From the Inquirer
Rendell gets education increase in budget
By Dan Hardy, Inquirer Staff Writer
Governor Rendell's proposed 2008-09 education budget sought to create a predictable and long-term education funding system for Pennsylvania that would take the first step toward increasing state funding for school districts by $2.6 billion over the next six years.
He appears to have gotten much of what he wanted.
For starters, there's a historic increase in education funding by $274 million, close to the $291 million Rendell originally asked for.
The basic education funding will be allocated based on figures from a recent "costing out" study that determined how much money the neediest districts should get.
No district will get less than a 3 percent hike; that's double the 1.5 percent minimum increase that Rendell had asked for, according to a legislative official privy to the negotiations under way to finalize the overall budget agreement reached early yesterday morning.
The legislature did not commit to using the same formula to increase state funding over the next six years, the official said. But the legislation will refer to targets based on this year's allocations that the legislature hopes to meet in the future, he said.
"This is an immense victory for children and schools in Pennsylvania," said Baruch Kintisch, a spokesman for the Education Law Center, an advocacy group that has pushed for increased state funding and a predictable funding system. "This is a historic gain - we now have a real [basic education] formula that will be the baseline for the future."
Philadelphia will get $34 million less in basic education money than the $85 million increase Rendell had requested. But, that money will be made up through increases in other funding for the district, which will receive $1.3 billion in state aid next year.
Helen Gym, a Philadelphia parent and education activist, was more cautious. "We don't want the legislature to think this is a one-time commitment and we're done," she said. "It is a significant boost but only when they actually make a commitment to keep increasing the funding over the long run will we see real change."
Basic education funding made up the largest portion of Rendell's proposed $9.38 billion education budget proposal.
The budget legislation will also bar the development of statewide graduation tests. The State Board of Education, with strong Rendell administration backing, had proposed that the state institute a series of subject tests that students could take to show that they knew the material.
The idea triggered widespread opposition among school district officials and state lawmakers.
The budget will have less special-education funding than the governor had asked for. Rendell had requested $1.04 billion, a 3 percent increase; the final figure will be about $1.03 billion, a 1.7 percent increase, said Timothy Allwein, the legislative liaison for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
Funding for the governor's Classrooms for the Future program, to put laptops in every high school core-subject classroom, was cut from the proposed $90 million to $45 million, the legislative official said.
Education department officials said details of the agreement were not final and they could not comment.
Allwein, of the school boards association, said that "I think education made out as well as can be expected, given the fiscal realities of this year and the concerns for what the future was going to bring."
The smaller special-education increase, he said, "is a huge blow - districts will have to shift funds to make up for this loss."
------------------------------------------------
Details of Pa. budget deal
The Associated Press
Details of the budget deal struck early Monday between Gov. Ed Rendell and state legislative leaders:
BUDGET
$28.2 billion for fiscal year 2008-09 beginning Tuesday
3.8 percent increase over past year's spending
Does not require any broad-based tax or fee increases
Uses about $550 million in one-time funds to fill hole in revenues
Does not dip into state's budget reserve to support spending
Agreement before fiscal year's end averts threatened furloughs of 25,000 state workers
BORROWING
$800 million from slot-machine gambling revenues for dams and water and sewer facilities
$500 million from electric utility gross receipts tax revenue for alternative energy projects
$800 million from general tax revenues for civic redevelopment projects
$350 million from motorist fees and taxes to fix about 400 of the state's most dangerous bridges
ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION
Requirement that alternative fuels be added to each gallon of diesel or gas as in-state production rises.
Source: Gov. Ed Rendell, Senate Republicans.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
From the mailbag
From the mailbag. It seems like some of the parents are getting ticked.
The recipient was 00statbd@psupen.psu.edu. Doesn't sound familiar? That's the Pennsylvania State Board of Education.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
333 Market Street
Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333
Voice: 717-787-3787
E-Mail 00statbd@psupen.psu.edu
Anyone else want to email, write, or call? Drop me a line and I will print it here also. Here's a list of the state board's members and other contacts.
P.S. Thanks for the blog mention!
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m not sure who I need to address this too, so I decided that since your name was at the top of the email address list, I would start with you. I am a VERY concerned parent in the Morrisville Boro School District . I feel that my concerns and the concerns of other parents in this district are not being heard. I’m not even sure if the PDE is the place to start. I plan on writing to whoever will listen. Rumors travel fast in this town and at this point all we have is the rumors because some of the school board directors refuse to give us a plan for the future of our children’s education. The parents of Morrisville are extremely disappointed in the manner at which these individuals are behaving. Some have made remarks that they are only on the board to lower taxes. I think that a school board director should be there for the education of the children in the district. Some residents have been posting their concerns on a website, www.savethemorrisvilleschool.blogspot.com, this seems to be our only outlet. More and more residents are attending meetings, but I feel that the point is not getting thru to the school board. The latest thing that I read today was that they are going to run the school district in to the ground so that the State needs to take over.
The 2008-2009 budget was approved last week, the administration has said time and time again that with this new budget there will NOT be adequate money to educate the special education children. The charter and alternative schools amount will not be enough money to provide what is needed for the district.
If there is an individual that should get this email, I hope that you would forward it along to that person. If you are unable to forward it along, I would appreciate a name or department where I can voice my concerns.
The recipient was 00statbd@psupen.psu.edu. Doesn't sound familiar? That's the Pennsylvania State Board of Education.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
333 Market Street
Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333
Voice: 717-787-3787
E-Mail 00statbd@psupen.psu.edu
Anyone else want to email, write, or call? Drop me a line and I will print it here also. Here's a list of the state board's members and other contacts.
P.S. Thanks for the blog mention!
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m not sure who I need to address this too, so I decided that since your name was at the top of the email address list, I would start with you. I am a VERY concerned parent in the Morrisville Boro School District . I feel that my concerns and the concerns of other parents in this district are not being heard. I’m not even sure if the PDE is the place to start. I plan on writing to whoever will listen. Rumors travel fast in this town and at this point all we have is the rumors because some of the school board directors refuse to give us a plan for the future of our children’s education. The parents of Morrisville are extremely disappointed in the manner at which these individuals are behaving. Some have made remarks that they are only on the board to lower taxes. I think that a school board director should be there for the education of the children in the district. Some residents have been posting their concerns on a website, www.savethemorrisvilleschool.blogspot.com, this seems to be our only outlet. More and more residents are attending meetings, but I feel that the point is not getting thru to the school board. The latest thing that I read today was that they are going to run the school district in to the ground so that the State needs to take over.
The 2008-2009 budget was approved last week, the administration has said time and time again that with this new budget there will NOT be adequate money to educate the special education children. The charter and alternative schools amount will not be enough money to provide what is needed for the district.
If there is an individual that should get this email, I hope that you would forward it along to that person. If you are unable to forward it along, I would appreciate a name or department where I can voice my concerns.
Progress at Neshaminy High
It looks like the Neshaminy construction is moving right along.
Maybe we can strike a deal for some of those modular classrooms. We can pile them in the parking lots to replace the schools.
Progress being made at Neshaminy High School
A new science wing and a small theater room are scheduled to be done by the winter, officials said.
By RACHEL CANELLI
STAFF WRITER
Neshaminy High School finally has a front—in the back.
Two-thirds of the way into a major construction and renovation project, crews recently installed a silver name plate to the main student entrance of the Middletown high school located at the back of the building.
“We’ve never had that before,” business administrator Joseph Paradise said as he gave the newspaper an exclusive tour of the site Tuesday morning. “It’s rewarding to see the change.”
In the winter, the district celebrated some of those changes with an open house of a two-story classroom wing. A mirror image of the first classroom building is scheduled to open for students in the fall, officials said.
Besides new desks and flat screen televisions, students will sit at desks that face the front of the classroom but will have to turn around to use the computer. This way a teacher can always see what’s on the students’ screens, administrators said.
Meanwhile, workers are putting the finishing touches on two gyms, which were gutted, painted and given new floors, ceilings, lights and ventilation systems, Paradise said.
The 32 temporary modular classrooms that teachers and students used for the past two years are being dismantled. Across from that space, steel is in place for a brand new two-story science wing that should be equipped with new labs and updated tools by January, he said.
“Before, we fit what we needed into the space that we had,” Paradise said. “This is designed for our needs.”
Crews are also working on renovating the school’s circular-shaped library and replacing a small auditorium-like classroom with a similar setting.
Although there were many people who wanted the district to build a whole new school, the school board settled on 60 percent new space and the rest renovated, administrators said.
However, Paradise pointed out, that the 40 percent being updated looks brand new. But instead of being built from the ground up, it’s still on the old, but solid, foundation, said Paradise.
The project is adding more than 250,000 square feet to accommodate 2,800 students, including ninthgraders who will move there from the middle schools next year.
Also at that time, a hallway of classrooms will be demolished to make way for a road that will lead to the new student entrance. There students will use ID cards to enter, officials said.
The public will have other entrances near the new guidance area. That project should be completed by September, administrators said.
The whole $82 million project, which remains on time and on budget, is expected to be finished in September 2009. The district borrowed $77 million to fund it, Paradise said.
“[The construction] is an inconvenience, but it’s also exciting,” he said. “The board, administration, teachers, students and construction workers have come together [and cooperated] to make it work.”
Maybe we can strike a deal for some of those modular classrooms. We can pile them in the parking lots to replace the schools.
Progress being made at Neshaminy High School
A new science wing and a small theater room are scheduled to be done by the winter, officials said.
By RACHEL CANELLI
STAFF WRITER
Neshaminy High School finally has a front—in the back.
Two-thirds of the way into a major construction and renovation project, crews recently installed a silver name plate to the main student entrance of the Middletown high school located at the back of the building.
“We’ve never had that before,” business administrator Joseph Paradise said as he gave the newspaper an exclusive tour of the site Tuesday morning. “It’s rewarding to see the change.”
In the winter, the district celebrated some of those changes with an open house of a two-story classroom wing. A mirror image of the first classroom building is scheduled to open for students in the fall, officials said.
Besides new desks and flat screen televisions, students will sit at desks that face the front of the classroom but will have to turn around to use the computer. This way a teacher can always see what’s on the students’ screens, administrators said.
Meanwhile, workers are putting the finishing touches on two gyms, which were gutted, painted and given new floors, ceilings, lights and ventilation systems, Paradise said.
The 32 temporary modular classrooms that teachers and students used for the past two years are being dismantled. Across from that space, steel is in place for a brand new two-story science wing that should be equipped with new labs and updated tools by January, he said.
“Before, we fit what we needed into the space that we had,” Paradise said. “This is designed for our needs.”
Crews are also working on renovating the school’s circular-shaped library and replacing a small auditorium-like classroom with a similar setting.
Although there were many people who wanted the district to build a whole new school, the school board settled on 60 percent new space and the rest renovated, administrators said.
However, Paradise pointed out, that the 40 percent being updated looks brand new. But instead of being built from the ground up, it’s still on the old, but solid, foundation, said Paradise.
The project is adding more than 250,000 square feet to accommodate 2,800 students, including ninthgraders who will move there from the middle schools next year.
Also at that time, a hallway of classrooms will be demolished to make way for a road that will lead to the new student entrance. There students will use ID cards to enter, officials said.
The public will have other entrances near the new guidance area. That project should be completed by September, administrators said.
The whole $82 million project, which remains on time and on budget, is expected to be finished in September 2009. The district borrowed $77 million to fund it, Paradise said.
“[The construction] is an inconvenience, but it’s also exciting,” he said. “The board, administration, teachers, students and construction workers have come together [and cooperated] to make it work.”
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Tax Bill Discussion
It looks like the new school tax bills are out, with the super-amazing, hard-fought Stop the School reductions.
I had to look twice. It wasn't that impressive. Maybe your numbers are different than mine. I thought I would leave it up to the readers to comment on their bills.
Here's the procedure:
1) Take your 2007 school tax bill and subtract the 2008 school tax owed.
2) Subtract the homestead/farmstead from the savings in part 1. This number is your Stop the School Bonus.
Care to share the value of your Stop the School Bonus?
Second part to the question: Was it worth it?
I had to look twice. It wasn't that impressive. Maybe your numbers are different than mine. I thought I would leave it up to the readers to comment on their bills.
Here's the procedure:
1) Take your 2007 school tax bill and subtract the 2008 school tax owed.
2) Subtract the homestead/farmstead from the savings in part 1. This number is your Stop the School Bonus.
Care to share the value of your Stop the School Bonus?
Second part to the question: Was it worth it?
Common Fallacies in Reasoning
An interesting read. Spot any you recognize?
COMMON FALLACIES IN REASONING
1. FAULTY CAUSE: (post hoc ergo propter hoc) mistakes correlation or association for causation, by assuming that because one thing follows another it was caused by the other.
example: A black cat crossed Babbs' path yesterday and, sure enough, she was involved in an automobile accident later that same afternoon.
example: The introduction of sex education courses at the high school level has resulted in increased promiscuity among teens. A recent study revealed that the number of reported cases of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) was significantly higher for high schools that offered courses in sex education than for high schools that did not.
2. SWEEPING GENERALIZATION: (dicto simpliciter) assumes that what is true of the whole will also be true of the part, or that what is true in most instances will be true in all instances.
example: Muffin must be rich or have rich parents, because she belongs to ZXQ, and ZXQ is the richest sorority on campus.
example: I'd like to hire you, but you're an ex-felon and statistics show that 80% of ex-felons recidivate.
3. HASTY GENERALIZATION: bases an inference on too small a sample, or on an unrepresentative sample. Often, a single example or instance is used as the basis for a broader generalization.
example: All of those movie stars are really rude. I asked Kevin Costner for his autograph in a restaurant in Westwood the other evening, and he told me to get lost.
example: Pit Bulls are actually gentle, sweet dogs. My next door neighbor has one and his dog loves to romp and play with all the kids in the neighborhood!
4. FAULTY ANALOGY: (can be literal or figurative) assumes that because two things, events, or situations are alike in some known respects, that they are alike in other unknown respects.
example: What's the big deal about the early pioneers killing a few Indians in order to settle the West? After all, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
example: Banning "head" shops from selling drug paraphernalia in order to curb drug abuse makes about as much sense as banning bikinis to reduce promiscuity.
5. APPEAL TO IGNORANCE: (argumentum ad ignorantiam) attempts to use an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the validity of the conclusion, i.e. "You can't prove I'm wrong, so I must be right."
example: We can safely conclude that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy, because thus far no one has been able to prove that there is not.
example: The new form of experimental chemotherapy must be working; not a single patient has returned to complain.
6. BIFURCATION: (either-or, black or white, all or nothing fallacy) assumes that two categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, that is, something is either a member of one or the other, but not both or some third category.
example: Either you favor a strong national defense, or you favor allowing other nations to dictate our foreign policy.
example: It’s not TV. It’s HBO.
7. FALSE DILEMMA: (a form of bifurcation) implies that one of two outcomes is inevitable, and both have negative consequences.
example: Either you buy a large car and watch it guzzle away your paycheck, or you buy a small car and take a greater risk of being injured or killed in the event of an accident.
example: You can put your money in a savings account, in which case the IRS will tax you on the interest, and inflation will erode the value of your money, or you can avoid maintaining a savings account in which case you will have nothing to fall back on in a financial emergency.
