“This is ridiculous.”

Here's a background article on Wednesday night's meeting from the BCCT this morning.

Raucous? That's mild understatement. It started in the past with an extremely hostile audience led by those same people who now grace the dais. Soda cans and food packages made their start here too, provided back then by the stop the school side as a disruption for the pro school board members. The change in board majority ensured that the practice would eventually shift over to the other side now.

The food thing is a little over the top from BOTH sides. A quiet drink or small snack might be in order. After all, these are four or five hours marathons, but the practice THEN and the practice NOW of using these snacks as disruptive tools is childish at best.

The identification of the Hellmann-Radosti-Mihok voting axis is accurate but is missing a few members. Brenda Worob and Bill Farrell talk a big game about "independence" and "self-directed thought", but in the end come down on the short-sighted side far more often than a true "independent" would.

Jack Buckman has had an issue with late night meetings through his borough council days, so this is not a new position for him. I would like to know how he had enough information about the budget to be able to cast a vote approving it. Was he aware that he can be held PERSONALLY liable for civil damages as a result of his vote?

Until this school board remembers that they are NOT the local board of taxation, but the SCHOOL board, we're in for more late night meeting follies. The irony is that the Emperor and his accomplices themselves have created the firestorm they find themselves enmeshed in. When they were in the audience, they discarded reasoned discourse and discussion in favor of shouting, screaming, and outright mis-characterization of facts to make their points. Now that they are in charge, the wheel of karma has spun and they are now reaping what they have sowed in terms of audience behavior.

I'd like to say that the anti-board audience is wrong (and in the real world they are!), but it's also the only language these yahoos on the dais understand. Confrontation, maximum disruption, and agitation are their signatures. IRONY ALERT: We've elected a board largely made up of the village idiots to control the schools where we educate our young. And we did it only because we wanted to save a few bucks.

They also never, ever, even to this day, thought about a long term plan and released it to the public. "Stop the school" was all they had. They did it. Now what? I've been asking that question for almost a year now and silence is still the only response. Has it occurred to the Emperor and the board of accomplices that if they dialed back the angry rhetoric a bit and actually opened their mouths to EXPLAIN, that the results would be better?

"Those sitting near the front could hear Yonson say under her breath, 'This is ridiculous.' ” Oh, no, Dr. Yonson. Ridiculous is still a few miles down this pothole riddled highway. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses...

Raucous atmosphere at school board meeting

By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times

Morrisville meetings are known for their raucous mud-slinging. But Wednesday's meeting was one for the books.

From the shortening of Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson's contract from five to three years to the board president's proposal of across-the-board hiring freezes in the district, diehards on both sides of the issues stuck it out to watch events unfold past midnight.

One spectator started singing “It's the end of the school as we know it,” to the tune of rock band REM's “It's the End of the World as We Know It.”

At least eight people stood at the microphone to protest the board majority's decision to cut Yonson's five-year contract. Some said it was “a slap in the face” and “an insult.”

The routine replacement of aides and teachers who leave the district became fuel for a debate that raged for more than an hour.

Board President William Hellmann got worked up over hiring new staff. To save money, he suggested a hiring freeze, which elicited gaping mouths and stares of disbelief from administrators and boos from audience members.

Yonson explained that the employees are necessary, that they fulfilled vital educational functions, helping to make significant academic gains in the last couple of years.

For example, elementary math performances have risen in the past couple of years. This year's raw unofficial PSSA data shows considerable improvement in 11th-grade scores, from 11 percent proficiency to 55 percent proficiency, said Yonson.

“Do not expect to have the same results if we reduce staff,” she said.

Hellmann's determination to freeze hirings stems from the district's teachers contract, which stipulates a roughly 12:1 student to staff ratio.

Though most general classes are more than 20 students in size, according to Yonson, some kids who need particular help have more aides or teachers.

The bottom line for some board members was the ratio, though.

