form. He demanded his money back.
Can't do that, he was told - the criminal would pay restitution after he was charged and found guilty. Then, and only then, would Ted see his $350.
"It just didn't make any sense," Ted said.
Ted got desperate. He filed a case with the Omaha Police Department. It went nowhere. He filed a lawsuit seeking the only amount of money he could think of - $1,234.56. The suit was quickly dismissed.
He scribbled countless phone numbers for governmental offices onto the rejection letters and receipts he keeps inside a dirty Manila envelope. Nothing. He called the FBI .
"It got a little bit crazy," he admits.
At one point, Ted, who looks like he knows how to handle himself in a bar fight, decided to drive to Lincoln and find the guy who stole his money. His cooler head prevailed, he said, only after he realized he needed to fill his tank with gasoline to make it down Interstate 80.
On a recent Tuesday, the Johnsons at last did get some good news.
A local immigration official assured Ted that the six-month delay won't slow his new wife's immigration process.
And employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have hinted to Ted that they might waive the government's demand that Ted and Maria repay the fee, though that isn't yet confirmed.
"I can't talk about specific cases, but I can tell you that we are closely looking at this particular case," said Cabrera, the spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "We will do everything possible to help them."
But Ted says he isn't done. He wants to make sure that $350 gets back into his wallet.
And he wants somebody, anybody, to apologize, to say they are sorry for the six months' worth of Tuesdays he's spent listening to jazzy elevator music while holding. And holding. And holding.
"I used to go fishing on Tuesdays," Ted says.
Now, on Tuesdays, "I just get angry."
Ordeal becomes test of man's will
BY MATTHEW HANSEN, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Monday, September 1, 2008
Imagine the worst bureaucratic nightmare you've ever endured - a customer service rep that speaks robot, hours spent on the phone trying to fix the cable, an audit performed by the friendly folks at the Internal Revenue Service.
Sure, it's just $350, but Ted Johnson is now pressing his fight on principle. He has been making calls and filling out forms for six months, trying to recoup a $350 money order that was stolen.
Now, imagine this repeated every Tuesday for six months, an endless loop of frustrating phone calls and strongly worded letters set to a soundtrack of the jazzy music they pipe into your phone while you hold. And hold. And hold.
Welcome to Ted Johnson's life.
Every Tuesday, his day off, the Omaha man sets out to recover $350 he sent the federal government in February, money that never reached its intended recipient. Every Tuesday, he comes up $350 short.
At first, the 40-year-old maintenance man just wanted his money back. Then he decided he'd fight on out of principle.
And now it's an all-consuming quest whose players include the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation - pretty much everyone but the friendly folks down at the Internal Revenue Service.
Ted can't win. He also can't stop.
"They've been jabber-jawing and jacking me around every which way," Johnson said. "They cover each others' behinds like molasses."
Johnson's problems started, as many problems do, the day he fell in love.
Her name was Maria, and they met through friends and went on their first date just before Valentine's Day last year.
Ted couldn't believe how easy it was. They went to church together, grilled out all summer and rarely argued. Maria's 6-year-old son and Ted's 17-year-old son snapped snugly into the new family puzzle.
Only two problems. One, Ted doesn't like Mexican food. And two, Maria entered the country illegally 18 years ago and had never applied for U.S. citizenship.
Ted proposed anyway. Maria agreed.
And then, after they married, the newlyweds decided they should do the right thing.
On a freezing February day, they entered the Ralston Post Office and mailed off a $350 money order to start Maria's immigration process.
Maria made her new husband save the receipt, just in case. On the back of that receipt, there's a guarantee: If your mail order is lost or stolen, it says, you get your money back.
A month later, a letter arrived from the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. The office had received Maria Johnson's application, it said, but the Johnsons had failed to send the $350 check.
Ted stalked back into the post office.
"The money order must've been stolen," he said. "I want my money back."
Can't do that, the postal employee said. You need to prove the money order was stolen.
So Ted paid $5 to trace the money order.
The search turned up a name: Rick Nelson, who lives at 4800 S. 65th St. in Omaha. Except there is no 4800 S. 65th St. - that address is between a mobile home dealership and a car lot. There's no Rick Nelson, either.
But the search also turned up a bank account, and after a fair amount of sleuthing, Ted had another name and address, this one a real man living in Lincoln.
Turned out this guy had been busted for stealing other money orders from a government office - Marilu Cabrera, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, confirmed that the mail processing employee had been fired, though not yet charged.
Ted and Maria Johnson's money order had been deposited in this man's account two days after they sent it at the Ralston Post Office, the trace of the mail order said. Ted called a postal inspector he'd been dealing with.
I figured out who did this, Ted told the inspector. I want my money back.
Can't do that, said the postal inspector on the other end of the line. You need to fill out some forms.
So Ted Johnson filled out the forms. A postal inspection office in Sioux Falls, S.D., sent them back.
He filled out the forms again. They returned to sender again with a note saying the information on the form was incomplete.
To Ted, it looked fully completed.
He filled out yet another form. He demanded his money back.
Can't do that, he was told - the criminal would pay restitution after he was charged and found guilty. Then, and only then, would Ted see his $350.
"It just didn't make any sense," Ted said.
Ted got desperate. He filed a case with the Omaha Police Department. It went nowhere. He filed a lawsuit seeking the only amount of money he could think of - $1,234.56. The suit was quickly dismissed.
He scribbled countless phone numbers for governmental offices onto the rejection letters and receipts he keeps inside a dirty Manila envelope. Nothing. He called the FBI .
"It got a little bit crazy," he admits.
At one point, Ted, who looks like he knows how to handle himself in a bar fight, decided to drive to Lincoln and find the guy who stole his money. His cooler head prevailed, he said, only after he realized he needed to fill his tank with gasoline to make it down Interstate 80.
On a recent Tuesday, the Johnsons at last did get some good news.
A local immigration official assured Ted that the six-month delay won't slow his new wife's immigration process.
And employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have hinted to Ted that they might waive the government's demand that Ted and Maria repay the fee, though that isn't yet confirmed.
"I can't talk about specific cases, but I can tell you that we are closely looking at this particular case," said Cabrera, the spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "We will do everything possible to help them."
But Ted says he isn't done. He wants to make sure that $350 gets back into his wallet.
And he wants somebody, anybody, to apologize, to say they are sorry for the six months' worth of Tuesdays he's spent listening to jazzy elevator music while holding. And holding. And holding.
"I used to go fishing on Tuesdays," Ted says.
Now, on Tuesdays, "I just get angry."
Monday, September 1, 2008
Renovated Bridge = New Toll?
From the BCCT.
Tolls not ruled out for bridge
By CHRIS ENGLISH
Bucks County Courier Times
Motorists might have to dig into their wallets or purses to cross the new Scudder Falls bridge when it's completed in several years.
A spokesman for the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, the group that owns and operates the I-95 bridge from Lower Makefield to Ewing, said making the new span a toll bridge hasn't been ruled out.
Pete Peterson said all options for funding the $250 million I-95/Scudder Falls bridge improvement project, or replenishing funds spent on the project, will be considered. The project, expected to start in 2011, includes a new bridge adjacent to the current one, two additional lanes on I-95 on the Pennsylvania side up to the Newtown exit, some improvements to I-95 on the New Jersey side and improvements to the bridge exits and entrances.
“We've submitted our environmental assessment of the project and, once that's reviewed and we get it back, we'll be going back to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to talk about different funding options,” said Peterson. “We'll also be looking for federal contributions. Everything is on the table, but it's probably premature to be talking about the possibility of a toll bridge until after we sit down and talk with the states and federal government about what level they can kick in to support the project.”
Peterson also said the commission won't grant Lower Makefield's request for additional sound muffling walls along I-95 in the township.
Peterson said the budget for sound barriers has been increased from $3 million to about $7 million. The Lower Makefield supervisors still want a little more to go toward muffling sound from the highway for a few more residents, but Peterson said bridge commission officials say they've already gone above and beyond and that's enough.
“We've gone 150 percent above what was required and that's sufficient at this point,” he said.
But Lower Makefield won't stop asking.
“We haven't gotten any formal response from them so we'll continue to advocate for additional sound barriers,” responded Lower Makefield Supervisor Steve Santarsiero. “We're not taking this as a final response and we'll continue to work to get those additional sound barriers.”
Santarsiero said he didn't like the idea of the new bridge possibly being a toll span.
“Personally, I would argue against that,” he said. “I can't speak for the entire board of supervisors. It's probably premature to talk about it. Once decisions are made on exactly how this project will unfold, then those other types of issues can be addressed.”
A draft environmental assessment that the bridge commission prepared for the project is being reviewed by the New Jersey and Pennsylvania departments of transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. The environmental assessment is also being reviewed by federal and state environmental resource and regulatory agencies with regard to project findings, assessments and mitigation for environmental considerations, including historical and archeological resources, threatened and endangered species and wetlands, among others.
The Federal Highway Administration is the agency ultimately responsible for reviewing the environmental assessment and determining whether it's acceptable and can be distributed for public examination and comment during a 30-day period that would include a public hearing.
Once the assessment is approved, the project would enter its final design phase, probably next year and in 2010, said Peterson. The latest timeline, always subject to change, has construction starting sometime in 2011, he said.
While final decisions haven't been made on exactly how the project will be built, the bridge commission's recommended preferred alternative has the following elements:
Widen I-95 in Pennsylvania to the Newtown exit by adding one lane in each direction. The additional lanes would be taken from the grass median separating the northbound and southbound sides of the highway.
Reconfigure the Taylorsville Road interchange in Lower Makefield by eliminating the eastern southbound off-ramp from I-95 and combining it with the western southbound off-ramp. All other ramps at the interchange would be retained with minor alignment modifications. This part of the project also includes other improvements, including changes to I-95 acceleration and deceleration lanes to improve traffic safety and flow.
Replace the Scudder Falls bridge with a new span just slightly upstream. The new bridge would have five lanes northbound [three for through traffic and two for auxiliary entry/exit] and four lanes southbound [three for through traffic and one for auxiliary entry/exit]. This part of the project also calls for full inside and outside shoulders. Bicycle and pedestrian lanes on the southbound side of the bridge are also being considered and a decision will be made during final design.
Reconstruct and reconfigure the Route 29 interchange through the use of roundabouts.
For more information, call the project hot line, 800-879-0849, or visit www.scudderfallsbridge.com or www.drjtbc.org. on the Web.
Tolls not ruled out for bridge
By CHRIS ENGLISH
Bucks County Courier Times
Motorists might have to dig into their wallets or purses to cross the new Scudder Falls bridge when it's completed in several years.
A spokesman for the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, the group that owns and operates the I-95 bridge from Lower Makefield to Ewing, said making the new span a toll bridge hasn't been ruled out.
Pete Peterson said all options for funding the $250 million I-95/Scudder Falls bridge improvement project, or replenishing funds spent on the project, will be considered. The project, expected to start in 2011, includes a new bridge adjacent to the current one, two additional lanes on I-95 on the Pennsylvania side up to the Newtown exit, some improvements to I-95 on the New Jersey side and improvements to the bridge exits and entrances.
“We've submitted our environmental assessment of the project and, once that's reviewed and we get it back, we'll be going back to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to talk about different funding options,” said Peterson. “We'll also be looking for federal contributions. Everything is on the table, but it's probably premature to be talking about the possibility of a toll bridge until after we sit down and talk with the states and federal government about what level they can kick in to support the project.”
Peterson also said the commission won't grant Lower Makefield's request for additional sound muffling walls along I-95 in the township.
Peterson said the budget for sound barriers has been increased from $3 million to about $7 million. The Lower Makefield supervisors still want a little more to go toward muffling sound from the highway for a few more residents, but Peterson said bridge commission officials say they've already gone above and beyond and that's enough.
“We've gone 150 percent above what was required and that's sufficient at this point,” he said.
But Lower Makefield won't stop asking.
“We haven't gotten any formal response from them so we'll continue to advocate for additional sound barriers,” responded Lower Makefield Supervisor Steve Santarsiero. “We're not taking this as a final response and we'll continue to work to get those additional sound barriers.”
Santarsiero said he didn't like the idea of the new bridge possibly being a toll span.
“Personally, I would argue against that,” he said. “I can't speak for the entire board of supervisors. It's probably premature to talk about it. Once decisions are made on exactly how this project will unfold, then those other types of issues can be addressed.”
A draft environmental assessment that the bridge commission prepared for the project is being reviewed by the New Jersey and Pennsylvania departments of transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. The environmental assessment is also being reviewed by federal and state environmental resource and regulatory agencies with regard to project findings, assessments and mitigation for environmental considerations, including historical and archeological resources, threatened and endangered species and wetlands, among others.
The Federal Highway Administration is the agency ultimately responsible for reviewing the environmental assessment and determining whether it's acceptable and can be distributed for public examination and comment during a 30-day period that would include a public hearing.
Once the assessment is approved, the project would enter its final design phase, probably next year and in 2010, said Peterson. The latest timeline, always subject to change, has construction starting sometime in 2011, he said.
While final decisions haven't been made on exactly how the project will be built, the bridge commission's recommended preferred alternative has the following elements:
Widen I-95 in Pennsylvania to the Newtown exit by adding one lane in each direction. The additional lanes would be taken from the grass median separating the northbound and southbound sides of the highway.
Reconfigure the Taylorsville Road interchange in Lower Makefield by eliminating the eastern southbound off-ramp from I-95 and combining it with the western southbound off-ramp. All other ramps at the interchange would be retained with minor alignment modifications. This part of the project also includes other improvements, including changes to I-95 acceleration and deceleration lanes to improve traffic safety and flow.
