Where's the Stimulus Money??

From pennlive.com

A day late and more than a dollar short.

Here's a roundup of other news from April 1.

"No more mopin' around," Gov. Ed Rendell says
by The Patriot-News Editorial Board
Wednesday April 01, 2009, 12:15 PM

The news about job losses, bank busts and desperate automakers is not getting any better.

Gov. Ed Rendell is trying to do his part to aid the citizens of the commonwealth.

His latest plan is to use about $15 million from the federal stimulus funds pouring into the state to try and change the mood of Pennsylvanians.

The Patriot-News has learned that the money will be spent to hire clowns, mimes, magicians, street performers and comedians (nothing blue) who will be dispatched to malls, fairs and festivals across the state to boost morale.

The governor's idea is based on history: During World War II performers helped keep Americans' spirits up while they were faced with food and gas rationing.

The governor and his economic team believe if people begin feeling more positive they might begin spending more money, which will boost the economy and hopefully bring about more jobs to the commonwealth.

The merriment will be conducted through a new Headquarters of Economic and Emotive Efforts, or HEEE.

No estimate yet on how many performers will be needed to fan out across Pennsylvania, but clearly some counties will need more cheering up than others.

One of the concerns, however, is that the national shortage of clowns at the moment -- due to the foreclosure of the largest clown school in Florida -- could spell difficulties for hiring the needed numbers.

We would recommend that the clowns could be replaced in a pinch by former Wall Street investors eager to relocate and willing to trade their bonuses for Bozo shoes.

We wholeheartedly agree with the governor's approach. Months into this economic mess, we all need something to make us laugh.

So the next time you go to the Colonial Park Mall, look for the guy juggling bowling pins outside the Sears store, but if you don't catch him, we at least hope reading this will make you chuckle.

After all, it is April Fool's Day.

Effective Teaching for All Children: What It Will Take

From the Inquirer.

Group urges improved teacher quality in Philadelphia
By Martha Woodall Posted on Tue, Mar. 31, 2009

Inquirer Staff Writer
A new coalition of researchers, activists, community groups, parents, and students will kick off a campaign today to press the Philadelphia School District to overhaul its hiring process and make improving teacher quality a top priority in the district.

Called "Effective Teaching for All Children: What It Will Take," the project will urge Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and the Philadelphia School Reform Commission to "recruit, reward, and retain talented school staff, distribute teachers equitably, and support their development in every school."

The Education First Compact, a consortium of local education-reform organizations, and the Philadelphia Cross City Campaign, a collection of community groups, will unveil their campaign today in City Hall at 4 p.m.

Although Ackerman has said she placed a high priority on improving teacher recruitment, streamlining the hiring process, and developing strategies to retain talented staff, coalition members said they were disappointed that teacher quality was not given a top priority in the draft of her strategic plan, Imagine 2014.

Her plan does call for hiring teachers by June instead of August and requiring teachers who want to transfer to inform the district by May.

At a media briefing yesterday, coalition members said the groups had joined together to develop a six-point platform that includes distributing effective teachers more equitably across the district, creating a "deep bench" of teacher applicants, and making sure there were no teacher vacancies when school opened in the fall.

"Every child deserves an effective teacher," said Brian Armstead, director of civic engagement at the Philadelphia Education Fund. "And every school needs a stable workforce of effective teachers."

Coalition members said that the district's cumbersome and lengthy hiring process and seniority provisions in the teachers contract that give teachers the right to transfer to other schools resulted in the least-experienced teachers' being concentrated in the neediest schools.

And, because 70 percent of teachers leave the district within six years, the neediest schools rarely have a chance to develop a stable staff. The lack of stability and the constant influx of new teachers contribute to the gap of student achievement, the group said.

"This issue has been with us for a long period of time," Elizabeth Useem, senior research consultant at Research for Action.

The nonprofit educational research organization based in Philadelphia has released three studies on teacher quality in district schools in the last few years.

Useem said the district had made improvements but needed to do more.

"Right now there was a general agreement that we have a tremendous opportunity to really make significant progress," Armstead said. "We have a new superintendent who has expressed a sincere commitment to eliminating the achievement gap and who understands the importance of quality teaching."

He also said that the time was right because the district was in contract negotiations with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and because President Obama had made a commitment to improving teacher quality in public schools.

PFT president Jerry Jordan said inexperienced teachers could be effective and creative.

The union prefers that schools have a mix of veterans and new teachers.

At schools with large numbers of low-income students, the best incentive for attracting and keeping effective teachers "is having great leadership and good working conditions for teachers," Jordan said. "Those are the things that make the biggest difference."

Unmanageable

Two views from the BCCT

Pension poison
‘Unmanageable!’
Dramatically higher school district contributions to the state pension fund could push stressed taxpayers over the brink.

We’ve all heard it before: “There are no guarantees in life.” And some of us might have believed it. Wrong. Very wrong.

There is a guarantee in life and it's called the Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS). The state-mandated, taxpayer-funded pension system is as guaranteed as it gets.

We refer to Tuesday's Page 1 story, "Schools face huge pension hikes." The headline, while accurate, is incomplete. What you find out when you read the story is that it's taxpayers who face huge pension costs, because the enormous increases in pension contributions that school districts must, by law, begin making will be passed on to taxpayers.

This is yet another result of the economic meltdown. Like a lot of pension funds that are invested in the market, Pennsylvania's school employees fund has been losing money. A lot of it. Unlike private pension funds, the school employees' fund, or PSERS, is guaranteed.

On its Web site, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, also known as the teachers union, describes it this way: "Unlike private-sector defined benefit pension plans that have made the news in recent years, PSERS pensions are guaranteed by law as contractual agreements between the participants and the state of Pennsylvania. PSERS, essentially, is a separate fund set up by the state to earn investment returns that will help the state pay for the pension benefits. The pension obligations themselves are guaranteed by the state."

And that means, in the union's boastful words, "Current and future PSERS retirees' pension checks are not affected by market conditions."

It would have been nice if state lawmakers had insulated school tax bills from market conditions. But they didn't do that. They did hike their own pensions a whopping 50 percent a few years ago, and simultaneously increased school employees' pensions 25 percent - perhaps a thank-you for all those campaign contributions from the school employees' unions.

But it's taxpayers who have to fund those increases and, likewise, who have to make up for the huge hit the pension fund has taken. Call it a double whammy.

The heavy hits will begin in the 2012-13 school year, when districts' share of the pension contribution, now at 4.78 percent, could jump to 30.22 percent. The rate will hover in the 30 to 35 percent range for a decade. "It could cost us $6.6 million more" in 2012-13, one local school district business manager fretted, adding: "These numbers aren't manageable."

No, they're not. Not for the taxpayers on whose financial backs the school districts ride.

And that means our state lawmakers must do something. They can't ignore this one - or come up with another politically safe but ultimately phony solution like they've done time and again on tax reform. They've got to step up - AND FIX IT!

Here are a couple of ideas: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Wisconsin, which likewise has sustained huge pension losses, will cut public employees' pension benefits. In Virginia, lawmakers are considering a bill that would freeze the current pension plan for public employees and replace it with a 401(k) for all future hires. The Pennsylvania Senate considered a similar bill in 2007, but it went nowhere. RESURRECT IT!

And how about that gluttonous pension hike lawmakers brazenly bestowed on themselves and school employees? It was selfish then - ruinous now. REPEAL IT!

Look, change won't come easy, we know that. The state teachers union for one will fight any alterations to its pot of retirement gold. On its Web site, the union notes that "defined contribution plans, e.g. 401(k) and 403(b), are affected" by the current economic crisis. Those are the retirement plans regular people have. And it urges union members to circle the wagons: "We can expect continued political attacks on PSERS, but at a time when many individual investors have suffered considerable losses on their 401(k) and 403(b) retirement accounts, the merits of a defined benefit pension system have become obvious...

"That's why it is important for us to do everything in our power to protect and strengthen our defined benefit pension plan."

The battle looms. Who will lawmakers fight for?

And the answer?

Blatant conflicts standard fare in corrupt Harrisburg
By TIM POTTS

Tim Potts is executive director of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, a non-profit watchdog organization dedicated to the reform of state government.

When foxes guard the henhouse, the hens lose. Now substitute Pennsylvania lawmakers for foxes, the capitol for the henhouse and citizens for the hens. Guess who loses.

This week, Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV provided yet another example of how lawmakers manage to use their position to feather their own nests with blatant conflicts of interest that are perfectly and shamefully legal. Investigative reporter Jim Parsons documented that a large number of state lawmakers combine outside income from private ventures with assignments on committees that oversee those same ventures. Among the conflicts:

A lawmaker who is employed by a company that is regulated by a committee on which the lawmaker sits. As if that isn’t enough, the lawmaker also rents his district office space from his employer.