8. FAULTY SIGN: (also includes argument from circumstance) wrongly assumes that one event or phenomenon is a reliable indicator or predictor of another event or phenomenon.
example: the cars driving in the opposite direction have their lights on; they must be part of a funeral procession.
example: That guy is wearing a Raiders jacket and baggy pants. I’ll bet he’s a gang member.
9. DAMNING THE SOURCE: (ad hominem, sometimes called the genetic fallacy) attempts to refute an argument by indicting the source of the argument, rather than the substance of the argument itself.
example: There is no reason to listen to the arguments of those who oppose school prayer, for they are the arguments of atheists!
example: The American Trial Lawyers Association favors of this piece of legislation, so you know it has to be bad for ordinary citizens.
10. TU QUOQUE: (look who's talking or two wrongs make a right) pointing to a similar wrong or error committed by another.
example: Gee, Mom and Dad, how can you tell me not to do drugs when you both smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol?
example: The United States has no business criticizing the human rights policies of the Third World nations, not as long as discrimination and segregation continue to exist in the United States.
11. EQUIVOCATION: allows a key word or term in an argument to shift its meaning during the course of the argument. The result is that the conclusion of the argument is not concerned with the same thing as the premise(s).
example: Only man is rational. No woman is a man. Therefore, no woman is rational.
example: No one who has the slightest acquaintance with science can reasonably doubt that the miracles in the Bible actually took place. Every year we witness countless new miracles in the form recombinant DNA, micro-chips, organ transplants, and the like. (the word "miracle" does not have the same meaning in each case)
12. BEGGING THE QUESTION: (petitio principii) entails making an argument, the conclusion of which is based on an unstated or unproven assumption. In question form, this fallacy is known as a COMPLEX QUESTION.
example: Abortion is murder, since killing a baby is an act of murder.
example: Have you stopped beating your wife?
13. TAUTOLOGY: (a sub-category of circular argument) defining terms or qualifying an argument in such a way that it would be impossible to disprove the argument. Often, the rationale for the argument is merely a restatement of the conclusion in different words.
example: The Bible is the word of God. We know this because the Bible itself tells us so.
example: You are a disagreeable person and, if you disagree with me on this, it will only further prove what a disagreeable person you are.
14. APPEAL TO AUTHORITY: (ipse dixit also called ad verecundiam sometimes) attempts to justify an argument by citing a highly admired or well-known (but not necessarily qualified) figure who supports the conclusion being offered.
example: If it's good enough for (insert celebrity's name here), it's good enough for me.
example: Laws against marijuana are plain silly. Why, Thomas Jefferson is known to have raised hemp on his own plantation.
15. APPEAL TO TRADITION: (don't rock the boat or ad verecundiam) based on the principle of "letting sleeping dogs lie". We should continue to do things as they have been done in the past. We shouldn't challenge time-honored customs or traditions.
example: Of course we have to play "pomp and circumstance" at graduation, because that's always been the song that is played.
example: Why do I make wine this way? Because my father made wine this way, and his father made wine this way.
16. APPEAL TO THE CROWD: (ad populum or playing to the gallery) refers to popular opinion or majority sentiment in order to provide support for a claim. Often the "common man" or "common sense" provides the basis for the claim.
example: all I can say is that if living together is immoral, then I have plenty of company.
example: Professor Windplenty's test was extremely unfair. Just ask anyone who took it.
17. STRAW MAN: stating an opponent's argument in an extreme or exaggerated form, or attacking a weaker, irrelevant portion of an opponent's argument.
example: A mandatory seat belt law could never be enforced. You can't issue citations to dead people.
example: What woman in her right mind could truly desire total equality with men? No woman wants the right to be shot at in times of war, the right to have to pay alimony, or the right to have to use the same restrooms as men.
18. SLIPPERY SLOPE: (sometimes called a snowball argument or domino theory) suggests that if one step or action is taken it will invariably lead to similar steps or actions, the end results of which are negative or undesirable. A slippery slope always assume a chain reaction of cause-effect events which result in some eventual dire outcome.
example: If the Supreme Court allows abortion, next think you know they'll allow euthanasia, and it won't be long before society disposes of all those persons whom it deems unwanted or undesirable.
example: If I let one student interrupt my lecture with a question, then I'll have to let others and, before long, there won't be any time left for my lecture.
19. APPEALING TO EXTREMES: A fallacy very similar to slippery slope, which involves taking an argumentative claim or assertion to its extreme, even though the arguer does not advocate the extreme interpretation. The difference between the two fallacies is that appealing to extremes does not necessarily involve a sequence of causal connections.
example: Husband to ex-wife: Well, if you want to be completely fair about dividing everything up, you should get one of my testicles and I should get one of your breasts!
example: Debtor to creditor: Hey, you've already repossessed my car and my television. Why don't you just draw a quart of blood or carve a pound of flesh from my heart too?
20. HYPOTHESIS CONTRARY TO FACT: This fallacy consists of offering a poorly supported claim about what might have happened in the past or future if circumstances or conditions were other than they actually were or are. The fallacy also involves treating hypothetical situations as if they were fact.
example: If you had only tasted the stewed snails, I'm sure you would have liked them.
example: If Hitler had not invaded Russia and opened up two military fronts, the Nazis would surely have won the war.
21. NON SEQUITAR: (literally means "does not follow") in a general sense any argument which fails to establish a connection between the premises and the conclusion may be called a non-sequitar. In practice, however, the label non-sequitar tends to be reserved for arguments in which irrelevant reasons are offered to support a claim.
example: I wore a red shirt when I took the test, so that is probably why I did so well on the test.
example: Mr Boswell couldn't be the person who poisoned our cat, Truffles, because when I used to take Truffles for walks he always smiled and said "Hello" when we walked by.
22. RED HERRING: attempting to hide a weakness in an argument by drawing attention away from the real issue. A red herring fallacy is thus a diversionary tactic or an attempt to confuse or fog the issue being debated. The name of the fallacy comes from the days of fox hunting, when a herring was dragged across the trail of a fox in order to throw the dogs off the scent.
example: accused by his wife of cheating at cards, Ned replies "Nothing I do ever pleases you. I spent all last week repainting the bathroom, and then you said you didn't like the color."
example: There's too much fuss and concern about saving the environment. We can't create an Eden on earth. And even if we could, remember Adam and Eve got bored in the Garden of Eden anyway!
23. INCONSISTENCY: advancing an argument that is self-contradictory, or that is based on mutually inconsistent premises.
Example: A used car salespersons says, "Hey, you can’t trust those other car salesman. They’ll say anything to gt you to buy a car from them."
Example: A parent has just read a child the story of Cinderella. The child asks, "If the coach, and the footmen, and the beautiful clothes all turned back into the pumpkin, the mice, and the rags, then how come the glass slipper didn’t change back too?"
COMMON FALLACIES IN REASONING
1. FAULTY CAUSE: (post hoc ergo propter hoc) mistakes correlation or association for causation, by assuming that because one thing follows another it was caused by the other.
example: A black cat crossed Babbs' path yesterday and, sure enough, she was involved in an automobile accident later that same afternoon.
example: The introduction of sex education courses at the high school level has resulted in increased promiscuity among teens. A recent study revealed that the number of reported cases of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) was significantly higher for high schools that offered courses in sex education than for high schools that did not.
2. SWEEPING GENERALIZATION: (dicto simpliciter) assumes that what is true of the whole will also be true of the part, or that what is true in most instances will be true in all instances.
example: Muffin must be rich or have rich parents, because she belongs to ZXQ, and ZXQ is the richest sorority on campus.
example: I'd like to hire you, but you're an ex-felon and statistics show that 80% of ex-felons recidivate.
3. HASTY GENERALIZATION: bases an inference on too small a sample, or on an unrepresentative sample. Often, a single example or instance is used as the basis for a broader generalization.
example: All of those movie stars are really rude. I asked Kevin Costner for his autograph in a restaurant in Westwood the other evening, and he told me to get lost.
example: Pit Bulls are actually gentle, sweet dogs. My next door neighbor has one and his dog loves to romp and play with all the kids in the neighborhood!
4. FAULTY ANALOGY: (can be literal or figurative) assumes that because two things, events, or situations are alike in some known respects, that they are alike in other unknown respects.
example: What's the big deal about the early pioneers killing a few Indians in order to settle the West? After all, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
example: Banning "head" shops from selling drug paraphernalia in order to curb drug abuse makes about as much sense as banning bikinis to reduce promiscuity.
5. APPEAL TO IGNORANCE: (argumentum ad ignorantiam) attempts to use an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the validity of the conclusion, i.e. "You can't prove I'm wrong, so I must be right."
example: We can safely conclude that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy, because thus far no one has been able to prove that there is not.
example: The new form of experimental chemotherapy must be working; not a single patient has returned to complain.
6. BIFURCATION: (either-or, black or white, all or nothing fallacy) assumes that two categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, that is, something is either a member of one or the other, but not both or some third category.
example: Either you favor a strong national defense, or you favor allowing other nations to dictate our foreign policy.
example: It’s not TV. It’s HBO.
7. FALSE DILEMMA: (a form of bifurcation) implies that one of two outcomes is inevitable, and both have negative consequences.
example: Either you buy a large car and watch it guzzle away your paycheck, or you buy a small car and take a greater risk of being injured or killed in the event of an accident.
example: You can put your money in a savings account, in which case the IRS will tax you on the interest, and inflation will erode the value of your money, or you can avoid maintaining a savings account in which case you will have nothing to fall back on in a financial emergency.
8. FAULTY SIGN: (also includes argument from circumstance) wrongly assumes that one event or phenomenon is a reliable indicator or predictor of another event or phenomenon.
example: the cars driving in the opposite direction have their lights on; they must be part of a funeral procession.
example: That guy is wearing a Raiders jacket and baggy pants. I’ll bet he’s a gang member.
9. DAMNING THE SOURCE: (ad hominem, sometimes called the genetic fallacy) attempts to refute an argument by indicting the source of the argument, rather than the substance of the argument itself.
example: There is no reason to listen to the arguments of those who oppose school prayer, for they are the arguments of atheists!
example: The American Trial Lawyers Association favors of this piece of legislation, so you know it has to be bad for ordinary citizens.
10. TU QUOQUE: (look who's talking or two wrongs make a right) pointing to a similar wrong or error committed by another.
example: Gee, Mom and Dad, how can you tell me not to do drugs when you both smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol?
example: The United States has no business criticizing the human rights policies of the Third World nations, not as long as discrimination and segregation continue to exist in the United States.
11. EQUIVOCATION: allows a key word or term in an argument to shift its meaning during the course of the argument. The result is that the conclusion of the argument is not concerned with the same thing as the premise(s).
example: Only man is rational. No woman is a man. Therefore, no woman is rational.
example: No one who has the slightest acquaintance with science can reasonably doubt that the miracles in the Bible actually took place. Every year we witness countless new miracles in the form recombinant DNA, micro-chips, organ transplants, and the like. (the word "miracle" does not have the same meaning in each case)
12. BEGGING THE QUESTION: (petitio principii) entails making an argument, the conclusion of which is based on an unstated or unproven assumption. In question form, this fallacy is known as a COMPLEX QUESTION.
example: Abortion is murder, since killing a baby is an act of murder.
example: Have you stopped beating your wife?
13. TAUTOLOGY: (a sub-category of circular argument) defining terms or qualifying an argument in such a way that it would be impossible to disprove the argument. Often, the rationale for the argument is merely a restatement of the conclusion in different words.
example: The Bible is the word of God. We know this because the Bible itself tells us so.
example: You are a disagreeable person and, if you disagree with me on this, it will only further prove what a disagreeable person you are.
14. APPEAL TO AUTHORITY: (ipse dixit also called ad verecundiam sometimes) attempts to justify an argument by citing a highly admired or well-known (but not necessarily qualified) figure who supports the conclusion being offered.
example: If it's good enough for (insert celebrity's name here), it's good enough for me.
example: Laws against marijuana are plain silly. Why, Thomas Jefferson is known to have raised hemp on his own plantation.
15. APPEAL TO TRADITION: (don't rock the boat or ad verecundiam) based on the principle of "letting sleeping dogs lie". We should continue to do things as they have been done in the past. We shouldn't challenge time-honored customs or traditions.
example: Of course we have to play "pomp and circumstance" at graduation, because that's always been the song that is played.
example: Why do I make wine this way? Because my father made wine this way, and his father made wine this way.
16. APPEAL TO THE CROWD: (ad populum or playing to the gallery) refers to popular opinion or majority sentiment in order to provide support for a claim. Often the "common man" or "common sense" provides the basis for the claim.
example: all I can say is that if living together is immoral, then I have plenty of company.
example: Professor Windplenty's test was extremely unfair. Just ask anyone who took it.
17. STRAW MAN: stating an opponent's argument in an extreme or exaggerated form, or attacking a weaker, irrelevant portion of an opponent's argument.
example: A mandatory seat belt law could never be enforced. You can't issue citations to dead people.
example: What woman in her right mind could truly desire total equality with men? No woman wants the right to be shot at in times of war, the right to have to pay alimony, or the right to have to use the same restrooms as men.
18. SLIPPERY SLOPE: (sometimes called a snowball argument or domino theory) suggests that if one step or action is taken it will invariably lead to similar steps or actions, the end results of which are negative or undesirable. A slippery slope always assume a chain reaction of cause-effect events which result in some eventual dire outcome.
example: If the Supreme Court allows abortion, next think you know they'll allow euthanasia, and it won't be long before society disposes of all those persons whom it deems unwanted or undesirable.
example: If I let one student interrupt my lecture with a question, then I'll have to let others and, before long, there won't be any time left for my lecture.
19. APPEALING TO EXTREMES: A fallacy very similar to slippery slope, which involves taking an argumentative claim or assertion to its extreme, even though the arguer does not advocate the extreme interpretation. The difference between the two fallacies is that appealing to extremes does not necessarily involve a sequence of causal connections.
example: Husband to ex-wife: Well, if you want to be completely fair about dividing everything up, you should get one of my testicles and I should get one of your breasts!
example: Debtor to creditor: Hey, you've already repossessed my car and my television. Why don't you just draw a quart of blood or carve a pound of flesh from my heart too?
20. HYPOTHESIS CONTRARY TO FACT: This fallacy consists of offering a poorly supported claim about what might have happened in the past or future if circumstances or conditions were other than they actually were or are. The fallacy also involves treating hypothetical situations as if they were fact.
example: If you had only tasted the stewed snails, I'm sure you would have liked them.
example: If Hitler had not invaded Russia and opened up two military fronts, the Nazis would surely have won the war.
21. NON SEQUITAR: (literally means "does not follow") in a general sense any argument which fails to establish a connection between the premises and the conclusion may be called a non-sequitar. In practice, however, the label non-sequitar tends to be reserved for arguments in which irrelevant reasons are offered to support a claim.
example: I wore a red shirt when I took the test, so that is probably why I did so well on the test.
example: Mr Boswell couldn't be the person who poisoned our cat, Truffles, because when I used to take Truffles for walks he always smiled and said "Hello" when we walked by.
