From the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader.
Pa. pension funds tell lawmakers of major losses
By MARK SCOLFORO
Pennsylvania's two major public-sector pension plans on Tuesday gave state lawmakers the bracing news that together their investments lost more than $28 billion in value last year.
Officials who oversee the separate funds for state workers and public school employees also warned that a sharp increase in taxpayer subsidies looms because stock market losses will make a long-anticipated 2012 rate spike much steeper than recently projected.
The two funds' percentage losses on investments were similar. The value of State Employees' Retirement System investments dropped 28.6 percent in 2008, while Public School Employees' Retirement System investments fell 29.7 percent.
State Employees' Retirement System chairman Nicholas J. Maiale said such increases would represent a severe budgetary challenge for the state.
The State Employees' Retirement System, which benefits mostly state workers, valued its investments at $24 billion as of Dec. 31, a drop of $11.5 billion for the year. Maiale said investments did better than the overall market in January but still lost about 3 percent.
The school retirement system, which benefits teachers and other school employees, reported a six-month loss in value of $17.3 billion to $45.4 billion from the beginning of the state's fiscal year on July 1 to Dec. 31. A dollar total for the year was not immediately available.
The state employees' pension fund said the losses mean employer contributions could approach 29 percent of payroll by 2012, far higher than had been expected after its investments had generated impressive returns in recent years. For most people enrolled in the State Employees' Retirement System, the government is their employer. The system's current employer contribution rate is 4 percent of payroll.
The teachers' pension fund said it projects its spike could exceed 28 percent for the 2012-13 year. If that occurs, the pain will be felt acutely by people who pay property taxes to fund school districts. The current rate is 4.76 percent.
"Ultimately we've got to hope that the market does grow" in the coming years, said Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia.
No additional pension payments that might serve to reduce the spike are included in the 2009-10 state budget outlined by Gov. Ed Rendell two weeks ago.
Although they are often referred to as spikes, the higher rates in 2012 will more closely resemble the start of a higher plateau. They are expected to usher in a lengthy period of much higher payments by taxpayers.
The spike has its origins in a 2001 law that increased pension benefits for most legislators by 50 percent, with 25 percent increases given to state workers and school employees.
Retirees, who did not benefit from that change, then clamored for a cost-of-living increase, which the Legislature passed the next year. In 2003, with a big increase in mandatory pension payments about to hit, the Legislature and Rendell struck a deal to delay most of the pain for a decade.
The day of reckoning is now only a few years away.
The pension fund executives were among the experts appearing at an all-day meeting of the House Appropriations Committee as it began consideration of Rendell's proposed budget.
Ron Snell with the National Conference of State Legislatures told the committee that states do not typically rebound immediately after an economic tide turns.
"Even if the economy hits bottom toward the end of this year, we would expect state fiscal recovery to lag that," Snell said.
Another witness, Acting Revenue Secretary Stephen Stetler, said Rendell's proposed natural-gas extraction tax is projected to bring in $632 million a year by 2013-14. Another new tax the governor wants, on video poker, would eventually produce $550 million annually, he said.
State Treasurer Rob McCord, who was sworn in last month, said his department has "chronic, hazardous and time-sensitive" shortcomings in its technology systems. He said the department's aging mainframe computer broke down over Thanksgiving and required a $10,000-a-day patch through a Houston company.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Schools fall short on special education funding
From the Somerset County Daily American. Thanks to the emailer who sent the original tip.
Study: Schools fall short on special education funding
By VICKI ROCK Daily American Staff Writer Friday, February 13, 2009 11:34 PM EST
Most school districts in Pennsylvania, including all those in Somerset County, are not spending enough on special education to meet the students' basic needs, according to a new study.
Augenblick, Palaich and Associates of Denver conducted the study for the Education Law Center, Disability Rights Network and the Arc of Pennsylvania, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities.
The costing-out study found that 391 of the state's 501 districts are spending less than an adequate amount on special education. It is a shortfall of $380 million annually, or $1,947 per special education student.
The consultant determined that the base cost for the average student was $8,003 in 2005-06, not including food, transportation, debt service and capital costs. The additional base cost for an average special education student is $10,404, bringing the total to $18,407. The report is to be the subject of a hearing before the House subcommittee on special education.
In Somerset County, Windber Area School District spent the most money on special education students. The report states that Windber spends $8,287 per special education student in addition to the basic education subsidy.
“We try to look at special education a little different, not as a different program,” said Superintendent Rick Huffman. “We see it as a different way of students learning and the different way we provide education. We have adaptive learning for all students from the most challenged to the most capable. We provide an environment for students to achieve. We look at how we can provide the best learning environment for individual students.”
In the next two years, the Windber district is going to look at various issues regarding student needs, he said. Administrators will partner with Windber Medical Center to take a holistic approach to learning, looking at issues including child development, nutrition and sleep deprivation.
“I believe we all have the best interests of the students in mind,” Huffman said. “The money that we have has to be spent effectively and appropriately for the students' needs.”
Somerset Area School District spends $6,885 per special education student in addition to the basic education subsidy, according to the report. Rebecca Bittner, special education director for the Somerset district, said the state and federal government make many mandates about special education, but then under-fund programs to support the students' needs.
“The local district does a good job of meeting the needs without the state and federal funding,” she said. “Special education can be very expensive - some students have multiple disabilities. I've been here since 2003, and I'd say the local school board does a good job of meeting the needs of special education students.”
M.J. Bartelmay Jr., president of the Arc of Pennsylvania, said Gov. Edward Rendell's proposed budget calls for no increase in state funding for special education. The basic education subsidy for students without disabilities includes a 5.7 percent increase.
“My son has Down syndrome and relies on special education,” Bartelmay said in a release. “With this budget, the governor is telling me my son isn't important.”
This budget in fiscal year 2008-09 included a 1.7 percent increase for special education, while basic education received 5.5 percent.
Michael Race, press secretary for the Department of Education, said the department is aware of the study and is reviewing it. They hoped to be briefed by the Education Law Center.
“I can't comment on specific findings until we are briefed,” he said. “The Department of Education shares the concern that all students are provided the adequate resources for learning, including special education students.”
The full report is available online at www.elc-pa.org. Download the report and executive summary here.
Study: Schools fall short on special education funding
By VICKI ROCK Daily American Staff Writer Friday, February 13, 2009 11:34 PM EST
Most school districts in Pennsylvania, including all those in Somerset County, are not spending enough on special education to meet the students' basic needs, according to a new study.
Augenblick, Palaich and Associates of Denver conducted the study for the Education Law Center, Disability Rights Network and the Arc of Pennsylvania, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities.
The costing-out study found that 391 of the state's 501 districts are spending less than an adequate amount on special education. It is a shortfall of $380 million annually, or $1,947 per special education student.
The consultant determined that the base cost for the average student was $8,003 in 2005-06, not including food, transportation, debt service and capital costs. The additional base cost for an average special education student is $10,404, bringing the total to $18,407. The report is to be the subject of a hearing before the House subcommittee on special education.
In Somerset County, Windber Area School District spent the most money on special education students. The report states that Windber spends $8,287 per special education student in addition to the basic education subsidy.
“We try to look at special education a little different, not as a different program,” said Superintendent Rick Huffman. “We see it as a different way of students learning and the different way we provide education. We have adaptive learning for all students from the most challenged to the most capable. We provide an environment for students to achieve. We look at how we can provide the best learning environment for individual students.”
In the next two years, the Windber district is going to look at various issues regarding student needs, he said. Administrators will partner with Windber Medical Center to take a holistic approach to learning, looking at issues including child development, nutrition and sleep deprivation.
“I believe we all have the best interests of the students in mind,” Huffman said. “The money that we have has to be spent effectively and appropriately for the students' needs.”
Somerset Area School District spends $6,885 per special education student in addition to the basic education subsidy, according to the report. Rebecca Bittner, special education director for the Somerset district, said the state and federal government make many mandates about special education, but then under-fund programs to support the students' needs.
“The local district does a good job of meeting the needs without the state and federal funding,” she said. “Special education can be very expensive - some students have multiple disabilities. I've been here since 2003, and I'd say the local school board does a good job of meeting the needs of special education students.”
M.J. Bartelmay Jr., president of the Arc of Pennsylvania, said Gov. Edward Rendell's proposed budget calls for no increase in state funding for special education. The basic education subsidy for students without disabilities includes a 5.7 percent increase.
“My son has Down syndrome and relies on special education,” Bartelmay said in a release. “With this budget, the governor is telling me my son isn't important.”
This budget in fiscal year 2008-09 included a 1.7 percent increase for special education, while basic education received 5.5 percent.
Michael Race, press secretary for the Department of Education, said the department is aware of the study and is reviewing it. They hoped to be briefed by the Education Law Center.
“I can't comment on specific findings until we are briefed,” he said. “The Department of Education shares the concern that all students are provided the adequate resources for learning, including special education students.”
The full report is available online at www.elc-pa.org. Download the report and executive summary here.
Neshaminy looking for ways to cut costs
From the BCCT.
Neshaminy looking for ways to cut costs
Posted in News on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 5:42 pm by Education Reporter Rachel Canelli
Like many people and businesses in this recession, Neshaminy officials are going to have to get creative when it comes to the school district’s budget.
So, they’re open to suggestions-from anybody.
That’s why the focus of the next two strategic action committee meetings at 7 p.m. March 2 and 16 in Maple Point Middle School on Langhorne-Yardley Road will focus on ways to trim the fat of the $167 million 2009-2010 preliminary spending plan, administrators said.
Due to increasing health insurance costs, the next school year’s expenses are estimated to be up $4 million from the current $163 million working budget. Projected at $153 million, revenues, though, are down almost $3 million from last year, according to business administrator Joseph Paradise.
If they were to fill the current $14 million gap, that could mean a $500 tax increase for homeowners with an average $27,080 assessment. But officials said they expect to cut the deficit to at least $5 million by applying for exceptions and coming up with other ways to cut costs.
The current millage rate is 148.6 and the value of one mill in Neshaminy is $767,884, administrators said.
Neshaminy is allowed to raise taxes by 4.1 percent, according to state tax law Act 1. That equals 6 mills, or $4.6 million, officials said.
Administrators said they don’t want to rely on using some of the $1.2 million fund balance, as they have in years past because the savings account has been dwindling and they’re afraid it won’t replenish itself.
Neshaminy is applying for about $3.3 million (2.9 percent, or 4.32 mills) in exceptions. Those exemptions are: $595,558 (.52 percent, or .78 mills) for special education; and almost $2.7 million (2.38 percent, or 3.54 mills) for maintaining revenues, officials said.
If approved, those exceptions would give the district a total allowable increase of $7.9 million in taxation- 7 percent, or 10.32 mills, administrators said.
Even after using the exceptions officials would still need to come up with $5 million to balance the budget.
The district could see additional savings and revenue from renting the Tawanka Learning Center and Neshaminy Middle School this summer and moving the ninth grade up to the high school this fall.
Administrators are already reducing overtime, eliminating travel and freezing any unnecessary expenditures.
Neshaminy looking for ways to cut costs
Posted in News on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 5:42 pm by Education Reporter Rachel Canelli
Like many people and businesses in this recession, Neshaminy officials are going to have to get creative when it comes to the school district’s budget.
So, they’re open to suggestions-from anybody.
That’s why the focus of the next two strategic action committee meetings at 7 p.m. March 2 and 16 in Maple Point Middle School on Langhorne-Yardley Road will focus on ways to trim the fat of the $167 million 2009-2010 preliminary spending plan, administrators said.