Replace the Scudder Falls bridge with a new span just slightly upstream. The new bridge would have five lanes northbound [three for through traffic and two for auxiliary entry/exit] and four lanes southbound [three for through traffic and one for auxiliary entry/exit]. This part of the project also calls for full inside and outside shoulders. Bicycle and pedestrian lanes on the southbound side of the bridge are also being considered and a decision will be made during final design.
Reconstruct and reconfigure the Route 29 interchange through the use of roundabouts.
For more information, call the project hot line, 800-879-0849, or visit www.scudderfallsbridge.com or www.drjtbc.org. on the Web.
Yes, We CAN Make You Pay For That
From the BCCT
Residents take on debt to pay for curb work
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
Bridgette Tattersall was ready to tap into her 401(k) retirement plan to pay for mandated curb and sidewalk work at her Rumpf Avenue home in Penndel.
“I was desperate,” she said Thursday afternoon, referring to the repair costs she was facing — and her two layoffs in less than a year. “The letter [from the borough] said if we didn't put in the curbs and sidewalks, [the borough] could put a lien against our house or we could face jail time.”
Instead of tapping into her retirement account, she and husband Robert opted to get a loan to pay for the $4,000 curb repair and sidewalk installment.
The Tattersalls are among several residents who took on debt to pay for the work required by the borough.
In April, Penndel sent Rumpf Avenue residents notices about the borough's summer street resurfacing project. But before the street work could be completed, homeowners were told they had to repair curbs and either fix or install sidewalks by July 1.
After residents complained of the short notice and begged for more time, the borough extended the curb repair deadline to Aug. 1 and the sidewalk installment work to September 2009.
As of Thursday, most of the curbs had been repaired and borough officials said they expect the street reconstruction to be completed by the end of the month.
Like the Tattersalls, Laura Moffitt's family also took out a loan. They borrowed $7,000 for curb work alone, she said.
“The way the economy is, it would have been nice if we could have saved up the money instead of getting a loan,” she said.
Residents take on debt to pay for curb work
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
Bridgette Tattersall was ready to tap into her 401(k) retirement plan to pay for mandated curb and sidewalk work at her Rumpf Avenue home in Penndel.
“I was desperate,” she said Thursday afternoon, referring to the repair costs she was facing — and her two layoffs in less than a year. “The letter [from the borough] said if we didn't put in the curbs and sidewalks, [the borough] could put a lien against our house or we could face jail time.”
Instead of tapping into her retirement account, she and husband Robert opted to get a loan to pay for the $4,000 curb repair and sidewalk installment.
The Tattersalls are among several residents who took on debt to pay for the work required by the borough.
In April, Penndel sent Rumpf Avenue residents notices about the borough's summer street resurfacing project. But before the street work could be completed, homeowners were told they had to repair curbs and either fix or install sidewalks by July 1.
After residents complained of the short notice and begged for more time, the borough extended the curb repair deadline to Aug. 1 and the sidewalk installment work to September 2009.
As of Thursday, most of the curbs had been repaired and borough officials said they expect the street reconstruction to be completed by the end of the month.
Like the Tattersalls, Laura Moffitt's family also took out a loan. They borrowed $7,000 for curb work alone, she said.
“The way the economy is, it would have been nice if we could have saved up the money instead of getting a loan,” she said.
Throw out the Scouts!
From the Intelligencer.
Scouts forced to stop school recruitment
By THERESA HEGEL
The Intelligencer
In past years, signing up for Scouting has been a relatively simple process for Pennridge families.
All they had to do was show up at back-to-school night in September, and they'd find tables in the lobby devoted to both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
This year, however, those informational tables will no longer be a fixture in the district.
The decision came after a religious group threatened Pennridge with a lawsuit for not allowing both secular and spiritual organizations to stump for members.
The district is not ready to open the lobby to every group that wants a table, Superintendent Robert Kish said. And, according to their attorney, that's exactly what they'd have to do.
“It would be a matter of who you say no to,” he said.
Restricting back-to-school tables to school-affiliated groups, such as parent-teacher organizations, keeps the district on solid legal ground.
“Litigation is expensive,” Kish said. “It's sad, but unfortunately, it's the way things are these days.”
A group of parents involved in the Boy Scouts showed up at Tuesday's special board meeting to question the decision.
Bill Sherman of Perkasie said he understands where the district is coming from, though he doesn't necessarily agree with its decision. His 11-year-old son, who is home-schooled, advanced into Boy Scouts in the spring after several years as a Cub Scout.
“Scouting has been shown to be such a great organization for giving boys a leg up on leadership and values,” Sherman said. “Why wouldn't anyone want to make that available to as many kids as possible?”
Kish, however, has nothing but respect for Scouting.
“We've had a good working relationship with the Scouts for a long time,” he said. “I'm sure we're going to continue that.”
Offering them a space at back-to-school night “is just one of those things we're not going to be able to do,” he said.
Most of the district's open houses are clustered in the second week of September. The evening events consist of a brief orientation and a chance for parents to meet their children's new teachers, Kish said.
Pennridge has had troubles on the religious front before.
Last year, a group of parents was upset that a song was removed from an elementary Christmas concert for being too overtly Christian.
One of the mothers involved contacted an attorney, though she said she had no intention of suing.
In 2001, the district was sued by a graduate of Pennridge High School after he was temporarily prevented from distributing a flier in school that questioned the district's policy on the evolution vs. creationism debate.
Scouts forced to stop school recruitment
By THERESA HEGEL
The Intelligencer
In past years, signing up for Scouting has been a relatively simple process for Pennridge families.
All they had to do was show up at back-to-school night in September, and they'd find tables in the lobby devoted to both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
This year, however, those informational tables will no longer be a fixture in the district.
The decision came after a religious group threatened Pennridge with a lawsuit for not allowing both secular and spiritual organizations to stump for members.
The district is not ready to open the lobby to every group that wants a table, Superintendent Robert Kish said. And, according to their attorney, that's exactly what they'd have to do.
“It would be a matter of who you say no to,” he said.
Restricting back-to-school tables to school-affiliated groups, such as parent-teacher organizations, keeps the district on solid legal ground.
“Litigation is expensive,” Kish said. “It's sad, but unfortunately, it's the way things are these days.”
A group of parents involved in the Boy Scouts showed up at Tuesday's special board meeting to question the decision.
Bill Sherman of Perkasie said he understands where the district is coming from, though he doesn't necessarily agree with its decision. His 11-year-old son, who is home-schooled, advanced into Boy Scouts in the spring after several years as a Cub Scout.
“Scouting has been shown to be such a great organization for giving boys a leg up on leadership and values,” Sherman said. “Why wouldn't anyone want to make that available to as many kids as possible?”
Kish, however, has nothing but respect for Scouting.
“We've had a good working relationship with the Scouts for a long time,” he said. “I'm sure we're going to continue that.”
Offering them a space at back-to-school night “is just one of those things we're not going to be able to do,” he said.
Most of the district's open houses are clustered in the second week of September. The evening events consist of a brief orientation and a chance for parents to meet their children's new teachers, Kish said.
Pennridge has had troubles on the religious front before.
Last year, a group of parents was upset that a song was removed from an elementary Christmas concert for being too overtly Christian.
One of the mothers involved contacted an attorney, though she said she had no intention of suing.
In 2001, the district was sued by a graduate of Pennridge High School after he was temporarily prevented from distributing a flier in school that questioned the district's policy on the evolution vs. creationism debate.
Tax Hike For Ambulances
Here's a follow up article to the rescue squad referendum on the November ballot.
A public service message from Captain Obvious: Did you notice that the Borough Council members are all pretty quiet about this, especially our resident high official?
In Morrisville, the referendum question will ask: "Shall Morrisville Borough levy an annual tax of two mills for the support of Ambulance and Rescue Squads serving the Borough of Morrisville?"
Morrisville Borough officials did not submit an explanation or statement about why the voter referendum is being sought.
There had been considerable discussion at Morrisville Borough Council meetings about the dire financial situation of the Morrisville Ambulance and Rescue Squad.
In July, Brian Eckert, chief of the squad, and Roxie Rookstool, squad supervisor, had appealed to the council, asking for a 2-mills tax increase. Council members agreed to put it to the voters.
Eckert had said the squad had a deficit of $14,000 in December 2008. The annual budget is about $450,000.
The main problem, according to Eckert and Rookstool, is a "drastic loss in fund drive revenue." The annual fund drive was down $12,000 from last year.
Eckert and Rookstool explained the squad needs a new truck. Currently, there are two trucks, but one is 18 years old and the other is five to six years old. They said a new vehicle, which would cost $200,000, is a "necessity."
A public service message from Captain Obvious: Did you notice that the Borough Council members are all pretty quiet about this, especially our resident high official?
In Morrisville, the referendum question will ask: "Shall Morrisville Borough levy an annual tax of two mills for the support of Ambulance and Rescue Squads serving the Borough of Morrisville?"
Morrisville Borough officials did not submit an explanation or statement about why the voter referendum is being sought.
There had been considerable discussion at Morrisville Borough Council meetings about the dire financial situation of the Morrisville Ambulance and Rescue Squad.
In July, Brian Eckert, chief of the squad, and Roxie Rookstool, squad supervisor, had appealed to the council, asking for a 2-mills tax increase. Council members agreed to put it to the voters.
Eckert had said the squad had a deficit of $14,000 in December 2008. The annual budget is about $450,000.
The main problem, according to Eckert and Rookstool, is a "drastic loss in fund drive revenue." The annual fund drive was down $12,000 from last year.
Eckert and Rookstool explained the squad needs a new truck. Currently, there are two trucks, but one is 18 years old and the other is five to six years old. They said a new vehicle, which would cost $200,000, is a "necessity."
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Bristol Twp Government Study Committee
From the BCCT.
Candidates sign up to change government
By JAMES MCGINNIS
Bucks County Courier Times
Nine people in Bristol Township, among them a minister, a disabled veteran and leaders in the local Democratic and Republican clubs, believe they have new ideas on how to fix the township government.
All filed petitions this week with the county Board of Elections to sit on the Bristol Township Government Study Commission. Voters in the general election must decide whether to have a study commission and who will sit on it. Seven seats are open.
The candidates who want to be charged with considering a new plan of local government are: Cindy Peto, Anne Titus, Melvin Howard, Jack Baradzeij, Mike Slipp, Helen Cini, Janet Keyser, Bob Ausura and Councilman Don Mobley.
Many are regulars at town hall meetings, with the exception of Howard and Titus.
The first black person ever elected to a position in Bristol Township, Howard served on the board of commissioners in the 1980s. Since then, he said he got out of politics only to be drawn back in “as the township crumbled.” He's also a bishop with the People's Church of Christ on Durham Road.
“This township is falling apart and people can see that,” Howard said. “We need some kind of government system that brings back the accountability and maybe the best way to do that is to go back to the ward system with each official representing a certain area of town.”
Several candidates echoed support for a system of elected officials representing specific districts.
“I think we need some councilman dedicated to certain wards and also some councilman-at-large representing the whole town,” said Helen Cini, who is also a Bristol Township school board member. “There's an awful lot of problems in this town and I don't know that five council members can handle it all.”
As a longtime Republican and onetime chairman of the local GOP club, Baradzeij said the government structure should provide for at least one minority-party member in any chosen government.
Baradzeij ran several times for a council seat as a Republican candidate, but always lost.
“There are a number of people in this township who aren't represented because they're in the minority,” he said. “But I also believe we need to re-think the mayor position. Either we need a full-time mayor with more power or no mayor. The situation now doesn't work.”
Once a township commissioner, Slipp also had argued that some areas of the community are too often overlooked.
A regular at town meetings, he has served on the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, the county housing development corporation and the Penndel Mental Health Board. He ran for council in 2003, but lost to Councilman Don Lorady.
Nothing bars elected officials in Bristol Township from sitting on a government commission, and Mobley wants to do both.
After more than a decade of lawsuits and political attacks chiefly aimed at Mayor Sam Fenton, Mobley was appointed to the township council last year. Since his appointment, he has hotly criticized department heads for failure to respond to resident complaints and has argued for more open public records.
An accounts manager for the Bucks County Transportation Management Association, Peto became active in the township by raising money for playgrounds and fields in 2003.
Another name familiar to voters is Keyser. She's the longtime director of the Bristol Township Democratic Club and also heads the Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority.
And anyone who watches or attends council meetings knows Ausura. A disabled Vietnam veteran, Ausura is a constant critic of the township government, speaking several times at almost every public meeting.
He also has volunteered his time to create electronic versions of township documents for easy access on the township Web site. More recently, he became a passionate advocate for the proposed skate park off Wistar Road near Five Points. He made PowerPoint presentations for the kids.
As the chief of staff for state Rep. Tony Melio, Titus is well-known to many in township government. Melio credits her for handling much of his constituent service. And he often jokes that he'd never get anything done without her.
Candidates sign up to change government
By JAMES MCGINNIS
Bucks County Courier Times
Nine people in Bristol Township, among them a minister, a disabled veteran and leaders in the local Democratic and Republican clubs, believe they have new ideas on how to fix the township government.
All filed petitions this week with the county Board of Elections to sit on the Bristol Township Government Study Commission. Voters in the general election must decide whether to have a study commission and who will sit on it. Seven seats are open.
The candidates who want to be charged with considering a new plan of local government are: Cindy Peto, Anne Titus, Melvin Howard, Jack Baradzeij, Mike Slipp, Helen Cini, Janet Keyser, Bob Ausura and Councilman Don Mobley.
Many are regulars at town hall meetings, with the exception of Howard and Titus.
