From the Intelligencer.
Archdiocese seeks aid for special ed
By DOM COSENTINO, The Intelligencer
Funding for special education programs are a problem for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, an administrator of the archdiocese said Wednesday at a state House Republican committee hearing in Upper Moreland.
Ellen Wedermeyer, the archdiocese's assistant superintendent for special education, said the archdiocese's tuition rate only covers 20 percent of what it actually costs to educate a special needs child at any one of its five schools of special education and eight additional programs for students with learning disabilities.
Wedermeyer also said enrollment in the archdiocese's learning disability program at the elementary level has increased 20 percent in the last year, with several locations full and a wait list for the upcoming school year.
“If we are unable to locate a new funding stream to aid in paying our operating expenses,” she said, “the futures of the five schools of special education are in jeopardy.”
Wedermeyer and others addressed the House Republican Policy Committee at a hearing co-chaired by state Rep. Thomas P. Murt, an Eastern Montgomery County Republican, at St. David Parish, which is home to Our Lady of Confidence Day School, an archdiocesean school that serves students with developmental or intellectual disabilities.
The state has already established an Educational Improvement Tax Credit, which effectively allows businesses to pay part of their state business taxes through state-certified, nonprofit scholarship organizations such as the archdiocese's Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools.
BLOCS can benefit special education students, but there is no special tax credit program specifically set aside for those students, according to testimony offered by Andrew T. Lefebvre, the executive director of the school-choice coalition REACH.
Murt, an Archbishop Wood graduate, said it was too soon to tell how the testimony would be utilized as part of any legislation. The General Assembly is on recess until Sept. 15, and a pair of bills — one in the House and one in the Senate — that would address special education services for non-public schools have been pending since last summer.
“We could decide,” Murt said, “if we want to use (Wednesday's testimony) to support the legislation that's pending now, or if other changes need to be made.”
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Renovations on time, on budget
Neshaminy's Back to School profile.
Renovations on time, on budget
This year, administrators said they’re working on implementing a writing program for all grade levels.
By RACHEL CANELLI
A brand new two-story classroom wing will be opening at Neshaminy High School to begin the school year. The building includes new desks and flat screen televisions. Crews will continue to work on another new two-story wing for science, which should be equipped with new labs and updated tools by the spring, officials said.
The Middletown school is more than halfway through a major construction and renovation project, which is adding more than 250,000 square feet to accommodate 2,800 students, including ninth- graders who will move there from the middle schools next year, 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, officials said.
Elsewhere in the district, officials said they’re implementing a literacy framework for kindergartners through first-graders this year, and including a writing program in all grades, according to spokeswoman Sandra Costanzo.
Meanwhile, Neshaminy Middle School, which recently closed, received the Bronze Level National Recognition Award from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for its health initiatives. The Middletown building was one of 43 schools in the country and the only school in the state to receive the recognition. Former President Bill Clinton and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation presented the honor to the school’s former principal, Karen Wychock, administrators said.
The Neshaminy School District serves more than 9,000 students in 13 schools throughout Middletown, Langhorne, Langhorne Manor, Penndel, Hulmeville and Lower Southampton. The district employs more than 1,500 people and has adopted a $190 million annual budget, officials said. For information, visit www.neshaminy.k12.pa.us.
WHO’S WHO IN THE SCHOOLS
Superintendent:
Paul J. Kadri, 215-809-6500
Assistant Superintendent:
Louis T. Muenker, 215-809-6606
Director of elementary education:
Jacqueline Rattigan, 215-809-6510
Director of secondary education:
Geeta A. Heble, 215-809-6510
Principals:
Tawanka Learning Center: Joann Holland, 215-809-6240
Neshaminy High: Alex Menio, 215-809-6100
Maple Point Middle: Mark Collins, 215-809-6230
Poquessing Middle: Ronald Sayre, 215-809-6210
Carl Sandburg Middle: Dawn Kelly, 215-809-6220
Pearl Buck Elementary: Paul Mahoney, 215-809-6300
Samuel Everitt Elementary: Andre Modica, 215-809-6320
Joseph Ferderbar Elementary: Judy Brown, 215-809-6370
Oliver Heckman Elementary: Brian Kern, 215-809-6330
Herbert Hoover Elementary: Karen Wychock, 215-809-6340
Lower Southampton Elementary: Matthew Walsh, 215-809-6350
Walter Miller Elementary: Joan Chak, 215-809-6360
Albert Schweitzer Elementary: Stephanie Miguelez, 215-809-6380
School board:
Joseph Blasch, Kim Koutsouradis, Irene Boyle, Susan Cummings, Richard Eccles, Frank Koziol, William Spitz, Ritchie Webb and William O’Connor. The board meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 7 p.m., except in July and August. The board does not normally meet in July. It meets on the fourth Tuesday in August. Work sessions are held in the administrative boardroom of the Maple Point Middle School in Middletown. To reach the school board, visit www.neshaminy.k12.pa.us and follow the links.