Due to increasing health insurance costs, the next school year’s expenses are estimated to be up $4 million from the current $163 million working budget. Projected at $153 million, revenues, though, are down almost $3 million from last year, according to business administrator Joseph Paradise.
If they were to fill the current $14 million gap, that could mean a $500 tax increase for homeowners with an average $27,080 assessment. But officials said they expect to cut the deficit to at least $5 million by applying for exceptions and coming up with other ways to cut costs.
The current millage rate is 148.6 and the value of one mill in Neshaminy is $767,884, administrators said.
Neshaminy is allowed to raise taxes by 4.1 percent, according to state tax law Act 1. That equals 6 mills, or $4.6 million, officials said.
Administrators said they don’t want to rely on using some of the $1.2 million fund balance, as they have in years past because the savings account has been dwindling and they’re afraid it won’t replenish itself.
Neshaminy is applying for about $3.3 million (2.9 percent, or 4.32 mills) in exceptions. Those exemptions are: $595,558 (.52 percent, or .78 mills) for special education; and almost $2.7 million (2.38 percent, or 3.54 mills) for maintaining revenues, officials said.
If approved, those exceptions would give the district a total allowable increase of $7.9 million in taxation- 7 percent, or 10.32 mills, administrators said.
Even after using the exceptions officials would still need to come up with $5 million to balance the budget.
The district could see additional savings and revenue from renting the Tawanka Learning Center and Neshaminy Middle School this summer and moving the ninth grade up to the high school this fall.
Administrators are already reducing overtime, eliminating travel and freezing any unnecessary expenditures.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Bucks man testing open records
From the BCCT.
Bucks man testing open records
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Dave Cahill is the first Bucks County resident to take the state's new Right-to-Know law for a test drive.
He submitted two appeals to the state's Office of Open Records after he said Penndel denied his requests for public information in early January.
A year and two days ago, Gov. Edward Rendell signed the new Right-To-Know law, changing the way Pennsylvanians access public records from state and local governments. The new law became fully effective Jan. 1.
Cahill said he hopes his challenge, received by the state Jan. 23, will pay off with copies of third-party reports paid for by the borough that detail the results of inspections of two privately owned properties in the borough.
Penndel's denial letter dated Jan. 7 states that the investigation reports were conducted by Building Inspection Underwriters based in Feasterville.
"The inspections and reports were paid by taxpayer money, so it should be public information," the borough resident said.
The company inspected two homes on the 400 block of Cynthia Avenue after complaints were filed that allege those properties have apartment-like structures, also known as equivalent dwelling units, in addition to the main house on the property. If that's the case, and the EDUs are rented, those property owners would be required to pay separate fees for garbage collection, sewer service and a renter's tax.
Penndel tax records show that one of the property owners is former council president Janet Myers, who earlier this month resigned as tax collector due to health concerns. She had been appointed to the position in 2008. Myers has said that she doesn't have a rental unit on her property.
The other property is owned by James and Susan Anderson. Susan Anderson is a member of the borough's Long Range and Finance Committee. The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching the Andersons for comment Friday.
Penndel council President Ward McMasters said he didn't want to comment on the issue, saying that it's a matter between Cahill and the state.
Under the Right-to-Know law, a record is presumed to be public unless a government agency can prove otherwise by citing specific reasons detailed in the law.
Penndel did that.
In its denial letter, the borough said the law "does not mandate the disclosure of records of an agency relating to a non-commercial investigation including investigative materials, notes, correspondence or reports. In addition, it discloses an unwarranted invasion of privacy."
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has 30 days to determine whether the information Cahill requested is public or private, office deputy director Barry Fox said last week. The office's appeals officer, Dena Lefkowitz, contacted Cahill and Penndel in a three-paragraph letter dated Feb. 6, advising them of the procedure.
Since Cahill's appeal, the state has received four others from county residents, including one from Fairless Hills resident Jihad Ali, who has requested information from a nonprofit group in Philadelphia. Two appeals are from Chalfont resident Mitchell Meyerson. And the other was submitted by Allison Dukes of Warwick.
Bucks man testing open records
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Dave Cahill is the first Bucks County resident to take the state's new Right-to-Know law for a test drive.
He submitted two appeals to the state's Office of Open Records after he said Penndel denied his requests for public information in early January.
A year and two days ago, Gov. Edward Rendell signed the new Right-To-Know law, changing the way Pennsylvanians access public records from state and local governments. The new law became fully effective Jan. 1.
Cahill said he hopes his challenge, received by the state Jan. 23, will pay off with copies of third-party reports paid for by the borough that detail the results of inspections of two privately owned properties in the borough.
Penndel's denial letter dated Jan. 7 states that the investigation reports were conducted by Building Inspection Underwriters based in Feasterville.
"The inspections and reports were paid by taxpayer money, so it should be public information," the borough resident said.
The company inspected two homes on the 400 block of Cynthia Avenue after complaints were filed that allege those properties have apartment-like structures, also known as equivalent dwelling units, in addition to the main house on the property. If that's the case, and the EDUs are rented, those property owners would be required to pay separate fees for garbage collection, sewer service and a renter's tax.
Penndel tax records show that one of the property owners is former council president Janet Myers, who earlier this month resigned as tax collector due to health concerns. She had been appointed to the position in 2008. Myers has said that she doesn't have a rental unit on her property.
The other property is owned by James and Susan Anderson. Susan Anderson is a member of the borough's Long Range and Finance Committee. The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching the Andersons for comment Friday.
Penndel council President Ward McMasters said he didn't want to comment on the issue, saying that it's a matter between Cahill and the state.
Under the Right-to-Know law, a record is presumed to be public unless a government agency can prove otherwise by citing specific reasons detailed in the law.
Penndel did that.
In its denial letter, the borough said the law "does not mandate the disclosure of records of an agency relating to a non-commercial investigation including investigative materials, notes, correspondence or reports. In addition, it discloses an unwarranted invasion of privacy."
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has 30 days to determine whether the information Cahill requested is public or private, office deputy director Barry Fox said last week. The office's appeals officer, Dena Lefkowitz, contacted Cahill and Penndel in a three-paragraph letter dated Feb. 6, advising them of the procedure.
Since Cahill's appeal, the state has received four others from county residents, including one from Fairless Hills resident Jihad Ali, who has requested information from a nonprofit group in Philadelphia. Two appeals are from Chalfont resident Mitchell Meyerson. And the other was submitted by Allison Dukes of Warwick.
Supervision or Snoopervision?
From the BCCT.
Officials discussing student drug testing
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
A decision may come before the end of the school year.
Central Bucks School District psychologists have spent the past three months meeting with focus groups to discuss the possibility of implementing a random student drug testing program.
They will continue the meetings through March and school district administrators will likely share the information with the school board in late spring. Superintendent N. Robert Laws said this week, "We just don't know yet how we're going to do this and if we're going to do it."
"We're coming on this at a time when our budget doesn't allow for a lot of frills, either," he said. "This isn't free. We're going to have to contract with a lab. No matter how much you invest in it, if you save a life, it's worth it."
Central Bucks has lost graduates to drug overdose in recent years. Jeramiah Seger and John H. Warren IV, both graduates of CB East, overdosed in 2006 on heroin laced with fentanyl. And Kyle Houck, a CB West graduate, overdosed on heroin about a year later.
Laws said the decision to discuss random student drug testing wasn't directly related to those deaths, but they were an influence.
"The unfortunate part is when you deal with young people, there are always cases," he said. "The motivation for us is that we want to put everything in place we can to help students make better decisions. A lot of kids tell us that if they know they might have to pee in a cup and they never know when that's coming, that's a deterrent."
School district officials started talking last spring about implementing a voluntary random student drug testing program in the high schools. They brought Christina Steffner, principal of Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey and an advocate for random student drug testing, to speak about how drug testing has worked at her school. And they surveyed parents.
The drug testing discussion was put on hold over the summer months and resumed in the fall with the focus groups. Laws said school administrators have met with "just about anyone who would talk to us," including officials from other schools, chiefs of police and business leaders.
Students from Hunterdon Central Regional High School will come to Doylestown early in March to share their thoughts on random student drug testing with students at Central Bucks.
If school officials decide to pursue a random student drug testing program, school officials will also have to research the legality of such a program, negotiate a contract with a lab, seek funding (Laws said the district will apply for grants) and draft a policy to be approved by the school board.
"At this point, I don't know what I'll even be recommending to the board," Laws said. "We want this to be something the community wants us to do. We don't want it to be talked down. We don't want it to be something we're forcing on people. If it's a benefit to keep the kids clean, then we'll provide it as a service."
Laws believes a random student drug testing program could be good for the community if the community wants it.
He said, "It's not about supervision or snoopervision; it's about getting into our kids' lives and protecting them."
Officials discussing student drug testing
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
A decision may come before the end of the school year.
Central Bucks School District psychologists have spent the past three months meeting with focus groups to discuss the possibility of implementing a random student drug testing program.
They will continue the meetings through March and school district administrators will likely share the information with the school board in late spring. Superintendent N. Robert Laws said this week, "We just don't know yet how we're going to do this and if we're going to do it."
"We're coming on this at a time when our budget doesn't allow for a lot of frills, either," he said. "This isn't free. We're going to have to contract with a lab. No matter how much you invest in it, if you save a life, it's worth it."
Central Bucks has lost graduates to drug overdose in recent years. Jeramiah Seger and John H. Warren IV, both graduates of CB East, overdosed in 2006 on heroin laced with fentanyl. And Kyle Houck, a CB West graduate, overdosed on heroin about a year later.
Laws said the decision to discuss random student drug testing wasn't directly related to those deaths, but they were an influence.
"The unfortunate part is when you deal with young people, there are always cases," he said. "The motivation for us is that we want to put everything in place we can to help students make better decisions. A lot of kids tell us that if they know they might have to pee in a cup and they never know when that's coming, that's a deterrent."
School district officials started talking last spring about implementing a voluntary random student drug testing program in the high schools. They brought Christina Steffner, principal of Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey and an advocate for random student drug testing, to speak about how drug testing has worked at her school. And they surveyed parents.
The drug testing discussion was put on hold over the summer months and resumed in the fall with the focus groups. Laws said school administrators have met with "just about anyone who would talk to us," including officials from other schools, chiefs of police and business leaders.
Students from Hunterdon Central Regional High School will come to Doylestown early in March to share their thoughts on random student drug testing with students at Central Bucks.
If school officials decide to pursue a random student drug testing program, school officials will also have to research the legality of such a program, negotiate a contract with a lab, seek funding (Laws said the district will apply for grants) and draft a policy to be approved by the school board.
"At this point, I don't know what I'll even be recommending to the board," Laws said. "We want this to be something the community wants us to do. We don't want it to be talked down. We don't want it to be something we're forcing on people. If it's a benefit to keep the kids clean, then we'll provide it as a service."
Laws believes a random student drug testing program could be good for the community if the community wants it.
He said, "It's not about supervision or snoopervision; it's about getting into our kids' lives and protecting them."
Tobacco Tax Trivia
From the BCCT. Who knew that tobacco was so vital to the Pennsylvania economy?
Debate over cigar tax smoldering in Pennsylvania
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Business, News on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 1:07 pm by Web content assistant editor David Rauch
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that makers and sellers of cigars worry this will be the year that the Legislature and the governor are finally able to win passage of a new tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.
Foes of tobacco usage have the opposite concern — that the tax will again be sandbagged. Cigars, snuff, pipe filler and other types of loose tobacco are subject to an excise tax in every other state, including tobacco strongholds North Carolina and Kentucky.