“It's too much. It's a problem,” was Hellmann's constant refrain about the number of staff needed to teach fewer than 1,000 students and run the district at an annual cost of $19.88 million.

“Our budget's way too high,” he said repeatedly.

Residents who didn't like what Hellmann had to say settled back with containers of goodies, opening them loudly and rumpling them during Hellmann's remarks.

The approximately 75 spectators filling the meeting room in Morrisville's high school during the five-hour meeting seemed as if they were a sporting event.

They booed and cheered repeatedly depending on who was talking.

Some demanded that Hellmann be heard. Others talked over him.

In the end, at least some of the votes did swing toward staff replacements, though Hellmann and board members Marlys Mihok and Alfred Radosti tended to vote against them. Their practice of siding together on just about every vote prompted a resident to demand that the board not “follow the leader.”

Throughout the noisy meeting, Hellmann and opposing board member Robin Reithmeyer drowned each other out, and Hellmann seemed to turn a deaf ear to Yonson's explanations of how the school system works.

Those sitting near the front could hear Yonson say under her breath, “This is ridiculous.”

John Buckman, who replaced the late Edward Frankenfield on the board last week, thought the meeting dragged on too long.

“It was way too long, that's crazy. If I was getting paid and paid by the hour, maybe I wouldn't care,” he said Friday, chuckling. “We've got to find a way to cut the time.”

Buckman, a former school director and borough councilman, said taking so much time is unfair to board members and the public. But he noted asking questions and airing grievances is good. He believes it's valuable to be up-front and communicate.

However, the board and the administration seem to clash frequently.

“In politics, forget it. It's just that way,” said Buckman. “They talk the subject over and over and over. You're not going to get away from it totally.”

The Sunday Funny Papers

Here it is, Sunday morning and the kids have the funny pages open from the Sunday paper. Oddly enough, the parents have the funny pages open too, but while the kids are looking at the comics, the parents are anxiously reading about our little town's Farm Control Board, looking for the new scheduling of the cattle runs to Bristol and Pennsbury, and maybe even a few to Conwell Egan.

Were you able to contact your board members? Several of you did and were kind enough to include me on the letters, and I thank you for that. Most of you asked that your letters not be reprinted here and I am honoring that request. However, I thought that I was hot under the collar. Perhaps we should talk to George Mount about adding blood pressure medication directly to the town water supply to save time.

According to the BCCT this morning, closing a school is a slow process, and it takes at least three months.

All this board wants is fast, fast, relief. WARNING: Everything is moving fast. Defease the debt FAST! Cut the budget FAST! I know some people so we can fix the school FAST! These are the same people who wanted s...l...o...w... action from the past board, aren't they? Then what is the "other reason" for going fast? This new board has two years at least to complete the job. Who else benefits from fast action?

They also attacked the past president for her "connections" with contractors. Who is questioning the connections that William Hellmann CPA has with the professional defeasement artist who also said come back and see me when you need more money. Other members are using connections to bring their friends directly into the process because they can "work with these people", not like the others before them who were greedy and only wanted a new school. "Work with you", huh? Sounds like a classic sweetheart pay-for-play or inexpensive-work-now-for-guaranteed-work-later type of scam is being run. Even the door locks at Grandview had to be fixed by a William Hellmann CPA crony ("Did you call the guy I told you to call?" was his message to the business administrator).

What's the school board equivalent of a special prosecutor?

And are we following the Sandy Gibson Rule? Substitute Sandy as the protagonist and then read how it sounds. For example, in the above paragraph...Who is questioning the connections that [Sandy Gibson] has with the professional defeasement artist who also said come back and see me when you need more money. [Sandy Gibson is] using connections to bring [her] friends directly into the process because they can "work with these people", not like the others before them who were greedy and only wanted a new school. "Work with you", huh? Sounds like a classic sweetheart pay-for-play or inexpensive-work-now-for-guaranteed-work-later type of scam is being run. Even the door locks at Grandview had to be fixed by a [Sandy Gibson] crony ("Did you call the guy I told you to call?" was [her] message to the business administrator).