2008-09 SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept. 3, first day for students Sept. 30, Rosh Hashana, no school Oct. 1, Rosh Hashana, no school Oct. 9, Yom Kippur, no school Nov. 4, Election Day, no school Nov. 11, Veterans Day, district closed Nov. 26-28, Thanksgiving holiday Dec. 24-31 Christmas recess Jan 1-2, Christmas recess Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Jr. Day Feb. 16, Presidents Day Feb. 25, no school Apr. 6-10 Spring recess May 19, Election Day, no school May 25, Memorial Day June 11, graduation June 19, last day for students
FAST FACTS ABOUT NESHAMINY
2007 Average SAT Scores: Verbal — 499
Math — 511
Writing — 490
Average teacher salary: $81,480
AP courses: 12
Student/teacher ratio: high school, 14 to 1; middle, 12 to 1; elementary, 14 to 1
Cost per student: $15,680
2008 Adequate Yearly Progress status: did not meet AYP goal
Partnerships with businesses:
more than 500 community partners
Information provided by the Neshaminy School District
Renovations on time, on budget
This year, administrators said they’re working on implementing a writing program for all grade levels.
By RACHEL CANELLI
A brand new two-story classroom wing will be opening at Neshaminy High School to begin the school year. The building includes new desks and flat screen televisions. Crews will continue to work on another new two-story wing for science, which should be equipped with new labs and updated tools by the spring, officials said.
The Middletown school is more than halfway through a major construction and renovation project, which is adding more than 250,000 square feet to accommodate 2,800 students, including ninth- graders who will move there from the middle schools next year, 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, officials said.
Elsewhere in the district, officials said they’re implementing a literacy framework for kindergartners through first-graders this year, and including a writing program in all grades, according to spokeswoman Sandra Costanzo.
Meanwhile, Neshaminy Middle School, which recently closed, received the Bronze Level National Recognition Award from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for its health initiatives. The Middletown building was one of 43 schools in the country and the only school in the state to receive the recognition. Former President Bill Clinton and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation presented the honor to the school’s former principal, Karen Wychock, administrators said.
The Neshaminy School District serves more than 9,000 students in 13 schools throughout Middletown, Langhorne, Langhorne Manor, Penndel, Hulmeville and Lower Southampton. The district employs more than 1,500 people and has adopted a $190 million annual budget, officials said. For information, visit www.neshaminy.k12.pa.us.
WHO’S WHO IN THE SCHOOLS
Superintendent:
Paul J. Kadri, 215-809-6500
Assistant Superintendent:
Louis T. Muenker, 215-809-6606
Director of elementary education:
Jacqueline Rattigan, 215-809-6510
Director of secondary education:
Geeta A. Heble, 215-809-6510
Principals:
Tawanka Learning Center: Joann Holland, 215-809-6240
Neshaminy High: Alex Menio, 215-809-6100
Maple Point Middle: Mark Collins, 215-809-6230
Poquessing Middle: Ronald Sayre, 215-809-6210
Carl Sandburg Middle: Dawn Kelly, 215-809-6220
Pearl Buck Elementary: Paul Mahoney, 215-809-6300
Samuel Everitt Elementary: Andre Modica, 215-809-6320
Joseph Ferderbar Elementary: Judy Brown, 215-809-6370
Oliver Heckman Elementary: Brian Kern, 215-809-6330
Herbert Hoover Elementary: Karen Wychock, 215-809-6340
Lower Southampton Elementary: Matthew Walsh, 215-809-6350
Walter Miller Elementary: Joan Chak, 215-809-6360
Albert Schweitzer Elementary: Stephanie Miguelez, 215-809-6380
School board:
Joseph Blasch, Kim Koutsouradis, Irene Boyle, Susan Cummings, Richard Eccles, Frank Koziol, William Spitz, Ritchie Webb and William O’Connor. The board meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 7 p.m., except in July and August. The board does not normally meet in July. It meets on the fourth Tuesday in August. Work sessions are held in the administrative boardroom of the Maple Point Middle School in Middletown. To reach the school board, visit www.neshaminy.k12.pa.us and follow the links.