The first black person ever elected to a position in Bristol Township, Howard served on the board of commissioners in the 1980s. Since then, he said he got out of politics only to be drawn back in “as the township crumbled.” He's also a bishop with the People's Church of Christ on Durham Road.
“This township is falling apart and people can see that,” Howard said. “We need some kind of government system that brings back the accountability and maybe the best way to do that is to go back to the ward system with each official representing a certain area of town.”
Several candidates echoed support for a system of elected officials representing specific districts.
“I think we need some councilman dedicated to certain wards and also some councilman-at-large representing the whole town,” said Helen Cini, who is also a Bristol Township school board member. “There's an awful lot of problems in this town and I don't know that five council members can handle it all.”
As a longtime Republican and onetime chairman of the local GOP club, Baradzeij said the government structure should provide for at least one minority-party member in any chosen government.
Baradzeij ran several times for a council seat as a Republican candidate, but always lost.
“There are a number of people in this township who aren't represented because they're in the minority,” he said. “But I also believe we need to re-think the mayor position. Either we need a full-time mayor with more power or no mayor. The situation now doesn't work.”
Once a township commissioner, Slipp also had argued that some areas of the community are too often overlooked.
A regular at town meetings, he has served on the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, the county housing development corporation and the Penndel Mental Health Board. He ran for council in 2003, but lost to Councilman Don Lorady.
Nothing bars elected officials in Bristol Township from sitting on a government commission, and Mobley wants to do both.
After more than a decade of lawsuits and political attacks chiefly aimed at Mayor Sam Fenton, Mobley was appointed to the township council last year. Since his appointment, he has hotly criticized department heads for failure to respond to resident complaints and has argued for more open public records.
An accounts manager for the Bucks County Transportation Management Association, Peto became active in the township by raising money for playgrounds and fields in 2003.
Another name familiar to voters is Keyser. She's the longtime director of the Bristol Township Democratic Club and also heads the Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority.
And anyone who watches or attends council meetings knows Ausura. A disabled Vietnam veteran, Ausura is a constant critic of the township government, speaking several times at almost every public meeting.
He also has volunteered his time to create electronic versions of township documents for easy access on the township Web site. More recently, he became a passionate advocate for the proposed skate park off Wistar Road near Five Points. He made PowerPoint presentations for the kids.
As the chief of staff for state Rep. Tony Melio, Titus is well-known to many in township government. Melio credits her for handling much of his constituent service. And he often jokes that he'd never get anything done without her.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
More Special Education Jousting
This is a pretty noteworthy story. It starts off in a routine way. Parents sue Northport, Michigan school district over the IEP for their special needs child.
Then it veers off into Wonderland:
1. The hearing has been going on since late October 2007;
2. The superintendent expected 47 witnesses and 600 pieces of evidence to be presented
3. The father of the student in question is a member of the school board of the district he's suing;
4. And the residents of the town are trying to recall him!
The town recalled the father from the school board this week. They didn't buy his idea that he was a watchdog over the school district.
This is a town of only 648 people! The school district serves 150 students! The entire budget is $3.5 million.
Here's the best part, and this should chill even the blood of our Cold-Miser Emperor: "In its 2007-08 budget, the Northport board originally set aside $5,000 for legal costs for the district. In early December it increased that amount to $280,000 and has budgeted $120,000 for the 2008-09 school year, most of which would be used in an appeal depending on how the administrative law judge rules.
The district’s liability insurance provider, SET/SEG, covered the district for the first $100,000 in costs related to suit, but further costs are the district’s responsibility."
That's the costs for one student's legal challenge. Ouch!
School Board Member Ousted Over Special Education Lawsuit
Those of you who have followed the blog for a while know that I've been mesmerized with the goings-on in a tiny Michigan town where a school board member was suing his own district over his son's individualized education program.
The case at the one-school, 150-student Northport district, dragged on for months and could cost the district $250,000 if it loses.
Now, the board member, Alan Woods, has been recalled, by a decisive 2-to-1 margin. Here's an article where both the recall initiator and Woods make their respective arguments. His argument that he is trying to be a watchdog over the district clearly did not resonate.
Woods said that the fact he's not in office any more won't stop his fight. A ruling on the case is expected in September.
Posted by Christina Samuels on August 29, 2008 2:26 PM
---------------------------------------------------------
Big Trouble in a Little District
A leisurely search through Topix led me to a fairly dry article about a Michigan family that is suing a school district over an individualized education dispute. Pretty routine, right?
But this caught my eye: "In its 2007-08 budget, the Northport board originally set aside $5,000 for legal costs for the district. In early December it increased that amount to $280,000 and has budgeted $120,000 for the 2008-09 school year, most of which would be used in an appeal depending on how the administrative law judge rules."
Wow! Sounds like things are getting a little out of hand, especially since the one-school district's budget is about $3.5 million in total. So I started reading back in the archives of the delightfully-titled Leelanau Enterprise and learned:
1. The hearing has been going on since late October 2007;
2. The superintendent expected 47 witnesses and 600 pieces of evidence to be presented (though I can't tell if that happened);
3. The father of the student in question is a member of the school board of the district he's suing;
4. And the residents of the town are trying to recall him!
That's got to make for some chilly school board meetings. Pretty exciting stuff for a town of 648 people. I'm riveted. Thank goodness the newspaper archives are free.
Posted by Christina Samuels on June 19, 2008 6:00 PM
Then it veers off into Wonderland:
1. The hearing has been going on since late October 2007;
2. The superintendent expected 47 witnesses and 600 pieces of evidence to be presented
3. The father of the student in question is a member of the school board of the district he's suing;
4. And the residents of the town are trying to recall him!
The town recalled the father from the school board this week. They didn't buy his idea that he was a watchdog over the school district.
This is a town of only 648 people! The school district serves 150 students! The entire budget is $3.5 million.
Here's the best part, and this should chill even the blood of our Cold-Miser Emperor: "In its 2007-08 budget, the Northport board originally set aside $5,000 for legal costs for the district. In early December it increased that amount to $280,000 and has budgeted $120,000 for the 2008-09 school year, most of which would be used in an appeal depending on how the administrative law judge rules.
The district’s liability insurance provider, SET/SEG, covered the district for the first $100,000 in costs related to suit, but further costs are the district’s responsibility."
That's the costs for one student's legal challenge. Ouch!
School Board Member Ousted Over Special Education Lawsuit
Those of you who have followed the blog for a while know that I've been mesmerized with the goings-on in a tiny Michigan town where a school board member was suing his own district over his son's individualized education program.
The case at the one-school, 150-student Northport district, dragged on for months and could cost the district $250,000 if it loses.
Now, the board member, Alan Woods, has been recalled, by a decisive 2-to-1 margin. Here's an article where both the recall initiator and Woods make their respective arguments. His argument that he is trying to be a watchdog over the district clearly did not resonate.
Woods said that the fact he's not in office any more won't stop his fight. A ruling on the case is expected in September.
Posted by Christina Samuels on August 29, 2008 2:26 PM
---------------------------------------------------------
Big Trouble in a Little District
A leisurely search through Topix led me to a fairly dry article about a Michigan family that is suing a school district over an individualized education dispute. Pretty routine, right?
But this caught my eye: "In its 2007-08 budget, the Northport board originally set aside $5,000 for legal costs for the district. In early December it increased that amount to $280,000 and has budgeted $120,000 for the 2008-09 school year, most of which would be used in an appeal depending on how the administrative law judge rules."
Wow! Sounds like things are getting a little out of hand, especially since the one-school district's budget is about $3.5 million in total. So I started reading back in the archives of the delightfully-titled Leelanau Enterprise and learned:
1. The hearing has been going on since late October 2007;
2. The superintendent expected 47 witnesses and 600 pieces of evidence to be presented (though I can't tell if that happened);
3. The father of the student in question is a member of the school board of the district he's suing;
4. And the residents of the town are trying to recall him!
That's got to make for some chilly school board meetings. Pretty exciting stuff for a town of 648 people. I'm riveted. Thank goodness the newspaper archives are free.
Posted by Christina Samuels on June 19, 2008 6:00 PM
Schools News Around the Blogosphere
Milwaukee Public Schools ordered to pay $450,000 in legal fees
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Milwaukee Public Schools must pay just more than $450,000 to the legal staff representing plaintiffs in a class-action suit over how the district serves students with special needs, a federal judge has ordered.
and Virginia this month.
[Moderator Note: Also check this previous post on the Milwaukee Public School special education lawsuit]
Texas Education Agency reviewing contract with Princeton Review testing company after security lapse
Dallas Morning News
By TERRENCE STUTZ
AUSTIN - Texas Education Agency officials are reviewing their new student data contract with the Princeton Review after the education testing company accidentally disclosed personal data and test scores of tens of thousands of students in Florida and Virginia this month.
[Moderator Note: This is why volunteers should not possess or review schools data]
"In mathematics, when you see what they are asked to do, there is so much vocabulary, so many concepts you have to get through language,"
Slumping math scores among middle school students prompt creative solutions
South CoastToday.com
With MCAS test results showing slumping middle school math performance across the state and SouthCoast, local school districts are finding creative ways to increase math instruction
Obama, the Next Education President?
Allen Jan Baird Ph.D.
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
If Barack Obama is elected, what might we expect as he tries to become the new "education president"? It is important to understand that a President Obama would soon face the same school environment that previous education presidents have faced. According to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the "nation's report card", reading scores for nine, thirteen, and seventeen year olds are basically where there were in 1970, with less than one third currently reading at "proficiency levels".
Rick MacArthur: "You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America"
Democracy Now
As the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver, we speak to Harper's publisher Rick MacArthur on his new book You Can't Be President. MacArthur says that the popular notion that any American can become president only reinforces the "destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America." To assume that, he says, is equal to believing that Santa Claus exists.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Milwaukee Public Schools must pay just more than $450,000 to the legal staff representing plaintiffs in a class-action suit over how the district serves students with special needs, a federal judge has ordered.
and Virginia this month.
[Moderator Note: Also check this previous post on the Milwaukee Public School special education lawsuit]
Texas Education Agency reviewing contract with Princeton Review testing company after security lapse
Dallas Morning News
By TERRENCE STUTZ
AUSTIN - Texas Education Agency officials are reviewing their new student data contract with the Princeton Review after the education testing company accidentally disclosed personal data and test scores of tens of thousands of students in Florida and Virginia this month.
[Moderator Note: This is why volunteers should not possess or review schools data]
"In mathematics, when you see what they are asked to do, there is so much vocabulary, so many concepts you have to get through language,"
Slumping math scores among middle school students prompt creative solutions
South CoastToday.com
With MCAS test results showing slumping middle school math performance across the state and SouthCoast, local school districts are finding creative ways to increase math instruction
Obama, the Next Education President?
Allen Jan Baird Ph.D.
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
If Barack Obama is elected, what might we expect as he tries to become the new "education president"? It is important to understand that a President Obama would soon face the same school environment that previous education presidents have faced. According to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the "nation's report card", reading scores for nine, thirteen, and seventeen year olds are basically where there were in 1970, with less than one third currently reading at "proficiency levels".
Rick MacArthur: "You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America"
Democracy Now
As the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver, we speak to Harper's publisher Rick MacArthur on his new book You Can't Be President. MacArthur says that the popular notion that any American can become president only reinforces the "destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America." To assume that, he says, is equal to believing that Santa Claus exists.
Duquesne teachers to go on strike
From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Remember the Dusquesne district that was taken over in 2000? How are things going? Ummm...not so well.
The high school closed in 2007. The teachers are woefully underpaid. There's been five administrations in the seven years since state takeover.
Makes Morrisville look positively rock-solid by comparison.
Duquesne teachers to go on strike Tuesday
By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW, Saturday, August 30, 2008
Teachers in the Duquesne City School District will be on strike starting Tuesday morning.
The teachers' union informed the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, the governing body for the distressed district, in a letter Friday afternoon, said Pennsylvania State Education Association spokesman Butch Santicola.
"The salary offer was not adequate," he said. "Even our salary increase alone would keep them as the lowest-paid teachers in the county."
The average Duquesne teacher is paid about $44,000, while the average teacher salary in the county is more than $60,000, Santicola said.
Teachers initially were requesting a 22 percent increase but lowered their offer to 19 percent. The union was offered a 3 percent raise in a one-year contract but rejected it, said Bill Andrews, solicitor for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
The increase teachers are requesting is unrealistic, he said.
"It's ludicrous. This is a district that is under state control and beyond bankrupt. They're dealing with a tax base that frankly can't afford it."
Santicola said no negotiations are scheduled over the Labor Day weekend.
The district educates 520 students in kindergarten through eighth grade under a five-year agreement with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Pennsylvania Department of Education that began in July 2007.
The troubled district was taken over by the state in 2000. Its high school was closed in June 2007, and students in grades 9-12 were sent to East Allegheny and West Mifflin Area schools. Those students will still have classes and transportation throughout the strike.
Extracurricular activities will be canceled during the strike. Parent updates will be posted at the elementary entrance to the school and available by calling 412-394-5505.
Santicola said the 49 teachers have worked under five administrations since 2000, something that continues to frustrate the staff.
"It's really important that everyone understands that this has happened, that has happened and a lot of different administrations have come through," Santicola said. "They've all come and gone, and no one has come in with a solution."
Andrews said students will still attend a full 180-day academic schedule and referred to the strike as a "disruption."
"This serves no useful purpose," Andrews said. "It's unnecessary, but it's their call, so be it."
In Armstrong County, the Apollo-Ridge School Board yesterday approved a five-year contact with teachers that gives them an average wage increase of 3.6 percent each year. The union voted to approve the contract earlier this week.