But in Pennsylvania, attempts to place a “sin” tax on cigars and loose tobacco have been thwarted time and again by cigar-loving politicians, wholesale retailers, snuff manufacturers, convenience store lobbyists and a small but oddly powerful bloc of tobacco farmers from Pennsylvania’s midsection.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell proposed a snuff and cigar tax in 2007, and the proposal was defeated. His Republican predecessor, Gov. Mark Schweiker, proposed the same, with the same results.
When Rendell proposed the tax two years ago, Pennsylvania was one of just three states that didn’t collect an excise tax on cigars, smokeless or both.
Today, it is the only holdout.
This year, Rendell pitched the tax anew in his budget address — 36 cents an ounce on loose tobacco and 36 cents per 10 cigars — and said it could raise $50 million in a full year.
The proposed tobacco tax was the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week.
Why have cigars and snuff enjoyed special status in Pennsylvania? Partly it’s because of the state’s historical role in tobacco production. At one time, it was one of the top three tobacco producing states, and the word “stogie” is derived from the small Pennsylvania town of Conestoga.
Farmers still do a robust business here, and last year harvested an estimated 17.6 million pounds of tobacco, up from 2007 and 2006 harvests.
Partly it’s because as other states approved excise taxes on cigars, Pennsylvania became a more attractive state for big cigar distributors to do business, and politicians don’t want to scare that business away.
And partly it’s because of the rural culture here — Pennsylvanians consume more moist snuff than any state but Texas. Seven percent of men use snuff here; the U.S. average is 3 percent.
-------------------------------------------
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Debate on cigar tax continues to smolder
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
By Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Given the state's sinking revenue returns, makers and sellers of cigars worry this will be the year that the Legislature and the governor are finally able to win passage of a new tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.
Foes of tobacco usage have the opposite concern -- that the tax will again be sandbagged.
Cigars, snuff, pipe filler and other types of loose tobacco are subject to an excise tax in every other state, including tobacco strongholds North Carolina and Kentucky.
But in Pennsylvania, attempts to place a "sin" tax on cigars and loose tobacco have been thwarted time and again by cigar-loving politicians, wholesale retailers, snuff manufacturers, convenience store lobbyists and a small but oddly powerful bloc of tobacco farmers from Pennsylvania's midsection.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell proposed a snuff and cigar tax in 2007, and the proposal was defeated. His Republican predecessor, Gov. Mark Schweiker, proposed the same, with the same results.
When Mr. Rendell proposed the tax two years ago, Pennsylvania was one of just three states that didn't collect an excise tax on cigars, smokeless or both.
Today, it is the only holdout.
Cigar purveyor Keith Meier wants it to stay that way. His company, Cigars International, moved to Northampton County a dozen years ago because there's no cigar excise tax here. It has grown into a $90 million company, the second-largest handmade cigar retailer in the United States, employing 150.
"That would all evaporate were we to swim to sunnier shores, such as Florida," the CEO said.
"Florida is a safer state because most of the industry is located there, and besides, it may make more sense for us to be there -- close to others in the industry, close to our manufacturing partners in the Caribbean basin and Central America," which reduces shipping.
This year, Mr. Rendell pitched the tax anew in his budget address -- 36 cents an ounce on loose tobacco and 36 cents per 10 cigars -- and said it could raise $50 million in a full year.
The proposed tobacco tax is to be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing today.
"Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that does not tax chewing tobacco, snuff or cigars, and our citizens overwhelmingly support a tax on smokeless tobacco, just as they strongly support increases in the state cigarette tax," the governor said in his budget address last week. (Florida taxes snuff, but not cigars, because the cigar industry is big business there.)
Popular support aside, the governor can expect a fight from the usual suspects, said Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, who sits on the finance committee.
"This will certainly be a controversial, contentious issue," he said. But he also noted that there's an element of fairness at stake -- cigarettes are already taxed at $1.35 per pack and the governor would like to increase that tax to $1.45, an increase Mr. Ferlo said he wouldn't vote for.
"It's continually unfair to always tax smokers of cigarettes," but not the smokers of those "fancy" cigars, he said.
Why have cigars and snuff enjoyed special status in Pennsylvania? Partly it's because of the state's historical role in tobacco production. At one time, it was one of the top three tobacco producing states, and the word "stogie" is derived from the small Pennsylvania town of Conestoga.
Farmers still do a robust business here, and last year harvested an estimated 17.6 million pounds of tobacco, up from 2007 and 2006 harvests.
Partly it's because as other states approved excise taxes on cigars, Pennsylvania became a more attractive state for big cigar distributors to do business, and politicians don't want to scare that business away.
And partly it's because of the rural culture here -- Pennsylvanians consume more moist snuff than any state but Texas. Seven percent of men use snuff here; the U.S. average is 3 percent.
"From a public health perspective, it's wise to tax other tobacco products," said Jennifer Ebersole, state policy director for the American Heart Association. In Pennsylvania, "We're seeing some of our youth switching to other tobacco products because it's cheaper and easier to get" than cigarettes, she said.
The tobacco industry itself has dug in and doled out thousands in campaign contributions.
Altria Group Inc., parent company to Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., has contributed thousands to state House and Senate campaigns over the last two years, including Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh head of the Senate Finance Committee. Cigar distributors and small vendors have done the same.
Cigar vendors here feel especially bombarded by the latest proposal. If the state tax goes into effect, it would come on top of the federal cigar tax increase included in the recently passed State Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill. That tax is effective April 1.
Debate over cigar tax smoldering in Pennsylvania
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Business, News on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 1:07 pm by Web content assistant editor David Rauch
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that makers and sellers of cigars worry this will be the year that the Legislature and the governor are finally able to win passage of a new tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.
Foes of tobacco usage have the opposite concern — that the tax will again be sandbagged. Cigars, snuff, pipe filler and other types of loose tobacco are subject to an excise tax in every other state, including tobacco strongholds North Carolina and Kentucky.
But in Pennsylvania, attempts to place a “sin” tax on cigars and loose tobacco have been thwarted time and again by cigar-loving politicians, wholesale retailers, snuff manufacturers, convenience store lobbyists and a small but oddly powerful bloc of tobacco farmers from Pennsylvania’s midsection.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell proposed a snuff and cigar tax in 2007, and the proposal was defeated. His Republican predecessor, Gov. Mark Schweiker, proposed the same, with the same results.
When Rendell proposed the tax two years ago, Pennsylvania was one of just three states that didn’t collect an excise tax on cigars, smokeless or both.
Today, it is the only holdout.
This year, Rendell pitched the tax anew in his budget address — 36 cents an ounce on loose tobacco and 36 cents per 10 cigars — and said it could raise $50 million in a full year.
The proposed tobacco tax was the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week.
Why have cigars and snuff enjoyed special status in Pennsylvania? Partly it’s because of the state’s historical role in tobacco production. At one time, it was one of the top three tobacco producing states, and the word “stogie” is derived from the small Pennsylvania town of Conestoga.
Farmers still do a robust business here, and last year harvested an estimated 17.6 million pounds of tobacco, up from 2007 and 2006 harvests.
Partly it’s because as other states approved excise taxes on cigars, Pennsylvania became a more attractive state for big cigar distributors to do business, and politicians don’t want to scare that business away.
And partly it’s because of the rural culture here — Pennsylvanians consume more moist snuff than any state but Texas. Seven percent of men use snuff here; the U.S. average is 3 percent.
-------------------------------------------
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Debate on cigar tax continues to smolder
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
By Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Given the state's sinking revenue returns, makers and sellers of cigars worry this will be the year that the Legislature and the governor are finally able to win passage of a new tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.
Foes of tobacco usage have the opposite concern -- that the tax will again be sandbagged.
Cigars, snuff, pipe filler and other types of loose tobacco are subject to an excise tax in every other state, including tobacco strongholds North Carolina and Kentucky.
But in Pennsylvania, attempts to place a "sin" tax on cigars and loose tobacco have been thwarted time and again by cigar-loving politicians, wholesale retailers, snuff manufacturers, convenience store lobbyists and a small but oddly powerful bloc of tobacco farmers from Pennsylvania's midsection.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell proposed a snuff and cigar tax in 2007, and the proposal was defeated. His Republican predecessor, Gov. Mark Schweiker, proposed the same, with the same results.
When Mr. Rendell proposed the tax two years ago, Pennsylvania was one of just three states that didn't collect an excise tax on cigars, smokeless or both.
Today, it is the only holdout.
Cigar purveyor Keith Meier wants it to stay that way. His company, Cigars International, moved to Northampton County a dozen years ago because there's no cigar excise tax here. It has grown into a $90 million company, the second-largest handmade cigar retailer in the United States, employing 150.
"That would all evaporate were we to swim to sunnier shores, such as Florida," the CEO said.
"Florida is a safer state because most of the industry is located there, and besides, it may make more sense for us to be there -- close to others in the industry, close to our manufacturing partners in the Caribbean basin and Central America," which reduces shipping.
This year, Mr. Rendell pitched the tax anew in his budget address -- 36 cents an ounce on loose tobacco and 36 cents per 10 cigars -- and said it could raise $50 million in a full year.
The proposed tobacco tax is to be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing today.
"Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that does not tax chewing tobacco, snuff or cigars, and our citizens overwhelmingly support a tax on smokeless tobacco, just as they strongly support increases in the state cigarette tax," the governor said in his budget address last week. (Florida taxes snuff, but not cigars, because the cigar industry is big business there.)
Popular support aside, the governor can expect a fight from the usual suspects, said Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, who sits on the finance committee.
"This will certainly be a controversial, contentious issue," he said. But he also noted that there's an element of fairness at stake -- cigarettes are already taxed at $1.35 per pack and the governor would like to increase that tax to $1.45, an increase Mr. Ferlo said he wouldn't vote for.
"It's continually unfair to always tax smokers of cigarettes," but not the smokers of those "fancy" cigars, he said.
Why have cigars and snuff enjoyed special status in Pennsylvania? Partly it's because of the state's historical role in tobacco production. At one time, it was one of the top three tobacco producing states, and the word "stogie" is derived from the small Pennsylvania town of Conestoga.
Farmers still do a robust business here, and last year harvested an estimated 17.6 million pounds of tobacco, up from 2007 and 2006 harvests.
Partly it's because as other states approved excise taxes on cigars, Pennsylvania became a more attractive state for big cigar distributors to do business, and politicians don't want to scare that business away.
And partly it's because of the rural culture here -- Pennsylvanians consume more moist snuff than any state but Texas. Seven percent of men use snuff here; the U.S. average is 3 percent.
"From a public health perspective, it's wise to tax other tobacco products," said Jennifer Ebersole, state policy director for the American Heart Association. In Pennsylvania, "We're seeing some of our youth switching to other tobacco products because it's cheaper and easier to get" than cigarettes, she said.
The tobacco industry itself has dug in and doled out thousands in campaign contributions.
Altria Group Inc., parent company to Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., has contributed thousands to state House and Senate campaigns over the last two years, including Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh head of the Senate Finance Committee. Cigar distributors and small vendors have done the same.
Cigar vendors here feel especially bombarded by the latest proposal. If the state tax goes into effect, it would come on top of the federal cigar tax increase included in the recently passed State Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill. That tax is effective April 1.
Monday, February 16, 2009
M.R. Reiter Closing Hearing Minutes Available
The minutes from the M.R. Reiter closing hearing are now available at the district website.