22. RED HERRING: attempting to hide a weakness in an argument by drawing attention away from the real issue. A red herring fallacy is thus a diversionary tactic or an attempt to confuse or fog the issue being debated. The name of the fallacy comes from the days of fox hunting, when a herring was dragged across the trail of a fox in order to throw the dogs off the scent.
example: accused by his wife of cheating at cards, Ned replies "Nothing I do ever pleases you. I spent all last week repainting the bathroom, and then you said you didn't like the color."
example: There's too much fuss and concern about saving the environment. We can't create an Eden on earth. And even if we could, remember Adam and Eve got bored in the Garden of Eden anyway!
23. INCONSISTENCY: advancing an argument that is self-contradictory, or that is based on mutually inconsistent premises.
Example: A used car salespersons says, "Hey, you can’t trust those other car salesman. They’ll say anything to gt you to buy a car from them."
Example: A parent has just read a child the story of Cinderella. The child asks, "If the coach, and the footmen, and the beautiful clothes all turned back into the pumpkin, the mice, and the rags, then how come the glass slipper didn’t change back too?"
Withering away?
Another editorial from the BCCT this morning. The attention on our plight is appreciated, but what does it really accomplish?
Sometimes the "just the facts" approach doesn't tell the whole story. There are times when I watch the tape and re-read the printed story and wonder why "less is more." The printed story may be factually unassailable. However, it's not a complete representation of what is unfolding.
For example, let's look at some of the recent stories. "Morrisville's tax reduction is the exception in the area, with most other districts experiencing some sort of tax increase." Why was defeasement not mentioned as the reason for the large tax decrease?
"Hellmann thinks certain expenditures have been padded so there is more money in the budget, making it a kind of wish list...Yonson has expressed frustration with this view on several occasions and stressed that the administration has specified only a “bare-bones budget.” You just printed two diametrically opposed viewpoints. Let someone who knows school budgets in the area take a look at the two viewpoints, compare them with the actual Morrisville budget, and let us know who is right. At least let us know who is more right. Either Dr. Yonson or Mr. Hellmann is making the mis-characterization.
"Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm by Columnist Kate Fratti: Morrisville School Board member Joe Kemp today in an email urged the board majority, yet again, to do its homework before committing the troubled district to big change." What does federal, state or local law require to be done to successfully farm out the students? Are you ready to press a Sunshine Law challenge to the well-documented secrecy from this board?
"Board President William Hellmann did not provide a concrete reason for shortening her contract. He thanked Yonson for doing an exemplary job and said a shorter contract was a better choice. Yonson herself said it was an irregular course of action. After their first contract expires, most Bucks superintendents who get their contracts renewed do receive five-year contracts, she said." Well? Who is correct, Hellmann or Yonson?
This isn't Watergate and we don't need Woodward and Bernstein style reporting. But while you're here, can you turn over a few rocks and let us know what crawls out?
Intentions unknown
Withering away?
As the Morrisville school board pecks away at the schools, parents rightfully worry about the quality of the schools. What does the future hold?
Anger, resentment and frustration are boiling over in Morrisville. School board meetings are nearly out of control as citizens find creative ways to disrupt business. In addition to bickering among board members, meetings drag on and on. Last week’s session lasted five grueling and rambunctious hours.
Still, you can hardly blame citizens for acting out.
The majority members of the school board were elected on the promise they’d stop construction of a new K-12 school, a $30 million project that was the subject of contentious debate itself. That citizens replaced the old board with one opposed to the new school can be considered a de facto referendum on the issue. Sick and tired of ever-spiraling school taxes, most citizens viewed the new school as too costly and unnecessary. That much is clear.
What’s not clear is the school board’s long-range plan. Are members committed to the schools?
We raise the question because the school board appears to be pecking away at the district, seeking to shorten the superintendent’s contract, investigating opportunities to export high school students to other districts, refusing to fill open positions.
What’s the plan? Is the board’s goal to shut down the high school, perhaps all the schools?
Citizens have a right to know. Parents are rightly concerned about the quality of education as the district is slowly disassembled — if that’s what’s happening. And so they’re jamming meetings in a frantic effort to stymie a board that appears to have little concern about the children they’re responsible for educating.
Elected officials deserve to function amid conditions conducive to thoughtful decision making. But officials need to demonstrate thoughtful concern for the people they represent by being open, honest and forthcoming.
“We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have” isn’t a good enough answer — not when the board takes actions that suggest there’s a lot more explaining to do. It’s time for school board President William Hellmann to address the question openly and honestly.
Sometimes the "just the facts" approach doesn't tell the whole story. There are times when I watch the tape and re-read the printed story and wonder why "less is more." The printed story may be factually unassailable. However, it's not a complete representation of what is unfolding.
For example, let's look at some of the recent stories. "Morrisville's tax reduction is the exception in the area, with most other districts experiencing some sort of tax increase." Why was defeasement not mentioned as the reason for the large tax decrease?
"Hellmann thinks certain expenditures have been padded so there is more money in the budget, making it a kind of wish list...Yonson has expressed frustration with this view on several occasions and stressed that the administration has specified only a “bare-bones budget.” You just printed two diametrically opposed viewpoints. Let someone who knows school budgets in the area take a look at the two viewpoints, compare them with the actual Morrisville budget, and let us know who is right. At least let us know who is more right. Either Dr. Yonson or Mr. Hellmann is making the mis-characterization.
"Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm by Columnist Kate Fratti: Morrisville School Board member Joe Kemp today in an email urged the board majority, yet again, to do its homework before committing the troubled district to big change." What does federal, state or local law require to be done to successfully farm out the students? Are you ready to press a Sunshine Law challenge to the well-documented secrecy from this board?
"Board President William Hellmann did not provide a concrete reason for shortening her contract. He thanked Yonson for doing an exemplary job and said a shorter contract was a better choice. Yonson herself said it was an irregular course of action. After their first contract expires, most Bucks superintendents who get their contracts renewed do receive five-year contracts, she said." Well? Who is correct, Hellmann or Yonson?
This isn't Watergate and we don't need Woodward and Bernstein style reporting. But while you're here, can you turn over a few rocks and let us know what crawls out?
Intentions unknown
Withering away?
As the Morrisville school board pecks away at the schools, parents rightfully worry about the quality of the schools. What does the future hold?
Anger, resentment and frustration are boiling over in Morrisville. School board meetings are nearly out of control as citizens find creative ways to disrupt business. In addition to bickering among board members, meetings drag on and on. Last week’s session lasted five grueling and rambunctious hours.
Still, you can hardly blame citizens for acting out.
The majority members of the school board were elected on the promise they’d stop construction of a new K-12 school, a $30 million project that was the subject of contentious debate itself. That citizens replaced the old board with one opposed to the new school can be considered a de facto referendum on the issue. Sick and tired of ever-spiraling school taxes, most citizens viewed the new school as too costly and unnecessary. That much is clear.
What’s not clear is the school board’s long-range plan. Are members committed to the schools?
We raise the question because the school board appears to be pecking away at the district, seeking to shorten the superintendent’s contract, investigating opportunities to export high school students to other districts, refusing to fill open positions.
What’s the plan? Is the board’s goal to shut down the high school, perhaps all the schools?
Citizens have a right to know. Parents are rightly concerned about the quality of education as the district is slowly disassembled — if that’s what’s happening. And so they’re jamming meetings in a frantic effort to stymie a board that appears to have little concern about the children they’re responsible for educating.
Elected officials deserve to function amid conditions conducive to thoughtful decision making. But officials need to demonstrate thoughtful concern for the people they represent by being open, honest and forthcoming.
“We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have” isn’t a good enough answer — not when the board takes actions that suggest there’s a lot more explaining to do. It’s time for school board President William Hellmann to address the question openly and honestly.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Schools Director Responsibilities
From the PSBA: How to Run for School Board
Serving as a school board member is one of the most important responsibilities a citizen can undertake. You, if elected to serve, and your fellow board members will establish educational standards to shape the future of your community and society.
Being a board member is a complex and varied job, often frustrating as you struggle long hours with problems that never seem to be resolved. But it also is rewarding as you watch students achieve success and lead happy, productive lives as a result of an environment you'll help to improve.
School board members are charged, by law, with providing quality education for the youth of your community. You should work for the best interests of all pupils and all citizens, a task requiring constant effort and a strong commitment to serving other people. If you are truly interested in devoting your time and talents to meeting this challenge, your local school administration and your state school boards association applaud your decision to run for election and wish you the best of luck. We stand ready and willing to serve you.
* How to become a candidate
* Running for office
* Who is eligible?
* What is a school board?
* Board responsibility
* Board organization
How to become a candidate
School board members in Pennsylvania are elected officials. Members are elected for a four-year term, with the election process calling for five members being eligible for re-election during one election cycle and four being eligible in the next cycle. This 5-4 rotation eliminates having nine new members on a school board and ensures continuity.
There are three ways school districts in Pennsylvania may elect board members: at large, by region or by a combination of these.
* If board members are elected at large, they may live anywhere in the district and be elected for any position.
* If a region plan is approved, school directors who reside in the region are elected by and from each region.
* Where a combination at large and region plan is approved, all regions have an equal number of school directors who reside in each region and who are elected by each region.
Vacancies caused by resignation, death, etc., are filled by an appointment process conducted by the remaining board members.
Such an appointee serves the unexpired portion of the person's term until the next school board election in November of odd-numbered years. At most, an appointee will serve two years.
Running for office
To become a school board candidate, you must file a petition signed by at least 10 qualified voters of the school district for the political party with which the petition will be filed. (Signature requirements may vary in city school districts with at-large elections. Contact your county voter registration office.) To cross-file in a primary election (that is, to run on both political parties), a registered Democrat or Republican must circulate a proper petition for the other party. The petition must contain signatures as previously mentioned. If elected on both party ballots in the primaries, a candidate will appear on both party ballots in the general election.
Primary elections usually are held on the third Tuesday in May. In presidential election years, the primary is held in April. Candidates may circulate petitions for three weeks (from the 13th Tuesday to the 10th Tuesday) prior to the primary.
Each candidate for the office of school director must file a statement of financial interest for the preceding calendar year with the local school district. A copy of the statement must be attached to the nomination petition and filed with the county board of elections and with the school board secretary. Incumbent school directors who are not candidates must file a financial interest statement annually with the school district by May 1. The district must maintain the statements for public inspection for at least five years.
The Campaign Expense Reporting Law, Act 171 of 1978, also requires candidates to file expense reports. The reports must be filed by the second Friday before the primary election with the county board of elections. The law was amended to permit local candidates who are not aided by committees and who do not intend to receive or expend more than $250 in a reporting period to file an affidavit with their nomination petitions excusing them from filing pre-election and postelection reports.
School board elections occur in November of odd-numbered years.
Each election year, the state Bureau of Elections distributes a complete election calendar with specific dates and other legal requirements to all county offices. Nomination petitions, financial interest statements, campaign finance reports and other information can be secured from the county or municipal offices.
Who is eligible?
To be eligible to be elected or appointed to a Pennsylvania school board, one must be:
* A citizen of Pennsylvania.
* Of good moral character.
* At least 18 years old.
* A resident of the school district for at least one year prior to election or appointment.
An individual may be ineligible to run for or hold the office of school director subject to state or federal law. The following items do not constitute an exhaustive list of legal requirements related to eligibility. Other state and federal laws may determine eligibility.
* The PA Constitution bars from elective office anyone convicted of an "infamous" crime, which the courts have interpreted to include various misdemeanors based on the nature of the crime and all felonies.
* Section 324 of the PA School Code prohibits school directors from being employed by, or doing business with, the district where they are elected or appointed, subject to certain exceptions. These prohibitions remain in effect for the duration of the term for which the school director was elected or appointed, even if the person leaves office before the term expires. The employment prohibition contains exceptions for specific positions. Also, the business prohibition contains an exception that would require an interpretation of the PA Public Official and Employee Ethics Act. For more information, contact the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission at (800) 932-0936.
* Section 322 of the School Code contains a list of municipal offices that are incompatible with holding the office of school director. County, borough and township codes also contain their own restrictions for holding offices concurrently.
* The Hatch Act, a federal statute, prohibits federal employees, and some state and local government employees whose job functions "involve" federal funding, from running for partisan elective office. The Hatch Act only prohibits running for election, but does not prohibit holding the office if appointed. For more information, visit the U.S. Office of Special Counsel's Web site at www.osc.org.
* The military services have regulations similar to the Hatch Act, but not always coextensive, which may prohibit both holding the office as well as running for it.
What is a school board?
A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors, who are elected A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors who are elected locally by their fellow citizens and who serve as agents of the state legislature. Each board consists of nine members who serve four-year terms of office without pay.
School directors, although locally elected, are really state officials, co-partners with the legislature. They are designated by school law to administer the school system in each district.
Constitutional mandate
Public education is fundamentally a state responsibility. A system of free public education is mandated under the state constitution, which states in Article II, Section 14: “ The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education. ... ”
Constitutional recognition of the public schools as a legislative function is further found in Article IX, Section 10, in which a school district is described as a “ unit of local government.”
Public education thus enjoys special status under the state constitution and is the only public service so mandated by the constitution.
To carry out this mandate, the General Assembly created school districts and school boards. It conferred broad legal powers to the local boards, making them autonomous in many of their operations. Therefore, the school board is a political subdivision of the state for the purpose of convenient administration of the schools.
Legislative authority
The General Assembly created the State Board of Education, the Department of Education, the intermediate unit structure and other state agencies. These agencies administer the state laws that control the state ' s public education system. There are, therefore, several governing influences upon a board of school directors.
The School Laws of Pennsylvania is the primary compilation of the statutes enacted by the legislature having direct and pertinent reference to public education, its programs, its operation and its management. In addition, rules and regulation of the State Board, guidelines of the Department of Education, opinions and interpretations of the state attorney general and court decrees all influence local board operation.
Effective school boards concentrate their time and energy on determining what it is the schools should accomplish and developing policies to carry out these goals.
In Pennsylvania
* Public schools are a creation of the state constitution.
* Public schools are a responsibility of the General Assembly, the legislative branch of PA state government.
* School boards, created by the General Assembly, serve as local legislative bodies for the public schools within the framework of state laws.
* A school board's authority is applied through the collective decisions of the entire board acting as a governing body.
Board responsibility
In essence, school boards have three functions: planning, setting policy and evaluating results.
* Planning -- Boards are required to engage in strategic planning by regulations of the State Board of Education. Appropriate reports of the results of such planning must be filed with the Department of Education.
* Setting policy -- The central responsibility of a board, both in theory and in law, is to be the policy-forming body. Policy means actions of the board that set written goals and objectives for the school.
* Evaluating results -- The board must evaluate the results of planning. Evaluation “ completes the loop ” and, in fact, leads inevitably to more planning. Evaluation occurs all the time, both formally and informally. As a group, the board is not an administrative body; neither should it be a “ rubber stamp ” for professional educators. The selection of competent administrators who understand their role is to carry out public policies established by the board is one of the board ' s most important functions.
Some required duties
* Adopt courses of study in consultation with the superintendent.
* Establish the length of the school term.
* Adopt textbooks.