The contract eliminates the traditional indemnity health insurance option. Teachers will not have to pay health insurance premiums, but the out-of-pocket co-payments have increased.
Remember the Dusquesne district that was taken over in 2000? How are things going? Ummm...not so well.
The high school closed in 2007. The teachers are woefully underpaid. There's been five administrations in the seven years since state takeover.
Makes Morrisville look positively rock-solid by comparison.
Duquesne teachers to go on strike Tuesday
By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW, Saturday, August 30, 2008
Teachers in the Duquesne City School District will be on strike starting Tuesday morning.
The teachers' union informed the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, the governing body for the distressed district, in a letter Friday afternoon, said Pennsylvania State Education Association spokesman Butch Santicola.
"The salary offer was not adequate," he said. "Even our salary increase alone would keep them as the lowest-paid teachers in the county."
The average Duquesne teacher is paid about $44,000, while the average teacher salary in the county is more than $60,000, Santicola said.
Teachers initially were requesting a 22 percent increase but lowered their offer to 19 percent. The union was offered a 3 percent raise in a one-year contract but rejected it, said Bill Andrews, solicitor for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
The increase teachers are requesting is unrealistic, he said.
"It's ludicrous. This is a district that is under state control and beyond bankrupt. They're dealing with a tax base that frankly can't afford it."
Santicola said no negotiations are scheduled over the Labor Day weekend.
The district educates 520 students in kindergarten through eighth grade under a five-year agreement with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Pennsylvania Department of Education that began in July 2007.
The troubled district was taken over by the state in 2000. Its high school was closed in June 2007, and students in grades 9-12 were sent to East Allegheny and West Mifflin Area schools. Those students will still have classes and transportation throughout the strike.
Extracurricular activities will be canceled during the strike. Parent updates will be posted at the elementary entrance to the school and available by calling 412-394-5505.
Santicola said the 49 teachers have worked under five administrations since 2000, something that continues to frustrate the staff.
"It's really important that everyone understands that this has happened, that has happened and a lot of different administrations have come through," Santicola said. "They've all come and gone, and no one has come in with a solution."
Andrews said students will still attend a full 180-day academic schedule and referred to the strike as a "disruption."
"This serves no useful purpose," Andrews said. "It's unnecessary, but it's their call, so be it."
In Armstrong County, the Apollo-Ridge School Board yesterday approved a five-year contact with teachers that gives them an average wage increase of 3.6 percent each year. The union voted to approve the contract earlier this week.
The contract eliminates the traditional indemnity health insurance option. Teachers will not have to pay health insurance premiums, but the out-of-pocket co-payments have increased.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Bristol Borough tentative 4-year agreement
From the BCCT
Teachers union gets first look at tentative 4-year agreement
The Bristol Borough Education Association will decide next week if it wants to ratify the contract.
By JOAN HELLYER
Association members will receive annual pay raises ranging between 3 percent and 3.5 percent over the course of a fouryear contract, according to a source familiar with the tentative labor deal.
The higher salary costs will be offset in part by the employees’ increased contributions to their health care costs according to the agreement reached Tuesday, said the source, who asked not to be identified.
In addition, the bargaining unit also agreed to move to a less expensive health care plan, the source said. The added contributions and less expensive plan could save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, the source said.
Michael Girard, the union spokesman, and John Hill, the school board’s chief negotiator, declined Thursday to confirm any specifics of the agreement.
Both said they did not want to discuss the contract’s details until the BBEA and the school board ratify the deal.
If approved, the new agreement will replace the current pact that expires Sunday.
BBEA represents an estimated 90 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, and school nurses.
Union members had their first look at the tentative agreement Thursday afternoon during a meeting at Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School, Girard said.
They are scheduled to vote Sept. 2 on whether to ratify the deal, he said.
If the union approves the contract, the board will decide Sept. 4 whether it wants to ratify the labor agreement, Hill said.
Teachers union gets first look at tentative 4-year agreement
The Bristol Borough Education Association will decide next week if it wants to ratify the contract.
By JOAN HELLYER
Association members will receive annual pay raises ranging between 3 percent and 3.5 percent over the course of a fouryear contract, according to a source familiar with the tentative labor deal.
The higher salary costs will be offset in part by the employees’ increased contributions to their health care costs according to the agreement reached Tuesday, said the source, who asked not to be identified.
In addition, the bargaining unit also agreed to move to a less expensive health care plan, the source said. The added contributions and less expensive plan could save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, the source said.
Michael Girard, the union spokesman, and John Hill, the school board’s chief negotiator, declined Thursday to confirm any specifics of the agreement.
Both said they did not want to discuss the contract’s details until the BBEA and the school board ratify the deal.
If approved, the new agreement will replace the current pact that expires Sunday.
BBEA represents an estimated 90 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, and school nurses.
Union members had their first look at the tentative agreement Thursday afternoon during a meeting at Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School, Girard said.
They are scheduled to vote Sept. 2 on whether to ratify the deal, he said.
If the union approves the contract, the board will decide Sept. 4 whether it wants to ratify the labor agreement, Hill said.
Friday Night Football
The BCCT reminds us that the MHS Bulldogs football season opener is tonight at 7:00 P.M.
MORRISVILLE VS. FLEETWOOD
Kickoff: 7 p.m. at Robert Morris Field, Morrisville Last year’s records: Morrisville, 3-9; Fleetwood, 1-9 What to watch: The Bulldogs are looking for contributions from sophomore QB Matt Cookson and junior RB Mike Jones. Fleetwood totaled 38 points in its final seven games in 2007. Prediction: The Bulldogs open with a big win. Morrisville, 28-6.
MORRISVILLE VS. FLEETWOOD
Kickoff: 7 p.m. at Robert Morris Field, Morrisville Last year’s records: Morrisville, 3-9; Fleetwood, 1-9 What to watch: The Bulldogs are looking for contributions from sophomore QB Matt Cookson and junior RB Mike Jones. Fleetwood totaled 38 points in its final seven games in 2007. Prediction: The Bulldogs open with a big win. Morrisville, 28-6.
Meet the new principal
From the BCCT
New principal in Morrisville
Morrisville Middle/High School will have a new principal this year.
William Ferrara will step up from his position as assistant principal at the school, replacing Melanie Gehrens. She retired from the position earlier this summer.
The district has not chosen a new assistant principal at this time. Ferrara expects to take on the challenge of both principal and assistant principal duties, starting immediately, with a salary of $98,000.
He has been with the district since November 2006.
The district also has a new temporary director of pupil personnel, Anthony J. Gesualdi. He has 30 years of education experience from the Pennsbury School District, as well as two years at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22. Most recently he worked in the Bristol Borough School District as director of special education. He temporarily replaces Kimberly Myers, who retired from Morrisville.
“There’s a shortage of special education supervisors lately,” said Gesualdi, who is happy to fill in while the district continues advertising to fill the position permanently.
Retired M.R. Reiter Elementary School principal Karen Huggins will be filling in as substitute principal for both Reiter and Grandview Elementary Schools while Kate Taylor is out on medical leave.
District schools open Sept. 3.
New principal in Morrisville
Morrisville Middle/High School will have a new principal this year.
William Ferrara will step up from his position as assistant principal at the school, replacing Melanie Gehrens. She retired from the position earlier this summer.
The district has not chosen a new assistant principal at this time. Ferrara expects to take on the challenge of both principal and assistant principal duties, starting immediately, with a salary of $98,000.
He has been with the district since November 2006.
The district also has a new temporary director of pupil personnel, Anthony J. Gesualdi. He has 30 years of education experience from the Pennsbury School District, as well as two years at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22. Most recently he worked in the Bristol Borough School District as director of special education. He temporarily replaces Kimberly Myers, who retired from Morrisville.
“There’s a shortage of special education supervisors lately,” said Gesualdi, who is happy to fill in while the district continues advertising to fill the position permanently.
Retired M.R. Reiter Elementary School principal Karen Huggins will be filling in as substitute principal for both Reiter and Grandview Elementary Schools while Kate Taylor is out on medical leave.
District schools open Sept. 3.
Seniors Say: Lower My Assessment!
From the BCCT:
Reassessment group seeks funds
The seniors are suing Bucks County to force reassessment. The county has said reassessment would cost upwards of $10 million and take years.
By JENNA PORTNOY
A group of seniors suing Bucks County to force a countywide reassessment have officially put out the collection plate.
“I think the point needs to be made, this is not a pipe dream,” said Janis Shuter, one of 25 residents of the Village at Flowers Mill, a Middletown age-restricted community, who attended a meeting Thursday night. “This is not a hopeless cause, but one thing we need to accomplish this is money.”
Legal fees have already cost the Committee for Equitable Reassessment in Bucks County about $70,000 in donations from hundreds of homeowners.
According to a projection by their attorney, Denis Dunn, the group needs at least $51,580 more to see the case to fruition. The estimate grows by $6,670 if Dunn completes eight remaining depositions.
The suit, which was filed in 2004 and is still in the discovery phase, was spearheaded by residents Joan and Sy Goldstein. The couple has written endless letters pleading for cash from their neighbors, residents in Shady Brook, also in Middletown, and Heritage Creek in Warwick as well as other individuals who have pitched in to finance the litigation.
“Without the funds we can’t do anything,” said Sy Goldstein, who produced an inch-thick stack of bills.
The Goldsteins, like many of their neighbors, realized the disparity in assessments when they sold their Levittown home in 2001 and bought a newly constructed home. Since then, tax bills have skyrocketed from $5,000 to roughly $7,500.
The inequitable bills are especially painful considering how few township and borough services age-restricted developments use, said Jon Sherman, who has lived in Shady Brook with his wife Harriet for six years. They pay for private trash collection, street maintenance and lighting and don’t have children to stress the school system; they use only the public library and fire and police services.
“What we’re really fighting for is for everyone to pay their fair share,” he said.
The last countywide property reassessment was in 1972. That means the owners of older homes in neighborhoods where sale prices have skyrocketed pay taxes based on assessments set decades ago, when sale prices were far lower than they are today.
Those who live in newly constructed homes — such as the residents suing for a reassessment — often have higher assessments and bear much more of the tax burden than their neighbors.
The state has a formula to account for the difference over time, but many residents believe too many years have passed to make it relevant. Homes are reassessed only when newly built or renovated.
The three-member Board of Assessment Appeals hears appeals from residents who made changes, like adding a room or finishing the basement, and objected to their increased assessment. Members are appointed by county commissioners.
The county has eschewed reassessment due, in part, to the expense and time it would take to re-evaluate the county’s 230,000 taxable parcels.
Guy Matthews, formerly county solicitor and now an assistant solicitor, has said the process could cost upwards of $10 million and take years. The new assessments could then grow out of whack in a relatively short time, he said.
Donations can be sent to CERBC at 314 Starflower Lane in Langhorne PA 19047.
Reassessment group seeks funds
The seniors are suing Bucks County to force reassessment. The county has said reassessment would cost upwards of $10 million and take years.
By JENNA PORTNOY
A group of seniors suing Bucks County to force a countywide reassessment have officially put out the collection plate.
“I think the point needs to be made, this is not a pipe dream,” said Janis Shuter, one of 25 residents of the Village at Flowers Mill, a Middletown age-restricted community, who attended a meeting Thursday night. “This is not a hopeless cause, but one thing we need to accomplish this is money.”
Legal fees have already cost the Committee for Equitable Reassessment in Bucks County about $70,000 in donations from hundreds of homeowners.
According to a projection by their attorney, Denis Dunn, the group needs at least $51,580 more to see the case to fruition. The estimate grows by $6,670 if Dunn completes eight remaining depositions.
The suit, which was filed in 2004 and is still in the discovery phase, was spearheaded by residents Joan and Sy Goldstein. The couple has written endless letters pleading for cash from their neighbors, residents in Shady Brook, also in Middletown, and Heritage Creek in Warwick as well as other individuals who have pitched in to finance the litigation.
“Without the funds we can’t do anything,” said Sy Goldstein, who produced an inch-thick stack of bills.
The Goldsteins, like many of their neighbors, realized the disparity in assessments when they sold their Levittown home in 2001 and bought a newly constructed home. Since then, tax bills have skyrocketed from $5,000 to roughly $7,500.
The inequitable bills are especially painful considering how few township and borough services age-restricted developments use, said Jon Sherman, who has lived in Shady Brook with his wife Harriet for six years. They pay for private trash collection, street maintenance and lighting and don’t have children to stress the school system; they use only the public library and fire and police services.
“What we’re really fighting for is for everyone to pay their fair share,” he said.
The last countywide property reassessment was in 1972. That means the owners of older homes in neighborhoods where sale prices have skyrocketed pay taxes based on assessments set decades ago, when sale prices were far lower than they are today.
Those who live in newly constructed homes — such as the residents suing for a reassessment — often have higher assessments and bear much more of the tax burden than their neighbors.
The state has a formula to account for the difference over time, but many residents believe too many years have passed to make it relevant. Homes are reassessed only when newly built or renovated.
The three-member Board of Assessment Appeals hears appeals from residents who made changes, like adding a room or finishing the basement, and objected to their increased assessment. Members are appointed by county commissioners.
The county has eschewed reassessment due, in part, to the expense and time it would take to re-evaluate the county’s 230,000 taxable parcels.
Guy Matthews, formerly county solicitor and now an assistant solicitor, has said the process could cost upwards of $10 million and take years. The new assessments could then grow out of whack in a relatively short time, he said.
Donations can be sent to CERBC at 314 Starflower Lane in Langhorne PA 19047.