School Board is Out of Touch...Are You?
From the Jackson (TN) Sun.
What's important in this story is not that the local school board is out of touch, whether in Jackson, Tennessee or Morrisville, Pennsylvania. If it's a Monday, then there's a school board out of touch.
It's about the video links at the end of the story. This is where education needs to be going for the 21st century. For every resident who has bemoaned how the PSSA scores need to rise, watch the videos and see if we, the community, are providing these American children (the same people who are going to be picking out and staffing our nursing homes), the tools to be 21st century global (not just American) citizens.
School board is out of touch By Tom Bohs, February 15, 2009
Thanks to technology, I was able to attend the Jackson-Madison County Board of Education meeting on Thursday night, and I didn't have to leave the comfort of my TV room to do it. Thanks to my own jacksonsun.com streaming webcast, Jackson Energy Authority's E+TV6 and WNWS 101.5 FM radio for providing live coverage of the meeting. It was a great example of technology enabling the public to connect to its elected officials and to see them in action, or inaction, as the case may be. Think of it as our own local version of C-Span.
All day long, rumors flew that some on the board had conspired to fire Superintendent Dr. Nancy Zambito. Fortunately, that didn't happen, which I believe would have been a terrible mistake. In fact, the person who made the most sense during the meeting was Dr. Zambito, though I commend board Chairman Dr. Joe Mays for steering the board through some tense and troubled waters with a steady hand.
I've followed the school board closely for 17 years, and sat through more board meetings than I care to remember. The current board is as bad as I have seen, but it's not any worse than others that have gotten seriously off track. Do I need to remind anyone of the infamous "McMillin Five" that managed to fire perfectly good Superintendent Dr. Lester Beason and shoehorn Buddy McMillan into office? It is painful to recall that at one point, we had five superintendents in seven years, and our school board was the laughingstock of state public education. In my opinion, the current school board crisis is no better or worse than those of the past.
But one important thing has changed since 1992, technology. And that is what makes the current school board infighting more dire and important, and something the community must demand be addressed, if in no other way than in the 2010 election.
Six or seven of our school board members are hopelessly out of touch with what is happening in the world. They think that what is going on in Jackson-Madison County is their chief concern. They are wrong, and hopelessly out of touch with reality. As a result, our kids could be hopelessly left behind. While these school board members argue about who should be superintendent, whether he or she should be black or white, and who screwed up the most since the last "gotcha" school board meeting, the rest of the world is running, and I mean running, away from our local education system, technologically speaking. This is the real tragedy of our current school board.
We have teachers who aren't even proficient at sending e-mails. We have teachers who don't have a clue how to use today's sophisticated education software or how to integrate technology into their classrooms. We are graduating students who don't know how to write decent English or use the Web to do simple research or understand how to use technology to collaborate with others, learn new things and plan for their futures.
Do our students know what a wiki is? Do they know what Web 2.0, let alone Web 3.0 is? There are kids all over America, and India, Western Europe, Japan and China who do. And they outnumber us by a staggering margin. There are more high school top-tier honor students in China, the top 1 percent or 2 percent, than all of our students in this country put together.
While our school board argues over race, personal agendas and other nonsense, the rest of the education world is moving ahead at breakneck speed. Computer capabilities are doubling every 18 months, while we struggle to put the latest technology in our classrooms and train teachers to use them. We are losing this battle, and our school board is missing in action. That is what troubles me.
If you care about this issue, I urge you to watch three You Tube videos. Just go to your Web browser and enter the following links: www.jacksonsun.com/didyouknow; www.jacksonsun.com/machine and www.jacksonsun.com/web2. If you don't "get" what these videos are about, you know what most of our students know. And, oh, by the way, all three videos are two years old.
What's important in this story is not that the local school board is out of touch, whether in Jackson, Tennessee or Morrisville, Pennsylvania. If it's a Monday, then there's a school board out of touch.
It's about the video links at the end of the story. This is where education needs to be going for the 21st century. For every resident who has bemoaned how the PSSA scores need to rise, watch the videos and see if we, the community, are providing these American children (the same people who are going to be picking out and staffing our nursing homes), the tools to be 21st century global (not just American) citizens.
School board is out of touch By Tom Bohs, February 15, 2009
Thanks to technology, I was able to attend the Jackson-Madison County Board of Education meeting on Thursday night, and I didn't have to leave the comfort of my TV room to do it. Thanks to my own jacksonsun.com streaming webcast, Jackson Energy Authority's E+TV6 and WNWS 101.5 FM radio for providing live coverage of the meeting. It was a great example of technology enabling the public to connect to its elected officials and to see them in action, or inaction, as the case may be. Think of it as our own local version of C-Span.
All day long, rumors flew that some on the board had conspired to fire Superintendent Dr. Nancy Zambito. Fortunately, that didn't happen, which I believe would have been a terrible mistake. In fact, the person who made the most sense during the meeting was Dr. Zambito, though I commend board Chairman Dr. Joe Mays for steering the board through some tense and troubled waters with a steady hand.
I've followed the school board closely for 17 years, and sat through more board meetings than I care to remember. The current board is as bad as I have seen, but it's not any worse than others that have gotten seriously off track. Do I need to remind anyone of the infamous "McMillin Five" that managed to fire perfectly good Superintendent Dr. Lester Beason and shoehorn Buddy McMillan into office? It is painful to recall that at one point, we had five superintendents in seven years, and our school board was the laughingstock of state public education. In my opinion, the current school board crisis is no better or worse than those of the past.
But one important thing has changed since 1992, technology. And that is what makes the current school board infighting more dire and important, and something the community must demand be addressed, if in no other way than in the 2010 election.
Six or seven of our school board members are hopelessly out of touch with what is happening in the world. They think that what is going on in Jackson-Madison County is their chief concern. They are wrong, and hopelessly out of touch with reality. As a result, our kids could be hopelessly left behind. While these school board members argue about who should be superintendent, whether he or she should be black or white, and who screwed up the most since the last "gotcha" school board meeting, the rest of the world is running, and I mean running, away from our local education system, technologically speaking. This is the real tragedy of our current school board.
We have teachers who aren't even proficient at sending e-mails. We have teachers who don't have a clue how to use today's sophisticated education software or how to integrate technology into their classrooms. We are graduating students who don't know how to write decent English or use the Web to do simple research or understand how to use technology to collaborate with others, learn new things and plan for their futures.
Do our students know what a wiki is? Do they know what Web 2.0, let alone Web 3.0 is? There are kids all over America, and India, Western Europe, Japan and China who do. And they outnumber us by a staggering margin. There are more high school top-tier honor students in China, the top 1 percent or 2 percent, than all of our students in this country put together.
While our school board argues over race, personal agendas and other nonsense, the rest of the education world is moving ahead at breakneck speed. Computer capabilities are doubling every 18 months, while we struggle to put the latest technology in our classrooms and train teachers to use them. We are losing this battle, and our school board is missing in action. That is what troubles me.
If you care about this issue, I urge you to watch three You Tube videos. Just go to your Web browser and enter the following links: www.jacksonsun.com/didyouknow; www.jacksonsun.com/machine and www.jacksonsun.com/web2. If you don't "get" what these videos are about, you know what most of our students know. And, oh, by the way, all three videos are two years old.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Pennsbury Tax Increase
From the BCCT.
Pay attention: These are the taxes the Emperor wants you to pay.
Board looks to make budget cuts
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
The preliminary spending plan calls for a $441 average tax increase.
Pennsbury board members said they're anxious to slash estimates that point to skyrocketing taxes next year.
The preliminary budget plan passed by the board Thursday night calls for a $441 tax increase for a homeowner with the average assessed property of $31,304.
Residents who attended the meeting said they weren't happy with the prospect of paying an average tax bill of $4,980.
"I can't understand why no one talked about a tax decrease. Workers are being laid off [in other industries]. Why not in the school district? I'd like to see a 10 percent decrease in our taxes," said Leo Cohen.
The budget numbers for the next school year appear high at this point because the district doesn't know how much funding the state will supply, officials said. While local revenues might generate $145.3 million, that's $2.6 million less than last year, they said.
The main local downturn is because of the loss of fees from the Keystone Industrial Port Complex, a tax abatement area which is scheduled to end payments to Pennsbury in lieu of taxes after this year. The complex is on the site of the old U.S. Steel Fairless Works.
Other tax revenues are expected to be down, as are interim taxes on new construction and transfer taxes on real estate. The district also expects lower interest returns on its investments, officials said.
The economic downturn has contributed to a deficit of about $12 million in a $180 million budget, Miller said. Balancing the budget without reducing expenses would mean an increase of 14.1 mills, bringing total millage to 159.1.
Board members have repeatedly stressed that the preliminary budget is just an early estimate that is required by the state. Several spoke against allowing the final tax increase to reach the current projection of a 9.7 percent increase, which is far above the state's mandated maximum tax increase of 4.1 percent.
"I can state that our budget will not increase 4.1 percent. Nine point seven is just a number. It's not a fact," said board member Richard Johnson.
Officials said the district is working on several areas to lower expenditures, including transportation and energy efficiencies and employee attrition at all levels. If one teacher retires and the school can adjust the professional staff to cover that teacher's responsibilities, then the administration would recommend not hiring a replacement, district CEO Paul Long said.
The administration is considering an optional reduction in the number of classes taken by seniors who have fulfilled their graduation requirements. There also might be some reduction in standardized testing and in the Extra-K kindergarten programs. Pulling funding for Odyssey of the Mind is possible. All of those options still need to be explored and worked out, said Long.
Board member Linda Palsky suggested trying to get more private corporations to fund programs and resources.
To keep their promise to limit a tax hike to at or below 4.1 percent, a 5-4 majority of the board defeated a proposal to apply for state exceptions. Proponents of the administration's recommendation to apply for the exemptions said the district would have no insurance against a possible financial shortfall such as zero state subsidies. Exceptions allow school boards to raise taxes above the state-mandated 4.1 percent limit for uncontrollable costs such as special education and grandfathered debt.
Johnson and board members Gene Dolnick, Wayne DeBlasio, Arlene Gordon and Gregory Lucidi voted against the exceptions.
"I cannot vote for a 4.1 [tax increase], so there will be no way that I would vote for exceptions," said Gordon.
The details of the preliminary budget can be found on the Pennsbury Web site at www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us/pennsbury.
Pay attention: These are the taxes the Emperor wants you to pay.
Board looks to make budget cuts
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
The preliminary spending plan calls for a $441 average tax increase.
Pennsbury board members said they're anxious to slash estimates that point to skyrocketing taxes next year.
The preliminary budget plan passed by the board Thursday night calls for a $441 tax increase for a homeowner with the average assessed property of $31,304.
Residents who attended the meeting said they weren't happy with the prospect of paying an average tax bill of $4,980.
"I can't understand why no one talked about a tax decrease. Workers are being laid off [in other industries]. Why not in the school district? I'd like to see a 10 percent decrease in our taxes," said Leo Cohen.
The budget numbers for the next school year appear high at this point because the district doesn't know how much funding the state will supply, officials said. While local revenues might generate $145.3 million, that's $2.6 million less than last year, they said.
The main local downturn is because of the loss of fees from the Keystone Industrial Port Complex, a tax abatement area which is scheduled to end payments to Pennsbury in lieu of taxes after this year. The complex is on the site of the old U.S. Steel Fairless Works.
Other tax revenues are expected to be down, as are interim taxes on new construction and transfer taxes on real estate. The district also expects lower interest returns on its investments, officials said.