* Elect superintendents and hire necessary employees.
* Enter into written contracts with professional employees and into collective bargaining agreements.
* Adopt the annual budget.
* Levy taxes; appoint a tax collector under certain circumstances.
* Provide necessary grounds and school buildings.
* Prescribe, adopt and enforce reasonable rules and regulations regarding school activities, publications and organizations.
* Provide special education for children with mental or physical disabilities.
Some permissive functions
* Elect and appoint assistant superintendents.
* Appoint a solicitor and other board employees.
* Purchase, receive or condemn land for school purposes as determined by the board.
* Sell unneeded lands and buildings.
* Enter into written agreements with boards, or other districts, for attendance and tuition of pupils in high school.
* Provide for food or milk for undernourished and poor children.
* Create or increase indebtedness within certain limitations.Authorize attendance of board members or of the superintendent or other employees at educational meetings, and pay necessary expenses.
* Enter into group insurance contracts. Provide for: insurance on school buildings and property; personal liability insurance for school employees against injury to pupils; accident insurance for pupils against injury in participation, or transportation to, athletic events.
* Suspend or expel pupils from school under certain conditions, or cause them to be brought before the juvenile court.
Some prohibited actions
* May not authorize construction of schools without prior approval of plans and specifications by the departments of Education and Labor and Industry.
* May not hire work to be done, purchase materials or enter into contracts that will cause sums budgeted for specific purposes to be exceeded.
* May not hire certain relatives of board members, except by a majority vote of the board excluding the member who is related to the employer or applicant.
* Shall not demand, request or accept in any way a gift from a teacher or administrator.
* Shall not require religious or political tests of officers or employees.
* Shall not engage in illegal discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color.
Board organization
Officers of a school board include a president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. By law, all school boards organize during the first week of December. At this meeting, a president and vice president are elected to serve one-year terms of office. A treasurer, however, is elected in May to serve a one-year term that begins the first day of July. Every fourth year in May, the board elects a school board secretary whose term of office is four years.
* The school fiscal calendar for the majority of public school districts is July 1-June 30. Districts of the first, first class A and second class may, by majority vote, establish a fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year.
* Each school district is assigned to an intermediate unit, which is operated by a governing board composed of locally elected school directors from the school districts that make up the intermediate unit. IU board members serve three-year terms and may succeed themselves without limitation, as long as they remain local board members.
Serving as a school board member is one of the most important responsibilities a citizen can undertake. You, if elected to serve, and your fellow board members will establish educational standards to shape the future of your community and society.
Being a board member is a complex and varied job, often frustrating as you struggle long hours with problems that never seem to be resolved. But it also is rewarding as you watch students achieve success and lead happy, productive lives as a result of an environment you'll help to improve.
School board members are charged, by law, with providing quality education for the youth of your community. You should work for the best interests of all pupils and all citizens, a task requiring constant effort and a strong commitment to serving other people. If you are truly interested in devoting your time and talents to meeting this challenge, your local school administration and your state school boards association applaud your decision to run for election and wish you the best of luck. We stand ready and willing to serve you.
* How to become a candidate
* Running for office
* Who is eligible?
* What is a school board?
* Board responsibility
* Board organization
How to become a candidate
School board members in Pennsylvania are elected officials. Members are elected for a four-year term, with the election process calling for five members being eligible for re-election during one election cycle and four being eligible in the next cycle. This 5-4 rotation eliminates having nine new members on a school board and ensures continuity.
There are three ways school districts in Pennsylvania may elect board members: at large, by region or by a combination of these.
* If board members are elected at large, they may live anywhere in the district and be elected for any position.
* If a region plan is approved, school directors who reside in the region are elected by and from each region.
* Where a combination at large and region plan is approved, all regions have an equal number of school directors who reside in each region and who are elected by each region.
Vacancies caused by resignation, death, etc., are filled by an appointment process conducted by the remaining board members.
Such an appointee serves the unexpired portion of the person's term until the next school board election in November of odd-numbered years. At most, an appointee will serve two years.
Running for office
To become a school board candidate, you must file a petition signed by at least 10 qualified voters of the school district for the political party with which the petition will be filed. (Signature requirements may vary in city school districts with at-large elections. Contact your county voter registration office.) To cross-file in a primary election (that is, to run on both political parties), a registered Democrat or Republican must circulate a proper petition for the other party. The petition must contain signatures as previously mentioned. If elected on both party ballots in the primaries, a candidate will appear on both party ballots in the general election.
Primary elections usually are held on the third Tuesday in May. In presidential election years, the primary is held in April. Candidates may circulate petitions for three weeks (from the 13th Tuesday to the 10th Tuesday) prior to the primary.
Each candidate for the office of school director must file a statement of financial interest for the preceding calendar year with the local school district. A copy of the statement must be attached to the nomination petition and filed with the county board of elections and with the school board secretary. Incumbent school directors who are not candidates must file a financial interest statement annually with the school district by May 1. The district must maintain the statements for public inspection for at least five years.
The Campaign Expense Reporting Law, Act 171 of 1978, also requires candidates to file expense reports. The reports must be filed by the second Friday before the primary election with the county board of elections. The law was amended to permit local candidates who are not aided by committees and who do not intend to receive or expend more than $250 in a reporting period to file an affidavit with their nomination petitions excusing them from filing pre-election and postelection reports.
School board elections occur in November of odd-numbered years.
Each election year, the state Bureau of Elections distributes a complete election calendar with specific dates and other legal requirements to all county offices. Nomination petitions, financial interest statements, campaign finance reports and other information can be secured from the county or municipal offices.
Who is eligible?
To be eligible to be elected or appointed to a Pennsylvania school board, one must be:
* A citizen of Pennsylvania.
* Of good moral character.
* At least 18 years old.
* A resident of the school district for at least one year prior to election or appointment.
An individual may be ineligible to run for or hold the office of school director subject to state or federal law. The following items do not constitute an exhaustive list of legal requirements related to eligibility. Other state and federal laws may determine eligibility.
* The PA Constitution bars from elective office anyone convicted of an "infamous" crime, which the courts have interpreted to include various misdemeanors based on the nature of the crime and all felonies.
* Section 324 of the PA School Code prohibits school directors from being employed by, or doing business with, the district where they are elected or appointed, subject to certain exceptions. These prohibitions remain in effect for the duration of the term for which the school director was elected or appointed, even if the person leaves office before the term expires. The employment prohibition contains exceptions for specific positions. Also, the business prohibition contains an exception that would require an interpretation of the PA Public Official and Employee Ethics Act. For more information, contact the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission at (800) 932-0936.
* Section 322 of the School Code contains a list of municipal offices that are incompatible with holding the office of school director. County, borough and township codes also contain their own restrictions for holding offices concurrently.
* The Hatch Act, a federal statute, prohibits federal employees, and some state and local government employees whose job functions "involve" federal funding, from running for partisan elective office. The Hatch Act only prohibits running for election, but does not prohibit holding the office if appointed. For more information, visit the U.S. Office of Special Counsel's Web site at www.osc.org.
* The military services have regulations similar to the Hatch Act, but not always coextensive, which may prohibit both holding the office as well as running for it.
What is a school board?
A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors, who are elected A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors who are elected locally by their fellow citizens and who serve as agents of the state legislature. Each board consists of nine members who serve four-year terms of office without pay.
School directors, although locally elected, are really state officials, co-partners with the legislature. They are designated by school law to administer the school system in each district.
Constitutional mandate
Public education is fundamentally a state responsibility. A system of free public education is mandated under the state constitution, which states in Article II, Section 14: “ The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education. ... ”
Constitutional recognition of the public schools as a legislative function is further found in Article IX, Section 10, in which a school district is described as a “ unit of local government.”
Public education thus enjoys special status under the state constitution and is the only public service so mandated by the constitution.
To carry out this mandate, the General Assembly created school districts and school boards. It conferred broad legal powers to the local boards, making them autonomous in many of their operations. Therefore, the school board is a political subdivision of the state for the purpose of convenient administration of the schools.
Legislative authority
The General Assembly created the State Board of Education, the Department of Education, the intermediate unit structure and other state agencies. These agencies administer the state laws that control the state ' s public education system. There are, therefore, several governing influences upon a board of school directors.
The School Laws of Pennsylvania is the primary compilation of the statutes enacted by the legislature having direct and pertinent reference to public education, its programs, its operation and its management. In addition, rules and regulation of the State Board, guidelines of the Department of Education, opinions and interpretations of the state attorney general and court decrees all influence local board operation.
Effective school boards concentrate their time and energy on determining what it is the schools should accomplish and developing policies to carry out these goals.
In Pennsylvania
* Public schools are a creation of the state constitution.
* Public schools are a responsibility of the General Assembly, the legislative branch of PA state government.
* School boards, created by the General Assembly, serve as local legislative bodies for the public schools within the framework of state laws.
* A school board's authority is applied through the collective decisions of the entire board acting as a governing body.
Board responsibility
In essence, school boards have three functions: planning, setting policy and evaluating results.
* Planning -- Boards are required to engage in strategic planning by regulations of the State Board of Education. Appropriate reports of the results of such planning must be filed with the Department of Education.
* Setting policy -- The central responsibility of a board, both in theory and in law, is to be the policy-forming body. Policy means actions of the board that set written goals and objectives for the school.
* Evaluating results -- The board must evaluate the results of planning. Evaluation “ completes the loop ” and, in fact, leads inevitably to more planning. Evaluation occurs all the time, both formally and informally. As a group, the board is not an administrative body; neither should it be a “ rubber stamp ” for professional educators. The selection of competent administrators who understand their role is to carry out public policies established by the board is one of the board ' s most important functions.
Some required duties
* Adopt courses of study in consultation with the superintendent.
* Establish the length of the school term.
* Adopt textbooks.
* Elect superintendents and hire necessary employees.
* Enter into written contracts with professional employees and into collective bargaining agreements.
* Adopt the annual budget.
* Levy taxes; appoint a tax collector under certain circumstances.
* Provide necessary grounds and school buildings.
* Prescribe, adopt and enforce reasonable rules and regulations regarding school activities, publications and organizations.
* Provide special education for children with mental or physical disabilities.
Some permissive functions
* Elect and appoint assistant superintendents.
* Appoint a solicitor and other board employees.
* Purchase, receive or condemn land for school purposes as determined by the board.
* Sell unneeded lands and buildings.
* Enter into written agreements with boards, or other districts, for attendance and tuition of pupils in high school.
* Provide for food or milk for undernourished and poor children.
* Create or increase indebtedness within certain limitations.Authorize attendance of board members or of the superintendent or other employees at educational meetings, and pay necessary expenses.
* Enter into group insurance contracts. Provide for: insurance on school buildings and property; personal liability insurance for school employees against injury to pupils; accident insurance for pupils against injury in participation, or transportation to, athletic events.
* Suspend or expel pupils from school under certain conditions, or cause them to be brought before the juvenile court.
Some prohibited actions
* May not authorize construction of schools without prior approval of plans and specifications by the departments of Education and Labor and Industry.
* May not hire work to be done, purchase materials or enter into contracts that will cause sums budgeted for specific purposes to be exceeded.
* May not hire certain relatives of board members, except by a majority vote of the board excluding the member who is related to the employer or applicant.
* Shall not demand, request or accept in any way a gift from a teacher or administrator.
* Shall not require religious or political tests of officers or employees.
* Shall not engage in illegal discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color.
Board organization
Officers of a school board include a president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. By law, all school boards organize during the first week of December. At this meeting, a president and vice president are elected to serve one-year terms of office. A treasurer, however, is elected in May to serve a one-year term that begins the first day of July. Every fourth year in May, the board elects a school board secretary whose term of office is four years.
* The school fiscal calendar for the majority of public school districts is July 1-June 30. Districts of the first, first class A and second class may, by majority vote, establish a fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year.
* Each school district is assigned to an intermediate unit, which is operated by a governing board composed of locally elected school directors from the school districts that make up the intermediate unit. IU board members serve three-year terms and may succeed themselves without limitation, as long as they remain local board members.
Goal Setting
As a public service to the Emperor and Board of Accomplices, here is a short introduction to goal setting. The in the real world, this is how it's done.
"It's not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each
step must be itself a goal and a step likewise."
Goethe (1749-1832)
Goal Setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that it is an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants are clearly aware of what is expected from them, if an objective is to be achieved. On a personal level, setting goals is a process that allows people to specify then work towards their own objectives - most commonly with financial or career-based goals. Goal setting is a major component of Personal development literature.
The business technique of Management by objectives uses the principle of goal setting. In business, goal setting has the advantages of encouraging participants to put in substantial effort; and, because every member is aware of what is expected of.... him or her (high role perception), little room is left for inadequate effort going unnoticed.
To be most effective goals should be tangible, specific, realistic and have a time targeted for completion. There must be realistic plans to achieve the intended goal. For example, setting a goal to go to Mars on a shoe string budget is not a realistic goal while setting a goal to go to Hawaii as a backpacker is a possible goal with possible, realistic plans.
Goal setting also requires motivation. You need to understand why you want the goal. In the motivation film "The Opus" released in 2008, achievement expert, Douglas Vermeeren, explains this important principle clearly, "When people talk of clarity it often gets described as just writing down your goals. The most important element is often left out. That is finding your motivation. If you want to get to your goals quickly you have got to clarity on why you want it. What does it mean to you? Why do you need it in your life? And the stronger and more important they why - the more power you will have to pursue that goal. "
In the same film, Dr. Brandon Leach, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, cites that even if someone is largely self-motivated they still must have the necessary skill set to reach the goal they have set. Said Leach, "In my mind, it is completely preposterous to say that motivation is always the most important intangible to possess if one wants to reach a goal of theirs. It's absurd. For example, if some young child sets to be a wizard or witch and is incredibly motivated to do, it's pretty obvious to conclude that he's going to need more than this, oh so important, motivation and seven volumes of Harry Potter."
Some people feel that one possible drawback of goal setting is that implicit learning may be inhibited. This is because goal setting may encourage simple focus on an outcome without openness to exploration, understanding or growth.[citation needed] "Goals provide a sense of direction and purpose" (Goldstein, 1993, p.96). Locke et al. (1981) examined the behavioral effects of goal-setting, concluding that 90% of laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than easy or no goals.
While some managers would believe it is sufficient to urge employees to ‘do their best’, Locke and Latham have a clear contradicting view on this. The authors state that people who are told to ‘do their best’ will not do so. ‘Doing your best’ has no external referent which implies that it is useless in eliciting specific behavior. To elicit some specific form of behavior from others, it is important that this person has a clear view of what is expected from him/her. A goal is thereby of vital importance because it facilitates an individual in focusing their efforts in a specified direction. In other words; goals canalize behavior (Cummings & Worley p. 368). However when goals are established at a management level and thereafter solely laid down, employee motivation with regard to achieving these goals is rather suppressed (Locke & Latham, 2002 p.705). In order to increase motivation the employees not only need to be allowed to participate in the goal setting process but the goals have to be challenging as well (Cummings & Worley p. 369).