2008-09 SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept. 3, first day for students Sept. 30, Rosh Hashana, no school Oct. 1, Rosh Hashana, no school Oct. 9, Yom Kippur, no school Nov. 4, Election Day, no school Nov. 11, Veterans Day, district closed Nov. 26-28, Thanksgiving holiday Dec. 24-31 Christmas recess Jan 1-2, Christmas recess Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Jr. Day Feb. 16, Presidents Day Feb. 25, no school Apr. 6-10 Spring recess May 19, Election Day, no school May 25, Memorial Day June 11, graduation June 19, last day for students
FAST FACTS ABOUT NESHAMINY
2007 Average SAT Scores: Verbal — 499
Math — 511
Writing — 490
Average teacher salary: $81,480
AP courses: 12
Student/teacher ratio: high school, 14 to 1; middle, 12 to 1; elementary, 14 to 1
Cost per student: $15,680
2008 Adequate Yearly Progress status: did not meet AYP goal
Partnerships with businesses:
more than 500 community partners
Information provided by the Neshaminy School District
Dunford: The Next Day
Here's an interesting item from today's BCCT. It's just a continuation of the Emperor's "Iknowaguy" style of bringing in cronies. His track record so far in "Iknowaguy" transactions is not impressive. Kudos to Gloria Heater for her suggestion, but the vote is 5-4 with Hellmann, Radosti, Mihok, Worob, and Buckman approving the Bristol guy.
Let's move this meeting along.
Business manager resigns
The embattled business manager of the Morrisville School District tendered her resignation Tuesday, effective Oct. 18.
Reba Dunford has been with the district for four years.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said it was with regret that she accepted the resignation. “Reba Dunford is an excellent business administrator. She restructured the business office and made it more efficient. She is an important member of my team and I will miss her.”
Dunford, of Montgomery County, said Wednesday she has found a new position closer to home.
“I am really sad to leave all of the great staff at Morrisville. I have enjoyed working with the administration and other employees.”
Dunford and Yonson have been the subject of heated and often public criticism from the new school board majority. Softspoken Dunford sparred openly at times with school board President Bill Hellmann in recent budget work sessions in which Hellmann presented his own budget drafts.
In June, the board reduced the length of Yonson’s contract from five years to three despite her protest.
Yonson indicated she would advertise to fill Dunford’s position, but school board member Gloria Heater has suggested to Hellmann that the position be filled temporarily through the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. In an e-mail to the board, Heater surprised minority members by indicating Hellmann had discussed with her a specific permanent candidate, referencing “[Hellmann’s] guy in Bristol.”
Whoever that might be has not been disclosed.
Let's move this meeting along.
Business manager resigns
The embattled business manager of the Morrisville School District tendered her resignation Tuesday, effective Oct. 18.
Reba Dunford has been with the district for four years.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said it was with regret that she accepted the resignation. “Reba Dunford is an excellent business administrator. She restructured the business office and made it more efficient. She is an important member of my team and I will miss her.”
Dunford, of Montgomery County, said Wednesday she has found a new position closer to home.
“I am really sad to leave all of the great staff at Morrisville. I have enjoyed working with the administration and other employees.”
Dunford and Yonson have been the subject of heated and often public criticism from the new school board majority. Softspoken Dunford sparred openly at times with school board President Bill Hellmann in recent budget work sessions in which Hellmann presented his own budget drafts.
In June, the board reduced the length of Yonson’s contract from five years to three despite her protest.
Yonson indicated she would advertise to fill Dunford’s position, but school board member Gloria Heater has suggested to Hellmann that the position be filled temporarily through the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. In an e-mail to the board, Heater surprised minority members by indicating Hellmann had discussed with her a specific permanent candidate, referencing “[Hellmann’s] guy in Bristol.”
Whoever that might be has not been disclosed.
Don't whine, get involved in kids' education
From CNN. There's a lot of good, sound information here. When the kids bring home that mountain of "parent homework" next month, take some time to read it completely. Fill out the PTO application too. Get involved.
By Roland S. Martin, CNN Contributor
Editor's Note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. Martin, a nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago-based radio host, is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith" and "Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America." Please visit his Web site.
Don't whine, get involved in kids' education
(CNN) -- Today was my first day in elementary school.
My wife and I have been married seven-and-a-half years and we don't have any children. But two weeks ago, we persuaded one of my three sisters to send her four girls -- ages 9, 7 and twin 4-year-olds -- to Chicago, Illinois, so we could take care of them and get them caught up academically.
I take seriously my role as a godfather and uncle. For a lot of folks, being a godfather is all about a ceremony and giving gifts on birthdays and Christmas.
But if you remember the admonition of the priest or pastor, the purpose of a godfather is to stand in the gap for the parents when they are unable to do so. That has surely been the case in my family. The consequence of drama in a marriage has left the two older nieces behind academically.