The economic downturn has contributed to a deficit of about $12 million in a $180 million budget, Miller said. Balancing the budget without reducing expenses would mean an increase of 14.1 mills, bringing total millage to 159.1.
Board members have repeatedly stressed that the preliminary budget is just an early estimate that is required by the state. Several spoke against allowing the final tax increase to reach the current projection of a 9.7 percent increase, which is far above the state's mandated maximum tax increase of 4.1 percent.
"I can state that our budget will not increase 4.1 percent. Nine point seven is just a number. It's not a fact," said board member Richard Johnson.
Officials said the district is working on several areas to lower expenditures, including transportation and energy efficiencies and employee attrition at all levels. If one teacher retires and the school can adjust the professional staff to cover that teacher's responsibilities, then the administration would recommend not hiring a replacement, district CEO Paul Long said.
The administration is considering an optional reduction in the number of classes taken by seniors who have fulfilled their graduation requirements. There also might be some reduction in standardized testing and in the Extra-K kindergarten programs. Pulling funding for Odyssey of the Mind is possible. All of those options still need to be explored and worked out, said Long.
Board member Linda Palsky suggested trying to get more private corporations to fund programs and resources.
To keep their promise to limit a tax hike to at or below 4.1 percent, a 5-4 majority of the board defeated a proposal to apply for state exceptions. Proponents of the administration's recommendation to apply for the exemptions said the district would have no insurance against a possible financial shortfall such as zero state subsidies. Exceptions allow school boards to raise taxes above the state-mandated 4.1 percent limit for uncontrollable costs such as special education and grandfathered debt.
Johnson and board members Gene Dolnick, Wayne DeBlasio, Arlene Gordon and Gregory Lucidi voted against the exceptions.
"I cannot vote for a 4.1 [tax increase], so there will be no way that I would vote for exceptions," said Gordon.
The details of the preliminary budget can be found on the Pennsbury Web site at www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us/pennsbury.
Free Lunch
From the BCCT.
Mark February 28 on your calendar too!
There really is a free lunch
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Morrisville School District employees were treated by Chick-fil-A for keeping the students' education going after a furnace blast at one school.
Morrisville staff members received a treat for their recent resourcefulness in a tough time.
Chick-fil-A provided the entire district staff with free boxed lunches Friday for their efforts to continue the educational process with as few disruptions as possible following recent upheavals at M.R. Reiter Elementary. About 140 staff members enjoyed the lunches of sandwiches, wraps, fruit cups, brownies and iced tea.
"I'm overwhelmed. They were so generous. The teachers absolutely loved it," said Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson.
The Chick-fil-A "Eat Mor Chikin" cow stopped by the elementary classrooms to say hello to the students, too.
Chick-Fil-A gives the elementary students a positive character trait of the month as part of its Core Essentials Program. Teachers encourage students to explore and demonstrate that trait through classroom reinforcement and activities. The restaurant also provides supplemental materials for teachers and take-home information for parents.
If students are good at exhibiting the character trait of the month, they earn a free Chick-Fil-A nugget meal.
January's trait was resourcefulness, which district teachers and staff showed abundantly after a December furnace blast made Reiter unusable, said Jodi Hartenstine, the marketing director for Chick-fil-A on Oxford Valley Road in Middletown.
"It's using what you have to get the job done. They were exemplifying the trait there. Everybody was working together, and we wanted to do something to honor them for that, so we came up with the appreciation lunch," said Hartenstine.
Teachers and staff in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School and Grandview Elementary adjusted their activities and spaces to accommodate Reiter students as Reiter teachers worked to help their young students through the crisis.
More than 250 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grades still are displaced and in various district buildings. Grades one and two soon will leave the high school and settle into modular units on the property of Grandview Elementary School. Grade five will stay at the high school for now, and kindergarten, third and fourth grades are sharing space with Grandview's regular population. Pre-kindergarten is at the Morrisville YMCA.
"It's so nice to have something to celebrate," said Diane Woodruff, a Reiter kindergarten teacher who's now in Grandview Elementary School. "We have bounced around this year. This was just an 'Ah-haaah.' You take a deep breath and really appreciate it.
"We've had to be really resourceful. It sort of saluted what we've been doing. It was delicious, and the kids thought the cow was absolutely adorable," she said.
Woodruff said she's been teaching her students to be resourceful.
They think of ways to use materials to substitute for things they sometimes might not have since leaving Reiter.
"We talk about how animals are resourceful in getting and storing food in winter. We have to do things so that if one way doesn't work, come up with a new one. Don't give up," she said.
The Middletown Chick-Fil-A will sponsor a Morrisville School District Spirit Night Feb. 28 during which customers who mention Morrisville School District will get discounts. About 15 percent of proceeds from the event will be given to the district, according to a company press release.
Mark February 28 on your calendar too!
There really is a free lunch
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Morrisville School District employees were treated by Chick-fil-A for keeping the students' education going after a furnace blast at one school.
Morrisville staff members received a treat for their recent resourcefulness in a tough time.
Chick-fil-A provided the entire district staff with free boxed lunches Friday for their efforts to continue the educational process with as few disruptions as possible following recent upheavals at M.R. Reiter Elementary. About 140 staff members enjoyed the lunches of sandwiches, wraps, fruit cups, brownies and iced tea.
"I'm overwhelmed. They were so generous. The teachers absolutely loved it," said Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson.
The Chick-fil-A "Eat Mor Chikin" cow stopped by the elementary classrooms to say hello to the students, too.
Chick-Fil-A gives the elementary students a positive character trait of the month as part of its Core Essentials Program. Teachers encourage students to explore and demonstrate that trait through classroom reinforcement and activities. The restaurant also provides supplemental materials for teachers and take-home information for parents.
If students are good at exhibiting the character trait of the month, they earn a free Chick-Fil-A nugget meal.
January's trait was resourcefulness, which district teachers and staff showed abundantly after a December furnace blast made Reiter unusable, said Jodi Hartenstine, the marketing director for Chick-fil-A on Oxford Valley Road in Middletown.
"It's using what you have to get the job done. They were exemplifying the trait there. Everybody was working together, and we wanted to do something to honor them for that, so we came up with the appreciation lunch," said Hartenstine.
Teachers and staff in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School and Grandview Elementary adjusted their activities and spaces to accommodate Reiter students as Reiter teachers worked to help their young students through the crisis.
More than 250 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grades still are displaced and in various district buildings. Grades one and two soon will leave the high school and settle into modular units on the property of Grandview Elementary School. Grade five will stay at the high school for now, and kindergarten, third and fourth grades are sharing space with Grandview's regular population. Pre-kindergarten is at the Morrisville YMCA.
"It's so nice to have something to celebrate," said Diane Woodruff, a Reiter kindergarten teacher who's now in Grandview Elementary School. "We have bounced around this year. This was just an 'Ah-haaah.' You take a deep breath and really appreciate it.
"We've had to be really resourceful. It sort of saluted what we've been doing. It was delicious, and the kids thought the cow was absolutely adorable," she said.
Woodruff said she's been teaching her students to be resourceful.
They think of ways to use materials to substitute for things they sometimes might not have since leaving Reiter.
"We talk about how animals are resourceful in getting and storing food in winter. We have to do things so that if one way doesn't work, come up with a new one. Don't give up," she said.
The Middletown Chick-Fil-A will sponsor a Morrisville School District Spirit Night Feb. 28 during which customers who mention Morrisville School District will get discounts. About 15 percent of proceeds from the event will be given to the district, according to a company press release.
Independent or Consolidated?
From the Inquirer.
Note the Emperor: I'll only talk by email and Reiter's closed so kwitcherbellyachin.
Monica Yant Kinney: How a district's small size can magnify its challenges
By Monica Yant Kinney Posted on Sun, Feb. 15, 2009, Inquirer Columnist
If Gov. Rendell intends to push for statewide school consolidation, he should make Morrisville the first stop on a listening tour. Presuming he can handle the drama.
In the itty-bitty Bucks County community, Rendell would find parents who suspect the school board cares more about dismantling the district than educating children.
Plans for a new school for kindergarten through 12th grade crumbled after one board paid $2.5 million in fees to annul a previous board's $30 million construction bond - all in the name of saving taxpayers money.
Some locals love the walkable community's old-timey intimacy. Others, wary of old-timey facilities, desperately want to merge with a larger district - even though previous pleas were rebuffed by suburban snobbery.
Most everyone in Morrisville agrees they got lucky when the boiler exploded at M.R. Reiter Elementary on a December weekend. No children were killed.
But what to make of last week's asbestos scare, which briefly closed Morrisville Middle/Senior High?
"Parents are in the dark," says Damon Miller, so disgusted he's running for the school board. "Nobody trusts anybody. This town doesn't know what it wants."
Maybe not. But when your child's future is at stake, does Harrisburg know better?
Home, casa
Named after Robert Morris, who financed the American Revolution, Morrisville occupies two square miles hard by the Delaware River across from Trenton.
The 10,000-person borough is 75 percent white, 19 percent African American, 5 percent Latino, and 1 percent Asian. Forty-three percent of all residents rent.
Diversity and transiency define the 831-student school district, which has been known to receive 11 enrollments in a single day.
When Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson arrived four years ago, only 11 percent of 11th graders were proficient in math on state achievement tests. By 2008, the number had jumped to 55 percent.
In 2007, Morrisville third graders topped all test-takers in the county, which still has Yonson beaming.
"You know how wealthy the rest of Bucks County is. My parents can't even afford a quality pre-K."
So she sought grants, and now Morrisville offers preschool. And college-credit courses for teens.
"Last year, one of our grads started Penn State's main campus as a sophomore!" Yonson raves.
All this and more have parents like Ann Perry committed to saving the schools, not scrapping them.
"We don't want to send Emma to private school," Perry says of her first-grade daughter. "Life is not private school."
What now?
Morrisville Mayor Tom Wisnosky can't recall how many consolidation talks have taken place in his lifetime. He just knows they rarely surpass stereotypes of race and class.
"One time, people said that merging with Morrisville would lower their property values," Wisnosky tells me. "That's just one of the lies perpetuated about us."
Since the last letdown in 2004, he and others got behind the idea of building new - only to see that movement halted by a costly changing of the school-board guard.
"So what's the plan?" asks an angry Lisa Castillo as she picks up her daughter from Grandview Elementary, which took in students scattered by the explosion at Reiter. "We don't want our kids educated in trailers for 20 years."
School Board President Bill Hellmann would talk to me only via e-mail. He says that Reiter will remain closed, and that he'd like to renovate the two other schools.
As for Rendell's bold proposal to forcibly squeeze 500 districts across the commonwealth into 100?
Some say the governor is tilting at educational windmills, but Hellmann believes it's the right idea in taxing times.
"Morrisville," he writes, "is really too small to have our own school district."
Contact Monica Yant Kinney at myant@phillynews.com or 215-854-4670. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney
Note the Emperor: I'll only talk by email and Reiter's closed so kwitcherbellyachin.
Monica Yant Kinney: How a district's small size can magnify its challenges
By Monica Yant Kinney Posted on Sun, Feb. 15, 2009, Inquirer Columnist
If Gov. Rendell intends to push for statewide school consolidation, he should make Morrisville the first stop on a listening tour. Presuming he can handle the drama.
In the itty-bitty Bucks County community, Rendell would find parents who suspect the school board cares more about dismantling the district than educating children.Plans for a new school for kindergarten through 12th grade crumbled after one board paid $2.5 million in fees to annul a previous board's $30 million construction bond - all in the name of saving taxpayers money.