A lawmaker who is both on the board of a company that sells insurance and on the House Insurance Committee.

A lawmaker who both owns a firm that consults with agribusinesses and is chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Lawmakers excuse serving two masters by claiming that their outside occupations bring expertise to committee work. But there is no shortage of expertise available to committees without creating such conflicts of interest. To use a timely example, what bankers sitting on the Banking Committee would blow the whistle on financial derivatives from which they and their employers are making tons of money?

As Parsons’ report points out, this kind of self-dealing is not illegal. The lawmakers, after all, are the ones who would have to make it so, and they, like hedge fund managers, have every incentive to let their own good times roll, no matter how much it costs the public.

Don’t we pay lawmakers enough that they should forego outside employment that conflicts with their duties on behalf of the taxpayers? Or at least be barred from committees that most often write the final form of legislation that the full House and Senate consider?

WAMs — The Mother of All Conflicts

One of the things the conviction of former state Sen. Vince Fumo and the latest charges against former state Rep. Mike Veon have in common is the conspicuous conflicts of interest made possible by the largely secret and unaccountable Walking Around Money (WAMs). Among Fumo’s 137 convictions for public corruption were $1.5 million in WAMs that Fumo laundered through a Philadelphia non-profit. The allegations filed against Veon included nearly $10 million in WAMs allegedly laundered through his own non-profit, the Beaver Initiatve for Growth (BIG).

Both cases point out the potential dangers of allowing lawmakers to appropriate money to themselves. While not all such arrangements conclude with illegal acts, it’s hard to know because absent a grand jury investigation, no one’s minding that henhouse either. The Department of Community and Economic Development that is the source of most WAMs allows WAM recipients to choose their own auditors thereby failing to ensure that either Fumo’s or Veon’s high-profile WAMs were being used legally. Does anyone think they do a better job with the less visible WAMs?

Another problem with WAMs is that they come at the expense of other things. When lawmakers get to choose whether to give money to themselves or to food banks, domestic violence prevention, schools or back to taxpayers, who gets the money? How many taxpayers think the best use of $160,000 a year was to pay Veon’s brother to do nothing of benefit for taxpayers? The only way to ensure that lawmakers’ interests aren’t conflicted is to eliminate the conflicts as much as humanly possible.

What’s the solution?

All of this will change when citizens decide to stop wasting their money on corruption and on political leaders who abide corruption.

A year from today, the entire House and half of the Senate will be asking for your vote. If they don’t clean up the capitol, will they get it?

One or more schools must go

From the BCCT.

One or more schools must go
Centennial anticipates uncontrollable costs the next five years and significantly higher contributions by 2013 for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System.
By MANASEE WAGH
STAFF WRITER

To most parents’ delight, the idea of a single elementary school went up in smoke.

However, Centennial’s not out of the woods yet.

A troubling financial outlook means one or more of the six current elementary schools will need to close within the next few years, said board members recently.

If nothing is done, the district’s expenditures would outstrip revenues every school year. By 2013-14 taxes would surpass the state mandated increase by about $7.9 million, according to projections from the district’s business office.

The administration says those numbers are conservative.

Projections even two years out show taxes surpassing the state-mandated limit by $1.4 million, assuming an Act 1 tax index of 3.9 percent for each year after 2009-10.

Under the state’s Act 1 legislation, school districts have to hold a public referendum to raise taxes more than 4.1 percent, which is unlikely since more than 80 percent of district residents do not have kids in public school, said school board operations committee members Cindy Mueller and Mark Miller at a recent meeting of the Courier Times editorial board.

“The Act 1 limit could change year to year. We don’t know,” board President Thomas Reinboth said Tuesday.

Over the next five years, Centennial anticipates uncontrollable costs, including a new professional staff contract next year and significantly higher contributions by 2013 for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Operating and maintaining all the elementary schools currently adds $5.8 million annually.

“A big wild card is the teacher’s contract we’ll be negotiating,” said Reinboth. The current contract expires in June 2010. “That could have a tremendous impact on the numbers, good or bad, but hopefully positively. We as a board will be reviewing these numbers at a finance committee meeting next week. I think it’s important for the whole board to review it,” he said. Total employee salaries and benefits represent about three-quarters of the budget. Teacher salaries and benefits are a large component of the total.

Revenue won’t keep up with expenditures, according to official figures, and the district doesn’t know enough details about how much the federal school stimulus would provide.

To save the most money in the long run, Miller and Mueller, who make up two-thirds of the operations committee, were pushing for a single $91 million elementary campus in Shenandoah Woods, a Warminster housing development for Willow Grove Naval Air Base before it closed. The federal government would have donated the land.

The campus was projected to save $2.2 million yearly, more than any other option that architects Burt Hill formulated, including renovating all schools. Constructing the single school in phases for an opening in 2013 would have reduced the gap in the budget from $7.9 million that year to $4.3 million, according to projections.

The existing elementary setup contains more than 60 unused classrooms altogether, said architects. With uneven class sizes and systems badly in need of renovation, the buildings cause an unnecessary drain on district finances, say board members.

Now the district and architects are going back to the drawing board to formulate other options besides the original 13 the board considered and discarded in the past month.

A more in-depth look at the financial plan will be discussed at an April 20 public finance committee meeting. It takes place at 6:30 p.m. in district offices at 433 Centennial Road, Warminster.

Special needs require higher costs

From the Pottstown Mercury

School district reality: Special needs require higher costs
Published: Monday, March 30, 2009
By Evan Brandt/ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

POTTSTOWN — In 10 years, the number of special education students in Pottstown schools increased by more than one third, the number of special education classroom assistants increased three-fold and the number of special education teachers jumped from 26 to 40.

Outlined in a report to the school board Thursday, that information covers the period between the 1996-97 school year and the 2006-07 school year.

Further, in just the last two years, the number of special education students has increased by 64, from 443 to 507 and the district has added nine more special education teachers, bringing the total to 49. And in that same period, seven more special education classrooms assistants have been added, bringing this year's total to 79.

According to a statewide report released just last month, the increases in Pottstown are part of a trend being seen throughout Pennsylvania.

Between 2002 and 2007, special education enrollment in Pennsylvania has jumped by 25,000 students, Batseon said of the report's findings.

Not surprisingly, during that time, the district's special education costs have also grown.

That's because, statewide, it costs 2.3 times as much to educate a special education student on average as it does to educate kids without special needs.

In addition to the additional staff, "hidden costs" come in the form of "extra paperwork and meetings," said Pamela Batseon, the district's director of special education and student services.

The "Costing Out Study" conducted for the Pennsylvania Department of Education and released this year notes that the base cost for educating a student in Pennsylvania is about $8,000 per year.

By contrast, in Pottstown the annual average cost for a special needs student's education is $20,933, the study shows.

Still, Bateson said, that number is less than most other districts in Montgomery County.

Which is not to say it's cheap.

Last year, the district spent $10.1 million on special

education, said Business Administrator Linda Adams. This year, the special education budget is $10.5 million

But numbers don't tell the whole story.

"The numbers are not as simple as they might appear on the surface," Batseon told the school board.

A mind-numbing number of factors affect special education, its costs, its requirements and the manner in which the services are delivered, and not just in Pottstown.

With the state regularly monitoring the district for compliance with the maze of regulations, Batseon identified for the board no less than 23 areas on which the district must maintain constant compliance.

They include things ranging from "assistive technology," to drop-out and graduation rates, to parent participation and ensuring special education students are taught in the "least restrictive environment."

"We are comparing for compliance monitoring right now that will take place at the end of the month and we need to be able to demonstrate things like ensuring there are 28 square feet per special education student in each building," Batseon said.

Understanding how those regulations work can save the district from expensive litigation. "In Pottstown, we do not see the level of litigation and due process cases other districts are hit with," Bateson said.

While there is no shortage of state and federal regulation of special education, state and federal funding is scarce.

According to the costing out study, 391 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts have inadequate special education funding, Batseon said the report concludes. In most districts, the shortfall is about $1 million per year.

Adams said typically, state aid comprises about 30 percent of Pottstown's special education budget and federal funding another 1 percent.

School Board Vice President Robert Hartman said one reason state funding falls so short is a change the state made decades ago in how special education is funded.

Under the previous system, the state reimbursed districts based on how many special education students they actually have.

Then, the system was changed to make reimbursements based on a formula that assumes a similar ratio of special education to nonspecial education students in each district, Hartman said.

But that sort of assumption is expensively inaccurate, as studies show that districts with lower income families have a disproportionately higher number of special education students, meaning the districts with what are often the weakest tax bases are burdened with some of the highest costs.

Despite that evidence "the state never said 'whoops, we were wrong' and changed it back," said Hartman.