Managers can not be constantly able to drive motivation and keep track of an employee’s work on a continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers since goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that acquires an employee a certain amount of guidance [1] have distilled four mechanisms through which goal setting is able to affect individual performance:
1) Goals focus attention towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2) Goals serve as an energizer; higher goals will induce greater effort while low goals induce lesser effort.
3) Goals affect persistence; constraints with regard to resources will affect work pace.
4) Goals activate cognitive knowledge and strategies which allows employees to cope with the situation at hand. Through an understanding of the effect of goal setting on individual performance organizations are able to use goal setting to benefit organizational performance. [2] have therefore indicated three moderators which indicate the success of goal setting:
I. Goal commitment – people will perform better when they are committed to achieve certain goals. Goal commitment is dependent of : a. The importance of the expected outcomes of goal attainment and; b. Self-efficacy; ones belief that (s)he is able to achieve the goals.
II. Feedback – keep track of performance to allow employees to see how effective they have been in attaining the goals. Without proper feedback channels it is impossible to adapt or adjust to the required behavior.
III. Task complexity – more difficult goals require more cognitive strategies and well developed skills. The more difficult the tasks ahead, a smaller group of people will possess the necessary skills and strategies. From an organizational perspective it is thereby more difficult to successfully attain more difficult goals since resources become more scarce.
IV. Employee motivation - The more employees are motivated, the more they are stimulated and interested in accepting goals.
V. Macro-economical characteristics. The position of the economy in the conjucture puts pressure or simply relieves the organization. This means that some goals are easier set in specific macro-economical surroundings. Depression is for instance the least successful conjucturial phase for goal setting.
These success factors are not to be seen independently. For example the expected outcomes of goals are positively influenced when employees are involved in the goal setting process. Not only does participation increase commitment in attaining the goals that are set, participation influences self-efficacy as well. In addition to this feedback is necessary to monitor ones progress. When this is left aside, an employee might (s)he is not making enough progress. This can reduce self-efficacy and thereby harm the performance outcomes in the long run [3].
"It's not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each
step must be itself a goal and a step likewise."
Goethe (1749-1832)
Goal Setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that it is an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants are clearly aware of what is expected from them, if an objective is to be achieved. On a personal level, setting goals is a process that allows people to specify then work towards their own objectives - most commonly with financial or career-based goals. Goal setting is a major component of Personal development literature.
The business technique of Management by objectives uses the principle of goal setting. In business, goal setting has the advantages of encouraging participants to put in substantial effort; and, because every member is aware of what is expected of.... him or her (high role perception), little room is left for inadequate effort going unnoticed.
To be most effective goals should be tangible, specific, realistic and have a time targeted for completion. There must be realistic plans to achieve the intended goal. For example, setting a goal to go to Mars on a shoe string budget is not a realistic goal while setting a goal to go to Hawaii as a backpacker is a possible goal with possible, realistic plans.
Goal setting also requires motivation. You need to understand why you want the goal. In the motivation film "The Opus" released in 2008, achievement expert, Douglas Vermeeren, explains this important principle clearly, "When people talk of clarity it often gets described as just writing down your goals. The most important element is often left out. That is finding your motivation. If you want to get to your goals quickly you have got to clarity on why you want it. What does it mean to you? Why do you need it in your life? And the stronger and more important they why - the more power you will have to pursue that goal. "
In the same film, Dr. Brandon Leach, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, cites that even if someone is largely self-motivated they still must have the necessary skill set to reach the goal they have set. Said Leach, "In my mind, it is completely preposterous to say that motivation is always the most important intangible to possess if one wants to reach a goal of theirs. It's absurd. For example, if some young child sets to be a wizard or witch and is incredibly motivated to do, it's pretty obvious to conclude that he's going to need more than this, oh so important, motivation and seven volumes of Harry Potter."
Some people feel that one possible drawback of goal setting is that implicit learning may be inhibited. This is because goal setting may encourage simple focus on an outcome without openness to exploration, understanding or growth.[citation needed] "Goals provide a sense of direction and purpose" (Goldstein, 1993, p.96). Locke et al. (1981) examined the behavioral effects of goal-setting, concluding that 90% of laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than easy or no goals.
While some managers would believe it is sufficient to urge employees to ‘do their best’, Locke and Latham have a clear contradicting view on this. The authors state that people who are told to ‘do their best’ will not do so. ‘Doing your best’ has no external referent which implies that it is useless in eliciting specific behavior. To elicit some specific form of behavior from others, it is important that this person has a clear view of what is expected from him/her. A goal is thereby of vital importance because it facilitates an individual in focusing their efforts in a specified direction. In other words; goals canalize behavior (Cummings & Worley p. 368). However when goals are established at a management level and thereafter solely laid down, employee motivation with regard to achieving these goals is rather suppressed (Locke & Latham, 2002 p.705). In order to increase motivation the employees not only need to be allowed to participate in the goal setting process but the goals have to be challenging as well (Cummings & Worley p. 369).
Managers can not be constantly able to drive motivation and keep track of an employee’s work on a continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers since goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that acquires an employee a certain amount of guidance [1] have distilled four mechanisms through which goal setting is able to affect individual performance:
1) Goals focus attention towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2) Goals serve as an energizer; higher goals will induce greater effort while low goals induce lesser effort.
3) Goals affect persistence; constraints with regard to resources will affect work pace.
4) Goals activate cognitive knowledge and strategies which allows employees to cope with the situation at hand. Through an understanding of the effect of goal setting on individual performance organizations are able to use goal setting to benefit organizational performance. [2] have therefore indicated three moderators which indicate the success of goal setting:
I. Goal commitment – people will perform better when they are committed to achieve certain goals. Goal commitment is dependent of : a. The importance of the expected outcomes of goal attainment and; b. Self-efficacy; ones belief that (s)he is able to achieve the goals.
II. Feedback – keep track of performance to allow employees to see how effective they have been in attaining the goals. Without proper feedback channels it is impossible to adapt or adjust to the required behavior.
III. Task complexity – more difficult goals require more cognitive strategies and well developed skills. The more difficult the tasks ahead, a smaller group of people will possess the necessary skills and strategies. From an organizational perspective it is thereby more difficult to successfully attain more difficult goals since resources become more scarce.
IV. Employee motivation - The more employees are motivated, the more they are stimulated and interested in accepting goals.
V. Macro-economical characteristics. The position of the economy in the conjucture puts pressure or simply relieves the organization. This means that some goals are easier set in specific macro-economical surroundings. Depression is for instance the least successful conjucturial phase for goal setting.
These success factors are not to be seen independently. For example the expected outcomes of goals are positively influenced when employees are involved in the goal setting process. Not only does participation increase commitment in attaining the goals that are set, participation influences self-efficacy as well. In addition to this feedback is necessary to monitor ones progress. When this is left aside, an employee might (s)he is not making enough progress. This can reduce self-efficacy and thereby harm the performance outcomes in the long run [3].
Special Education: Class Action?
Here's a story and video from WFMZ Channel 69 in Allentown, PA about a class action special education suit for Reading and Lancaster students. There is a second article from the AP that appeared on PennLive.com
POSTED: 06-20-2008 10:51 PM ET | MODIFIED: 06-20-2008 10:52 PM ET
Special Education Funding Fight in Court
A U.S. district judge is deciding if a special education funding lawsuit in Pennsylvania should have class-action status. The suit was filed in federal court in 2006, on behalf of special education students in Reading and Lancaster. It says the state's funding formula short changes some urban districts...because it assumes 16 percent of all students in each district require special-education services. But the number varies from district to district. A legal advocacy group for the poor wants the state Education Department to revise the formula. The Education Department says special-education disputes should be resolved through administrative hearings.
---------------------------------------------
Pa. special ed formula attacked in federal court
6/20/2008, 4:16 p.m. EDT
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's special-education funding formula is under attack by a federal lawsuit that claims the state shortchanges needy school districts with large numbers of learning-disabled students.
The Community Justice Project, a Harrisburg-based legal advocacy group for the poor, wants the state Education Department to revise the formula, which assumes that 16 percent of all students in each of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts need special-education services.
The state has used the formula since 1994 to distribute special-education aid among the districts.
But the formula ignores factors such as the actual number of special-education students, the cost of providing needed services and a school district's ability to pay for special education with local property-tax dollars, said Evalynn Welling, a lawyer with the organization's Pittsburgh office.
"We have a systemic failure to distribute special-education funds in an equitable fashion," Welling said Friday during a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for class-action status.
U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane did not immediately rule on the request. Kane said she would leave the court record open for 10 days to give attorneys for both sides time to file affidavits, then issue an order.
The organization filed the lawsuit in 2006 on behalf of seven special-education students and their parents in the Reading and Lancaster school districts.
All seven, identified only by their initials, have struggled in school because they have been deprived of services such as tutoring and teachers' aides, according to the lawsuit. Some are also trying to learn English as a second language, but lack bilingual instructors.
Because the formula applies the same assumption of special-education enrollment statewide, districts with lower enrollments are more richly rewarded by the state on a per-pupil basis, the lawsuit alleges.
Special education students make up about one-quarter of the public-school enrollment in Lancaster and about 15 percent in Reading. The state's funding per special education pupil for those districts amounted to $2,861 and $3,581 respectively for the 2005-06 school year, according to the lawsuit.
By contrast, the Mars Area School District in Butler County, where roughly 5 percent of students are enrolled in special education, received $7,827 in per-pupil state funding during the same year.
Pennsylvania had more than 270,000 students enrolled in special education, or about 15 percent of all public school students, during the 2005-06 school year.
The Education Department has not formally responded to the lawsuit's allegations that the formula is unfair. Michael L. Harvey, a state attorney representing the agency, declined to comment on them after Friday's hearing.
The agency has tried unsuccessfully to have the suit dismissed on grounds that the students and their parents failed to seek administrative hearings to resolve their disputes before going to court. During Friday's hearing, Harvey alluded to that argument as he tried to make the case for denying the plaintiffs' application for class-action status.
Parents who dispute whether their children are receiving appropriate services must first initiate so-called "due process" hearings at the local level, according to the Education Department. They can appeal to an administrative panel appointed by the department, and then state or federal courts, if they are dissatisfied with the local ruling.
___
On the Net:
Community Justice Project: http://www.communityjusticeproject.org
Pennsylvania Department of Education: http://www.pde.state.pa.us
POSTED: 06-20-2008 10:51 PM ET | MODIFIED: 06-20-2008 10:52 PM ET
Special Education Funding Fight in Court
A U.S. district judge is deciding if a special education funding lawsuit in Pennsylvania should have class-action status. The suit was filed in federal court in 2006, on behalf of special education students in Reading and Lancaster. It says the state's funding formula short changes some urban districts...because it assumes 16 percent of all students in each district require special-education services. But the number varies from district to district. A legal advocacy group for the poor wants the state Education Department to revise the formula. The Education Department says special-education disputes should be resolved through administrative hearings.
---------------------------------------------
Pa. special ed formula attacked in federal court
6/20/2008, 4:16 p.m. EDT
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's special-education funding formula is under attack by a federal lawsuit that claims the state shortchanges needy school districts with large numbers of learning-disabled students.
The Community Justice Project, a Harrisburg-based legal advocacy group for the poor, wants the state Education Department to revise the formula, which assumes that 16 percent of all students in each of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts need special-education services.
The state has used the formula since 1994 to distribute special-education aid among the districts.
But the formula ignores factors such as the actual number of special-education students, the cost of providing needed services and a school district's ability to pay for special education with local property-tax dollars, said Evalynn Welling, a lawyer with the organization's Pittsburgh office.
"We have a systemic failure to distribute special-education funds in an equitable fashion," Welling said Friday during a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for class-action status.
U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane did not immediately rule on the request. Kane said she would leave the court record open for 10 days to give attorneys for both sides time to file affidavits, then issue an order.
The organization filed the lawsuit in 2006 on behalf of seven special-education students and their parents in the Reading and Lancaster school districts.
All seven, identified only by their initials, have struggled in school because they have been deprived of services such as tutoring and teachers' aides, according to the lawsuit. Some are also trying to learn English as a second language, but lack bilingual instructors.
Because the formula applies the same assumption of special-education enrollment statewide, districts with lower enrollments are more richly rewarded by the state on a per-pupil basis, the lawsuit alleges.
Special education students make up about one-quarter of the public-school enrollment in Lancaster and about 15 percent in Reading. The state's funding per special education pupil for those districts amounted to $2,861 and $3,581 respectively for the 2005-06 school year, according to the lawsuit.
By contrast, the Mars Area School District in Butler County, where roughly 5 percent of students are enrolled in special education, received $7,827 in per-pupil state funding during the same year.
Pennsylvania had more than 270,000 students enrolled in special education, or about 15 percent of all public school students, during the 2005-06 school year.
The Education Department has not formally responded to the lawsuit's allegations that the formula is unfair. Michael L. Harvey, a state attorney representing the agency, declined to comment on them after Friday's hearing.
The agency has tried unsuccessfully to have the suit dismissed on grounds that the students and their parents failed to seek administrative hearings to resolve their disputes before going to court. During Friday's hearing, Harvey alluded to that argument as he tried to make the case for denying the plaintiffs' application for class-action status.
Parents who dispute whether their children are receiving appropriate services must first initiate so-called "due process" hearings at the local level, according to the Education Department. They can appeal to an administrative panel appointed by the department, and then state or federal courts, if they are dissatisfied with the local ruling.
___
On the Net:
Community Justice Project: http://www.communityjusticeproject.org
Pennsylvania Department of Education: http://www.pde.state.pa.us
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Way to Go!
Here's an article from the BCCT highlighting the North Penn School District and their first ever community-wide survey.
"...Only great organizations critically review performance on an ongoing basis." I wonder where the Morrisville School District falls on that organizational spectrum.
I also noted the board president's webpage: "As the current School Board President I find it important to defend the school district’s reputation when it is being unfairly or unduly criticized." Hmmm...other board presidents give out diplomas and defend their district. Thankfully the Emperor would not stoop to such mundane and irrelevant tasks.
From the school website: "The North Penn School District recently took its commitment to continuous improvement to another level through its extensive survey of all stakeholders, including students, staff, parents and community members. The Board of School Directors knows that every organization has areas for improvement, but only great organizations critically review performance on an ongoing basis. This survey was part of North Penn’s quality improvement work.
Conducted in March 2008, questionnaires were mailed to more than 40,000 community members, including parents. Concurrently, all students in 5th through 12th grade and all district employees were given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire as well. In all, more than 13,000 questionnaires were completed and analyzed.
Surveys were carefully developed and validated through the involvement of stakeholders, including focus groups, to help design the survey questions and other various opportunities for input. Working with outside consultants, NPSD used a completely secure online or hardcopy administration of the survey, which was scored independent of any district personnel."
School district receives positive response
By AUBREY WHELAN
The Intelligencer
More than 13,000 residents, teachers, parents and students in the North Penn School District applauded the district's teachers, curriculum and safety, participating in the most comprehensive survey the district has ever conducted.
But those same people also expressed concerns on issues like school lunches, internal communication and transitioning students from one grade level to another.
The district is using the results of the survey, which were recently posted on the district's Web site, npenn.org, to develop goals for its six-year strategic plan.