So we decided that it's time for them to be in a stable environment , immersed in academics. That's what took me to the nearby Chicago public school.
As I filled out the paperwork and looked through the folder provided by the school, I came across a variety of forms: for a school fundraiser at a restaurant, a raffle, and an application to join the school's Parent-Teacher Association.
For me, there is nothing more important than that PTA application.
In a world where the two presidential candidates spar over education funding, merit pay for teachers and whether vouchers are a good idea, a lot of folks spend their time complaining. They talk about failing schools and what administrators should be doing, and how teachers don't care like they did back in the day.
I'm sure you've heard the complaints before.
Trust me, I get it when folks say schools need more funding. But I also remember a conversation a few years ago on the syndicated television show America's Black Forum. Education advocate Jonathan Kozol was arguing that the issue is money, and Ohio's Wilberforce University president, the Rev. Floyd Flake, said that is just one of the critical elements.
Flake, a former congressman who runs his own school in New York, asked why schools in Washington, D.C. can spend more than $10,000 per child and kids fail, yet his New York school was spending $5,400 at the time and more than 75 percent were passing.
Kozol argued that one reason was Flake's charisma as a leader, but Flake contended -- and I agree -- that success is related to a nurturing environment where parents are mandated to take an active role in their child's education.
I thought of this in May during a conversation on my Chicago radio show with Rufus Williams, president of the Chicago Board of Education. A lot of parents called in, angry with the Chicago school system because they didn't find out until graduation that their child would not graduate because of failing scores.
The phone lines lit up and they bombarded Williams with all kinds of insults.
He promised to get them answers. The next day, he had them.
Apparently, parents were sent reminders during every report-card period when their child was at risk of failing.
But the parents couldn't say the dog ate the sheet before it came through the door. The parents had come to the school themselves to pick up the cards, and the warning was attached.
So the real deal was that these parents were informed of their child's poor classroom performance, but chose to overlook it.
Guess what? The phones were silent. Oh how the truth hurt.
The reality is that whether it's the 390,000 kids in Chicago public schools, or millions across the country, no school can educate the next generation alone. It requires committed teachers, but also informed and active parents who are willing to make sacrifices.
It would have been easy for my wife and me to live in our empty nest, take get-away trips on the weekend, or save a ton of dough and retire early. But there was no way I could sit back as those four girls were denied even a fighting chance at a great education so they could live their lives to the fullest.
One of my first questions was related to the dates of the parent-teacher conferences. I wanted to plug them into my Blackberry immediately. Those sessions are a priority. I can guarantee you the teachers will know me by name, and not just because I'm on CNN or WVON Radio.
See, I had good role models: my parents. They didn't go to college and have six-figure jobs. They simply cared about the education of their five children.
So, the nation's children are preparing for another school year. The parents must do the same thing.
My nieces begin September 2. We guardians and parents need to get our minds right, and make the decision now whether we are going to be those who work for solutions or those who just whine about the deficiencies.
Show up on the first day and do not make it your last. There is no greater gift you can provide your children, nieces, nephews or grandchildren than your full attention to their educations. As the United Negro College Fund has said for years: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
By Roland S. Martin, CNN Contributor
Editor's Note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. Martin, a nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago-based radio host, is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith" and "Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America." Please visit his Web site.
Don't whine, get involved in kids' education
(CNN) -- Today was my first day in elementary school.
My wife and I have been married seven-and-a-half years and we don't have any children. But two weeks ago, we persuaded one of my three sisters to send her four girls -- ages 9, 7 and twin 4-year-olds -- to Chicago, Illinois, so we could take care of them and get them caught up academically.
I take seriously my role as a godfather and uncle. For a lot of folks, being a godfather is all about a ceremony and giving gifts on birthdays and Christmas.
But if you remember the admonition of the priest or pastor, the purpose of a godfather is to stand in the gap for the parents when they are unable to do so. That has surely been the case in my family. The consequence of drama in a marriage has left the two older nieces behind academically.
So we decided that it's time for them to be in a stable environment , immersed in academics. That's what took me to the nearby Chicago public school.
As I filled out the paperwork and looked through the folder provided by the school, I came across a variety of forms: for a school fundraiser at a restaurant, a raffle, and an application to join the school's Parent-Teacher Association.
For me, there is nothing more important than that PTA application.
In a world where the two presidential candidates spar over education funding, merit pay for teachers and whether vouchers are a good idea, a lot of folks spend their time complaining. They talk about failing schools and what administrators should be doing, and how teachers don't care like they did back in the day.
I'm sure you've heard the complaints before.