For example, one factor that the state's formula fails to take into account is the Catch-22 that the borough's schools actually attract families with special education students because of its expertise with handling special education because of its already high special education population.

"We do a good job with special needs and people do come to this district for that," Hartman said

One of the things at which Pottstown has become expert is handling even difficult cases in-house.

For example, sending a student with extreme needs who attends the "life skills" classes, to the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit would cost a total of $60,000 a year. Taking that same student "in-house" costs taxpayers $15,412.

Bateson said the 35 students Pottstown has taken back, although the action required more staff being hired, ultimately saves Pottstown taxpayers $1.5 million per year.

Similarly, the autism classes the district has established, where 15 students are educated, saves the taxpayers $700,425 a year over sending them to the Intermediate Unit, Bateson said.

Taken together, these efforts to bring students back to Pottstown to be educated have saved the average Pottstown property owner, with an assessment around $80,000, about $160 per year, Business Manager Linda Adams estimated.

Bateson pointed out that the staff in Pottstown is working toward moving students into regular education.

The best way to do that, experts say, is to catch any issues early in a child's educational career.

Perhaps that is why the vast majority of the district's special education students, and accompanying staff, are located in the elementary schools.

Of the district's 507 special education students, 230 are in the elementary schools, along with 23 teachers and 38 assistants.

Another 129 students are in the middle school and 148 in the high school.

Of course, another Catch-22 of special education is that the earlier you identify students as having special needs, the more of them you have.

Never the less, Batseon pointed out that in 2006/07 school year, 105 students were found eligible for specal education services.

This year, only 73 were identified.

"We're not just spending more of the district's money," said Bateson. "We're really trying to do what's best for the students and keep the district out of hot water."

Schools face huge pension hikes

From the BCCT.

Schools face huge pension hikes
The increases needed to make up for the poor performing teacher retirement fund will cost districts and their taxpayers millions of dollars.
By GARY WECKSELBLATT
STAFF WRITER

If stock market returns in 2009 replicate those from 2008, school districts will be forced to increase their contribution to the Public School Employees’ Retirement System from next year’s 4.78 percent to 30.22 percent in 2012-13.

That year will begin a decade-long string of pension payments of at least 30 percent of teacher salaries followed by another decade where the numbers range from 23 percent to 29 percent.

And that’s the good news. Property taxpayers will have to dig even deeper if the retirement system doesn’t earn a return of at least 8 percent. “I hesitate to even think what the tax increase might be,” said Jeffrey B. Clay, executive director of the system. He’s not alone. “These numbers aren’t manageable,” said Robert Reinhart, business manager at Pennridge. “It could cost us $6.6 million more” in 2012-13, said Reinhart. If the market turns around and the system earns an 8.25 percent return this year, that 30.22 percent would drop to 20.16 percent in 2012-13 and the next two decades would mean contributions in the teens. Still a difficult scenario for districts and their property taxpayers.

Clay gave a 57-page presentation Monday night to about 40 school administrators and school board members at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit in Doylestown.

“Horrible, just horrible,” Linda Palsky, of the Pennsbury School Board, said of the numbers.

Chuck Baker, a school board member in Central Bucks, said, “People in the community can’t even pay their taxes now. It’s really a shame.”

The retirement system, which has more than 547,000 members, is the 12th largest defined benefit pension fund in the country. Working members contribute between 5.25 percent to 7.5 percent of their salary to help fund their retirement.

PSERS lost 29.68 percent during the 2008 calendar year compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-34 percent, the third worst year in its history), S&P 500 (-39) and NASDAQ (-41). From a high of $70.1 billion in October 2007, the fund had $43.3 billion “as of Friday,” Clay said, essentially the same amount it had in 1998.

During the market turbulence in October, he said, the fund had days it lost $1 billion.

For parts of his presentation, Clay spoke of changes to funding formulas through state legislation that lowered the employer contribution, an actuarially determined rate that is the percentage of payroll the school employers are required to pay into the state’s pension fund so it has enough money to pay retirees. The commonwealth reimburses the school districts for a little more than half of the employer contribution rate.

Clay said for 12 years the “employer normal cost” has been lower than it should have been because of legislation that “pushed off liability to the future to provide fiscal relief to both the commonwealth and school employers.”

That relief is long gone, if it was ever felt.

“It burns me that we have to put it back into the fund to make up for their losses and we have people who have lost plenty and nobody is helping,” Baker said. “This has got people upset.”

David Matyas, business manager for Central Bucks, said, “Reducing staff is the only alternative to manage this. The numbers are higher now (because of the stock market losses) but we knew this was going to be a problem. There’s no way out, that’s what’s so sobering about it.”

According to a chart displayed by Clay, if the pension fund gained 35 percent a year for the next three years, a nearly impossible feat, contributions would be below 5 percent.

“You’re not going to earn your way out of this,” Clay said. “There is no silver bullet, no copper bullet, no lead bullet. Additional funds are needed for this system.”

Merit Pay for Teachers

From the Inquirer.

Second look at merit pay for teachers
President Obama, Phila. schools chief on board.
By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted on Mon, Mar. 30, 2009

President Obama is on board. So is Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman:

Changing the way teachers are paid is an idea whose time has come, one key to fixing a broken education system, both have declared publicly.

Though the subject is historically thorny - teachers unions staunchly oppose most merit-pay plans - advocates say that because teacher quality is crucial to student learning, it's time to take another stab.

"It's a new day, and it's time for us to look at performance. Adults have to be accountable for results," Ackerman said in a recent interview, echoing a theme that has become familiar in her nine-month superintendency.

In "Imagine 2014," her newly released strategic plan, Ackerman calls for financial and nonfinancial incentives for teachers and for a system that gives bigger paychecks to specialists in hard-to-staff subjects and schools.

And in his first education-policy speech, Obama earlier this month said: "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom." Money will be available for incentive programs, the president said.

In Philadelphia, the new money could come in handy to close a deal at the bargaining table. Negotiations are under way for a new teachers' contract to replace the pact that expires Aug. 31.

So far, union reaction is tepid. Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said he would be willing to examine extra pay for specialists and incentives in some form, "but I don't want to give the idea that I'm throwing seniority out the window."

Merit-pay systems are tough to design in a fair, clear way, Jordan said, adding that he worries they encourage unhealthy competition and discourage teacher collaboration. Rather than individual rewards, incentives should be given to a whole school for improvement, he said.

Jordan also rejected the suggestion that "teachers aren't working hard enough. It's a fallacy that if we put this money out there, they're going to work harder."

Ackerman said she would be willing to start with whole-school incentives and would also include teacher training.

"If I had my way, I would love to see us raise the base pay for all teachers and begin to pay teachers based on not only their certification, but the use of that in high-need areas," Ackerman said. For instance, if a teacher were bilingual, taught science, and worked in a hard-to-staff school, they would get three steps of extra pay.

Merit pay is not new in Philadelphia. The 2000 teachers' contract awarded some bonuses for teachers who worked in hard-to-staff schools. And in 2006, the district received a $20.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop and implement a teacher-incentive program.

At the time, the federal grant was announced with much fanfare - the union would be the district's partner, officials said, ensuring the plan would succeed where others failed.

But the deal fell apart.

"We worked with the union on the proposal, but the PFT ultimately decided not to support the program," said Tim Field, a Philadelphia School District administrator.

Jordan says that the district's surprise $180 million budget deficit that year caused classroom conditions to deteriorate and that the district did not make good on promises to include union suggestions in a merit-pay scheme.

"The conditions were just not conducive for asking teachers to become involved in a program like this," Jordan said.

The district kept the money, and today, 11 charter schools have tapped into the fund, awarding their teachers incentives for student growth and "effective practices."

Though incentives for teachers have been around for decades, there's a lack of solid research around whether merit pay boosts student performance, said Matthew Springer, director of the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University, which has federal funding to study whether incentives work.

"It's a movement that's gaining traction," said Springer, "but we really don't know if it's an effective reform or not."

Merit pay has been tried with varying degrees of success around the country. Locally, the Colonial School District adopted incentives in 1999, but found that its initial formula was flawed and unfair. The union even struck, in large part because of merit pay, in 2001.

Now, the Montgomery County district pays "master teachers" extra and gives incentives to schools that raise student achievement.

Some states, including Texas and Florida, have adopted incentive programs, and New York City is piloting a pay-for-performance program. In Washington, maverick superintendent Michelle Rhee has floated a proposal for teachers to give up tenure entirely for performance-based pay.

Denver's merit-pay system has been around since 1999 and has shown student gains in an internal evaluation.

