Borows has left a new comment on your post "Why Are We Here?
":Seems to me there are two camps in Morrisville.
There are the "FIXERS" who say 'We see there is a problem with the facilities and with the educational programs, so let us expend energy and money to fix them because we know that whatever we do will benefit the community as a whole'
Then there are the "DISPOSERS" who say 'We see there is a problem with the facilities and with the educational programs, but it is better to be rid of the problem all together because if we expend energy and money trying to make it better, it will not benefit the community more than it will cost the community'.
The common ground is the problems with the district. Maybe the dialogue should have started there.
The differences are in how to solve the problems. Fix or Dispose.
A question should be asked of each school of thought.
For the Fixers: Is there any amount of energy and money that can solve the problems? The next question would be: Is it practical to assume that this amount of energy and money can be generated in Morrisville?
For the Disposers: Given the social and legal constraints and responsibilities to educate our children, will the problems be solved by disposing of them from Morrisville all together? The next question would be: What is the cost to the community to dispose of the problem, and what would the cost to the community be if disposal fails to solve the problems?
So I leave the floor open for public comment sans the 45 minute limit. Which are you, why, and what do you propose?
I'm definitely a fixer. A whole Morrisville is much better than a partitioned one. The money and energy can certainly be generated right here, right now. I do question if the collective willpower is available to be generated to back up the "we can do it."
6 comments:
The characterization of polar opposites is nice, but it isn't entirely accurate, at least for me. As noted, a complete merger with Pennsbury still seems to me to be the best option. Morrisville would retain an elementary school, but middle and senior HS students would join their peers from the surrounding community in those regional schools. Given that this hasn't gained any traction, the next best option is to invest in creating the best possible arrangement for the Morrisville schools, that is, a single campus solution that takes adavantage of technology and modern practices to build the foundation for the future. The advantages are many, including: reduced operating and maintenance costs, recued personnel costs, a better environment-free of cold or hot rooms and choking fumes from outdated heating systems, proper infrastructure to allow for modern computing equipment and the inclusion better teaching apparatus,.... the list of advantages goes on. The advantages to the community are great as well. The initial costs might be hard to bear, but the long term payoff would be worth it. Unfortunately, with so many folks living paycheck to paycheck, it is difficult to take the long view, and thus we have the resistance to anything that creates change.
....a complete merger with Pennsbury still seems to me to be the best option.
I respect your opinion, and maybe merger with Pennsbury, which has its advantages and well as disadvantages, could be an overall plus. But....merger with Pennsbury has been broached over and over again with no results other than no. So in some ways I think it's like holding onto a pipe dream while staving off the tougher, more realistic decisions that need to be made about our district.
Here's where I veer off into the ridiculous, because this reminds me of a scene from Austin Powers 2:
AUSTIN
And what's your name, baby?
MODEL
(thick Russian accent)
Ivana Humpalot.
AUSTIN
Excuse me?
IVANA
Ivana. Ivana Humpalot.
AUSTIN
And I vanna toilet made of solid gold but it's just not in the cards, now is it?
I agree with you that the advantages to the students and community are great, and that for many it is "difficult to take the long view." Unfortunately that means nothing changes and the infrastructure continues to deteriorate.
One viable alternative that could have satisfied the problem was the Earned Income Tax (EIT), which would have fairly distributed the burden. However, the community (almost ALL communities for that matter) was strongly against that as well and overwhelmingly voted it down. The State did a poor job with this proposal because they could not give relevant, up-to-date data that would have helped this pass. And that, for me, was the reason to be cautious about the proposal, but I don't think that is why the people of Morrisville voted against it. The majority of folks that spoke publicly about it said they were against it because we had "been there, done that." Meaning, years ago this was tried, there were problems collecting the tax and therefore we should never try it again. Some of these people had even said they would not pay it -- hmmm, I wonder why it failed last time? Additionally, they were skeptical (rightly so) that this would just be an additional tax instead of a tax shift.
My point (and I do have one) is that the EIT really could have merit if given a chance, but the State needs to do a better job in providing up-to-date data, give assurances (i.e. write it into the law) that this truly would be a real-estate tax OFFSET, not just ANOTHER tax, and help towns set up a a reliable method for collection.
As Dennis Miller used to say, "...of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."
I just got 4 copies of a survey that appears to be from the Facilities/Infrastructure Committee, with 5 questions about the schools/renovations. Anybody know anything about this? Is it legit? There is nothing on it that identifies it as a product of the Morrisville School Board.
While I appreciate the effort to try to collect feedback from the community, it seems rather amateurish. The structure of the questions is either not comprehensive enough or seems designed to lead someone to answer a particular way.
[To Anonymous]
It is true that there are shades of greay in this debate.
I still maintain that a merger with Pennsbury (partial or complete) is a "Disposer" point of view. It seeks to offload the problem somewhere else while shedding the responsibility, accountability and local control of public education and taxation representation.
There is no "send the secondary, keep the primary" scenario with a merger. We MAY be able to retain local elementary schools in our area (or may not, at the Pennsbury boards whim) in a merger, but the staff and administration, as well as the school board oversight, would be lost to the Pennsbury district. Our nine votes of local control and representation would diminish to less than one.
However, I am encouraged to see that a "Disposer" can accept the realities that this extreme solution is impractical, and can consider a "Fixers" point of view.
If, similarly, "Fixers" can accept the reality that their extreme solution is also impractical, that we may have to "dispose" of certain unaffordable or unacceptable scenarios, then we may well be on the road to a compromise solution that actually can work for Morrisville.
Fixing what is wrong with the Morrisville School system may require disposing of parts. Disposing of some things means dedicating to fixing what remains.
OK, a disposer if possible under certain scenarios and fixer if not is how I'd need to classify myself in this dichotomous taxonomy. If my first choice (Disposer with conditions) for a solution is not feasible, I am pragmatic enough to move on to the next (Fixer with conditions). Given the lack of action that has yielded any results, I don't think either of the solutions should be off the table, especially when the renovation, tuitioning and do nothing solutions are all much more problematic and potentially catastrophic, especially in the long term. It seems that every solution proffered has a set of adherents and a vocal opposition. Talk about pipe dreams, the biggest of all is that some consensus will ever be reached. So, if you're going to fight, shoot for the stars. It's sad that the solution to this problem will likely be some half-measure that simply fobs it off on the future. Sound like a refrain to anyone?
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