Some locals love the walkable community's old-timey intimacy. Others, wary of old-timey facilities, desperately want to merge with a larger district - even though previous pleas were rebuffed by suburban snobbery.
Most everyone in Morrisville agrees they got lucky when the boiler exploded at M.R. Reiter Elementary on a December weekend. No children were killed.
But what to make of last week's asbestos scare, which briefly closed Morrisville Middle/Senior High?
"Parents are in the dark," says Damon Miller, so disgusted he's running for the school board. "Nobody trusts anybody. This town doesn't know what it wants."
Maybe not. But when your child's future is at stake, does Harrisburg know better?
Home, casa
Named after Robert Morris, who financed the American Revolution, Morrisville occupies two square miles hard by the Delaware River across from Trenton.
The 10,000-person borough is 75 percent white, 19 percent African American, 5 percent Latino, and 1 percent Asian. Forty-three percent of all residents rent.
Diversity and transiency define the 831-student school district, which has been known to receive 11 enrollments in a single day.
When Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson arrived four years ago, only 11 percent of 11th graders were proficient in math on state achievement tests. By 2008, the number had jumped to 55 percent.
In 2007, Morrisville third graders topped all test-takers in the county, which still has Yonson beaming.
"You know how wealthy the rest of Bucks County is. My parents can't even afford a quality pre-K."
So she sought grants, and now Morrisville offers preschool. And college-credit courses for teens.
"Last year, one of our grads started Penn State's main campus as a sophomore!" Yonson raves.
All this and more have parents like Ann Perry committed to saving the schools, not scrapping them.
"We don't want to send Emma to private school," Perry says of her first-grade daughter. "Life is not private school."
What now?
Morrisville Mayor Tom Wisnosky can't recall how many consolidation talks have taken place in his lifetime. He just knows they rarely surpass stereotypes of race and class.
"One time, people said that merging with Morrisville would lower their property values," Wisnosky tells me. "That's just one of the lies perpetuated about us."
Since the last letdown in 2004, he and others got behind the idea of building new - only to see that movement halted by a costly changing of the school-board guard.
"So what's the plan?" asks an angry Lisa Castillo as she picks up her daughter from Grandview Elementary, which took in students scattered by the explosion at Reiter. "We don't want our kids educated in trailers for 20 years."
School Board President Bill Hellmann would talk to me only via e-mail. He says that Reiter will remain closed, and that he'd like to renovate the two other schools.
As for Rendell's bold proposal to forcibly squeeze 500 districts across the commonwealth into 100?
Some say the governor is tilting at educational windmills, but Hellmann believes it's the right idea in taxing times.
"Morrisville," he writes, "is really too small to have our own school district."
Contact Monica Yant Kinney at myant@phillynews.com or 215-854-4670. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Greenland Schools Moving Forward
From the Fayetteville Morning News. The Greenland school district continues to climb out of their hole after the state DoE took over the district.
The community there is pulling together. How many corporate contributions can Morrisville expect if they are made to a board whose president flatly tells clients not to invest in Morrisville?
Greenland Schools Still Moving Forward With Improving Finances
Cox Communications donates $600 to district's art program
Last updated Thursday, February 12, 2009 9:03 PM CST in News
By Rose Ann Pearce, THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- The Greenland School District continues to make progress toward digging itself out of its financial hole, Superintendent Roland Smith told about 50 employees and patrons Thursday.
In a 60-minute presentation in the Greenland High School cafeteria, Smith touched on a number of issues that have occurred since August, including the success of students in and out of the classroom; volunteers who have stepped up to raise more than $80,000; and school officials and local patrons who spent hours getting the school grounds in order after last month's ice storm.
There were also reports on monthly expenditures on different accounts in the district budget, which show the different is spending $125,211 less from July to January this fiscal year from last fiscal year for salaries and operation.
Smith is making monthly reports to the community since the Arkansas Department of Education took over financial control of the district last July for because of its financial difficulties.
Smith upped his estimated year end balance to $150,000 for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. His previous estimate was $137,000.
Looking ahead to the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins July 1, Smith projected Greenland should have "a very health $450,000 minimum ending balance." And, he added, by the end of the next fiscal year, by June 30, 2010, Greenland should be in the range of having a reserve fund of 7 percent to 10 percent of the total operating budget, as recommended by the state.
*
Over the past 10 years, Greenland ending year balances have fluctuated from a high of $866,302, in 1998-99 to a low of $1,994 in 2007-08. That figure includes an operating loan of $621,000.
In other reports, athletic director Lee Larkan announced a new program at the high school to encourage students to complete homework assignments in class and at night.
A team of teachers is volunteering to provide additional tutoring in math and literacy before and after school. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the additional time if they need help.
"When you don't do homework, getting a zero is no option," Larkan said. Students who are referred to the tutoring sessions have no option either. If a student misses two sessions, parents are notified. By the fourth absence, the student, parents, teacher and either Larkan or Principal Hope Dorman will have a sit-down conference at the high school.
The district also received a $600 donation from employees at the Cox Communications office in Fayetteville for the district's art program. Elementary art teach Carol Moeller said the money will be used to expand the clay and tile art program.
The community there is pulling together. How many corporate contributions can Morrisville expect if they are made to a board whose president flatly tells clients not to invest in Morrisville?
Greenland Schools Still Moving Forward With Improving Finances
Cox Communications donates $600 to district's art program
Last updated Thursday, February 12, 2009 9:03 PM CST in News
By Rose Ann Pearce, THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- The Greenland School District continues to make progress toward digging itself out of its financial hole, Superintendent Roland Smith told about 50 employees and patrons Thursday.
In a 60-minute presentation in the Greenland High School cafeteria, Smith touched on a number of issues that have occurred since August, including the success of students in and out of the classroom; volunteers who have stepped up to raise more than $80,000; and school officials and local patrons who spent hours getting the school grounds in order after last month's ice storm.
There were also reports on monthly expenditures on different accounts in the district budget, which show the different is spending $125,211 less from July to January this fiscal year from last fiscal year for salaries and operation.
Smith is making monthly reports to the community since the Arkansas Department of Education took over financial control of the district last July for because of its financial difficulties.
Smith upped his estimated year end balance to $150,000 for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. His previous estimate was $137,000.
Looking ahead to the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins July 1, Smith projected Greenland should have "a very health $450,000 minimum ending balance." And, he added, by the end of the next fiscal year, by June 30, 2010, Greenland should be in the range of having a reserve fund of 7 percent to 10 percent of the total operating budget, as recommended by the state.
*
Over the past 10 years, Greenland ending year balances have fluctuated from a high of $866,302, in 1998-99 to a low of $1,994 in 2007-08. That figure includes an operating loan of $621,000.
In other reports, athletic director Lee Larkan announced a new program at the high school to encourage students to complete homework assignments in class and at night.
A team of teachers is volunteering to provide additional tutoring in math and literacy before and after school. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the additional time if they need help.
"When you don't do homework, getting a zero is no option," Larkan said. Students who are referred to the tutoring sessions have no option either. If a student misses two sessions, parents are notified. By the fourth absence, the student, parents, teacher and either Larkan or Principal Hope Dorman will have a sit-down conference at the high school.
The district also received a $600 donation from employees at the Cox Communications office in Fayetteville for the district's art program. Elementary art teach Carol Moeller said the money will be used to expand the clay and tile art program.
Maths, Sciences, and Bizness
From the Inquirer.
Maybe this year, all the Morrisville candidates for the board of education should display their edumakashunal skillz and take the PSSA themselves before saying they they can run a school district and answer the question "Is our children learning?"?
Why the stimulus needed to keep education
By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted on Fri, Feb. 13, 2009
PNC typically interviews eight job candidates to find one who can pass the math test required for certain jobs at its Eastwick operations center across from the airport.
"It's costly to any corporation when you have to interview that many people to fill one job," Bill Mills, president of PNC Financial Services Group for Philadelphia and South Jersey, said yesterday.
PNC's experience is an example of why advocates say education spending belongs in the $789 billion economic-stimulus package being negotiated in Congress: Ineffective education is a drag on productivity.
C. Kent McGuire, dean of Temple University's College of Education, welcomed the money set aside for education in the compromise between House and Senate leaders - reportedly more than $90 billion - but cautioned that much more thinking needs to go into how to make the U.S. education system meet 21st-century needs.
"It's not a strategy, but it is implicit recognition that these are areas in which we have to invest," said McGuire, referring to the education spending in the bill.
McGuire and other experts said that certain kinds of education spending, such as the support to states that could prevent teachers from losing their jobs and money for school modernization and repair fit the need for short-term economic stimulus.
Spending on infrastructure is considered by many to be a legitimate part of the stimulus package because it puts people to work quickly while generating long-term productivity gains.
Likewise, spending on education is another sort of infrastructure spending because it, if done wisely, builds a productive workforce for the future that can generate faster economic growth, said Eric Thompson, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska.
Some analysts point to U.S. history to back up this argument.
They say that periods of fast U.S. economic growth, measured by increases in per capita gross domestic product, are usually preceded by substantial gains in the overall education level of the populace.
For example, within a generation of the widespread development of the public school system in the second half of the 19th century, the country had the largest literate workforce in the world, said Abby Joseph Cohen, senior U.S. investment strategist at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Subsequently, between roughly 1890 and the start of World War I, the United States became the most productive nation in the world, Cohen said.
After World War II, the initial GI bill diverted nearly eight million veterans into higher education, sparing them from the dismal job market.
"It got them off the streets, so they weren't competing for the few available jobs, and it increased their skill levels," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington and former governor of West Virginia. The nation had "30 years of unprecedented economic growth afterward," Wise said.
But in the last decade or so, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who completed high school has stagnated to about 86 percent, and the college completion rate has risen only modestly, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
McGuire, of Temple, said what really matters is that the pace of educational advancement in the United States is falling behind that of other nations, particularly India and China.
It is not enough to simply make sure more students make it through college, which is the goal of the proposed $500 increase in the maximum Pell grant and the effort by Gov. Rendell to legalize video poker to raise money for tuition grants, one expert said.
"I think that there is this sort of default belief in this country that going to college means you are going to be better off no matter what you do. The reality is that colleges were not set up for a post-industrial age," said Julian Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center, a nonprofit in New York. "We have a lot of people with college degrees who are not prepared to step into the workforce."
Some economists counter McGuire's view that modernizing schools is an important part of improving performance.
"I don't think there is much evidence that if you spruce up our buildings, our kids will learn more and be better prepared for the job market," said Gerhard Glomm, an economics professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. "You might get more bang for the buck if you hire smart teachers."
That is where PNC is putting some of its money, in teachers, funding a professorship in early-childhood education at Temple as part of a $100 million, 10-year commitment to boost education for children from birth to age 5.
"I think it's so important," Mills, of PNC, said, "but also the real challenge is that it doesn't have a pay back for a very, very long time."
Maybe this year, all the Morrisville candidates for the board of education should display their edumakashunal skillz and take the PSSA themselves before saying they they can run a school district and answer the question "Is our children learning?"?
Why the stimulus needed to keep education
By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted on Fri, Feb. 13, 2009
PNC typically interviews eight job candidates to find one who can pass the math test required for certain jobs at its Eastwick operations center across from the airport.
"It's costly to any corporation when you have to interview that many people to fill one job," Bill Mills, president of PNC Financial Services Group for Philadelphia and South Jersey, said yesterday.
PNC's experience is an example of why advocates say education spending belongs in the $789 billion economic-stimulus package being negotiated in Congress: Ineffective education is a drag on productivity.