It is called ProComp, and under the plan - mandatory for new teachers and optional for veterans - teachers start at higher salaries and can move up the pay scale quicker than they could under the traditional system, said Phil Gonring, an official with Denver's Rose Community Foundation, a nonprofit group that helped design the system.

Applications, both for the district and its hard-to-staff schools, are up, Gonring said, and a number of surrounding districts are also considering adopting similar pay structures. He said he expected the movement to grow nationally.

"Eventually, we're going to get to a point - maybe under the Obama administration - where enough districts adopt performance-pay plans that we'll get to a tipping point," Gonring said.

Traditionally, high-poverty schools across the country have had a disproportionate share of inexperienced teachers, but merit pay would make it more attractive for veterans to pick those schools, Gonring said.

And because a teacher can rapidly jump from making $35,000 to $60,000, sharp young people who might otherwise shy away from classroom jobs are thinking twice about teaching, he said.

"You can suddenly compete with the other professions with which you're not currently competing," Gonring said.

Theodore Hershberg, a University of Pennsylvania professor and executive director of Operation Public Education there, said he believed that merit pay was a start, but that systemic change was necessary. His group has designed new ways to follow student learning over time. Teachers' pay would be based in part on that growth.

Hershberg says it is time to change the old model that paid teachers on experience as a way to avoid race and sex bias.

Peer review, a career ladder teachers can move up quickly, and strong teacher training are all part of his model, which Hershberg said he hoped Philadelphia would consider.

"The whole society is based on merit," Hershberg said. "Why is public education the only place where we don't give a damn if you're any good?"

Is Your School Board Simply a Rules Making Board?

From "Reflections of the TZST Teacher" at edublog.org

Is Your School Board Simply a Rule Board? Mine Isn’t!

On Saturday, I got a wikimail from one of my students with his homework attached. (His was one of 4 students out of 5 assigned that I received over the weekend.) Here’s what he said about going to present (as a 9 year old) to our School Board.

“My experience at the school board meeting was phenomenal. We got to use technology that I have never even heard of, like Dell Minis. My presentation was cut short because of tech problems, but I still felt like it was the experience of a lifetime. Because of that meeting, my math class got five ipod touches to use! I would like to be able to go to the next school board meeting if I can. Thanks for letting me go and I hope that the third graders that came were able to show you that we use a lot of technology in school.”

Why does he want to go back? Because he learned, because he was honored, and because he got to show some of his work to people who matter. He had an authentic audience and he also knew he had something to offer that audience–our elected School Board members.

On Thursday, March 26, 2009, as part of a technology innovator group, I took three third graders to our school board work session to share how they have been using wikis in our math class.(You can see specifically what my students shared here.)

Several years ago, our board members realized that while they were making decisions that affected the future of education in our schools, they often did not feel they knew enough about those issues to make truly informed decisions. Thus, our School Board work sessions were created.

In these sessions, our School Board becomes a Learning Board. That means that for an hour, our leadership team sets up break out sessions that teach the board about a particular topic, in this case, technology. On Thursday, we had 3 break out sessions for 7 school board members, and they chose which session to attend. After the hour, the board typically comes back together and shares out from each session so that they learn from the group’s collective experiences.

The brilliance of our leadership team shone through that night, as they had arranged the 3 sessions to also highlight other important facets of learning as well-the “three R’s” of Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. My students and I were in the “Relationships” strand.

Before that night, the people involved in my section of the session had pre-planned on this wiki:http://tech-relationships.wikispaces.com/ where you can see the kinds of things we were sharing. The idea was to begin with the youngest elementary sample (my 3rd grade wiki) and work up through the grades.

Our session had 2 SB members in it–Mr. Ronnie Price, who currently has children in our schools, and Mr. Steve Kolezar, who does not. Both asked great questions, listened intently and made connections to their own experiences in the context of our sharing. Mr. Price spoke to the fact that he has begun a wiki at his work at UVA and the adults there don’t participate on it as well as my students. He also spoke to the fact that his own middle school student goes to school and unplugs from the technology he uses outside of school. Mr. Kolezar, later, in the sharing, spoke not only to the engagement of the students, their knowledge and their expertise but also the importance they felt in the connections with both other students and the teacher through the wiki work.

My co-presenting teachers are astounding educators and the collective sharing of our group was simply riveting. As teachers listening to our colleagues, we all learned much as well! The passion for learning, using technology as a tool and especially for helping our students succeed showed openly in each person who spoke. We clearly develop those relationships through our teaching (both with and without technology), and that was noticeably recognized.

Social networking was one of our topics, as we talked not only about wikis, but also Twitter, texting, nings, blogs, social bookmarking and Google Docs. That led Mr. Price to ask questions about students bringing personal devices into our system, and gave us an opportunity to speak to both the potential advantages and disadvantages of that practice. He then later brought that up to the entire board as something to consider, so the groundwork was laid for future discussions and possibilities.

The sharing out from the board members was absolutely amazing to hear. Mr. Price spoke eloquently about the fact that we can provide all the rigor and relevance we want, but if the students do not feel involved in worthwhile relationships, the rigor and relevance probably won’t engage them. The social networking piece was basically addressed in each break out group, so while each member heard about it from a slightly different perspective, the socialness of learning was clearly a theme underlying all the presentations, and the board recognized that.

The members took turns sharing what they had learned, fielding questions from one another and clarifying their understandings with one another. They actually complained a bit because, in listening to one another, they wished they could attend EACH session for themselves! (We should think about recording each session in the future, I know!)

About 2/3rds of the way into the sharing, my Superintendent, who I follow and who follows me on Twitter, said to the board that the meeting was being Twittered as they spoke, and she turned to me. (I had been tweeting the comments from the board and my astonishment and pride at the whole experience.) Dr. Moran, our Sup’t, asked the board if they’d like to see the tweets, and they said yes, so I literally got up from the audience, hooked a computer back up to the LCD projector and shared some of my tweets as well as responses from all over the world live to the board. Talk about demonstrating the power of Twitter! (Feel free to follow me. I’m @paulawhite.)

The words of another student, in his homework, (also turned in over the weekend) says what I feel in the last sentence!

“My experience at the School Board meeting was fun. I loved seeing all kinds of cool technology (iPod touchs, Dell minis and Dell laditudes.) I It was fun skyping with Dr. Brown. It was cool knowing that you are talking to the people who decide what the schools do.”

It IS cool knowing you are talking to a LEARNING BOARD, and that they use that learning to help make decisions!

Saving teacher jobs tough

From the BCCT.

PROMISES, PROMISES: Saving teacher jobs tough
By: LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press

President Barack Obama promises his economic stimulus law will save hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs, but some states could end up spending the money on playground equipment or wallpaper _ and the president might not have the authority to stop them.

Obama says nearly all of the education money in the Recovery Act, which will start going out to states this week, is designed to retain teachers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan threatens to "come down like a ton of bricks" on anyone who defies the administration's plans to bring relief to states like California where 26,500 teachers have gotten pink slips. Across the country, 9 percent of teachers _ about 294,000 _ may face layoffs because of budget cuts, according to a University of Washington study.

But plans for the money are pulling in other directions, particularly in states with Republican governors:

_ Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle wants to fill a budget gap.

_ Idaho Gov. Butch Otter wants to hold the money in reserve.

_ South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wants to pay down debt; he's been turned down by the White House budget office and is threatening to refuse some of the money, as is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

There are loopholes in the stimulus law for both states and school districts.

Of the $100 billion for education in the stimulus bill, $40 billion comes as part of a fund to stabilize state and local budgets that has fewer strings attached. As the bill made its way through Congress, lawmakers decided not to prohibit states from using the stabilization money to replace precious state aid for schools. That means instead of getting extra help to weather tough times, school districts could wind up with the no additional state aid even as local tax revenues plummet.

State lawmakers and governors in Kansas, Rhode Island and Texas are among those seeking to use their federal stimulus dollars to replace state aid, rather than add to it.

In addition, the law was written so broadly that most of the stabilization dollars can be spent on just about anything _ carpet, wallpaper, playground equipment, even new school construction _ which may bother Senate moderates who insisted on dropping a new school construction program before they would vote for the bill.

That's because school districts can spend the money as federal impact aid, a relatively small program for poorly funded districts. By contrast, most federal education dollars are supposed to be spent on teacher salaries or academics.

"Congress opened a Pandora's Box to allow districts to use the funds for impact aid," said Michael Brustein, a Washington attorney who represents several state education agencies. "How you enforce against that is anyone's guess."

Santa Ana, Calif., English teacher Isa de Quesada is waiting to hear whether the stimulus dollars will bring her and 10 other teachers back to their school this fall. If not, class sizes at her school and others could swell, hurting the emphasis on quality education.

"Right now, I have 40 in two of my classes; we could go to 50 to 55 next year," she said in an interview.