More Stockham Lawsuit Info
From buckslocalnews.com
Posted on Wed, Aug 27, 2008
Developer sues Morrisville over strip club rejection
By Petra Chesner Schlatter
Stockham Interests, LLC, the developer, which proposed a gentleman's club in Morrisville Borough, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, claiming their First Amendment Rights have been violated.
Damages are being sought by Stockham Interests in excess of $75,000.
An application for a variance by Stockham Interests was unanimously denied by the Morrisville Zoning Hearing Board in May.
The property in question is the historic Stockham Building. The tall structure is located across the street from a statue of Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution.
The Stockham Building is located at the corner of Bridge Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in the old business section. Morrisville leaders have been leading a revitalization of the area in recent years.
Morrisville Borough Council Solicitor James Downey said this week in an interview, "It's a little out there. The lawsuit alleges that they are precluded from putting up a gentleman's club."
The lawsuit says Stock-ham Interests "violated their First Amendment rights with inappropriate restrictions on adult entertainments," Downey said.
"Under Pennsylvania Law, the applicant has to prove hardship," Downey said. "They didn't appeal to the Bucks County Common Pleas Court.
Downey noted, "There is a gentleman's club right down the street." Downey stressed that the lawsuit states Stockham Interests was precluded from operating an adult entertainment facility.
Morrisville Borough has referred the case to its insurance carrier, Integrated Management in Chester Springs, Pa. for defense. The insurance carrier has referred the defense to a law firm.
Downey said Stockham Interests came to the zoning board and followed a procedure.
"In place of filing the appropriate process and procedure to appeal the denial to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, they filed a complaint in the U.S. Civil Court, claiming their civil rights were violated," said Downey.
Downey said the federal district court "moves pretty fast" and estimated a decision would be made in about six months.
"We all have rights, but we have a duty to respect the rights of others," Downey concluded. "But, they haven't done that."
Todd Colarusso, president of Stockham Interests, LLC of Princeton, N.J., said after the May meeting that he would appeal the decision in Bucks County Common Pleas Court. Instead, he went to the federal court.
Colarusso had threatened there will be a strip club as he stood outside on the steps of borough hall.
When the strip club variance application was denied by the Morrisville zoning board, residents said they were happy.
Residents, especially the clergy, voiced their opinion not to allow a burlesque-style theater with topless women in their town.
Colarusso had said during the hearing that he would drop his original application for a zoning variance to establish an adult club on the second floor of the building on the condition that the board allow a 1,000-square-foot hanging nylon sign for the west side of the building.
However, the board rejected that request. Colarusso said the sign would first be made available to tenants of the building, including a health club. He said the sign could be used by area businesses.
Pastor Gary Taylor of the 1st Baptist Church said he was concerned for the moral content of the sign and whether it could be controlled in the future.
Taylor said there would be adverse effects on the community because "Morrisville would be known for that particular establishment."
The applicant said he would not allow advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, condoms or abortion.
Posted on Wed, Aug 27, 2008
Developer sues Morrisville over strip club rejection
By Petra Chesner Schlatter
Stockham Interests, LLC, the developer, which proposed a gentleman's club in Morrisville Borough, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, claiming their First Amendment Rights have been violated.
Damages are being sought by Stockham Interests in excess of $75,000.
An application for a variance by Stockham Interests was unanimously denied by the Morrisville Zoning Hearing Board in May.
The property in question is the historic Stockham Building. The tall structure is located across the street from a statue of Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution.
The Stockham Building is located at the corner of Bridge Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in the old business section. Morrisville leaders have been leading a revitalization of the area in recent years.
Morrisville Borough Council Solicitor James Downey said this week in an interview, "It's a little out there. The lawsuit alleges that they are precluded from putting up a gentleman's club."
The lawsuit says Stock-ham Interests "violated their First Amendment rights with inappropriate restrictions on adult entertainments," Downey said.
"Under Pennsylvania Law, the applicant has to prove hardship," Downey said. "They didn't appeal to the Bucks County Common Pleas Court.
Downey noted, "There is a gentleman's club right down the street." Downey stressed that the lawsuit states Stockham Interests was precluded from operating an adult entertainment facility.
Morrisville Borough has referred the case to its insurance carrier, Integrated Management in Chester Springs, Pa. for defense. The insurance carrier has referred the defense to a law firm.
Downey said Stockham Interests came to the zoning board and followed a procedure.
"In place of filing the appropriate process and procedure to appeal the denial to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, they filed a complaint in the U.S. Civil Court, claiming their civil rights were violated," said Downey.
Downey said the federal district court "moves pretty fast" and estimated a decision would be made in about six months.
"We all have rights, but we have a duty to respect the rights of others," Downey concluded. "But, they haven't done that."
Todd Colarusso, president of Stockham Interests, LLC of Princeton, N.J., said after the May meeting that he would appeal the decision in Bucks County Common Pleas Court. Instead, he went to the federal court.
Colarusso had threatened there will be a strip club as he stood outside on the steps of borough hall.
When the strip club variance application was denied by the Morrisville zoning board, residents said they were happy.
Residents, especially the clergy, voiced their opinion not to allow a burlesque-style theater with topless women in their town.
Colarusso had said during the hearing that he would drop his original application for a zoning variance to establish an adult club on the second floor of the building on the condition that the board allow a 1,000-square-foot hanging nylon sign for the west side of the building.
However, the board rejected that request. Colarusso said the sign would first be made available to tenants of the building, including a health club. He said the sign could be used by area businesses.
Pastor Gary Taylor of the 1st Baptist Church said he was concerned for the moral content of the sign and whether it could be controlled in the future.
Taylor said there would be adverse effects on the community because "Morrisville would be known for that particular establishment."
The applicant said he would not allow advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, condoms or abortion.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Plenty of ways to spend your Labor Day
From the BCCT.
Plenty of ways to spend your Labor Day
Three communities are marking the unofficial end of the summer on Labor Day with some partying.
Morrisville, Lower Makefield and the Venice Ashby section of Bristol Township have events planned for the entire day Monday.
Morrisville’s festivities jumpstart with the Morrisville Fire Co.’s 10K run in the morning.
The rest of the day will feature a car show on East Bridge Street, plenty of food vendors, games, live entertainment, arts and more.
The 10K Labor Day Run begins at 9 a.m. at Williamson Park on North Delmorr Avenue. Entry fees for the race are $25 in advance, or $30 on race day when registration will be held between 7 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Registration forms can be obtained on the Web at www.morrisville98.com.
The car show begins at 10 a.m., and other planned events will be held throughout the day at Williamson Park on Delmorr Avenue. There will be a large inflatable slide and castle for the kids, face painting, a scavenger hunt, a visual arts program, bingo, live entertainment from the Daisy Jug Band and more. These events are free and open to the public. Food vendors will set up a food tent at Hogs and Rice motorcycle shop at Bridge Street and Delmorr Avenue.
Plenty of ways to spend your Labor Day
Three communities are marking the unofficial end of the summer on Labor Day with some partying.
Morrisville, Lower Makefield and the Venice Ashby section of Bristol Township have events planned for the entire day Monday.
Morrisville’s festivities jumpstart with the Morrisville Fire Co.’s 10K run in the morning.
The rest of the day will feature a car show on East Bridge Street, plenty of food vendors, games, live entertainment, arts and more.
The 10K Labor Day Run begins at 9 a.m. at Williamson Park on North Delmorr Avenue. Entry fees for the race are $25 in advance, or $30 on race day when registration will be held between 7 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Registration forms can be obtained on the Web at www.morrisville98.com.
The car show begins at 10 a.m., and other planned events will be held throughout the day at Williamson Park on Delmorr Avenue. There will be a large inflatable slide and castle for the kids, face painting, a scavenger hunt, a visual arts program, bingo, live entertainment from the Daisy Jug Band and more. These events are free and open to the public. Food vendors will set up a food tent at Hogs and Rice motorcycle shop at Bridge Street and Delmorr Avenue.
Find other ways to run school
From the Standard Speaker, Hazleton, PA.
Teachers need licensing. Drivers do too. Elected positions? Not so much. Other than an age or residency requirement, just about anyone can be elected to anything. We can debate if John McCain is more experienced than Barack Obama, but what experience truly prepares anyone to sit in the Oval Office?
Are school board members qualified to be school board members? Should professional educators be running the schools, or is "civilian" control and oversight required? What would be the basic requirements to qualify someone to be an effective school board member? Are the "hard" skills like facilities management and effective budgeting the required core competencies, or is it the "soft" skills of negotiation and finesse that are required?
Find other ways to run school
Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:22 AM EDT
There is no question that under the current system, school board members in Pennsylvania need education. School districts are complex entities, with budgets running into the tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. School operations include specialties in many different aspects of education, labor relations, law, construction management, logistics, business management, transportation and so on. Conscientious school board members often are overwhelmed not just by the workload, but by the complexity of the task. Those who are not so conscientious focus on the more readily understandable political elements of the position.
In Pennsylvania the qualifications to sit on a school board do not address the complexity of the job. The law requires candidates to be 18 or older, and a resident of the district for at least a year.
Moreover, the duties of school board members also are ill-defined. That’s why some members attempt to meddle in day-to-day district operations rather than to set the broad policies to be implemented by district professionals.
The school board structure itself is a vestige of the earliest days of public education, when each local school district truly was a distinct entity, often in an isolated community. Society has changed dramatically but the school board structure has not adapted.
School board competence is an issue across the nation, and there has been some experimentation. In a few jurisdictions, each school in a district operates as a charter school with an individual board. The function of the districtwide board is to approve and regulate the charters. In a few others, local jurisdictions establish qualifications and board members are appointed by mayors in accordance with those standards, usually through a screening commission.
Pennsylvania has a particular issue due to another vestige of an earlier era — vast, counterproductive fragmentation of local government. Pennsylvania has 501 school districts — most of them tiny. That ensures costly, redundant administration and small pools of potential school board candidates with a limited range of experiences.
Reform possibilities abound
Many reforms are possible:
--Consolidate small districts: Pennsylvanians elect multiple school boards in areas where one would be adequate. In addition to economies that would be realized, effective consolidation would create greater competition for school board seats and force candidates to rely on more than their local political base.
--Eliminate cross-filing: School board candidates are allowed to run on both major-party ballots under the amusing theory that doing so will eliminate politics as the driving force in school administration. In reality, it eliminates competition for school board seats, especially in jurisdictions where one party is dominant.
--Pay school directors: Conscientious school board service is time-consuming and demanding. Paying board members might produce more candidates with a wider range of experience and expertise.
--Set minimum standards: Magisterial district judges are not required to be lawyers, but they are required to take a course and to pass a test between their election and their service. School board members should be required to meet some basic requirements for service.
--Better define roles: School boards regularly hire superintendents at six-figure salaries and then prevent the superintendent from effectively using the knowledge and experience for which he was hired. The law should be rewritten to expressly preclude directors’ interference in day-to-day operations. That includes hiring of professional personnel other than the superintendent, which should be left to professionals.
The ultimate answer probably is a new school board structure that reflects modern circumstances. The Legislature should establish an independent commission to study that question, even as it tackles reforms to make the current system more effective.
Teachers need licensing. Drivers do too. Elected positions? Not so much. Other than an age or residency requirement, just about anyone can be elected to anything. We can debate if John McCain is more experienced than Barack Obama, but what experience truly prepares anyone to sit in the Oval Office?
Are school board members qualified to be school board members? Should professional educators be running the schools, or is "civilian" control and oversight required? What would be the basic requirements to qualify someone to be an effective school board member? Are the "hard" skills like facilities management and effective budgeting the required core competencies, or is it the "soft" skills of negotiation and finesse that are required?
Find other ways to run school
Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:22 AM EDT
There is no question that under the current system, school board members in Pennsylvania need education. School districts are complex entities, with budgets running into the tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. School operations include specialties in many different aspects of education, labor relations, law, construction management, logistics, business management, transportation and so on. Conscientious school board members often are overwhelmed not just by the workload, but by the complexity of the task. Those who are not so conscientious focus on the more readily understandable political elements of the position.
In Pennsylvania the qualifications to sit on a school board do not address the complexity of the job. The law requires candidates to be 18 or older, and a resident of the district for at least a year.
Moreover, the duties of school board members also are ill-defined. That’s why some members attempt to meddle in day-to-day district operations rather than to set the broad policies to be implemented by district professionals.
The school board structure itself is a vestige of the earliest days of public education, when each local school district truly was a distinct entity, often in an isolated community. Society has changed dramatically but the school board structure has not adapted.
School board competence is an issue across the nation, and there has been some experimentation. In a few jurisdictions, each school in a district operates as a charter school with an individual board. The function of the districtwide board is to approve and regulate the charters. In a few others, local jurisdictions establish qualifications and board members are appointed by mayors in accordance with those standards, usually through a screening commission.
Pennsylvania has a particular issue due to another vestige of an earlier era — vast, counterproductive fragmentation of local government. Pennsylvania has 501 school districts — most of them tiny. That ensures costly, redundant administration and small pools of potential school board candidates with a limited range of experiences.
Reform possibilities abound
Many reforms are possible:
--Consolidate small districts: Pennsylvanians elect multiple school boards in areas where one would be adequate. In addition to economies that would be realized, effective consolidation would create greater competition for school board seats and force candidates to rely on more than their local political base.
--Eliminate cross-filing: School board candidates are allowed to run on both major-party ballots under the amusing theory that doing so will eliminate politics as the driving force in school administration. In reality, it eliminates competition for school board seats, especially in jurisdictions where one party is dominant.
--Pay school directors: Conscientious school board service is time-consuming and demanding. Paying board members might produce more candidates with a wider range of experience and expertise.