Surveys were mailed to more than 40,000 community members in March. “We mailed it to all community residents, and that included all our parents, staff members and students in fifth grade through 12th grade,” said Christine Liberaski, the district's coordinator of school and community services. The district has conducted surveys in the past, but none as comprehensive as this one, she added.
Liberaski said questions were geared toward the various demographics surveyed.
“We asked whether families thought they were getting communication from the school district ... whether students showed respect for each other, whether staff showed respect for students. Did they feel that the schools are providing a quality education?” she said.
Areas the school has set goals to improve include the quality and variety of school lunches, Liberaski said. Respondents also raised concerns about the fairness of school rules and how students transition from elementary school to middle school to high school.
District Superintendent Bob Hassler said while such concerns are typical, they help district officials pinpoint areas for improvement.
“For example, at the high school, you have five different assistant principals,” he said, addressing some respondents' concerns about the fairness of school rules. “It's something that I think will always be there, just because of the human factor.” But, he said, the strength of the district lies in gathering feedback from its stakeholders, the people who pay taxes and send children to the schools and the students themselves.
“What I'm happy about is we're the type of organization that wants to find out how we can improve,” he said. “The more people we can get involved, the more suggestions, the better it's going to be for our students.”
"...Only great organizations critically review performance on an ongoing basis." I wonder where the Morrisville School District falls on that organizational spectrum.
I also noted the board president's webpage: "As the current School Board President I find it important to defend the school district’s reputation when it is being unfairly or unduly criticized." Hmmm...other board presidents give out diplomas and defend their district. Thankfully the Emperor would not stoop to such mundane and irrelevant tasks.
From the school website: "The North Penn School District recently took its commitment to continuous improvement to another level through its extensive survey of all stakeholders, including students, staff, parents and community members. The Board of School Directors knows that every organization has areas for improvement, but only great organizations critically review performance on an ongoing basis. This survey was part of North Penn’s quality improvement work.
Conducted in March 2008, questionnaires were mailed to more than 40,000 community members, including parents. Concurrently, all students in 5th through 12th grade and all district employees were given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire as well. In all, more than 13,000 questionnaires were completed and analyzed.
Surveys were carefully developed and validated through the involvement of stakeholders, including focus groups, to help design the survey questions and other various opportunities for input. Working with outside consultants, NPSD used a completely secure online or hardcopy administration of the survey, which was scored independent of any district personnel."
School district receives positive response
By AUBREY WHELAN
The Intelligencer
More than 13,000 residents, teachers, parents and students in the North Penn School District applauded the district's teachers, curriculum and safety, participating in the most comprehensive survey the district has ever conducted.
But those same people also expressed concerns on issues like school lunches, internal communication and transitioning students from one grade level to another.
The district is using the results of the survey, which were recently posted on the district's Web site, npenn.org, to develop goals for its six-year strategic plan.
Surveys were mailed to more than 40,000 community members in March. “We mailed it to all community residents, and that included all our parents, staff members and students in fifth grade through 12th grade,” said Christine Liberaski, the district's coordinator of school and community services. The district has conducted surveys in the past, but none as comprehensive as this one, she added.
Liberaski said questions were geared toward the various demographics surveyed.
“We asked whether families thought they were getting communication from the school district ... whether students showed respect for each other, whether staff showed respect for students. Did they feel that the schools are providing a quality education?” she said.
Areas the school has set goals to improve include the quality and variety of school lunches, Liberaski said. Respondents also raised concerns about the fairness of school rules and how students transition from elementary school to middle school to high school.
District Superintendent Bob Hassler said while such concerns are typical, they help district officials pinpoint areas for improvement.
“For example, at the high school, you have five different assistant principals,” he said, addressing some respondents' concerns about the fairness of school rules. “It's something that I think will always be there, just because of the human factor.” But, he said, the strength of the district lies in gathering feedback from its stakeholders, the people who pay taxes and send children to the schools and the students themselves.
“What I'm happy about is we're the type of organization that wants to find out how we can improve,” he said. “The more people we can get involved, the more suggestions, the better it's going to be for our students.”
Guest Opinion: Financial and Moral Responsibility
Here's a guest opinion that was posted as a comment to the Budget Approval Due Tonight posting.
Well done, Peter. Well done.
Peter has left a new comment on your post "Budget Approval Due Tonight":
Before I respond, Anonymous, let's start with the definition of mandate:
Main Entry: man·date
Pronunciation: \ˈman-ˌdāt\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French & Latin; Middle French mandat, from Latin mandatum, from neuter of mandatus, past participle of mandare to entrust, enjoin, probably irregular from manus hand + -dere to put — more at manual, do
Date: 1501
1: an authoritative command; especially : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one
2: an authorization to act given to a representative (accepted the mandate of the people)
3 a: an order or commission granted by the League of Nations to a member nation for the establishment of a responsible government over a former German colony or other conquered territory b: a mandated territory
OK, with that out of the way, lets look at this two ways, financial and moral.
FINANCIAL
Financially, this town is at odds on how to improve things. There are the progressives (how I would classify most the of contributors to this blog, myself included) and the depressives (how I would classify the Board and Council majorities. A.K.A. NSN's on this blog). The progressives believe that by improving the town now, which, yes, does cost some money up front, we will save, even collect dividends, in the future. It is an investment for the future. That is the core of why most of us believed in a new school. A motto for this group might be, a stitch in time saves nine.
The depressives on the other hand believe that we need to keep taxes down at all costs. A motto on for this group might be, a penny saved is a penny earned.
I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye. These are deep, philosophical differences that are hard to overcome.
Now, financially, to answer your question, "how many more years do you believe we can afford to PROPERLY fund mandates with double digit annual increases?" I can't answer this for anyone other than for my family, however, I challenge the notion of double-digit increases. The state mandates (there's that word again) a max increase. Oh, but what about the exceptions, you ask. Yes, there are exceptions for things outside of our control, such as increased costs of special needs kids. Which leads to...
MORAL
We have a moral obligation to our community to educate our kids. It is our civic duty. At what costs? Well, at whatever the cost is to give our kids an appropriate education, to give them a chance at a future. This is a tenet of the progressives. Notice I am not asking for gold covered text books and marble-floored buildings. Yes, I think a new school was going to help build our community AND save money, but we never asked for a Taj Majal, no matter how you may have tried to spin it, Anonymous. Now, at this point, we are hoping to just keep our failing buildings and simply educate the kids, and so far it's not looking too promising that even that will happen.
I will say it again. We have a moral obligation to educate our kids. The current budget underfunds this mission, even at the pleas of the community and the real professionals, the administration.
So, you say, "Sooner or later, something has to give." Given the current budget, and Dr. Yonson's statement the other night that they will somehow figure out a way to appropriately deal with special education, etc, that means that, yes, something has to give. Sadly it will be education. Education will have to give and our kids will lose. We will give our kids a second rate education because YOU want lower goddamn taxes!
We have a moral obligation to our community to educate our kids.
Well done, Peter. Well done.
Peter has left a new comment on your post "Budget Approval Due Tonight":
Before I respond, Anonymous, let's start with the definition of mandate:
Main Entry: man·date
Pronunciation: \ˈman-ˌdāt\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French & Latin; Middle French mandat, from Latin mandatum, from neuter of mandatus, past participle of mandare to entrust, enjoin, probably irregular from manus hand + -dere to put — more at manual, do
Date: 1501
1: an authoritative command; especially : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one
2: an authorization to act given to a representative (accepted the mandate of the people)
3 a: an order or commission granted by the League of Nations to a member nation for the establishment of a responsible government over a former German colony or other conquered territory b: a mandated territory
OK, with that out of the way, lets look at this two ways, financial and moral.
FINANCIAL
Financially, this town is at odds on how to improve things. There are the progressives (how I would classify most the of contributors to this blog, myself included) and the depressives (how I would classify the Board and Council majorities. A.K.A. NSN's on this blog). The progressives believe that by improving the town now, which, yes, does cost some money up front, we will save, even collect dividends, in the future. It is an investment for the future. That is the core of why most of us believed in a new school. A motto for this group might be, a stitch in time saves nine.
The depressives on the other hand believe that we need to keep taxes down at all costs. A motto on for this group might be, a penny saved is a penny earned.
I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye. These are deep, philosophical differences that are hard to overcome.
Now, financially, to answer your question, "how many more years do you believe we can afford to PROPERLY fund mandates with double digit annual increases?" I can't answer this for anyone other than for my family, however, I challenge the notion of double-digit increases. The state mandates (there's that word again) a max increase. Oh, but what about the exceptions, you ask. Yes, there are exceptions for things outside of our control, such as increased costs of special needs kids. Which leads to...
MORAL
We have a moral obligation to our community to educate our kids. It is our civic duty. At what costs? Well, at whatever the cost is to give our kids an appropriate education, to give them a chance at a future. This is a tenet of the progressives. Notice I am not asking for gold covered text books and marble-floored buildings. Yes, I think a new school was going to help build our community AND save money, but we never asked for a Taj Majal, no matter how you may have tried to spin it, Anonymous. Now, at this point, we are hoping to just keep our failing buildings and simply educate the kids, and so far it's not looking too promising that even that will happen.
I will say it again. We have a moral obligation to educate our kids. The current budget underfunds this mission, even at the pleas of the community and the real professionals, the administration.
So, you say, "Sooner or later, something has to give." Given the current budget, and Dr. Yonson's statement the other night that they will somehow figure out a way to appropriately deal with special education, etc, that means that, yes, something has to give. Sadly it will be education. Education will have to give and our kids will lose. We will give our kids a second rate education because YOU want lower goddamn taxes!
We have a moral obligation to our community to educate our kids.
Area School Budget Roundup
The BCCT this morning compares the area school budgets and finds that Morrisville is the lone exception in producing lower taxes. The budget reporting is again not mentioning the "d" word: "defeasement." The savings in Morrisville comes at the cost of not investing in the future. Don't be fooled that this board is a tax cutting machine and that this will be a luxury-pared budget. The budget was bare bones before, and now even the skeleton is feeling the pain.
Some taxpayers smile; others frown
By THERESA HEGEL
The Intelligencer
Many homeowners in Bucks and Montgomery counties will see dips in next year's property bill — thanks to money skimmed from state gambling slots — with residents in several districts emerging as the clear winners.
Expected gaming credits will save eligible property owners in Lower Bucks anywhere from $166 in Centennial to just more than $290 in Bristol Township, according to state estimates.
In most cases, the gaming funds will help offset tax increases and allow qualified property owners to realize at least some savings on their tax bills.
But in Morrisville, where the school board is looking at ways to cut costs in the cash-strapped district, the $218 gaming credit will be assessed to eligible tax bills in addition to an average $321 reduction in taxes.
Morrisville's tax reduction is the exception in the area, with most other districts experiencing some sort of tax increase. However, residents with homestead exclusions will reap the benefits of state casino revenue. Such homeowners — and there are about 350,000 of them in Bucks and Montgomery counties — could see savings ranging from $25 to almost $200. For the rest, the annual tax bill will increase.
Two area school districts— New Hope-Solebury and Upper Moreland — budgeted higher than the property tax relief they were allotted. New Hope-Solebury residents essentially will break even, with only a $4 difference between the district's average tax hike and the $266 to be distributed to each homeowner with an exemption.
“It's a wash,” board President William Behre said at an April meeting. “That's fine with me.”
The majority of Upper Moreland's increase is slated to pay off a $34.5 million high school renovation project. Excluding that keeps the district's tax increase solidly under the 4.4 percent cap mandated by the state's Act 1.
The law is an attempt to keep school spending closer in line with taxpayers' wages. Increases higher than 4.4 percent must be approved by district voters, though districts can apply for larger rate caps to offset debt payments, as Upper Moreland did.
Centennial, New Hope-Solebury and Palisades also applied for exceptions, allowing them to raise taxes beyond 4.4 percent. Though North Penn qualified for an exception as well, the district did not push taxes past the state cap.
Because property values and incomes are lower in Quakertown, the district would have been permitted to raise taxes up to 5.1 percent without having to apply to the state. Instead, the school board approved a budget raising taxes by 4.5 percent, just a sliver above the general cap.
In addition to the usual suspects of salary and benefits, many districts credited rapidly increasing fuel and heating oil costs for inflating their budgets.
Palisades, for example, had to tack about $350,000 onto its final budget once heating bids and fuel estimates were taken into account. The lowest bid the district received for heating was more than twice its current rate.
Education reporters Joan Hellyer, Rachel Canelli and Manasee Wagh contributed to this article.
Theresa Hegel can be reached at 215-538-6381 or thegel@phillyBurbs.com
Some taxpayers smile; others frown
By THERESA HEGEL
The Intelligencer
Many homeowners in Bucks and Montgomery counties will see dips in next year's property bill — thanks to money skimmed from state gambling slots — with residents in several districts emerging as the clear winners.
Expected gaming credits will save eligible property owners in Lower Bucks anywhere from $166 in Centennial to just more than $290 in Bristol Township, according to state estimates.
In most cases, the gaming funds will help offset tax increases and allow qualified property owners to realize at least some savings on their tax bills.
But in Morrisville, where the school board is looking at ways to cut costs in the cash-strapped district, the $218 gaming credit will be assessed to eligible tax bills in addition to an average $321 reduction in taxes.
Morrisville's tax reduction is the exception in the area, with most other districts experiencing some sort of tax increase. However, residents with homestead exclusions will reap the benefits of state casino revenue. Such homeowners — and there are about 350,000 of them in Bucks and Montgomery counties — could see savings ranging from $25 to almost $200. For the rest, the annual tax bill will increase.
Two area school districts— New Hope-Solebury and Upper Moreland — budgeted higher than the property tax relief they were allotted. New Hope-Solebury residents essentially will break even, with only a $4 difference between the district's average tax hike and the $266 to be distributed to each homeowner with an exemption.
“It's a wash,” board President William Behre said at an April meeting. “That's fine with me.”
The majority of Upper Moreland's increase is slated to pay off a $34.5 million high school renovation project. Excluding that keeps the district's tax increase solidly under the 4.4 percent cap mandated by the state's Act 1.
The law is an attempt to keep school spending closer in line with taxpayers' wages. Increases higher than 4.4 percent must be approved by district voters, though districts can apply for larger rate caps to offset debt payments, as Upper Moreland did.
Centennial, New Hope-Solebury and Palisades also applied for exceptions, allowing them to raise taxes beyond 4.4 percent. Though North Penn qualified for an exception as well, the district did not push taxes past the state cap.
Because property values and incomes are lower in Quakertown, the district would have been permitted to raise taxes up to 5.1 percent without having to apply to the state. Instead, the school board approved a budget raising taxes by 4.5 percent, just a sliver above the general cap.
In addition to the usual suspects of salary and benefits, many districts credited rapidly increasing fuel and heating oil costs for inflating their budgets.
Palisades, for example, had to tack about $350,000 onto its final budget once heating bids and fuel estimates were taken into account. The lowest bid the district received for heating was more than twice its current rate.
Education reporters Joan Hellyer, Rachel Canelli and Manasee Wagh contributed to this article.
Theresa Hegel can be reached at 215-538-6381 or thegel@phillyBurbs.com
Arena Football, Anyone?