Recently, de Quesada had the chance to ask Obama about it in person when the president visited for a town hall meeting: "How are we going to make sure that money comes to our districts?" she said.

Obama replied that "the lion's share" of the money is to keep teachers on the job.

Duncan said he can come down hard on states that don't comply because he is releasing the money in installments, and because he will award billions of dollars in competitive grants later this year.

"And if we see an instance or two, or whatever it might be, where folks are not operating in good faith," he said, "we will both withhold that second set of money, and we will eliminate them from any possible competition to receive these billions of dollars in discretionary money."

Duncan also said last week he is looking for ways to force money to states where governors have said they would refuse it.

The administration could also face intense political pressure from members of Congress if stimulus money for their states is withheld.

"The jury is really still out on how forceful the Obama administration is going to be on this," said Amy Wilkins, a lobbyist for Education Trust, a children's advocacy group.

"We've heard a lot of secretaries of education talk about rigorous enforcement and, `We are really going to hold them accountable,'" she said. "We rarely get that."

The administration lobbied successfully to attach other strings to the money. In their applications, states must show improvement in teacher quality, data systems, academic standards and tests and supporting struggling schools.

Applications for the stabilization dollars will be available this week, and two-thirds of the money for education, $27 billion, will be released within two weeks of an application's approval. K through 12 dollars are another reason why it may be tough to keep teachers from losing their jobs.

That money goes to states through a formula tied to state spending. The less a state spends on education, the less federal money it gets _ and that works against states in the worst financial shape.

March 30, 2009 12:15 PM

Pennsylvania Learning First Alliance

From PublicNewsService.org


Teachers, Educators Come Together to Tackle PA Student Achievement Gap
March 30, 2009

Harrisburg, PA - Why do some students in Pennsylvania schools thrive, while others don't? That's a question educators and administrators from across the state hope to get answers to during a conference next week in Harrisburg. It's being put together by the Pennsylvania Learning First Alliance, made up of a dozen education and child advocacy groups that want to take a closer look at the student achievement gap.

James Testerman, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, says that gap can start before a child ever walks into a classroom.

"Some children arrive in kindergarten knowing how to spell their first and last names, knowing their letters and their colors, and others arrive in kindergarten really never having had any of those educational experiences."

The U.S. Department of Education says the No Child Left Behind Act is helping to close the gap through student testing and by holding schools accountable for children's academic progress.

Testerman says testing has helped uncover the achievement gap, but that students learn better and succeed more often in an environment that looks beyond test scores.

"We know that a rich and diverse curriculum really does promote more student learning than does focusing on just reading and math tests."

As to whether the problem is one centered on the educational system's priorities, Testerman says more important than who's at fault, is having a constructive dialogue on finding answers and leveling the playing field.

"Not to cast blame. Not to say that it's all the responsibility of any one group. We really do need to work together because we're all in this together and we each play a critical role."

More than 200 educators and school officials from across Pennsylvania are expected to take part in the first-of-its-kind conference.

Student Testing and Sports Analogies

From pennlive.com

Graduation exams necessary for PA's students to succeed
by Dan Rooney, Sunday March 29, 2009, 3:01 AM
Rooney believes state should have graduation tests

Our goal for the Pittsburgh Steelers is to compete at the highest level. We expect nothing less from our players and coaches, and believe they can achieve this if we provide the resources and support necessary. Our track record bears out the wisdom of this approach.

I write today about a subject infinitely more important than a football game, but one for which we as a state must make the same commitment the Steelers do on the gridiron. The subject is the education of our children, and specifically, the need to raise the standards required for students to successfully complete high school.

This is a personal passion of mine, as well as a deep concern as a businessperson. My daughter, Mary Duffy, teaches young children in Allegheny County's Woodland Hills School District.

Each year, she has several students labeled "difficult or challenging." My daughter gives these students all the attention she can, while also teaching the rest of the class -- itself a difficult and challenging task.

But Mary often tells the story of the payoff for her hard work when one of these difficult students walked into the room, put his arms around her, and said, "Miss Rooney, we love you."

No one has greater respect for our teachers than I. So, knowing many don't agree with Governor Rendell's plan for strengthening graduation assessments is not something I take lightly. I share teachers' concern that the six to eight hours a day they have with children isn't enough to ensure academic success and fully agree parents' responsibility and accountability for their child's education, is greater than the teachers'.

However, to teachers, parents and anyone else who feels we should not bolster our graduation standards in Pennsylvania, I say: We are not changing the standards for high school graduates; they have already been changed for us.

When my father founded the Steelers, professional football wasn't much more than a hobby. Players suited up during the fall, and held other jobs the rest of the year. Training camp was a time to get in shape and learn the playbook.

Back then, an education at the local school, with a diploma that satisfied the needs of local businesses, was sufficient to find a job and provide for your family.

Today, anybody showing up at camp not in tip-top shape with a thorough understanding of what is expected of him won't be on the roster for long. These standards weren't changed by the colleges sending their best players to the NFL, but by the ever increasing competition among the professional teams themselves, competing for ever greater stakes.

So it is with education. The modern world and job market require a high school diploma that says the holder is in tip-top academic shape, ready right now to compete with the best not just in his or her community, Pennsylvania, or the United States, but to compete with the best in the world.

We all see how our children today communicate, interact and engage one another with little regard to national boundaries or political maps. We are truly in a worldwide community, and this will expand only in regard to the economy.

Given this reality, our children who continue their education beyond high school must go into those classrooms prepared to gain the knowledge and training necessary for them to be the innovators that have always been the biggest part of the American spirit.

Our children who go directly into jobs must be immediately ready to compete within a global marketplace by possessing the skills, work ethic and determination that has made the American work force the pride of the world.

We must never shortchange our children with shallow expectations. Our children can and will meet any challenge if we give them the resources and support necessary.

This requires that we have strong, consistent graduation assessments throughout Pennsylvania, so colleges and employers know a student coming to them from a Pennsylvania high school is ready for what's next. Our students need this confidence, too.

That young boy, the difficult student who said, "Miss Rooney, we love you," didn't come to love my daughter as a teacher because she let him just get by, but because she believed in him and demanded he become the best he could be.

Our students will always bring the greatness of our nation to the world. We must always believe in them and their ability to be the best. Consistent, rigorous graduation assessments are a great way to start.

Dan Rooney is chairman and owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is slated to be the next U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

COMMENTS (1)Post a comment
Posted by elvisc on 03/29/09 at 9:01AM

I'm going to write a column on how to run a football team. I really have no idea how, but I have watched a few games. So I hope the Patriot News will publish it.

As a former engineer/manager and current physics teacher, I am grateful for Mr. Rooney's concern about education. But part of our current problem is in giving too much weight to the ideas of people who have not actually been in the classroom and who have no apparent expertise in the field.

How about Mr. Rooney be required to field a team by randomly selecting 20 or 30 people off the street? He may set his standards high if he likes, but it will not change the fact that they will be his only team members, and they will have to meet those standards. This is why I hate sports (or even business) analogies to education.

There is no doubt that we need to make changes in the education system, but anyone involved in business and manufacturing knows that you can not inspect quality into a product at the end of the production line...that will simply lead to a lot of failures and rejects.

As an engineer and manager, I was critical of education, too. So I entered the field myself, partly to learn more about what's right and wrong with it. And I can assure readers that it is a far more difficult and complex job than it appears on the outside. In a business, many of these students would be fired in a minute, or not hired in the first place. That is not an option for teachers.

Until we offer some alternatives to the non-performing, disruptive, uninterested students (like a vocational path as they do in many European systems), we will be hurting our current system.

You can set standards as high as you like, but the fact is that there will still be many students who just don't give a damn about those standards. We need to do everything we can to help those students find a rewarding and positive path in life, but more and more testing and higher and higher standards will not get us there.

Council Rock Teens face gun charges

From the BCCT.

This is why parents and schools need to be working together. The teachers cannot do it without the parents. The parents cannot do it without the teachers. It's as simple as that.

Teens face gun charges
By: MATT COUGHLIN
The Intelligencer

A 15-year-old Council Rock South sophomore planned to bring a gun to school, threaten or even shoot a teacher and said he had no qualms about hurting anyone who got in his way, according to police.

He and two other 15-year-olds from the Holland section of Northampton hatched two separate sets of plans that involved the same stolen handgun to get what they wanted earlier this week, investigators said. Instead, they face criminal charges.

The boy who planned to intimidate his teacher was upset that she was telling his parents he was doing poorly in class and wanted to change her mind, or if not, shoot her, police said.

The other two planned to use the gun to threaten someone in Middletown, according to police. However, they were arrested before they could find their target.