--Set minimum standards: Magisterial district judges are not required to be lawyers, but they are required to take a course and to pass a test between their election and their service. School board members should be required to meet some basic requirements for service.
--Better define roles: School boards regularly hire superintendents at six-figure salaries and then prevent the superintendent from effectively using the knowledge and experience for which he was hired. The law should be rewritten to expressly preclude directors’ interference in day-to-day operations. That includes hiring of professional personnel other than the superintendent, which should be left to professionals.
The ultimate answer probably is a new school board structure that reflects modern circumstances. The Legislature should establish an independent commission to study that question, even as it tackles reforms to make the current system more effective.
Test Revolt?
Central Bucks school district news, from the Intelligencer
Directors talk of state test revolt
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer
Everything about Tuesday night's school board meeting was pretty routine, including the school board's vote to approve the state testing schedule.
But the discussion school board members had before they approved the schedule was anything but routine.
School board members discussed protesting No Child Left Behind and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment by refusing to administer the test to Central Bucks students. The discussion came soon after the state Department of Education decided to make schools administer the PSSA in May. School district administrators objected and the Department of Education retracted its order.
“What happens if we opt out of No Child Left Behind?” board Vice President Stephen Corr asked.
No one knew the answer.
Superintendent N. Robert Laws said the district would probably lose the $4 million in federal funding it gets each year, which adds up to only about 1.5 percent of the district's total budget.
“We can't do that,” Corr said. “But this is a total waste of our time. It seems more and more ridiculous.”
School board member Chris Asplen asked if Central Bucks students who are applying to colleges would suffer from not taking the PSSA.
Laws said he doesn't think colleges consider PSSA scores when they look at a student's application.
The PSSA is the state's tool for determining whether school districts are meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Laws said. It's also the way the state measures Pennsylvania's 501 school districts against each other.
“Just for our own public relations, where we stand in the state appears good for us,” school board member Thomas Baldwin said. “If you don't have something else the state uses as a benchmark, where does that put us?”
Several school board members suggested getting other school districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which typically score well on the PSSA but get little state and federal funding, to join them in a protest of the state assessment test.
School board President Geryl McMullin said, “The people at the Department of Education are not in touch with reality.”
“We have to get serious,” she said. “I think what matters here is what we're doing to kids. We're taking away valuable instruction time ... it's absurd.”
Asplen said he thought a protest would mean a lot coming from Central Bucks.
“I think we'd be able to get other districts,” Corr said. “But we're too late in the cycle to stop that now.”
Corr suggested looking at the issue again next year.
Laws said he would study No Child Left Behind, the PSSA and the consequences for school districts that do not participate.
“Public education is a function of the state. I'm an officer of the state. I'm commissioned by the state. You're commissioned by the state. I don't know what the result of a mutiny is,” he said.
“The state takes over your school district,” Corr answered.
“But I thought they already did.”
Directors talk of state test revolt
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer
Everything about Tuesday night's school board meeting was pretty routine, including the school board's vote to approve the state testing schedule.
But the discussion school board members had before they approved the schedule was anything but routine.
School board members discussed protesting No Child Left Behind and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment by refusing to administer the test to Central Bucks students. The discussion came soon after the state Department of Education decided to make schools administer the PSSA in May. School district administrators objected and the Department of Education retracted its order.
“What happens if we opt out of No Child Left Behind?” board Vice President Stephen Corr asked.
No one knew the answer.
Superintendent N. Robert Laws said the district would probably lose the $4 million in federal funding it gets each year, which adds up to only about 1.5 percent of the district's total budget.
“We can't do that,” Corr said. “But this is a total waste of our time. It seems more and more ridiculous.”
School board member Chris Asplen asked if Central Bucks students who are applying to colleges would suffer from not taking the PSSA.
Laws said he doesn't think colleges consider PSSA scores when they look at a student's application.
The PSSA is the state's tool for determining whether school districts are meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Laws said. It's also the way the state measures Pennsylvania's 501 school districts against each other.
“Just for our own public relations, where we stand in the state appears good for us,” school board member Thomas Baldwin said. “If you don't have something else the state uses as a benchmark, where does that put us?”
Several school board members suggested getting other school districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which typically score well on the PSSA but get little state and federal funding, to join them in a protest of the state assessment test.
School board President Geryl McMullin said, “The people at the Department of Education are not in touch with reality.”
“We have to get serious,” she said. “I think what matters here is what we're doing to kids. We're taking away valuable instruction time ... it's absurd.”
Asplen said he thought a protest would mean a lot coming from Central Bucks.
“I think we'd be able to get other districts,” Corr said. “But we're too late in the cycle to stop that now.”
Corr suggested looking at the issue again next year.
Laws said he would study No Child Left Behind, the PSSA and the consequences for school districts that do not participate.
“Public education is a function of the state. I'm an officer of the state. I'm commissioned by the state. You're commissioned by the state. I don't know what the result of a mutiny is,” he said.
“The state takes over your school district,” Corr answered.
“But I thought they already did.”
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Meeting Reminder
From the BCCT
Morrisville School Board: 7:30 pm., large group instruction room of the Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St. Agenda: lease agreement with Peirce College; set food service prices; set agreements with alternative schools; approve a grant; and other regular items of business. 215-736-2681.
Morrisville School Board: 7:30 pm., large group instruction room of the Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St. Agenda: lease agreement with Peirce College; set food service prices; set agreements with alternative schools; approve a grant; and other regular items of business. 215-736-2681.
SAT Scores Remain at 10-Year Low
From TIME Magazine
SAT Scores Remain at 10-Year Low
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 By AP/ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
For a second straight year, SAT scores for the most recent high school graduating class remained at the lowest level in nearly a decade, a trend attributed to a record number of students now taking the test.
The 1.52 million students who took the test is a slight increase from last year but a jump of nearly 30 percent over the past decade. Minority students accounted for 40 percent of test-takers, and 36 percent were the first in their families to attend college. Nearly one in seven had a low enough family income to take the test for free.
"More than ever, the SAT reflects the face of education in this country," said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, which owns the test and released the results Tuesday.
The class of 2008 scored an average of 515 out of a possible 800 points on the math section of the college entrance exam, a performance identical to graduating seniors in the previous year.
Scores in the critical reading component among last spring's high school seniors also held steady at 502, but the decline over time has been more dramatic: the past two years represent the lowest reading average since 1994, when graduating seniors scored 499.
By comparison, the highest average reading score in recent decades was 530 by the class of 1972, although that score dropped dramatically within five years to near present levels. The latest math average is just five points below the 35-year high of 520, reached three years ago.
Those historical highs are tempered by the test's more selective reach a generation ago, said Jim Hull, a policy analyst for the Center for Public Education, which is affiliated with the National School Boards Association.
"You only had the best of the best taking the test," he said. "The SAT has become far more inclusive."
Average scores also remained constant on the writing portion of the SAT, which was added to the entrance exam in 2006. For the second year in a row, the average score was 494 — a three-point drop from its debut year.
The writing test is still a work in progress, with many colleges waiting for several years of data before factoring that portion into admissions decisions.
But the College Board released data Tuesday suggesting that scores on the newest portion of the exam are the most accurate gauge of first-year success in college. Studies by the University of Georgia and the University of California support the group's findings, it reported.
Males on average scored four points higher than females on the reading section (504 vs. 500) and 33 points higher on the math test (533 vs. 500), but females on average outscored their counterparts on the writing test, 501 to 488.
Average ACT scores released earlier this month showed a slight decrease, for the class of 2008 — 21.1 compared to 21.2 a year ago, on a scale of 1 to 36. With 1.42 million test-takers, the rival exam still lags behind the more-entrenched SAT, but is growing at a faster rate.
That trend is only likely to continue, said SAT critic Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, who called the new three-part SAT a "flop." Nearly 800 colleges now consider the SAT an optional test for admissions, according to the group.
SAT Scores Remain at 10-Year Low
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 By AP/ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
For a second straight year, SAT scores for the most recent high school graduating class remained at the lowest level in nearly a decade, a trend attributed to a record number of students now taking the test.
The 1.52 million students who took the test is a slight increase from last year but a jump of nearly 30 percent over the past decade. Minority students accounted for 40 percent of test-takers, and 36 percent were the first in their families to attend college. Nearly one in seven had a low enough family income to take the test for free.
"More than ever, the SAT reflects the face of education in this country," said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, which owns the test and released the results Tuesday.
The class of 2008 scored an average of 515 out of a possible 800 points on the math section of the college entrance exam, a performance identical to graduating seniors in the previous year.
Scores in the critical reading component among last spring's high school seniors also held steady at 502, but the decline over time has been more dramatic: the past two years represent the lowest reading average since 1994, when graduating seniors scored 499.
By comparison, the highest average reading score in recent decades was 530 by the class of 1972, although that score dropped dramatically within five years to near present levels. The latest math average is just five points below the 35-year high of 520, reached three years ago.
Those historical highs are tempered by the test's more selective reach a generation ago, said Jim Hull, a policy analyst for the Center for Public Education, which is affiliated with the National School Boards Association.
"You only had the best of the best taking the test," he said. "The SAT has become far more inclusive."
Average scores also remained constant on the writing portion of the SAT, which was added to the entrance exam in 2006. For the second year in a row, the average score was 494 — a three-point drop from its debut year.
The writing test is still a work in progress, with many colleges waiting for several years of data before factoring that portion into admissions decisions.
But the College Board released data Tuesday suggesting that scores on the newest portion of the exam are the most accurate gauge of first-year success in college. Studies by the University of Georgia and the University of California support the group's findings, it reported.
Males on average scored four points higher than females on the reading section (504 vs. 500) and 33 points higher on the math test (533 vs. 500), but females on average outscored their counterparts on the writing test, 501 to 488.
Average ACT scores released earlier this month showed a slight decrease, for the class of 2008 — 21.1 compared to 21.2 a year ago, on a scale of 1 to 36. With 1.42 million test-takers, the rival exam still lags behind the more-entrenched SAT, but is growing at a faster rate.
That trend is only likely to continue, said SAT critic Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, who called the new three-part SAT a "flop." Nearly 800 colleges now consider the SAT an optional test for admissions, according to the group.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Modular Rooms for Pennsbury
From the BCCT.
Supervisors approve modular classrooms
But one supervisor accused the Pennsbury School District of “crazy spending” and said they were unnecessary.
By CHRISTIAN MENNO
The Pennsbury School District hopes to have two modular classrooms for art and music classes up and running at Fallsington Elementary by mid-October.
The Falls supervisors last week approved, by a 3-2 vote, a land development waiver to install the structures, which will be transported from Oxford Valley Elementary.
Supervisors Robert Harvie, James Prokopiak and Jonathan Snipes voted in favor. Dorothy Vislosky and Phillip Szupka voted no.
The school district’s director of physical plant and facilities, Tom Gillette, said the installation would cost about $507,000. He called the modular classrooms a more cost-effective measure than a permanent addition to the school’s main building, which, he said, would cost upward of $1.5 million.
A covered walkway will connect the main building to the modular classrooms to protect students from the elements, Gillette added.
Though the modulars were used by Oxford Valley for 19 years, Gillette said their solid wood construction makes them as sturdy and durable as a house.
“I’d expect them to last a long, long time,” he said at the Aug. 19 Falls meeting.
Vislosky disputed the necessity of the modulars and chided the school board for what she called its “crazy spending.”
“I think the $500,000 price tag is insanity,” Vislosky said Monday. “The school administration and the school board better learn the difference between need and want. This is taxpayers’ money.”
On Monday, Gillette described the modulars’ cost as “barebones,” and said the extra space will allow for a “muchneeded” computer lab to be built in the school’s main building.
School board member Linda Palsky defended the project.
“We have people running classes in small cubby holes and sometimes doubling up,” she said Monday. “These classrooms will allow Fallsington to service its students in the proper way. This is not something we just came up with. This was part of a long-range plan to utilize our assets. I understand the concerns, but these modulars are absolutely necessary.”
Palsky, a member of the facilities committee, said the price was well within the normal range for such a job.
Prokopiak said he understands some taxpayers might oppose such additions, but the school district was well within its rights to develop its own land.
“As long as the project adheres to our ordinances and does not interfere with the health, safety and wellness of our residents, then it should be approved,” he said Monday. “If there were issues with, say, storm water management, then that would be different.
“The school district is telling us they need the space due to overcrowding and that this is the most cost-effective way to go about it. As long as they’ve met all the criteria, I felt I had to approve it.”
Supervisors approve modular classrooms
But one supervisor accused the Pennsbury School District of “crazy spending” and said they were unnecessary.
By CHRISTIAN MENNO
The Pennsbury School District hopes to have two modular classrooms for art and music classes up and running at Fallsington Elementary by mid-October.
The Falls supervisors last week approved, by a 3-2 vote, a land development waiver to install the structures, which will be transported from Oxford Valley Elementary.
Supervisors Robert Harvie, James Prokopiak and Jonathan Snipes voted in favor. Dorothy Vislosky and Phillip Szupka voted no.
The school district’s director of physical plant and facilities, Tom Gillette, said the installation would cost about $507,000. He called the modular classrooms a more cost-effective measure than a permanent addition to the school’s main building, which, he said, would cost upward of $1.5 million.
A covered walkway will connect the main building to the modular classrooms to protect students from the elements, Gillette added.
Though the modulars were used by Oxford Valley for 19 years, Gillette said their solid wood construction makes them as sturdy and durable as a house.
“I’d expect them to last a long, long time,” he said at the Aug. 19 Falls meeting.
Vislosky disputed the necessity of the modulars and chided the school board for what she called its “crazy spending.”