C. Kent McGuire, dean of Temple University's College of Education, welcomed the money set aside for education in the compromise between House and Senate leaders - reportedly more than $90 billion - but cautioned that much more thinking needs to go into how to make the U.S. education system meet 21st-century needs.
"It's not a strategy, but it is implicit recognition that these are areas in which we have to invest," said McGuire, referring to the education spending in the bill.
McGuire and other experts said that certain kinds of education spending, such as the support to states that could prevent teachers from losing their jobs and money for school modernization and repair fit the need for short-term economic stimulus.
Spending on infrastructure is considered by many to be a legitimate part of the stimulus package because it puts people to work quickly while generating long-term productivity gains.
Likewise, spending on education is another sort of infrastructure spending because it, if done wisely, builds a productive workforce for the future that can generate faster economic growth, said Eric Thompson, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska.
Some analysts point to U.S. history to back up this argument.
They say that periods of fast U.S. economic growth, measured by increases in per capita gross domestic product, are usually preceded by substantial gains in the overall education level of the populace.
For example, within a generation of the widespread development of the public school system in the second half of the 19th century, the country had the largest literate workforce in the world, said Abby Joseph Cohen, senior U.S. investment strategist at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Subsequently, between roughly 1890 and the start of World War I, the United States became the most productive nation in the world, Cohen said.
After World War II, the initial GI bill diverted nearly eight million veterans into higher education, sparing them from the dismal job market.
"It got them off the streets, so they weren't competing for the few available jobs, and it increased their skill levels," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington and former governor of West Virginia. The nation had "30 years of unprecedented economic growth afterward," Wise said.
But in the last decade or so, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who completed high school has stagnated to about 86 percent, and the college completion rate has risen only modestly, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
McGuire, of Temple, said what really matters is that the pace of educational advancement in the United States is falling behind that of other nations, particularly India and China.
It is not enough to simply make sure more students make it through college, which is the goal of the proposed $500 increase in the maximum Pell grant and the effort by Gov. Rendell to legalize video poker to raise money for tuition grants, one expert said.
"I think that there is this sort of default belief in this country that going to college means you are going to be better off no matter what you do. The reality is that colleges were not set up for a post-industrial age," said Julian Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center, a nonprofit in New York. "We have a lot of people with college degrees who are not prepared to step into the workforce."
Some economists counter McGuire's view that modernizing schools is an important part of improving performance.
"I don't think there is much evidence that if you spruce up our buildings, our kids will learn more and be better prepared for the job market," said Gerhard Glomm, an economics professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. "You might get more bang for the buck if you hire smart teachers."
That is where PNC is putting some of its money, in teachers, funding a professorship in early-childhood education at Temple as part of a $100 million, 10-year commitment to boost education for children from birth to age 5.
"I think it's so important," Mills, of PNC, said, "but also the real challenge is that it doesn't have a pay back for a very, very long time."
Superintendent on medical leave
From the BCCT.
Best wishes to Dr. Yonson for a speedy recovery.
This also means that Mr. Ferrara will get to experience those 3:00 A.M. calls telling us another school has another problem.
Superintendent to be on medical leave
Posted in News on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 2:59 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Morrisville Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson will be on medical leave for four to six weeks starting Tuesday. She said she will undergo a surgical procedure. High school Principal William Ferrara will assume some of her responsibilities and interact with parents while she is gone.
“There’s a great team here. That’s really what’s going to make the district run smoothly. I’m just the point person here. We will be in weekly if not daily contact with Dr. Yonson,” he said Friday.
Best wishes to Dr. Yonson for a speedy recovery.
This also means that Mr. Ferrara will get to experience those 3:00 A.M. calls telling us another school has another problem.
Superintendent to be on medical leave
Posted in News on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 2:59 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Morrisville Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson will be on medical leave for four to six weeks starting Tuesday. She said she will undergo a surgical procedure. High school Principal William Ferrara will assume some of her responsibilities and interact with parents while she is gone.
“There’s a great team here. That’s really what’s going to make the district run smoothly. I’m just the point person here. We will be in weekly if not daily contact with Dr. Yonson,” he said Friday.
What's In a Name?
Merged W.Pa. school district selects name
The Associated Press
Posted: 02/13/2009 01:41:52 PM EST
MONACA, Pa.—A merged school district in western Pennsylvania has settled on a name.
The former Center Area and Monaca school districts in Beaver County will be known as Central Valley. Officials from the schools chose the name Thursday evening.
More than 760 suggestions had been made. Many were humorous or even possible criticisms of the merger including District X, United Ninjas, Candyland or the I Don't Care School District.
The merger, which creates Pennsylvania's first new school district in 25 year, becomes official July 1.
Central Valley will combine elementary classes next school year, and middle school and high school classes will follow in the fall of 2010.
The Associated Press
Posted: 02/13/2009 01:41:52 PM EST
MONACA, Pa.—A merged school district in western Pennsylvania has settled on a name.
The former Center Area and Monaca school districts in Beaver County will be known as Central Valley. Officials from the schools chose the name Thursday evening.
More than 760 suggestions had been made. Many were humorous or even possible criticisms of the merger including District X, United Ninjas, Candyland or the I Don't Care School District.
The merger, which creates Pennsylvania's first new school district in 25 year, becomes official July 1.
Central Valley will combine elementary classes next school year, and middle school and high school classes will follow in the fall of 2010.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Bristol Tax Rise
From the BCCT.
Preliminary budget has average $128 tax hike
School board members promised to find a way to eliminate the need for a property tax increase.
By JOAN HELLYER
The owner of Bristol’s average assessed property would pay an extra $128 in taxes in the coming school year should there be no changes to the district’s preliminary budget.
The school board promised Thursday night it is trying to reduce the projected 2009-10 tax increase to $0, but is leaving open the possibility of raising taxes raise taxes if needed, given the current economic climate.
The board wants to find a way to cover an estimated $900,000 revenue shortfall projected for 2009-10. It is trying to do that with a combination of an early retirement incentive for district teachers, the use of reserve funds, and the leasing of classroom space to outside agencies.
But that plan has not been finalized and officials want to make sure they have a backup plan in case all the pieces do not fall in place.
So, as required by the state’s property tax relief law known as Act 1, the board adopted a $20.5 million preliminary budget Thursday night that includes an 8 mill tax increase.
According to a state-designated index, Bristol can raise taxes 5.3 percent or 6.36 mills without asking for voter approval. However, the preliminary budget adopted Thursday night is about 1.4 percent above that limit because the board will seek exemptions for special education and debt service costs.
Should the board move forward with the 8-mill increase, the owner of the average assessed property of $16,000 would pay $2,048 in taxes next school year.
The board has until June 30 to finalize the 2009-10 budget.
Preliminary budget has average $128 tax hike
School board members promised to find a way to eliminate the need for a property tax increase.
By JOAN HELLYER
The owner of Bristol’s average assessed property would pay an extra $128 in taxes in the coming school year should there be no changes to the district’s preliminary budget.
The school board promised Thursday night it is trying to reduce the projected 2009-10 tax increase to $0, but is leaving open the possibility of raising taxes raise taxes if needed, given the current economic climate.
The board wants to find a way to cover an estimated $900,000 revenue shortfall projected for 2009-10. It is trying to do that with a combination of an early retirement incentive for district teachers, the use of reserve funds, and the leasing of classroom space to outside agencies.
But that plan has not been finalized and officials want to make sure they have a backup plan in case all the pieces do not fall in place.
So, as required by the state’s property tax relief law known as Act 1, the board adopted a $20.5 million preliminary budget Thursday night that includes an 8 mill tax increase.
According to a state-designated index, Bristol can raise taxes 5.3 percent or 6.36 mills without asking for voter approval. However, the preliminary budget adopted Thursday night is about 1.4 percent above that limit because the board will seek exemptions for special education and debt service costs.
Should the board move forward with the 8-mill increase, the owner of the average assessed property of $16,000 would pay $2,048 in taxes next school year.
The board has until June 30 to finalize the 2009-10 budget.
Pennsbury School Board Race Opens
From the BCCT.
Campbell running for school board
The founder of StopTeacherStrikes.com says he supports interactive public comment sessions at meetings and more parental access and input.
By MANASEE WAGH
Teachers strike opponent and Pennsbury parent Simon Campbell is running for a seat on the school board.
A proponent of political change in the district and the state, the Republican wants to run in the upcoming election because he wants to see better financial management and improved test scores, he said.
“It’s a critical time at Pennsbury because there’s a lot of pressure on school boards to be fiscally responsible. We don’t believe the board’s being fiscally responsible. We’ve got sleeping students, [inadequate] academic performances, not enough public transparency in the district,” he said.
Campbell supports interactive public comment sessions at board meetings and more parental access and input, he said.
The Lower Makefield resident has raised his voice against teacher strikes in Pennsylvania, one of 13 states that allow them.
He is the founder of StopTeacherStrikes.com, a grassroots organization dedicated to ending strikes and to making the public more aware of what he terms “compulsory unionism,” the fee that non-union teachers have to pay in Pennsbury for union benefits such as contract negotiation.
He has been extremely vocal in the community since 2005, when Pennsbury teachers went on strike for 21 days over a salary and benefits dispute.
Their contracts again are due to expire this summer. At the school board’s request, the Pennsbury Education Association voted to agree to extend the current contract and freeze cost of living increases for one year. Teachers at the top of the pay scale — more than half — would not get raises, though educational attainment and longevity increases still would be in effect.
The board plans to ratify the agreement later this month.
If passed, the contract extension would still cost taxpayers about $1.1 million.
Campbell is against allowing the union to contribute employee contributions to the union’s political action committee. His contention is that teachers unions influence political figures far too much, making it difficult to pass pending legislation to create a new bargaining method preventing strikes.
Originally from England, Campbell recently became a U.S. citizen.
“He’s a very active and visible community member, and I don’t really have an opinion,” said board member Linda Palsky. “I know he’s very informed and active and he has a desire to serve his community. He seems to be a reasonable, intelligent guy and I guess he feels he has something to offer.”
Campbell running for school board
The founder of StopTeacherStrikes.com says he supports interactive public comment sessions at meetings and more parental access and input.
By MANASEE WAGH
Teachers strike opponent and Pennsbury parent Simon Campbell is running for a seat on the school board.
A proponent of political change in the district and the state, the Republican wants to run in the upcoming election because he wants to see better financial management and improved test scores, he said.
“It’s a critical time at Pennsbury because there’s a lot of pressure on school boards to be fiscally responsible. We don’t believe the board’s being fiscally responsible. We’ve got sleeping students, [inadequate] academic performances, not enough public transparency in the district,” he said.
Campbell supports interactive public comment sessions at board meetings and more parental access and input, he said.
The Lower Makefield resident has raised his voice against teacher strikes in Pennsylvania, one of 13 states that allow them.
He is the founder of StopTeacherStrikes.com, a grassroots organization dedicated to ending strikes and to making the public more aware of what he terms “compulsory unionism,” the fee that non-union teachers have to pay in Pennsbury for union benefits such as contract negotiation.
He has been extremely vocal in the community since 2005, when Pennsbury teachers went on strike for 21 days over a salary and benefits dispute.
Their contracts again are due to expire this summer. At the school board’s request, the Pennsbury Education Association voted to agree to extend the current contract and freeze cost of living increases for one year. Teachers at the top of the pay scale — more than half — would not get raises, though educational attainment and longevity increases still would be in effect.
The board plans to ratify the agreement later this month.