On Monday, a Middletown resident called 911 to report two suspicious juveniles looking at houses in his neighborhood. Police said they found the two 15-year-olds walking toward the Neshaminy Creek along Brownsville Road near Woodbine Avenue. The two appeared to be casing the homes, though police said they planned to intimidate someone in that neighborhood.

Police said the teens were evasive when questioned. Officers found a stolen Walther P22 concealed in one of the teen's pants and both were arrested. Someone had unsuccessfully tried to scratch the serial numbers off the gun, police said. However, police traced the gun's registration to a man on West Patricia Road in Northampton. He didn't know the gun had been stolen until Middletown police contacted him after the arrests.

The capture of his friends and seizure of the stolen gun foiled the plans of the would-be school shooter, police said. School officials learned about the threats from other students, and the boy was detained until police could take him into custody.

The stolen gun the teen planned to use was never in the school, police said.

But investigators said he did have the gun in his hands at some point before his friends were caught with it Monday. That's why, in addition to charges of making terroristic threats, the teen arrested at Council Rock South is charged with receiving stolen property, possession of an instrument of crime and possession of a firearm by a minor. He remains at the county juvenile detention center in Edison pending a hearing next week.

The two teens arrested by Middletown police Monday also were sent to Edison, where they have been charged with attempted burglary, attempted trespassing, criminal mischief and conspiracy. The one who had the gun at the time of arrest also faces charges of carrying a concealed firearm, a minor carrying a firearm, receiving stolen property and altering the serial numbers on the gun, police said.

March 28, 2009 12:00 AM

Step Away From that Coffee

From the front page of the BCCT.

I'm looking at my breakfast table: The bacon is bad for me. Ditto the eggs. The hash browns are dripping with butter. And now my coffee is a problem.

Did anyone tell the good people over at Dunkin Donuts about this?

Yum. This is a good breakfast!

Study: Hot beverages may increase throat cancer risk
Scientists have found people who drink extremely hot beverages experience an inflammation of the lining of the esophagus, damaging the protective tissue over time, which can increase cancer risk.
By JO CIAVAGLIA
STAFF WRITER

Most people know that cigarettes and excessive alcohol can kill you, but what about a cup of hot coffee or tea?

For more than 20 years, scientists have speculated about a possible connection between super hot beverages and increased risk of some throat cancers, but study outcomes have been mixed. But a study of Iranian tea drinkers provides new strong evidence of a link, researchers say.

The latest results published online in the British Medical Journal last week found abnormally high rates of squamous cell esophageal cancer among people living in a Northern Iran province where alcohol is forbidden, tobacco use is rare, but very hot black tea is a daily staple.

The observational study analyzed the smoking, alcohol and tea habits of 871 people, 300 of them recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer and found a strong link between drink temperatures and the likelihood they developed esophageal cancer.

Participants answered questions about their tea-drinking habits including the temperature and how long they let the tea brew before drinking it. Nearly all participants said they drank black tea daily.

Squamous cell esophageal cancer was eight times as common among people who drank “very hot” tea, compared to warm or lukewarm tea drinkers. By the same comparison, hot tea drinkers were twice as likely as warm or lukewarm tea drinkers to have esophageal cancer.

The scientists classified warm beverages as anything below 149 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot beverage, considered higher than 156 degrees Fahrenheit, doubled the risk of esophageal cancer.

Study participants who frequently drank tea at 158 degrees Fahrenheit or above had an eight-fold increased risk of esophageal cancer. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers concluded that allowing beverages to cool before drinking reduces the cancer risk.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is the most common type of esophageal cancer responsible for a half-million deaths each year worldwide. Tobacco and alcohol use are the most common causes of windpipe cancer in Europe and America, but scientists also theorized that frequent consumption of hot drinks might play a role.

For Abington Memorial Hospital oncologist Dr. Mark Sundermeyer, what makes the new study interesting is it removed the two biggest cancer risk factors —tobacco and alcohol — which allowed the focus to remain on beverage temperature.

What scientists have found is that people who drink extremely hot beverages experience an inflammation of the lining of the esophagus. Over time, it results in damage to the protective tissue.

The damaged lining likely doesn’t cause the cancer, but it does allow carcinogenic compounds in foods to enter the body, Sundermeyer explained.

Sundermeyer added it’s unclear what the findings would mean to Americans. He knows of no scientific studies looking at the average temperature of hot beverages in the United States. His hunch, though, is U.S. restaurants tend to serve superheated drinks.

“I could very well see someone make a cup of coffee and it’s that hot,” he said.

Awards and Savings and Election Hijinks

From the BCCT.

There's an interesting discussion about the plaque awarded by the school board to Ron Stout. Once again, there's some pre-electoral shenanigans going on as some commenters on this blog have pointed out as well as the commenters to this story.

Would anyone think "there is more than a slight appearance of a conflict of interest" in presenting this award? Heavens to Betsy!

Did the board pay for the plaque? Then when was the public vote authorizing it?

Was the plaque paid for and presented by private citizens? Then why was it presented at a school board meeting under the implied endorsement and consent of the school board?

BUCKS BRIEFS
Bucks County Courier Times

School renovations set

The board approved bid proposals of $3.44 million for asbestos abatement, window replacement, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work at Morrisville Middle/Senior High School this summer.

The work was expected to cost about $4 million, but the bids came in lower.

"We're very happy with the results of these bids," said Bill Corfield of Vitetta, the architectural firm handling the work. He surmised that costs have dropped because of the economy.

Savings on major items allowed the board to accept bids on all items needing renovation, not just the HVAC and window replacement. The work on boilers, classroom ventilators, windows and other systems will improve efficiency and save the district in future energy costs, said board President William Hellmann.

Resident Ron Stout received a plaque for ideas that saved the district money. His suggestion to have the high school's hot water piping tested for reliability instead of simply replacing it saved $719,000 on renovations, said board member Maryls Mihok, who presented the plaque to Stout at the Tuesday board meeting. The pipes were found to be sound enough to continue being used.

Stout, who's running for school board, brought up ideas that should save the district $200,000 in future Grandview renovations, Mihok said. "I don't care who saved us money. I would have given the award to anybody," Mihok said.


Comments
Broken For Sure, 03-27-09, 10:46 am | Rate: Flag -3 Flag | Flag Report
"School renovations set"
(Stout, who's running for school board, brought up ideas that should save the district $200,000 in future Grandview renovations, Mihok said. "I don't care who saved us money. I would have given the award to anybody," Mihok said.)

Campaigning has come early to Morrisville Borough - and thanks to people like Mrs. Mihok, its ugly, but not surprising.

You would give an award to anybody? Really? I doubt it, although you did give one to Ron Stout so that statement may be very true. From what I can see, Robin Reithmeyer has saved the school district millions in legal fees for pointing out wrong-doings of the present school board majority in Morrisville, so WHERE'S HER PLAQUE?! The previous school board majority was undermining the community in a big way and the current school board majority is just more of the same. Its just disgusting. When watching school board meetings on the TV its such a dog and pony show, (and now we even have awards, WOW.)

Is this the same Marlys Mihok who, just last week, went to a Morrisville Council meeting and blasted Councilman Rivella, accusing him of accepting campaign contributions, (as Mr. Rivella pointed out, it may be new to Morrisville but it certainly isn't new to politics) and accusing him of being on council just to get a Responsible Contracting Ordinance in place, (From what I've heard the RCO was actually put before council by another person long before Mr. Rivella was even elected to council.) Mrs. Mihok, where's Mr. Rivella’s plaque for trying to save the borough millions of dollars with this ordinance?! It would be nice if Mr. Stout could formulate a sentence or two on his own for a change so that he wouldn't need his very small circle of friends like Mrs. Mihok and her cronies to try to build him up by awarding him a bogus plaque at a televised school board meeting. NO GRANDSTANDING THERE AT ALL! Yeah right.

As for Mr. Rivella and the ordinance, I’ll tell you right now that I supported this guy and I continue to do so. Mr. Rivella’s got what it takes to take on people like Jane Burger, Marlys Mihok and their kind and he and his group will actually be able to make positive changes in Morrisville once they successfully get the same old guard off council in November. I CAN’T WAIT!

I’ve been watching and I can clearly see a few things about Dave Rivella. He’s a family man who's dedicated to Morrisville Borough and he's working hard to move Morrisville forward in spite of the people on council who don’t want this. If Mr. Rivella was in any other profession, he would naturally go to the people surrounding him for fundraising purposes so why would it be any different because he’s a union guy?! Wake up people, this is how its done. Are you trying to say that everyone else should be allowed to fundraise but he should not?! As Mr. Rivella rightly pointed out at the last televised council meeting, all of his campaigning finance contributions have been public record since 2007 but are just now being brought up, as we are in another campaign cycle, ( by the very people he won his seat from, by the very people who don’t want change of any kind - unless they're dismantling the school system that is.) I believe these people are jealous and running scared because they know that Mr. Rivella seemed to actually have people who thought enough of him and his fellow "good Democrats" to support them where as the likes of Mrs. Mihok, Mrs. Burger and their kind have to rely on negativity. This kind of behavior by these naysayers puts Morrisville in a bad light and is disgusting to watch.