“I think the $500,000 price tag is insanity,” Vislosky said Monday. “The school administration and the school board better learn the difference between need and want. This is taxpayers’ money.”
On Monday, Gillette described the modulars’ cost as “barebones,” and said the extra space will allow for a “muchneeded” computer lab to be built in the school’s main building.
School board member Linda Palsky defended the project.
“We have people running classes in small cubby holes and sometimes doubling up,” she said Monday. “These classrooms will allow Fallsington to service its students in the proper way. This is not something we just came up with. This was part of a long-range plan to utilize our assets. I understand the concerns, but these modulars are absolutely necessary.”
Palsky, a member of the facilities committee, said the price was well within the normal range for such a job.
Prokopiak said he understands some taxpayers might oppose such additions, but the school district was well within its rights to develop its own land.
“As long as the project adheres to our ordinances and does not interfere with the health, safety and wellness of our residents, then it should be approved,” he said Monday. “If there were issues with, say, storm water management, then that would be different.
“The school district is telling us they need the space due to overcrowding and that this is the most cost-effective way to go about it. As long as they’ve met all the criteria, I felt I had to approve it.”
Scavenger Hunt!
From the BCCT.
Towns to host giant scavenger hunt
The event will showcase the “tremendous historic and cultural assets” of the boroughs.
By DANNY ADLER
A local revitalization effort will hold its first big event next month featuring the four Landmark Towns of Bucks County — Bristol, Morrisville, Yardley and New Hope.
The Landmark Towns, a project of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, is preparing for a “ravenchase” — somewhat of a scavenger hunt using riddles, anagrams, puzzles, planted actors, gadgets and ciphers leading to a secret end location. The Great Delaware Canal Chase, a joint effort by Landmark Towns and Ravenchase Adventures, leads participants throughout the four towns by car to solve the codes and learn a bit about American history. Prizes will be awarded to the top three teams.
“We’re really hoping to attract visitors to the downtowns in the four communities through a really fun activity. Participants will most likely stop along the way and visit a retail store or restaurant that they may otherwise not have the opportunity to do,” said Donna Boone, Landmark Towns’ regional main street coordinator.
The event begins at 10 a.m. Sept. 13. Tickets are $50 per player or $150 per car (up to six people). For more information or to register for the event, visit www.ravenchase.com.
Landmark Towns is not using the event to raise funds, but to raise friends, Boone said. Any proceeds, which she said will be negligible after expenses, go directly to the event organizer at Ravenchase.
“We determined that it is more important at this time to raise awareness about the tremendous historic and cultural assets these communities have to offer,” Boone said.
The Landmark Towns of Bucks County initiative started several years ago trying to convince the waterfront boroughs of Bristol, Morrisville, Yardley and New Hope to sign on and commit to the project.
The hopes were to preserve each borough’s historic resources, enhance their local economies and brand the riverfront towns as destinations.
In more than two years, all four boroughs have committed to the project, and the state has chipped in money for transporta tion efforts to link the towns and to hire a regional coordinator.
Towns to host giant scavenger hunt
The event will showcase the “tremendous historic and cultural assets” of the boroughs.
By DANNY ADLER
A local revitalization effort will hold its first big event next month featuring the four Landmark Towns of Bucks County — Bristol, Morrisville, Yardley and New Hope.
The Landmark Towns, a project of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, is preparing for a “ravenchase” — somewhat of a scavenger hunt using riddles, anagrams, puzzles, planted actors, gadgets and ciphers leading to a secret end location. The Great Delaware Canal Chase, a joint effort by Landmark Towns and Ravenchase Adventures, leads participants throughout the four towns by car to solve the codes and learn a bit about American history. Prizes will be awarded to the top three teams.
“We’re really hoping to attract visitors to the downtowns in the four communities through a really fun activity. Participants will most likely stop along the way and visit a retail store or restaurant that they may otherwise not have the opportunity to do,” said Donna Boone, Landmark Towns’ regional main street coordinator.
The event begins at 10 a.m. Sept. 13. Tickets are $50 per player or $150 per car (up to six people). For more information or to register for the event, visit www.ravenchase.com.
Landmark Towns is not using the event to raise funds, but to raise friends, Boone said. Any proceeds, which she said will be negligible after expenses, go directly to the event organizer at Ravenchase.
“We determined that it is more important at this time to raise awareness about the tremendous historic and cultural assets these communities have to offer,” Boone said.
The Landmark Towns of Bucks County initiative started several years ago trying to convince the waterfront boroughs of Bristol, Morrisville, Yardley and New Hope to sign on and commit to the project.
The hopes were to preserve each borough’s historic resources, enhance their local economies and brand the riverfront towns as destinations.
In more than two years, all four boroughs have committed to the project, and the state has chipped in money for transporta tion efforts to link the towns and to hire a regional coordinator.
BCTHS Budget Discussion Set
From the BCCT
Tech school to host funding discussion
Posted in News on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 11:35 pm by Joan Hellyer
Area school district officials will meet with Bucks County Technical High School staff in September to examine how much it costs to educate each of the school’s students, BCTHS officials said tonight.
During the student-related cost review, officials will try to determine if changes need to be made to the funding formula used to operate the comprehensive technical high school off Wistar Road in Bristol Township.
Business managers, superintendents and joint school board members of the six sending districts are invited to attend the Sept. 17 discussion, said Administrative Director Scott Parks at the tech school’s joint board committee meeting tonight.
The business managers previously suggested the districts stop sharing special education costs, as they do now. Districts would pay for the often times costly special needs expenses based on actual student usage, the managers suggested.
But joint board committee members decided to look at all student-related costs before they make any changes to the funding formula.
The cost review originally was supposed to take place during the summer break, but could not be arranged because of scheduling conflicts, BCTHS officials said.
The Sept. 17 discussion begins at noon in the boardroom of the tech school that serves approximately 1,500 students from the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts.
Tech school to host funding discussion
Posted in News on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 11:35 pm by Joan Hellyer
Area school district officials will meet with Bucks County Technical High School staff in September to examine how much it costs to educate each of the school’s students, BCTHS officials said tonight.
During the student-related cost review, officials will try to determine if changes need to be made to the funding formula used to operate the comprehensive technical high school off Wistar Road in Bristol Township.
Business managers, superintendents and joint school board members of the six sending districts are invited to attend the Sept. 17 discussion, said Administrative Director Scott Parks at the tech school’s joint board committee meeting tonight.
The business managers previously suggested the districts stop sharing special education costs, as they do now. Districts would pay for the often times costly special needs expenses based on actual student usage, the managers suggested.
But joint board committee members decided to look at all student-related costs before they make any changes to the funding formula.
The cost review originally was supposed to take place during the summer break, but could not be arranged because of scheduling conflicts, BCTHS officials said.
The Sept. 17 discussion begins at noon in the boardroom of the tech school that serves approximately 1,500 students from the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Meeting Reminder
Don't forget that back-to-school starts Wednesday, as the cast of the hit TV show "Hellmann's Heroes" returns in their season premier.
The warm ups start at 6:30 as the Policy Committee will discuss um, ...policies.
The 2008-2009 season home opener starts at 7:30. There's been a few changes. Replacing the injured Kate Taylor in the elementary principal slot will be Karen Huggins. Replacing the departed Melanie Gehrens in the secondary principal role will be Willian Ferrara. A replacement for the departed Kim Myers at special ed has not been named. This will probably be the last chance to see the retiring Reba Dunford playing at home in the business administrator position.
NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville, Morrisville, PA, will hold a Policy Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 6:30 pm. Various policies will be discussed.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
1t August 24, 2008
The warm ups start at 6:30 as the Policy Committee will discuss um, ...policies.
The 2008-2009 season home opener starts at 7:30. There's been a few changes. Replacing the injured Kate Taylor in the elementary principal slot will be Karen Huggins. Replacing the departed Melanie Gehrens in the secondary principal role will be Willian Ferrara. A replacement for the departed Kim Myers at special ed has not been named. This will probably be the last chance to see the retiring Reba Dunford playing at home in the business administrator position.
NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville, Morrisville, PA, will hold a Policy Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 6:30 pm. Various policies will be discussed.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
1t August 24, 2008
More Student Testing
From the BCCT this morning.
I'm not necessarily against this idea, yet where does it end? Are the teachers, staff and administrators tested as well? Perhaps the school board should be as well. How about the parents? Should they all set an example?
“This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?” Ask the Emperor and the Board of Selected Accomplices. They apparently have numbers on this topic.
The privacy issue looms large here as well. Who gets this information and how is it used?
The endpoint? Magic 8-ball says "ask again": “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.” If the question is that difficult to frame, the answer must be pretty impossible.
Do you trust the people in charge?
District considers drug testing
Central Bucks administrators plan to have more meetings with parents and students this fall to discuss a random testing program. Here’s a look at other schools in Pennsylvania that have similar programs.
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District administrators are planning to meet with parents and students this fall to discuss a random student-drug testing program.
If district administrators decide to implement a drug-testing program, they won’t be the first in the state.
And they probably won’t be the last.
No state agency keeps track of how many of the state’s 501 school districts have student drug-testing programs, but the newspaper identified 12 school districts across the state, although none in Bucks or eastern Montgomery counties, that have programs in place. Some are new; some are several years old. Officials from only five districts responded to inquiries about their testing programs.
Officials at school districts with established programs said they have successfully reduced student drug use, even though they didn’t have much data to support the claim.
Others said they didn’t know if student drug use had dropped. But they thought the programs have effectively helped students who use drugs to get the counseling they need from school nurses and drug counselors and given students who don’t use drugs another way to say “no” to someone who offers drugs to them.
“There is a problem with drug use,” said Barbara Zimmerman, a member of the Hempfield school board in Lancaster County.
“Anybody in a school district that says they don’t have a drug problem is lying or they aren’t connected with reality. There’s drugs in schools. No matter what way you look at it. It might be on school grounds. It might be on the weekends.”
And Zimmerman, a registered nurse and nursing instructor at Millersville University, believes schools have the responsibility to help kids by testing them. She advocated for the program at Hempfield.
“What’s the difference from when the school nurse is screening your hearing, vision, height, weight? The same thing happens as if you fail your hearing test. What happens? You send a letter home and you’ve got to get a hearing test,” she said. “This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?”
Asked if the program had reduced drug use at Hempfield in the three years that the district has had it, Zimmerman answered, “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.”
She acknowledged that much of the data school districts have is self-reported — student responses to statewide surveys about drug and alcohol use.
Fewer students at Hempfield have reported using drugs and alcohol, she said.
Zimmerman said she gives the high school students a written survey at the end of every school year, asking if they think there’s a drug problem at Hempfield, if they think the drug-testing program helps them say “no” to the peers and if they chose not to participate in extracurricular activities because of the drug-testing program.
The survey has a portion where students can write their own thoughts, and Zimmerman said most of the students have said they think the drug-testing program has helped curtail drug use at Hempfield.
“Are they saying it because they think they have to say it? Or are they saying it because it’s true?” she asked.
Gettysburg Area School District Superintendent William Hall said earlier this year that he didn’t know much about the success of the district’s drug-testing program because he’s still new to the district. The district has tested all student-athletes for three or four years, he said.
“We’re not seeing any alarming increases,” Hall said. “But I can’t say that we’re seeing any significant decreases, either.”
Solanco School District in southern Lancaster County has had a random student drug-testing program in place for several years. It received federal funding three years ago to pay for its program and has continued to fund the program out of its own budget for the last two years.
More than 60 percent of the middle and high school students were in the testing pool last year, and a “vast majority” of their tests came back negative for drug use, said district spokesman Keith Kaufman. Asked if the program has successfully reduced drug use at Solanco, Kaufman couldn’t really say.
“What the drug testing program does is that it gives our students another opportunity to say ‘no’ to drug use,” he said.
“If they’re getting any kind of peer pressure, they can say, ‘Listen, I want to be in the band. I want to be on the chess team. I want to be on the football team. I can’t risk it. I don’t want to lose my parking privileges.’ That’s a big one. Once students start driving, they don’t like the idea of going back to a school bus.”
And, when students test positive for drug use, they can get help from counselors.
Candis Finan, superintendent of Delaware Valley School District in Pike County, was able to provide a little more data about the success of her district’s drug-testing program.
Delaware Valley School District has had a student drug-testing program since 1998, shortly after a student was caught in the high school parking lot with heroin.
The school district has one of the most comprehensive student drug-testing programs of the school districts surveyed. Students in seventh through 12th grades who participate in extracurricular activities and students who drive to school must submit to drug testing.
All of the students who drive or participate in yearlong activities are tested at the beginning of the school year. Students who participate in seasonal activities are tested at the beginning of the season. And all of the students in the testing pool are tested randomly throughout the year.
Finan said the district tested 1,600 students in 2007-08 school year, and nine tested positive for drug use. The district tested 1,400 students in the 2006-07 school year, and four tested positive.
In all the years the district has had the drug-testing program, Finan said, only one student has ever tested positive a second time.
Finan said the students who participate in extracurricular activities and drive to school are the leaders of the school; and by their refusal to use drugs, they become role models for the others.
“I believe it works. I believe it is clearly a deterrent to student drug use,” Finan said.
“Is [drug use] going down? I wouldn’t have figures to support that. The students who wish to participate in activities clearly are not using drugs, I can tell you that.”
I'm not necessarily against this idea, yet where does it end? Are the teachers, staff and administrators tested as well? Perhaps the school board should be as well. How about the parents? Should they all set an example?
“This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?” Ask the Emperor and the Board of Selected Accomplices. They apparently have numbers on this topic.
The privacy issue looms large here as well. Who gets this information and how is it used?