If passed, the contract extension would still cost taxpayers about $1.1 million.
Campbell is against allowing the union to contribute employee contributions to the union’s political action committee. His contention is that teachers unions influence political figures far too much, making it difficult to pass pending legislation to create a new bargaining method preventing strikes.
Originally from England, Campbell recently became a U.S. citizen.
“He’s a very active and visible community member, and I don’t really have an opinion,” said board member Linda Palsky. “I know he’s very informed and active and he has a desire to serve his community. He seems to be a reasonable, intelligent guy and I guess he feels he has something to offer.”
Stimulus a Plus for PA
From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader
Final stimulus bill will deliver for Pa. budget
By MARC LEVY (AP)
A massive new federal economic stimulus bill will deliver billions to Pennsylvania for highways, mass transit and school districts, although it will force Gov. Ed Rendell to plug a relatively small hole in the state's finances.
The news was a relief for Rendell, who had feared the implications of the Senate's version of the stimulus bill after it cut tens of billions of dollars for states. Rendell had based his budget proposal delivered last week on a more generous House bill.
A version expected to pass Congress in the next couple days will restore most of the money in the House bill, but not all. But filling that gap will be far less onerous than what Pennsylvania would have faced under the Senate's bill.
"To add another half a billion in cuts ... would have gone from a moderate level of cuts to a severe level of cuts," Rendell told reporters on a Thursday evening conference call.
Had the state lost $500 million, as the Senate bill would have dictated, state-related universities such as Penn State, museums and educational and health care institutions would have lost some or all their funding. Dollars for school districts and counties also would have plummeted, potentially forcing layoffs, Rendell said.
"So we have pretty much escaped a disaster," Rendell said.
Rendell has already ordered hundreds of millions in spending to be frozen as Pennsylvania faces a $2.3 billion shortfall this fiscal year amid a deepening national recession. He also cut another nearly $1 billion from existing programs in the budget he proposed for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins July 1.
Rendell said Congress is still writing a funding formula, so it remained unclear exactly how much more money he must cut or find _ he speculated it could be another $60 to $70 million.
The White House and Congress struck a deal on a final $790 billion stimulus bill on Wednesday and details about it began emerging during the day Thursday.
All told, Pennsylvania will get more than $16 billion from the stimulus bill, including about $5 billion in aid for the budget, about $1.5 billion directly to school districts and another $1.7 billion for highways, bridges and mass transit agencies.
Some of the aid will be help for the jobless, such as unemployment benefits, food stamps, health coverage and more. It also includes a tax break of up to $800 for millions of lower- and middle-income taxpayers that would benefit 4.9 million Pennsylvanians, according to White House figures.
Rendell said shovels could begin turning dirt on some of those projects within a matter of four months, while some might take longer, up to nine months, to get contracts awarded.
According to White House estimates, the bill will create or save 143,000 jobs in Pennsylvania over the next two years, sixth-most jobs in the country. Since the recession began just over a year ago, Pennsylvania has lost more than 75,000 jobs.
Many of the jobs to be created will be in construction, Rendell said.
The bill also offers opportunities for the state to compete for money for air, rail and other transportation projects. One such project that Pennsylvania will pitch is for a rail connection between Scranton and the Pocono Mountains to New York City, Rendell said.
Final stimulus bill will deliver for Pa. budget
By MARC LEVY (AP)
A massive new federal economic stimulus bill will deliver billions to Pennsylvania for highways, mass transit and school districts, although it will force Gov. Ed Rendell to plug a relatively small hole in the state's finances.
The news was a relief for Rendell, who had feared the implications of the Senate's version of the stimulus bill after it cut tens of billions of dollars for states. Rendell had based his budget proposal delivered last week on a more generous House bill.
A version expected to pass Congress in the next couple days will restore most of the money in the House bill, but not all. But filling that gap will be far less onerous than what Pennsylvania would have faced under the Senate's bill.
"To add another half a billion in cuts ... would have gone from a moderate level of cuts to a severe level of cuts," Rendell told reporters on a Thursday evening conference call.
Had the state lost $500 million, as the Senate bill would have dictated, state-related universities such as Penn State, museums and educational and health care institutions would have lost some or all their funding. Dollars for school districts and counties also would have plummeted, potentially forcing layoffs, Rendell said.
"So we have pretty much escaped a disaster," Rendell said.
Rendell has already ordered hundreds of millions in spending to be frozen as Pennsylvania faces a $2.3 billion shortfall this fiscal year amid a deepening national recession. He also cut another nearly $1 billion from existing programs in the budget he proposed for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins July 1.
Rendell said Congress is still writing a funding formula, so it remained unclear exactly how much more money he must cut or find _ he speculated it could be another $60 to $70 million.
The White House and Congress struck a deal on a final $790 billion stimulus bill on Wednesday and details about it began emerging during the day Thursday.
All told, Pennsylvania will get more than $16 billion from the stimulus bill, including about $5 billion in aid for the budget, about $1.5 billion directly to school districts and another $1.7 billion for highways, bridges and mass transit agencies.
Some of the aid will be help for the jobless, such as unemployment benefits, food stamps, health coverage and more. It also includes a tax break of up to $800 for millions of lower- and middle-income taxpayers that would benefit 4.9 million Pennsylvanians, according to White House figures.
Rendell said shovels could begin turning dirt on some of those projects within a matter of four months, while some might take longer, up to nine months, to get contracts awarded.
According to White House estimates, the bill will create or save 143,000 jobs in Pennsylvania over the next two years, sixth-most jobs in the country. Since the recession began just over a year ago, Pennsylvania has lost more than 75,000 jobs.
Many of the jobs to be created will be in construction, Rendell said.
The bill also offers opportunities for the state to compete for money for air, rail and other transportation projects. One such project that Pennsylvania will pitch is for a rail connection between Scranton and the Pocono Mountains to New York City, Rendell said.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Closing school was correct response
From the BCCT.
Who is thinking the decision to close was WRONG? It was absolutely the right thing to do.
Official: Closing school was correct response
Asbestos might have been released when a worker breached a wall at Morrisville Middle/Senior High School. Testing later showed the school was safe.
By MANASEE WAGH
The Morrisville School District did the right thing by closing a school Tuesday, an official said Wednesday.
By making sure no asbestos was present in the air after a contractor accidentally drilled into an asbestos-containing wall, the school followed federal regulations, said borough code enforcement officer Robert Seward.
“We communicated with each other to make sure everything was done,” he said.
After discovering that asbestos may have escaped from behind a wall that had been breached by a worker, students in the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School were sent home until further tests by Environmental Connection of Trenton revealed no danger.
School was back on schedule Wednesday morning.
According to a report by the firm, all surface samples came back showing zero detection of asbestos. The 21 air samples taken at various locations throughout the high school revealed far lower asbestos levels than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe clearance levels, said Richard Beach, the company’s vice president.
Licensed asbestos abatement contractor Bristol Environmental isolated and cleaned up the affected area Tuesday afternoon. The team performed “proactive” cleaning, including vacuuming areas adjacent to the work site with a special filter and wet-wiping surfaces, according to Environmental Connection’s report.
“However, in the future, renovations should be performed in such a manner as to eliminate impact to (asbestos-containing material),” the firm’s report concludes. It also advises using a licensed abatement contractor to perform future tasks that would impact any asbestos-containing material.
The report is posted on the district Web site at www.mv.org and is available for public viewing at the district business office, at 550 West Palmer Street in Morrisville, Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said Tuesday.
Beach said he wants parents to know that federal regulations mandate that all school districts adhere to strict rules when it comes to dealing with asbestos, a hazardous substance linked to cancer.
“I found it somewhat hard to believe it’s been 21 years since the inception of the AHERA program and yet many parents are unaware that this program is out there and there are (asbestos) management plans for every school district throughout the country,” said Beach.
The federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986 requires all school districts to perform periodic surveillance and inspection of known or suspected asbestos-containing building material. They also must provide yearly notification to parents, teachers and employee organizations about the district’s asbestos management plan and any asbestos abatement planned in a school.
Numerous old buildings contain the fibrous natural mineral, which was used as insulation for many years before its dangers were known. If microscopic particles become airborne, they can lodge in the lungs and cause cancer, although that is most common among people who have worked with the substance for an extended period.
“The thing with asbestos is that it’s fine as long as it’s not airborne,” Beach said.
Seward said, “The biggest worry you’d have to watch out for is your older boilers and things of that nature. Hot water pipes are wrapped with asbestos. You have to make sure they’re not flaking off.”
This summer, the high school is set to undergo boiler renovations. If asbestos is found, workers would have to encapsulate or remove it, following strict procedures, and transport it safely to a landfill, said Beach.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Yonson on Wednesday for comment.
Who is thinking the decision to close was WRONG? It was absolutely the right thing to do.
Official: Closing school was correct response
Asbestos might have been released when a worker breached a wall at Morrisville Middle/Senior High School. Testing later showed the school was safe.
By MANASEE WAGH
The Morrisville School District did the right thing by closing a school Tuesday, an official said Wednesday.
By making sure no asbestos was present in the air after a contractor accidentally drilled into an asbestos-containing wall, the school followed federal regulations, said borough code enforcement officer Robert Seward.
“We communicated with each other to make sure everything was done,” he said.
After discovering that asbestos may have escaped from behind a wall that had been breached by a worker, students in the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School were sent home until further tests by Environmental Connection of Trenton revealed no danger.
School was back on schedule Wednesday morning.
According to a report by the firm, all surface samples came back showing zero detection of asbestos. The 21 air samples taken at various locations throughout the high school revealed far lower asbestos levels than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe clearance levels, said Richard Beach, the company’s vice president.
Licensed asbestos abatement contractor Bristol Environmental isolated and cleaned up the affected area Tuesday afternoon. The team performed “proactive” cleaning, including vacuuming areas adjacent to the work site with a special filter and wet-wiping surfaces, according to Environmental Connection’s report.
“However, in the future, renovations should be performed in such a manner as to eliminate impact to (asbestos-containing material),” the firm’s report concludes. It also advises using a licensed abatement contractor to perform future tasks that would impact any asbestos-containing material.
The report is posted on the district Web site at www.mv.org and is available for public viewing at the district business office, at 550 West Palmer Street in Morrisville, Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said Tuesday.
Beach said he wants parents to know that federal regulations mandate that all school districts adhere to strict rules when it comes to dealing with asbestos, a hazardous substance linked to cancer.
“I found it somewhat hard to believe it’s been 21 years since the inception of the AHERA program and yet many parents are unaware that this program is out there and there are (asbestos) management plans for every school district throughout the country,” said Beach.
The federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986 requires all school districts to perform periodic surveillance and inspection of known or suspected asbestos-containing building material. They also must provide yearly notification to parents, teachers and employee organizations about the district’s asbestos management plan and any asbestos abatement planned in a school.
Numerous old buildings contain the fibrous natural mineral, which was used as insulation for many years before its dangers were known. If microscopic particles become airborne, they can lodge in the lungs and cause cancer, although that is most common among people who have worked with the substance for an extended period.
“The thing with asbestos is that it’s fine as long as it’s not airborne,” Beach said.
Seward said, “The biggest worry you’d have to watch out for is your older boilers and things of that nature. Hot water pipes are wrapped with asbestos. You have to make sure they’re not flaking off.”
This summer, the high school is set to undergo boiler renovations. If asbestos is found, workers would have to encapsulate or remove it, following strict procedures, and transport it safely to a landfill, said Beach.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Yonson on Wednesday for comment.
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