See how easy that was? If you were incensed by reading that last paragraph and went outside to stoke the vat of boiling tar to corner Sandy, why aren't you doing it to William Hellmann CPA? Because you're a hypocrite, that's why.

One item to close with:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead, US anthropologist (1901 - 1978)

The Queen is Dead...Long Live the King

Those words will ring out at some point across the United Kingdom as Queen Elizabeth II will end her monarchy and be succeeded by her son Charles (or grandson William as some have suggested.)

But why wait for the UK of the future when right here in Morrisville we have this today.

President Sandy Gibson was variously described in shades of evil well over the boundaries of good taste and common law. However, the new board would ride to the rescue and fix all of her transgressions against the good folk of Morrisville.

President William Hellmann CPA is the new King, but curiously enough, following the same alleged imperial leanings. In addition, they complained that Hellmann did not provide the board with appropriate information ahead of the meeting that would allow them to make a decision Wednesday night. Chalk another one up for the Wheel of Karma. See the BCCT article from today. And just to set the record straight...Brenda Worob should publicly declare how she would have voted on this resolution. Life intrudes and there may have been very good reasons why she was not available. However, here's board member number 2 who has ducked out on dealing with information that might be embarrassing. Do not give these people a free pass.

The Morrisville school board passed a resolution 5-3 Wednesday night promising to keep the district’s real estate tax inflation rate increase at 4.4 percent or less for the 2008-09 school year.

The state’s Taxpayer Relief Act, known as Act 1, mandates this limit already. Ordinarily, boards do not adopt special resolutions against increasing taxes beyond the state mandated percentage. However, some board members believed it was important to pass the resolution to reinforce campaign promises to not raise taxes.

The preliminary budget of $21.95 million will be available for public review today on the district’s Web site, www.mv.org.

President William Hellmann, board members Marlys Mihok, William Farrell, Gloria Heater and Alfred Radosti voted for the referendum. Member Brenda Worob was absent.

The decision comes less than two months after the election of a school board that is largely against the building of a new $30 million pre-K through 12th grade consolidated school to take the place of three ailing existing schools.

Prior to the election, the district spent more than $2 million for engineering, architectural and other fees related to the proposed facility. In addition, a $30 million bond was approved for the planned building.

However, the current board’s scrapping of the proposed $30 million construction project last December has left the district with the prior financial obligations.

The district expects to be able to repay the principal of the bond through a maturing investment that will generate interest. Therefore, the bond issue should eventually be recovered. Hellmann said he is still working out the details with a financial consultant and couldn’t say how long it would take to recover the bond money.

Board members Robin Reithmeyer and Joseph Kemp said passing the resolution to hold tight to the 4.4 percent increase could be financially irresponsible because of those debts and other unforeseen obligations.

In addition, they complained that Hellmann did not provide the board with appropriate information ahead of the meeting that would allow them to make a decision Wednesday night.

“If we pass this resolution we will be shutting the door to the possibility of exceptions,” said Reithmeyer. “We can still cut the budget to 4.4 percent [without passing the resolution].”

Hellmann countered that there was room in the budget without applying for exceptions.

Hellman pointed to cuts to the contingency fund and in pension contributions, overtime pay for support staff and teaching salaries in areas including extracurricular, substitute and secondary reading.

School districts cannot raise taxes past a predetermined percentage set by the state without a voter referendum in the April primary election.

A school district has to present a final budget plan by Jan. 22, but it may be tweaked until June 30, when the finalized budget must be passed.

The preliminary budget was presented at the Dec. 12 meeting as $21.95 million. This is less than the expected revenue of roughly $21.99 million from various sources. The district expected to collect about $13 million in real estate taxes, up from about $12 million this year.

The board will vote on any revisions to the preliminary budget at a board meeting on Jan. 23.

The school district serves 1,052 children.