AwHellYeah, 03-27-09, 12:56 pm | Rate: Flag 2 Flag | Flag Report
Robin Reithmeyer hasn't saved the district anything. She is your typical politician.


Broken For Sure, 03-27-09, 2:25 pm | Rate: Flag -2 Flag | Flag Report
AwHellYeah
"Robin Reithmeyer hasn't saved the district anything. She is your typical politician."

I don't agree, although I can understand why someone may think she. She does her thing of standing up to the school board majority, but I just can't give her any credit for being a politician. She voted for Fitzpatrick not once but twice. I'm sure there were people in her own party who weren't too happy about that. Is she outspoken...yes ...is she a politician, her actions say differently...a nd I just don't see it.

AwHellYeah, 03-27-09, 2:31 pm | Rate: Flag 1 Flag | Flag Report
Go to a Democratic Club meeting then.

Broken For Sure, 03-27-09, 5:07 pm | Rate: Flag 0 Flag | Flag Report
Simply being involved as a Democrat or Republican does not make you a political person per say. You are simply promoting your fundamental beliefs with others. Having a party affiliation does not make you a politician. Being involved within either the Democratic or Republican parties or any other party does not make you a politician. I believe there are many people in Bucks County alone who belong to political clubs yet are not politicians. Its a mean business and I can understand why it isn't for everyone. Mrs. Reithmeyer is clearly not politically savvy, although she is, I believe from what I can see trying to do what SHE feels is correct as a Morrisville School Director. I believe that if she was fighting with the board majority instead of***ainst them she would be there hero. But then again there is only room for one of them and this week it seems to be Mr. Stout, award in hand. (I mean no harm...just a little joke...very little though it may be)

Public Budget Meetings

From the BCCT.

Why would any school board want to do this in public? Keep it quiet: That's the Emperor's philosophy.

Pennsbury to hold budget meetings in a public forum
By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times

Pennsbury wants residents to participate in one or more of three open forum discussions on school district budget planning for next year.

In a difficult budget year in which Pennsbury is looking for ways to save money in all departments, the district wants as much input from residents and stakeholders as possible, CEO Paul Long said during a recent board meeting.

"We will use a town meeting forum at for these discussions, which will enable residents to have dialogue with school board members and administrators. At each forum, a budget update will be presented and then residents will be invited to share their ideas and comment on education and finance at Pennsbury. Locations for these public discussions were selected to provide convenience for school district residents," said school board President Gregory Lucidi in a prepared statement.

The meetings are scheduled from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.:

April 7, Pennwood Middle School auditorium, 1523 Makefield Road
May 7, Afton Elementary School cafeteria, 1673 Quarry Road
June 4, Walt Disney Elementary School auditorium, 200 Lakeside Drive North

Call: 215-428-4178.

Manasee Wagh can be reached at 215-949-4206 or mwagh@phillyBurbs.com.

March 28, 2009 12:00 AM

Unions enter fact-finding in contract impasses

From the Intelligencer

Unions enter fact-finding in contract impasses
By: LOU SESSINGER
The Intelligencer

The school board is working on contracts with teacher aides, secretaries and teachers.

Labor strife involving three employee unions continues to be the center of attention in the Souderton Area School District, and there continues to be little information about the progress of resolving that strife.

That was the essence of school district solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik's update to the school board at its meeting Thursday night.

Sultanik reported that the unions representing the district's teacher aides (Souderton Area Educational Support Personnel Association) and secretaries (Souderton Area Secretaries Association) have entered what is known as "fact-finding" in their contract impasse with the district.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has appointed a fact finder to review the contract offers of the two unions and the district and recommend a settlement.

Health benefits and salaries have been reported to be the issues dividing the parties, but details of the contract offers haven't been made public because of the bargaining process.

Sultanik said that the school board can expect to receive the fact finder's recommended settlement on Monday.

The recommendation will not be made public, and the unions and school board will have between five and 10 days to vote whether to accept or reject it.

"If both sides accept it, we'll have a settlement," Sultanik said.

If either side rejects it, the recommendation will be made public, and the unions and school board will have a period of time during which they'll take a second vote.

The process involving the aides' and secretaries' unions is "a somewhat different procedure" than that governing the contract impasse with the teachers union (Souderton Area Education Association), the solicitor said.

Following a strike that delayed the start of the school year in September, the union and board are in a process of non-binding arbitration. After a series of confidential hearings on both sides' final best offer, the three-member arbitration panel will recommend a settlement.

Both sides will vote to accept or reject it. If either side rejects it, the union could stage a second strike of limited duration.

School Director Eric R. MacDougall asked when the board could expect to receive the arbitrators' report.

"I don't know," Sultanik replied, "but I suspect it will be after this current process (involving the aides and secretaries) is completed.

"Four to six weeks is my best guess."

The school board has offered the teachers a three-year contract with pay raises of 2.5 percent a year. The union is seeking raises of 8 percent a year to bring their salaries in line with those of school districts in the region.

Lou Sessinger can be contacted at 215-345-3148 or lsessinger@phillyBurbs.com.

March 27, 2009 02:41 AM

Bristol Redistricting Blues

From the BCCT.

Parents split on proposed redistricting
By: JOAN HELLYER
Burlington County Times

Some Bristol Township parents are happy that their kids could be transferred from one district elementary school to another. Others are up in arms at the prospect that their kids or others in the area could face a second change in their school assignment within the last three years.

The emotions ran from one extreme to another Wednesday night at Lafayette Elementary School as parents reviewed a proposed redistricting plan for about 40 students in attendance area 44A.

It involves kids who live within walking distance of Maple Shade Elementary School. Their neighborhood had been assigned to Maple Shade until about three years ago, when the school board reassigned the area to Lafayette to better balance the student population in the two schools.

Now the population has shifted again, and a revision in assignments is needed, Lafayette Principal Jim Moore told the estimated 50 district residents who attended the information session in the school cafeteria.

The affected area is within the neighborhood bounded by Glenrose Avenue on the west, Arthur Avenue to the north behind Franklin Delano Roosevelt Middle School, Dixon Avenue to the east and Newport Road to the south, according to district officials.

Students within that area who attend Lafayette this year may continue to attend their current school if their parents want them to, district officials said. But, new enrollees to the district and kindergarten students would have to attend Maple Shade.

The rest of the students who are in the attendance area that borders Route 13 and Route 413 would continue to go to Lafayette, according to the proposal, as they have done so for the past three years since the previous redistricting.

The thought of another change brought back old wounds from the last reassignment for some parents.

“That is why the neighborhood and community doesn’t trust you,” parent Paula Hess told board members who attended the information session.

Others, including Dorena Geier, were overjoyed that their child could soon attend an elementary school within walking distance.

“I want my kid back at Maple Shade. If [the proposed redistricting] doesn’t go through, can I still send her back? We’re right across the street,” Geier said.

The school board will consider the proposed redistricting during its April 20 meeting. The 7:30 p.m. meeting will be held in the district’s administration building off Mill Creek Road.

Joan Hellyer can be reached at 215-949-4048 or jhellyer@phillyBurbs.com.

March 26, 2009 07:48 AM

Renovation Bids Top Estimate

From the Intelligencer.

This is why Morrisville can out-perform any other school district financially. We have the know-how of The Emperor, who can cost out any plan, anywhere, anytime, and it will never, ever go over budget. We don't need fancy degreed and experienced people to provide studies.

School renovation bids under estimate
By: LOU SESSINGER
The Intelligencer

If the dark cloud of the economic recession has a silver lining, it could be that some contractors anxious for work might be willing to work for less than they would in brighter financial times.

That was the message the North Penn school board heard Wednesday as it prepared to award $9.7 million in bids for renovation work at North Wales Elementary.

Those bids brought the total estimated cost of the project to about $11.2 million, said D. Michael Frist, the school district's director of business administration.

That's almost $4.5 million less than the $15.7 million the district had budgeted for the work.

"It's about 26 percent under the estimate," Frist told the board. "It has to do with the current economic climate and that the bid candidates are looking for work."

The bids the school board approved Wednesday included $3.7 million to general contractor Ernest Bock & Sons Inc; $2.4 million for HVAC work to Myco Mechanical Inc.; $881,000 for plumbing to Worth & Co. Inc; $1.3 million for electrical work to MJF Electrical Contracting Inc.; $379,000 for fire protection to Apex Plumbing & Heating Inc.; and $969,000 for site work to Bencardino Excavating Inc.