Congrats to MHS alum Chris Jackson, now playing for the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League. As a gesture of thanks for Morrisville's support of the Soul's 13-3 season, the Soul is handing out free tickets to all township residents who show up Tuesday, July 1, from 4-7 p.m. at Williamson Park for "Chris Jackson Day."
Soul Morrisville Playoff Promotion Gain National Attention
PHILADELPHIA, June 27 -- The Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League is offering free tickets for its July 5 playoff game to all 10,096 residents of the team's star wide receiver's hometown in a holiday weekend promotion that CNBC has suggested might be the "best ever."
Star player Chris Jackson, a candidate for the Arena League Offensive Player of the Year, grew up in Morrisville, a Bucks County town just outside of Philadelphia, before heading to the west coast and developing into an elite athlete who is now on the verge of the league's all-time receiving records. The Soul, owned in part by rock star Jon Bon Jovi, acquired Jackson in free agency before the 2008 season, bringing him home and filling a talent need on the field.
As a gesture of thanks for the town's support of the Soul's 13-3 season, the Soul is handing out free tickets to all township residents who show up Tuesday, July 1, from 4-7 p.m. at Williamson Park for "Chris Jackson Day."
It is unusual for such large numbers of tickets to be available for the team that leads the league in attendance, but the Wachovia Center game landed on Saturday, July 5, at 7 p.m. That date and time has been locked in because of live television commitments and it is smack in the middle of the Independence Day weekend, when thousands of Soul fans will be on pre-arranged holiday at the Jersey Shore, planning to watch the game on ESPN.
"We're a close-knit, sports-oriented town. People have been wearing Chris Jackson jerseys all season, so this is great for us," said Morrisville Borough Council President Nancy Sherlock. "Here in Morrisville, we know who our neighbors are and we support them. We're thrilled to count Chris Jackson and his family as our own."
CNBC Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell's Friday blog headline reads: AFL's Philadelphia Soul: Offering the Best Sports Promotion Ever? with Rovell commenting, "How crazy is that? Talk about a cheering section."
"We just don't do things halfway," said team General Manager Rich Lisk. "So, the Philadelphia Soul is all in for Morrisville, in honor of Chris Jackson."
By virtue of its successful regular season, the Soul is the first seed in the playoffs with the July 5 opponent to be determined during this weekend's games. If the team wins July 5, it hosts the National Conference Championship Game the following weekend. The Arena Bowl is scheduled for July 29 in New Orleans.
Soul Morrisville Playoff Promotion Gain National Attention
PHILADELPHIA, June 27 -- The Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League is offering free tickets for its July 5 playoff game to all 10,096 residents of the team's star wide receiver's hometown in a holiday weekend promotion that CNBC has suggested might be the "best ever."
Star player Chris Jackson, a candidate for the Arena League Offensive Player of the Year, grew up in Morrisville, a Bucks County town just outside of Philadelphia, before heading to the west coast and developing into an elite athlete who is now on the verge of the league's all-time receiving records. The Soul, owned in part by rock star Jon Bon Jovi, acquired Jackson in free agency before the 2008 season, bringing him home and filling a talent need on the field.
As a gesture of thanks for the town's support of the Soul's 13-3 season, the Soul is handing out free tickets to all township residents who show up Tuesday, July 1, from 4-7 p.m. at Williamson Park for "Chris Jackson Day."
It is unusual for such large numbers of tickets to be available for the team that leads the league in attendance, but the Wachovia Center game landed on Saturday, July 5, at 7 p.m. That date and time has been locked in because of live television commitments and it is smack in the middle of the Independence Day weekend, when thousands of Soul fans will be on pre-arranged holiday at the Jersey Shore, planning to watch the game on ESPN.
"We're a close-knit, sports-oriented town. People have been wearing Chris Jackson jerseys all season, so this is great for us," said Morrisville Borough Council President Nancy Sherlock. "Here in Morrisville, we know who our neighbors are and we support them. We're thrilled to count Chris Jackson and his family as our own."
CNBC Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell's Friday blog headline reads: AFL's Philadelphia Soul: Offering the Best Sports Promotion Ever? with Rovell commenting, "How crazy is that? Talk about a cheering section."
"We just don't do things halfway," said team General Manager Rich Lisk. "So, the Philadelphia Soul is all in for Morrisville, in honor of Chris Jackson."
By virtue of its successful regular season, the Soul is the first seed in the playoffs with the July 5 opponent to be determined during this weekend's games. If the team wins July 5, it hosts the National Conference Championship Game the following weekend. The Arena Bowl is scheduled for July 29 in New Orleans.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Fortune Telling in Morrisville
The Morrisville School District is performing the same dance I've seen in business quite often, and even participated in a few times. The organization is making the transformation from a vibrant and viable entity to something we talk about from the dim mists of the "good old days."
Sometimes the death throes come in a blaze of glory, as we learned recently with Bear Stearns. The comet blazes mightily and flames out leaving everyone stunned and confused. No, MSD is not going to go out with a bang, but with the metaphorical whimper.
The board of directors (our intrepid Stop the School board, also known as the Emperor and his Accomplices) is providing uncertain and confusing direction for the future. Remember the Frankenfield question: "What is your plan?" In every single job interview and at least once a year in my annual reviews, the question is asked: "What is your plan? Where do you see yourself in five years?" Everyone works toward a goal. That goal has to be defined by the vision makers at the top.
Since the vision is undefined, we have to read between the lines, and the lines speak of destruction: Don't hire teachers or staff. Lower the taxes, no matter the cost. Close the schools. Tuition out the students. Treat the administration like untrustworthy lackeys. That attitude filters through the organization and sets off the alarm bells of self-preservation in everyone. When they start asking the "five years" question of themselves, they are faced with what the district is expected to look like in 2013. "It's the end of the world as we know it" is not an unexpected conclusion.
These people have families, homes, cars, and visions and plans of their own for their lives. They all depend on an expectation of continued employment to make these dreams come true.
So now, those who are able or willing will be making the circuit on Monster.com and sending out their resumes. We're going to see a drain of some of the best and the brightest from MSD leaving for other greener pastures.
That happens all the time, but the reverse side of the exodus is that replacements come in. Here's where the dynamics fall apart. The future of MSD is cloudy and murky, and even the medium on Pennsylvania Avenue can see that. I think Helen Keller would have had a 90% chance in seeing it.
Imagine an applicant coming into a board meeting to see what the district is like. I would expect that a cartoonish outline of the person would be left in the wall as they made the hastiest exit known to man since Bugs Bunny.
The first interview question would be, "Do you want to work for the Emperor and his Board of Accomplices?" How many of us would answer yes? Tends to cut down the interviewing time, doesn't it?
Let's fast forward a year from now. Who replaced any of the departed people? Were their positions left vacant and the "do more with less" slack taken up by the survivors? How many of these survivors saw the handwriting on the wall and lit out for greener pastures of their own? No disrespect meant to any future district hires, but what of the caliber of the people who came in? We're not paying the best wages and overall job security is pretty minimal.
It was easy to attract applicants to the RMS Titanic when it was the indestructible behemoth. When you hire on a crew to staff a doomed ship, the applicant flow diminishes slightly.
Can this still be reversed? Possibly. Without more parents and concerned taxpayers showing up to challenge the self-destructive behavior of this board, this is the future. The PDE or the state appointed undertakers will just sift through the wreckage. Let's remember that our kids are in that wreckage.
Sometimes the death throes come in a blaze of glory, as we learned recently with Bear Stearns. The comet blazes mightily and flames out leaving everyone stunned and confused. No, MSD is not going to go out with a bang, but with the metaphorical whimper.
The board of directors (our intrepid Stop the School board, also known as the Emperor and his Accomplices) is providing uncertain and confusing direction for the future. Remember the Frankenfield question: "What is your plan?" In every single job interview and at least once a year in my annual reviews, the question is asked: "What is your plan? Where do you see yourself in five years?" Everyone works toward a goal. That goal has to be defined by the vision makers at the top.
Since the vision is undefined, we have to read between the lines, and the lines speak of destruction: Don't hire teachers or staff. Lower the taxes, no matter the cost. Close the schools. Tuition out the students. Treat the administration like untrustworthy lackeys. That attitude filters through the organization and sets off the alarm bells of self-preservation in everyone. When they start asking the "five years" question of themselves, they are faced with what the district is expected to look like in 2013. "It's the end of the world as we know it" is not an unexpected conclusion.
These people have families, homes, cars, and visions and plans of their own for their lives. They all depend on an expectation of continued employment to make these dreams come true.
So now, those who are able or willing will be making the circuit on Monster.com and sending out their resumes. We're going to see a drain of some of the best and the brightest from MSD leaving for other greener pastures.
That happens all the time, but the reverse side of the exodus is that replacements come in. Here's where the dynamics fall apart. The future of MSD is cloudy and murky, and even the medium on Pennsylvania Avenue can see that. I think Helen Keller would have had a 90% chance in seeing it.
Imagine an applicant coming into a board meeting to see what the district is like. I would expect that a cartoonish outline of the person would be left in the wall as they made the hastiest exit known to man since Bugs Bunny.
The first interview question would be, "Do you want to work for the Emperor and his Board of Accomplices?" How many of us would answer yes? Tends to cut down the interviewing time, doesn't it?
Let's fast forward a year from now. Who replaced any of the departed people? Were their positions left vacant and the "do more with less" slack taken up by the survivors? How many of these survivors saw the handwriting on the wall and lit out for greener pastures of their own? No disrespect meant to any future district hires, but what of the caliber of the people who came in? We're not paying the best wages and overall job security is pretty minimal.
It was easy to attract applicants to the RMS Titanic when it was the indestructible behemoth. When you hire on a crew to staff a doomed ship, the applicant flow diminishes slightly.
Can this still be reversed? Possibly. Without more parents and concerned taxpayers showing up to challenge the self-destructive behavior of this board, this is the future. The PDE or the state appointed undertakers will just sift through the wreckage. Let's remember that our kids are in that wreckage.
Resignation: Rumor or Fact? (Apparent Fact)
I received one comment regarding a very recent higher profile resignation within the school district. Without more information or confirmation, there's no post.
ORIGINAL POST 10:15 A.M.
UPDATE: 2:15 P.M. Apparently the exodus is beginning. With the retirement of elementary principal Karen Huggins comes the apparent resignation of Melanie Gehrens, principal of the Middle/Senior High School. It is being reported that she will be moving to the Bristol Township School District as the Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction.
I do not have official word of this, but have received too many different reports for this to be completely made up.
ORIGINAL POST 10:15 A.M.
UPDATE: 2:15 P.M. Apparently the exodus is beginning. With the retirement of elementary principal Karen Huggins comes the apparent resignation of Melanie Gehrens, principal of the Middle/Senior High School. It is being reported that she will be moving to the Bristol Township School District as the Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction.
I do not have official word of this, but have received too many different reports for this to be completely made up.
“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.”
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.”
Schools News Around the Blogosphere
The next big thing: smaller schools
Baltimore Sun
Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.
To be a good parent requires a firm, affectionate patience
Providence Journal
Julia Steiny
Standing on the beach, on one of those recent scorching days, I saw a little boy in blue swim trunks careening across the beach, a 4-year-old with a mission. He had a white rock shaped roughly like a round loaf of bakery bread. He presented it with pride to a woman I assumed was his mom.
Documentary Chronicles Pitfalls of American Education in Global Economy
Diverse Magazine
by Michelle Nealy
Diverse reporter Michelle Nealy chats with Indianapolis venture-capitalist-turned-filmmaker, Bob Compton, about his provocative new documentary, "2 Million Minutes." The film chronicles six students from India , the United States and China during their high school years. Compton highlights the pitfalls of American education in today's global economy and praises those cultures that revere academic achievement.
NEW READING FIRST DATA FROM STATES SHOWS IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN READING PROFICIENCY
United States Department of Education
Students From Nearly Every Grade and Every Subgroup Show Improvement
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced new data from the states showing impressive gains for Reading First students. The achievement data submitted by state education agencies (SEAs) and compiled and analyzed by the Education Department's contractor, American Institutes for Research, showed improvement in nearly every grade and subgroup, including English language learners and students with disabilities.
Restraint and Seclusion on Children with Disabilities in Florida Public Schools
There are many families from counties all over Florida who have children with Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders that are being restrained, put in time-out and forced locked seclusion rooms in the public school system. Our children are being injured physically and mentally because of their disabilities and the lack of appropriate programs and highly qualified teachers and aides available to educate them. Most of the aides that are hired have little or no background in children with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Across US, schools feel budget pinch
Christian Science Monitor
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
Slashed funding and rising costs are forcing school districts to cut back, even close down. Lynn, Mass. - The Fallon elementary school is a joyous place. But last week, some parents, students, and staff felt as blue as the hallway walls. On Friday, the small school in Lynn, Mass., shut its doors - not just for the summer, but for good.
EducationNews National Coverage
Poll: Half say schools aren't preparing kids
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not much of a report card. Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.
Baltimore Sun
Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.
To be a good parent requires a firm, affectionate patience
Providence Journal
Julia Steiny
Standing on the beach, on one of those recent scorching days, I saw a little boy in blue swim trunks careening across the beach, a 4-year-old with a mission. He had a white rock shaped roughly like a round loaf of bakery bread. He presented it with pride to a woman I assumed was his mom.
Documentary Chronicles Pitfalls of American Education in Global Economy
Diverse Magazine
by Michelle Nealy
Diverse reporter Michelle Nealy chats with Indianapolis venture-capitalist-turned-filmmaker, Bob Compton, about his provocative new documentary, "2 Million Minutes." The film chronicles six students from India , the United States and China during their high school years. Compton highlights the pitfalls of American education in today's global economy and praises those cultures that revere academic achievement.
NEW READING FIRST DATA FROM STATES SHOWS IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN READING PROFICIENCY
United States Department of Education
Students From Nearly Every Grade and Every Subgroup Show Improvement
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced new data from the states showing impressive gains for Reading First students. The achievement data submitted by state education agencies (SEAs) and compiled and analyzed by the Education Department's contractor, American Institutes for Research, showed improvement in nearly every grade and subgroup, including English language learners and students with disabilities.
Restraint and Seclusion on Children with Disabilities in Florida Public Schools
There are many families from counties all over Florida who have children with Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders that are being restrained, put in time-out and forced locked seclusion rooms in the public school system. Our children are being injured physically and mentally because of their disabilities and the lack of appropriate programs and highly qualified teachers and aides available to educate them. Most of the aides that are hired have little or no background in children with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Across US, schools feel budget pinch
Christian Science Monitor
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
Slashed funding and rising costs are forcing school districts to cut back, even close down. Lynn, Mass. - The Fallon elementary school is a joyous place. But last week, some parents, students, and staff felt as blue as the hallway walls. On Friday, the small school in Lynn, Mass., shut its doors - not just for the summer, but for good.
EducationNews National Coverage
Poll: Half say schools aren't preparing kids
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not much of a report card. Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Relink to Budget Article
Thanks to the sharp eyed emailers who noted that the couriertimesnow.com website and phillyburbs.com websites have different content. Phillyburbs has more content.
I'm still disappointed in the article. It mentions nothing about defeasement being the lion's share of the savings, and the vote was not 5-2. It was 5-3.