The endpoint? Magic 8-ball says "ask again": “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.” If the question is that difficult to frame, the answer must be pretty impossible.
Do you trust the people in charge?
District considers drug testing
Central Bucks administrators plan to have more meetings with parents and students this fall to discuss a random testing program. Here’s a look at other schools in Pennsylvania that have similar programs.
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District administrators are planning to meet with parents and students this fall to discuss a random student-drug testing program.
If district administrators decide to implement a drug-testing program, they won’t be the first in the state.
And they probably won’t be the last.
No state agency keeps track of how many of the state’s 501 school districts have student drug-testing programs, but the newspaper identified 12 school districts across the state, although none in Bucks or eastern Montgomery counties, that have programs in place. Some are new; some are several years old. Officials from only five districts responded to inquiries about their testing programs.
Officials at school districts with established programs said they have successfully reduced student drug use, even though they didn’t have much data to support the claim.
Others said they didn’t know if student drug use had dropped. But they thought the programs have effectively helped students who use drugs to get the counseling they need from school nurses and drug counselors and given students who don’t use drugs another way to say “no” to someone who offers drugs to them.
“There is a problem with drug use,” said Barbara Zimmerman, a member of the Hempfield school board in Lancaster County.
“Anybody in a school district that says they don’t have a drug problem is lying or they aren’t connected with reality. There’s drugs in schools. No matter what way you look at it. It might be on school grounds. It might be on the weekends.”
And Zimmerman, a registered nurse and nursing instructor at Millersville University, believes schools have the responsibility to help kids by testing them. She advocated for the program at Hempfield.
“What’s the difference from when the school nurse is screening your hearing, vision, height, weight? The same thing happens as if you fail your hearing test. What happens? You send a letter home and you’ve got to get a hearing test,” she said. “This is all about getting help. If we can save one or two kids ... what price do you want to put on a kid’s life?”
Asked if the program had reduced drug use at Hempfield in the three years that the district has had it, Zimmerman answered, “The success question is difficult to get a handle on.”
She acknowledged that much of the data school districts have is self-reported — student responses to statewide surveys about drug and alcohol use.
Fewer students at Hempfield have reported using drugs and alcohol, she said.
Zimmerman said she gives the high school students a written survey at the end of every school year, asking if they think there’s a drug problem at Hempfield, if they think the drug-testing program helps them say “no” to the peers and if they chose not to participate in extracurricular activities because of the drug-testing program.
The survey has a portion where students can write their own thoughts, and Zimmerman said most of the students have said they think the drug-testing program has helped curtail drug use at Hempfield.
“Are they saying it because they think they have to say it? Or are they saying it because it’s true?” she asked.
Gettysburg Area School District Superintendent William Hall said earlier this year that he didn’t know much about the success of the district’s drug-testing program because he’s still new to the district. The district has tested all student-athletes for three or four years, he said.
“We’re not seeing any alarming increases,” Hall said. “But I can’t say that we’re seeing any significant decreases, either.”
Solanco School District in southern Lancaster County has had a random student drug-testing program in place for several years. It received federal funding three years ago to pay for its program and has continued to fund the program out of its own budget for the last two years.
More than 60 percent of the middle and high school students were in the testing pool last year, and a “vast majority” of their tests came back negative for drug use, said district spokesman Keith Kaufman. Asked if the program has successfully reduced drug use at Solanco, Kaufman couldn’t really say.
“What the drug testing program does is that it gives our students another opportunity to say ‘no’ to drug use,” he said.
“If they’re getting any kind of peer pressure, they can say, ‘Listen, I want to be in the band. I want to be on the chess team. I want to be on the football team. I can’t risk it. I don’t want to lose my parking privileges.’ That’s a big one. Once students start driving, they don’t like the idea of going back to a school bus.”
And, when students test positive for drug use, they can get help from counselors.
Candis Finan, superintendent of Delaware Valley School District in Pike County, was able to provide a little more data about the success of her district’s drug-testing program.
Delaware Valley School District has had a student drug-testing program since 1998, shortly after a student was caught in the high school parking lot with heroin.
The school district has one of the most comprehensive student drug-testing programs of the school districts surveyed. Students in seventh through 12th grades who participate in extracurricular activities and students who drive to school must submit to drug testing.
All of the students who drive or participate in yearlong activities are tested at the beginning of the school year. Students who participate in seasonal activities are tested at the beginning of the season. And all of the students in the testing pool are tested randomly throughout the year.
Finan said the district tested 1,600 students in 2007-08 school year, and nine tested positive for drug use. The district tested 1,400 students in the 2006-07 school year, and four tested positive.
In all the years the district has had the drug-testing program, Finan said, only one student has ever tested positive a second time.
Finan said the students who participate in extracurricular activities and drive to school are the leaders of the school; and by their refusal to use drugs, they become role models for the others.
“I believe it works. I believe it is clearly a deterrent to student drug use,” Finan said.
“Is [drug use] going down? I wouldn’t have figures to support that. The students who wish to participate in activities clearly are not using drugs, I can tell you that.”
Test Fatigue
From the BCCT this morning.
Schools blast state for PSSA changes
Testing will be done from April 15 to May 15, a time when juniors will be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
By HILARY BENTMAN
On the eve of the new school year, some local administrators are positively reeling.
The source of their beef is a late announcement about a change to the testing dates for this year’s PSSA, which administrators said will wreak havoc with their already-established calendars and monopolize an entire month of instructional time at one of the most critical periods of the school year.
“It would be a lot of days lost in the fourth marking period,” said Council Rock Superintendent Mark Klein.
Each year, students are required to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, which tests students in math, reading, writing and science. The math and reading tests are for students in third through eighth, and 11th grade. The science test is given to students in fourth, eighth and 11th grades. All are required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The goal is to have all children proficient by 2014.
The state also requires a writing test but that is not required by No Child Left Behind.
In previous years, these exams, which can last two to three hours a day, were spread out over several months, with test windows lasting several days at a time.
But the Pennsylvania Department of Education informed districts on Wednesday that the PSSAs will be given during a four-week window from April 15 to May 15, which the department said is being implemented upon the recommendation of educators surveyed around the state who thought this was less disruptive to learning.
“Educators wanted to see more time with kids in the classroom,” said PDE spokeswoman Sheila Ballen.
But shortly after the new schedule was released, the department began receiving calls from school administrators around the state upset with the move.
Council Rock administrators sent emails to the state education department and was prepared to join other Bucks County districts in sending a letter of protest to the PDE, Klein said.
On Friday, the schedule was removed from the department’s Web site and replaced with a note saying “COMING SOON: Stay Tuned for More Information on the 08-09 Testing Schedule.”
Ballen said the department would consider the administrators’ comments and “try to find a solution.”
“We truly hope they do so,” said Klein. “Otherwise it’s seven to 10 days of one marking period.”
A condensed four-week testing schedule fails to hit the mark for several reasons, said local school principals and superintendents.
For some students, particularly juniors who are tested in all four subject areas, it means they will be sitting for exams two or three days a week. Administrators are concerned they will lose what amounts to a month of productive instructional time during a period when they should be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
Eleventh grade “is one of most crucial years for a high school student. They’re building up a transcript and getting their best foot out” for colleges, said Mario Galante, director of special services for the Quakertown School District. “It’s almost like an oxymoron. We have to get kids up to standards and they’re taking more instructional time away from kids.”
The Advanced Placement tests begin on May 5 and will overlap with the PSSA. Administered by the College Board, AP exams, which can award students college credit, must be given on specific days. The PSSAs are flexible and will have to be moved around to accommodate students.
Juniors will be pulled out of classes, interrupting not only their instructional time, but that of the sophomores, juniors and seniors who are in some of their classes, officials said.
Administrators worry about test exhaustion and question how effective students will perform on the PSSAs under this new set-up.
“It’s gone from bad to unconscionable,” said Souderton High School Principal Sam Varano. “Our 11th graders are going to think that testing is all that school is about.”
The state, he added, “has thrown high schools across the state off for a solid month. They couldn’t pick a four-week time period that was more crucial.”
Adding to their woes is the timing of the announcement.
Many school districts had already printed their calendars and were preparing to distribute them to parents.
The new testing dates means having to rework the schedules for everything from special school programs, to teacher inservice days, to community events. Families will also be unable to take trips during this time because students must be in school for the exams.
“We build everything around the PSSAs. Now I’m blown out of the water,” said Upper Moreland Superintendent Robert Milrod, who called the state irresponsible and said his initial reaction was to band together with other Montgomery County schools and draft a letter protesting the move.
Although the department of education said schools are always told that PSSA dates are tentative, “we were admittedly late in telling them (of the changes). We understand the schools’ concerns,” said Ballen, who said the PDE is hearing from
Education department officials had been waiting for the completion of contract negotiations with the test provider, DRC.
The Minnesota firm provides the state with its PSSA exams and was coming off a five-year contract. Ballen said the state could not announce the testing dates until the new contract was officially signed.
Varano acknowledged that the department indicated the schedule was tentative, but said “you don’t do anything this important on the eve of the school year.”
Schools blast state for PSSA changes
Testing will be done from April 15 to May 15, a time when juniors will be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
By HILARY BENTMAN
On the eve of the new school year, some local administrators are positively reeling.
The source of their beef is a late announcement about a change to the testing dates for this year’s PSSA, which administrators said will wreak havoc with their already-established calendars and monopolize an entire month of instructional time at one of the most critical periods of the school year.
“It would be a lot of days lost in the fourth marking period,” said Council Rock Superintendent Mark Klein.
Each year, students are required to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, which tests students in math, reading, writing and science. The math and reading tests are for students in third through eighth, and 11th grade. The science test is given to students in fourth, eighth and 11th grades. All are required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The goal is to have all children proficient by 2014.
The state also requires a writing test but that is not required by No Child Left Behind.
In previous years, these exams, which can last two to three hours a day, were spread out over several months, with test windows lasting several days at a time.
But the Pennsylvania Department of Education informed districts on Wednesday that the PSSAs will be given during a four-week window from April 15 to May 15, which the department said is being implemented upon the recommendation of educators surveyed around the state who thought this was less disruptive to learning.
“Educators wanted to see more time with kids in the classroom,” said PDE spokeswoman Sheila Ballen.
But shortly after the new schedule was released, the department began receiving calls from school administrators around the state upset with the move.
Council Rock administrators sent emails to the state education department and was prepared to join other Bucks County districts in sending a letter of protest to the PDE, Klein said.
On Friday, the schedule was removed from the department’s Web site and replaced with a note saying “COMING SOON: Stay Tuned for More Information on the 08-09 Testing Schedule.”
Ballen said the department would consider the administrators’ comments and “try to find a solution.”
“We truly hope they do so,” said Klein. “Otherwise it’s seven to 10 days of one marking period.”
A condensed four-week testing schedule fails to hit the mark for several reasons, said local school principals and superintendents.
For some students, particularly juniors who are tested in all four subject areas, it means they will be sitting for exams two or three days a week. Administrators are concerned they will lose what amounts to a month of productive instructional time during a period when they should be preparing for final exams and Advanced Placement tests.
Eleventh grade “is one of most crucial years for a high school student. They’re building up a transcript and getting their best foot out” for colleges, said Mario Galante, director of special services for the Quakertown School District. “It’s almost like an oxymoron. We have to get kids up to standards and they’re taking more instructional time away from kids.”
The Advanced Placement tests begin on May 5 and will overlap with the PSSA. Administered by the College Board, AP exams, which can award students college credit, must be given on specific days. The PSSAs are flexible and will have to be moved around to accommodate students.
Juniors will be pulled out of classes, interrupting not only their instructional time, but that of the sophomores, juniors and seniors who are in some of their classes, officials said.
Administrators worry about test exhaustion and question how effective students will perform on the PSSAs under this new set-up.
“It’s gone from bad to unconscionable,” said Souderton High School Principal Sam Varano. “Our 11th graders are going to think that testing is all that school is about.”
The state, he added, “has thrown high schools across the state off for a solid month. They couldn’t pick a four-week time period that was more crucial.”
Adding to their woes is the timing of the announcement.
Many school districts had already printed their calendars and were preparing to distribute them to parents.
The new testing dates means having to rework the schedules for everything from special school programs, to teacher inservice days, to community events. Families will also be unable to take trips during this time because students must be in school for the exams.
“We build everything around the PSSAs. Now I’m blown out of the water,” said Upper Moreland Superintendent Robert Milrod, who called the state irresponsible and said his initial reaction was to band together with other Montgomery County schools and draft a letter protesting the move.
Although the department of education said schools are always told that PSSA dates are tentative, “we were admittedly late in telling them (of the changes). We understand the schools’ concerns,” said Ballen, who said the PDE is hearing from
Education department officials had been waiting for the completion of contract negotiations with the test provider, DRC.
The Minnesota firm provides the state with its PSSA exams and was coming off a five-year contract. Ballen said the state could not announce the testing dates until the new contract was officially signed.
Varano acknowledged that the department indicated the schedule was tentative, but said “you don’t do anything this important on the eve of the school year.”
Education Policy: Obama and McCain
Barack Obama and John McCain will be opening up the 2008 installment of the quadrennial presidential follies shortly, and we will be treated to the spectacle of media frenzy over substance-less discussion, but education policy will be on the mind of the 44th President of the United States.
The Council for Exceptional Children has created a voter guide (pdf) that lists the education platforms of the presidential candidates.
EdWeek.org has a Campaign K-12 blog available to keep up to date.
The Council for Exceptional Children has created a voter guide (pdf) that lists the education platforms of the presidential candidates.
EdWeek.org has a Campaign K-12 blog available to keep up to date.
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