The board also approved a bid of $119,900 to Sargent Enterprises for asbestos abatement at the North Wales school.

The renovation work at the school, located on Summit Street in North Wales, includes a new lobby and main office, bus lanes, a driveway and parking lot, as well as upgraded heating, electric and sprinkler systems, new carpets and repainting.

The school opened as a high school in 1928 and became an elementary school in 1955. The work is expected to begin this summer and be completed in the summer of 2010.

Lou Sessinger can be contacted at 215-345-3148 or lsessinger@phillyBurbs.com.

March 26, 2009 02:41 AM

Dilbert Explains the Emperor

From Dilbert. The Emperor and his style of collecting feedback from the group.









And so does the BCCT.

To Morrisville school board President Bill Hellmann, who apparently considers the school district his own private domain.

We refer to the early retirement plan approved by the board this week. Call it a post-dating.

Seems Hellmann developed the plan jointly with the teachers union president and sent a letter disclosing the initiative to union members. He did so, however, without the board’s approval, involvement or even some members’ awareness, according to a few disgruntled board members. And there was no mention of the plan at committee meetings or executive sessions of the board, the members complained.

Hellmann said he mentioned his intentions in February. Nonetheless, board members complained that Hellman has a very bad habit of not telling the board what he is doing or thinking.

For all the good it will do, we remind Mr. Hellmann that the Morrisville School District is not a kingdom and he is not its king.

Free Admission With Badge

From the BCCT.

Meeting features police security
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times

Township meetings have become increasingly hostile, with shouting, name calling and heckling among residents and supervisors.

Some new faces joined the usual cast and crew at this week's Northampton Board of Supervisors.

Two police officers, one in uniform, the other in plainclothes, were asked to stand guard at Wednesday's meeting by township Manager Bob Pellegrino. This happened two weeks after Pellegrino called police to a supervisors meeting because of a raucous recess.

Northampton's meetings have been increasingly hostile, with shouting matches, name calling and heckling - residents versus supervisors, residents versus residents, supervisors versus supervisors.

With the officers there, Wednesday's meeting was, by far, the most civil in quite some time. But not everyone appreciated the police presence.

Supervisor Jim Cunningham said he was troubled by the police presence at the supervisors meeting and at a Northampton Bucks County Municipal Authority meeting down the street last week. He requested police be excused from sitting through public meetings.

"It's my belief that their presence in these meetings only serves to fuel any resentments or hostilities that the residents have," he said. "There are more pressing matters I'm sure that they would have to tend to in the community."

Supervisors Chairman Vincent J. Deon agreed, but also noted the good behavior at the meeting with the cops sitting in the audience.

"I agree 100 percent with you, Mr. Cunningham. But it's pretty clear that the civility and decorum has gone up about 105 percent with them in the room," he said of the police officers. "There are others of us that believe the same way, but it's the safety of this board that Bob Pellegrino is partly in charge of."

Pellegrino, who didn't attend Wednesday's meeting, said Thursday that it was his decision alone to have police on site. He said he wants to ensure order and make sure everyone is safe at Northampton's meetings. The police, he said, are there only to break up any possible physical confrontations.

The move also was criticized by some residents, including Tim Snee.

"What kind of paranoia is going on that you have to have armed police here at our meetings?" he asked. "What are we going to do next? Metal detectors? Are we going to have to take our shoes off before we come in? Put everything in a crate when we come in, put it through an X-ray machine? This is ridiculous."

People who attended the meeting two weeks ago at town hall said tempers flared during the public comment portion. During the recess, arguments broke out and there was a potential physical confrontation brewing, they said. That's when Pellegrino called the police.

Thanks For Your Career, Now Get Out!

From the BCCT.

In a completely standard move, the Morrisville board launched another surprise. Attention Morrisville teachers: Yes, YOU! The one with the grey hair and the college diploma chiseled into a stone tablet. We pay you too much and can replace you with someone at half your salary. Thanks for the memories. Now get out. You have one month to decide.

This is mitigated by union prez King mentioning that he initiated the talks and I do not blame him. Looking out for these people is his job. If I had the time in, I'd escape this district too. The chaos and uncertainty this board leaves in its wake is reason enough.

The administration had a hard time finding replacements for teachers one at a time. Can you imagine filling nine spots or more?

Good point. WILL these teachers be replaced? The (patent pending) Do More With Less Magic-8 Ball says *shake*shake*shake* "Fewer seats needed at 2009 staff Christmas party"

Board to offer retirement packages
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times

In an effort to save money, the Morrisville school board agreed Wednesday to allow eligible staff members to take advantage of an early retirement incentive plan.

The move, approved 6-2, was not without its critics.

Board members Gloria Heater and Robin Reithmeyer opposed the offer. Reithmeyer said board President William Hellmann had acted on his own to offer the incentive plan and that other board members were not aware of it until last week, several days after Hellmann sent a March 5 letter with incentive plan details to the teachers union.

In addition, the plan was not brought up in a board committee meeting or in executive session, Reithmeyer said.

At Tuesday's meeting, union President Drew King said he had initiated talks with Hellmann and the district by presenting them with a rationale for such a plan.

Hellmann and the administration had responded to King's request and worked closely to come up with a proposal for the union, said district solicitor Michael Fitzpatrick. School code was not broken because their offer could not have gone into effect until a consensus of the board voted on it, he said.

Reithmeyer said Hellmann does not openly let the board know what he is doing and thinking. He said he had communicated his intentions regarding the retirement incentive plan to the board in February.

The incentive plan is valid for full-time permanent professional employees who have had 15 years of continuous service with the district and want to retire on June 30. It offers two options: either a lump sum of up to $70,000 or medical premium reimbursement to age 65, capped at $1,200 per month. That's if nine or more eligible staff members take the offer. The lump sum payment amount will be less if fewer people opt to take the offer.

How much the district would save depends on how many decide to take advantage of the incentive and how and if the district decides to replace them, said Paul DeAngelo, the district's business administrator. Individual teachers have until April 30 to apply.

March 26, 2009 02:11 AM

"Just trying to help other people"

From the BCCT.

Real heroes. That sums it up. And these four live right here in town riding the big red trucks when YOUR house or business is threatened.

Give up a big round of applause for all the firefighters.

'Just trying to help other people'
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times

Four firefighters are among a group of 39 people to be honored as "Real Heroes of Bucks County."

Four volunteer firefighters headed home in the early hours of one September morning knowing they did everything they could.

Twenty-five-year-old Morrisville Fire Co. Chief Matt Wiedenhaefer, then the deputy chief, and fellow firefighters Jason DeShields, 29, John Weiss III, 25, and Tim Jones, 38, pulled an unconscious young couple from their flaming garden-level home at Colonial Gardens Apartments on Plaza Boulevard,

The firefighters never got to know much about the couple, though. The two, who were burned and inhaled smoke as a kitchen fire destroyed their apartment, died in the days following the incident.

"It's a damn shame," the chief said recently, while sitting with his comrades in the fire station's office, which is adorned with pictures of Morrisville fires, including the fatal Colonial Gardens blaze. "But it's one of those things where you know that you did everything you could."

He never questioned what else they could have done. "We did absolutely everything," he said.

As Weiss led the way, dousing the fire in the blacked-out apartment, Wiedenhaefer, DeShields and Jones helped with the hose and patted around looking for bodies, although no reports of entrapment had reached them.

Once inside, Jones said, the firefighters evaluated the whole situation, the heat, the smoke, the darkness.

And then, "Oh + we got a body, now we gotta get him out. There's 7,000 things going through your [mind]. You're playing every scenario out in your head in about 15 seconds, if that."

DeShields first found the young woman in the living room. She was taken out the front door. Shortly after, in a rear bedroom, he found the man, whose heart was not beating. Firefighters got him outside through a rear window, and rescue workers got his heart pumping again. Both were rushed to area hospitals. It was the first time DeShields found people inside during a call.

"It's like feeling a big pile of clothes, but then you realize that it's not a pile of clothes. You feel that arm, you know you got somebody," DeShields said. "It's a totally different ballgame once you feel that."

And it wasn't easy. The only light the firefighters had was the glow of the flames they were fighting. "If you literally cover your eyes, that's what you see. You see nothing. You can walk straight into a wall," Weiss said.

The firefighters - among 39 people to be honored by the American Red Cross as "Real Heroes of Bucks County" Thursday - all joined the company for various reasons, family ties, community safety, the adrenaline rush. But they'll admit, what they did was just part of the gig.

"It's not a glory thing, or anything like that," Wiedenhaefer said. "You're just trying to help other people and make sure they're OK."

March 25, 2009 02:10 AM