Let's give credit where credit is due. Voting YES to provide an inadequately funded special education, charter school, and alternative education budget were: President William Hellmann, Vice President Al Radosti, Secretary Marlys Mihok, Treasurer Brenda Worob, and newcomer Jack Buckman. Voting NO were: Joe Kemp, Robin Reithmeyer, and William Farrell. Former Treasurer Gloria Heater was absent.
Budget includes $321 tax decrease
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE -- Residents in Morrisville can expect to pay $321 less in taxes next year.
Taxes will lessen to $3,371 for a homeowner with the borough's average assessed property of $18,000.
Those eligible for the homestead/farmstead exclusion will see a further decline of $218. The exclusion is property tax relief from state slot machine revenue.
It's a relief to many residents, but falling taxes come with consequences.
A pared-down budget that is a result of this tax reduction could be a drain on programs and services for approximately 1,000 Morrisville students.
The board voted 5-2 late Wednesday evening on a $19.88 million budget for next school year. To lower taxes, expenditures are down by about 3 percent from this year.
The approved budget is far short of what is necessary to fully provide for upcoming special education, charter school and alternative school costs required by the state, according to the district.
“This option is a big no-no,” as far as district auditors and the state Department of Education are concerned, said Reba Dunford, the district's business administrator.
An estimated $2.2 million will be needed just for special education for about 250 students, 11 more than this year's average. This year, special education expenses were about $1.9 million, according to Kimberly Myers, Morrisville's supervisor of pupil personnel services.
The district also had to account for teacher contracts, which account for $10 million of the budget. The average teacher salary in Morrisville is about $70,000 a year, and the district employs 71 teachers and seven professional support staff members.
Rising fuel prices pushed the final budget skyward by another $22,400.
For the past few months board members have been arguing with the administration about how to crop those expenses, which keep rising.
State law says they are uncontrollable costs that have to be paid.
Last month, board members, including President William Hellmann, requested that Dunford reduce the projected necessary increases in special education and charter and alternative schools.
Hellmann, who was voted into office on the promise of tightening belts and lowering taxes, has repeatedly said that the school district spends too much.
“It's too much. It's a problem,” Hellmann said several times at Wednesday night's meeting.
He hasn't yet explained how to cover those costs but has said he doesn't trust the administration's cost estimates. Hellmann thinks certain expenditures have been padded so there is more money in the budget, making it a kind of wish list.
Yonson has expressed frustration with this view on several occasions and stressed that the administration has specified only a “bare-bones budget.”
Several residents requested the board vote for a budget that would safeguard as much of the uncontrollable costs as possible.
To achieve some kind of compromise between board members and the administration's recommendations, Dunford presented four different budget options before the vote.
Each retained the same tax decrease and a millage decrease of 17.8 mills, yielding a total millage of 187.3.
The differences among the budget possibilities involved funding partial increases in charter and alternative schools and special education services.
The highest expenditure option was around $20.1 million because it included taking about $182,000 from savings for those schools and services. That is still far less than what Elizabeth Yonson, the district's superintendent, has said is necessary to fully provide for students who need those services next year.
The board voted for the lowest expenditure option, which leaves out much of the required increase.
Now the district will have to pull the money from other areas and look for ways to reduce costs without cutting state-mandated services, warned Yonson. What those areas may be are still up in the air.
The budget options Dunford presented utilized varying amounts of the fund balance, the district's savings account.
Yonson said the district would somehow pay for all mandated services, no matter what.
Manasee Wagh can be reached at 215-949-4206 or mwagh@phillyBurbs.com.
June 27, 2008 6:11 AM
I'm still disappointed in the article. It mentions nothing about defeasement being the lion's share of the savings, and the vote was not 5-2. It was 5-3.
Let's give credit where credit is due. Voting YES to provide an inadequately funded special education, charter school, and alternative education budget were: President William Hellmann, Vice President Al Radosti, Secretary Marlys Mihok, Treasurer Brenda Worob, and newcomer Jack Buckman. Voting NO were: Joe Kemp, Robin Reithmeyer, and William Farrell. Former Treasurer Gloria Heater was absent.
Budget includes $321 tax decrease
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE -- Residents in Morrisville can expect to pay $321 less in taxes next year.
Taxes will lessen to $3,371 for a homeowner with the borough's average assessed property of $18,000.
Those eligible for the homestead/farmstead exclusion will see a further decline of $218. The exclusion is property tax relief from state slot machine revenue.
It's a relief to many residents, but falling taxes come with consequences.
A pared-down budget that is a result of this tax reduction could be a drain on programs and services for approximately 1,000 Morrisville students.
The board voted 5-2 late Wednesday evening on a $19.88 million budget for next school year. To lower taxes, expenditures are down by about 3 percent from this year.
The approved budget is far short of what is necessary to fully provide for upcoming special education, charter school and alternative school costs required by the state, according to the district.
“This option is a big no-no,” as far as district auditors and the state Department of Education are concerned, said Reba Dunford, the district's business administrator.
An estimated $2.2 million will be needed just for special education for about 250 students, 11 more than this year's average. This year, special education expenses were about $1.9 million, according to Kimberly Myers, Morrisville's supervisor of pupil personnel services.
The district also had to account for teacher contracts, which account for $10 million of the budget. The average teacher salary in Morrisville is about $70,000 a year, and the district employs 71 teachers and seven professional support staff members.
Rising fuel prices pushed the final budget skyward by another $22,400.
For the past few months board members have been arguing with the administration about how to crop those expenses, which keep rising.
State law says they are uncontrollable costs that have to be paid.
Last month, board members, including President William Hellmann, requested that Dunford reduce the projected necessary increases in special education and charter and alternative schools.
Hellmann, who was voted into office on the promise of tightening belts and lowering taxes, has repeatedly said that the school district spends too much.
“It's too much. It's a problem,” Hellmann said several times at Wednesday night's meeting.
He hasn't yet explained how to cover those costs but has said he doesn't trust the administration's cost estimates. Hellmann thinks certain expenditures have been padded so there is more money in the budget, making it a kind of wish list.
Yonson has expressed frustration with this view on several occasions and stressed that the administration has specified only a “bare-bones budget.”
Several residents requested the board vote for a budget that would safeguard as much of the uncontrollable costs as possible.
To achieve some kind of compromise between board members and the administration's recommendations, Dunford presented four different budget options before the vote.
Each retained the same tax decrease and a millage decrease of 17.8 mills, yielding a total millage of 187.3.
The differences among the budget possibilities involved funding partial increases in charter and alternative schools and special education services.
The highest expenditure option was around $20.1 million because it included taking about $182,000 from savings for those schools and services. That is still far less than what Elizabeth Yonson, the district's superintendent, has said is necessary to fully provide for students who need those services next year.
The board voted for the lowest expenditure option, which leaves out much of the required increase.
Now the district will have to pull the money from other areas and look for ways to reduce costs without cutting state-mandated services, warned Yonson. What those areas may be are still up in the air.
The budget options Dunford presented utilized varying amounts of the fund balance, the district's savings account.
Yonson said the district would somehow pay for all mandated services, no matter what.
Manasee Wagh can be reached at 215-949-4206 or mwagh@phillyBurbs.com.
June 27, 2008 6:11 AM
Email your complaints
Thanks to Dianne for her comment requesting contact information where we can send complaints or requests for information.
Here's a few to start off:
Government
Governor Ed Rendell email: web form only website
Senator Charles McIlhinney: email: cmcilhinney@pasen.gov website
Representative John Galloway email:web form only website
Here's a few to start off:
Government
Governor Ed Rendell email: web form only website
Senator Charles McIlhinney: email: cmcilhinney@pasen.gov website
Representative John Galloway email:web form only website
couriertimesnow.com
Kudos to the new Courier Times website. There's three separate stories posted here about Wednesday night's Morrisville school board meeting.
The first story is member Joe Kemp urging the board majority to do their homework before making changes. The story is sad in that Joe Kemp needs to use BCCT columnist Kate Fratti as his means of communication because the Emperor and his blindly subservient accomplices are unapproachable and indifferent. If you're not pleased with the way the current Stop the School majority is acting, drop them a line at SchoolBoard@mv.org. If you copy savethemorrisvilleschool@yahoo.com, I'll print it as well.
In the second story, the board's shameful treatment of Dr. Elizabeth Yonson is chronicled. Memo to the Emperor and accomplices: You're lucky that Morrisville has this talented administrator at all. If she doesn't sue the ever living crap out of you, it's because she's a better human being alone than you could ever collectively aspire to be. Go. Have the common decency to be ashamed. Especially those board members who keep talking the big talk about being independent, but when the Emperor commands, you keep on running to his beck and call. You may talk the talk, but the audience can clearly see the walk, and it doesn't match the talk.
The third story mentions the dilemma of economics. How do you pay for what you need? Parents are well versed in that daily struggle. Are average taxpayers? Yes, they are. But do some of them really understand the definition of a "community"? Let's also note that the reporter neglected to mention why the millage is lower. Answer: The penny-wise and pound-foolish bond defeasement.
MV school director pleads his case
Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm by Columnist Kate Fratti
Morrisville School Board member Joe Kemp today in an email urged the board majority, yet again, to do its homework before committing the troubled district to big change. Kemp, a minority member, worries the board leadership’s serious interest in a plan to tuition out high-school students to save money isn’t being aired in open.”The board should have [Solicitor] Mike Fitzpatrick draft formal letters to any and all school districts or private schools that we may wish to consider for a tuition program. He should also give us his opinion about the legality of such a plan,” he said.
“Talks should be held between a committee of the board and the teachers’ union with legal representation on both sides to see if there is any way to tuition students that will be acceptable by the union.
“We should find out if privatizing our high school means that all private school students would have their tuitions paid by the district. We should consider hiring an architectural firm that works with school districts to tell us the costs of converting our MHS to either a grade school or a K-12.
“We should find out the costs regarding busing as a factor in sending high school students out of the district and would that then make the district a busing district.
Superintendent contract shortened
Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Morrisville’s school board majority approved shortening Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson’s contract at Wednesday night’s meeting. The contract was revised to three years instead of five.Yonson has been with the district for at least three years. The previous board renewed her contract for five years, from July 1 this year to June 30, 2013.
Under her leadership, Morrisville schools made several gains, including high performance levels in elementary school math.
Board President William Hellmann did not provide a concrete reason for shortening her contract. He thanked Yonson for doing an exemplary job and said a shorter contract was a better choice.
Yonson herself said it was an irregular course of action. After their first contract expires, most Bucks superintendents who get their contracts renewed do receive five-year contracts, she said.
Fewer taxes = fewer educational services?
Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 5:09 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Residents in Morrisville can expect to pay $321 less in taxes next year.
The school board approved a $19.88 million budget Wednesday.
Taxes will lessen to $3,371 for a homeowner with the borough’s average assessed property of $18,000.
Those who were eligible for the homestead/farmstead exclusion will see a further decline of $218.
But there will be consequences, warned administrators. The new budget doesn’t account for all of the $2.2 million needed for special education services and additional money needed for alternative and charter schools.
The district will find a way to pay for all of those uncontrollable costs, but cuts may need to be made in other areas, said administrators. The state mandates that special education and charter and alternative schools must be paid for fully.
The first story is member Joe Kemp urging the board majority to do their homework before making changes. The story is sad in that Joe Kemp needs to use BCCT columnist Kate Fratti as his means of communication because the Emperor and his blindly subservient accomplices are unapproachable and indifferent. If you're not pleased with the way the current Stop the School majority is acting, drop them a line at SchoolBoard@mv.org. If you copy savethemorrisvilleschool@yahoo.com, I'll print it as well.
In the second story, the board's shameful treatment of Dr. Elizabeth Yonson is chronicled. Memo to the Emperor and accomplices: You're lucky that Morrisville has this talented administrator at all. If she doesn't sue the ever living crap out of you, it's because she's a better human being alone than you could ever collectively aspire to be. Go. Have the common decency to be ashamed. Especially those board members who keep talking the big talk about being independent, but when the Emperor commands, you keep on running to his beck and call. You may talk the talk, but the audience can clearly see the walk, and it doesn't match the talk.
The third story mentions the dilemma of economics. How do you pay for what you need? Parents are well versed in that daily struggle. Are average taxpayers? Yes, they are. But do some of them really understand the definition of a "community"? Let's also note that the reporter neglected to mention why the millage is lower. Answer: The penny-wise and pound-foolish bond defeasement.
MV school director pleads his case
Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm by Columnist Kate Fratti
Morrisville School Board member Joe Kemp today in an email urged the board majority, yet again, to do its homework before committing the troubled district to big change. Kemp, a minority member, worries the board leadership’s serious interest in a plan to tuition out high-school students to save money isn’t being aired in open.”The board should have [Solicitor] Mike Fitzpatrick draft formal letters to any and all school districts or private schools that we may wish to consider for a tuition program. He should also give us his opinion about the legality of such a plan,” he said.
“Talks should be held between a committee of the board and the teachers’ union with legal representation on both sides to see if there is any way to tuition students that will be acceptable by the union.
“We should find out if privatizing our high school means that all private school students would have their tuitions paid by the district. We should consider hiring an architectural firm that works with school districts to tell us the costs of converting our MHS to either a grade school or a K-12.
“We should find out the costs regarding busing as a factor in sending high school students out of the district and would that then make the district a busing district.
Superintendent contract shortened
Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Morrisville’s school board majority approved shortening Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson’s contract at Wednesday night’s meeting. The contract was revised to three years instead of five.Yonson has been with the district for at least three years. The previous board renewed her contract for five years, from July 1 this year to June 30, 2013.
Under her leadership, Morrisville schools made several gains, including high performance levels in elementary school math.
Board President William Hellmann did not provide a concrete reason for shortening her contract. He thanked Yonson for doing an exemplary job and said a shorter contract was a better choice.
Yonson herself said it was an irregular course of action. After their first contract expires, most Bucks superintendents who get their contracts renewed do receive five-year contracts, she said.
Fewer taxes = fewer educational services?
Posted in News on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 5:09 pm by Courier Times reporter Manasee Wagh
Residents in Morrisville can expect to pay $321 less in taxes next year.
The school board approved a $19.88 million budget Wednesday.
Taxes will lessen to $3,371 for a homeowner with the borough’s average assessed property of $18,000.
Those who were eligible for the homestead/farmstead exclusion will see a further decline of $218.
But there will be consequences, warned administrators. The new budget doesn’t account for all of the $2.2 million needed for special education services and additional money needed for alternative and charter schools.
The district will find a way to pay for all of those uncontrollable costs, but cuts may need to be made in other areas, said administrators. The state mandates that special education and charter and alternative schools must be paid for fully.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Comic Relief
Two views of the last night's business meeting courtesy of Dilbert and Real Life.
Imagine what we could accomplish without the Emperor. Who is willing to step up and make the first move on dethroning the Emperor?
Another midnight meeting filled with bickering?
Imagine what we could accomplish without the Emperor. Who is willing to step up and make the first move on dethroning the Emperor?
Another midnight meeting filled with bickering?
News From the Budget Talks
What's the scoop from last night? Dr. Yonson? The budget? The teacher contract and student ratios?
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