Trust me, I get it when folks say schools need more funding. But I also remember a conversation a few years ago on the syndicated television show America's Black Forum. Education advocate Jonathan Kozol was arguing that the issue is money, and Ohio's Wilberforce University president, the Rev. Floyd Flake, said that is just one of the critical elements.
Flake, a former congressman who runs his own school in New York, asked why schools in Washington, D.C. can spend more than $10,000 per child and kids fail, yet his New York school was spending $5,400 at the time and more than 75 percent were passing.
Kozol argued that one reason was Flake's charisma as a leader, but Flake contended -- and I agree -- that success is related to a nurturing environment where parents are mandated to take an active role in their child's education.
I thought of this in May during a conversation on my Chicago radio show with Rufus Williams, president of the Chicago Board of Education. A lot of parents called in, angry with the Chicago school system because they didn't find out until graduation that their child would not graduate because of failing scores.
The phone lines lit up and they bombarded Williams with all kinds of insults.
He promised to get them answers. The next day, he had them.
Apparently, parents were sent reminders during every report-card period when their child was at risk of failing.
But the parents couldn't say the dog ate the sheet before it came through the door. The parents had come to the school themselves to pick up the cards, and the warning was attached.
So the real deal was that these parents were informed of their child's poor classroom performance, but chose to overlook it.
Guess what? The phones were silent. Oh how the truth hurt.
The reality is that whether it's the 390,000 kids in Chicago public schools, or millions across the country, no school can educate the next generation alone. It requires committed teachers, but also informed and active parents who are willing to make sacrifices.
It would have been easy for my wife and me to live in our empty nest, take get-away trips on the weekend, or save a ton of dough and retire early. But there was no way I could sit back as those four girls were denied even a fighting chance at a great education so they could live their lives to the fullest.
One of my first questions was related to the dates of the parent-teacher conferences. I wanted to plug them into my Blackberry immediately. Those sessions are a priority. I can guarantee you the teachers will know me by name, and not just because I'm on CNN or WVON Radio.
See, I had good role models: my parents. They didn't go to college and have six-figure jobs. They simply cared about the education of their five children.
So, the nation's children are preparing for another school year. The parents must do the same thing.
My nieces begin September 2. We guardians and parents need to get our minds right, and make the decision now whether we are going to be those who work for solutions or those who just whine about the deficiencies.
Show up on the first day and do not make it your last. There is no greater gift you can provide your children, nieces, nephews or grandchildren than your full attention to their educations. As the United Negro College Fund has said for years: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Breaking News: Reba Dunford resigns
The Emperor's reign of terror has claimed another victim: award winning business manager Reba Dunford.
Reba Dunford was often the last voice of reason pleading with the Emperor before he went and did something wild and wacky. He did it anyway, but it's on record that she tried. Wait until the Emperor finds out she was right in what she recommended to the board.
The Imperial bullying of the business manager was pretty obvious and blatant. Even lawyers have a veneer of mutual professional respect. Apparently William Hellmann, CPA, missed that ethics class discussion.
Superintendent Yonson seems to fill her busy days accepting resignations. How many more lifeboats are going over the side before we wake up and impeach this Emperor and this board?
Morrisville schools business manager resigns
Posted in News on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 4:40 pm by Columnist Kate Fratti
Morrisville School District’s Business Manager Reba Dunford tendered her resignation Tuesday effective Oct. 18.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said it was with regret that she accepted the resignation. Dunford has been with the district 4 years.
“Reba Dunford is an excellent business administrator. She restructured the business office and made it more efficient. She is an important member of my team and I will miss her,” Yonson said Wednesday.
Dunford and Yonson have been the subject of heated and often public criticism from the new school board majority. Soft-spoken Dunford sparred openly at times with School Board President Bill Hellmann in recent budget work sessions in which Hellmann presented his own budget drafts.
The board, despite Yonson’s protest, reduced her contract from the five years approved by the previous board to three.
Reba Dunford was often the last voice of reason pleading with the Emperor before he went and did something wild and wacky. He did it anyway, but it's on record that she tried. Wait until the Emperor finds out she was right in what she recommended to the board.
The Imperial bullying of the business manager was pretty obvious and blatant. Even lawyers have a veneer of mutual professional respect. Apparently William Hellmann, CPA, missed that ethics class discussion.
Superintendent Yonson seems to fill her busy days accepting resignations. How many more lifeboats are going over the side before we wake up and impeach this Emperor and this board?
Morrisville schools business manager resigns
Posted in News on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 4:40 pm by Columnist Kate Fratti
Morrisville School District’s Business Manager Reba Dunford tendered her resignation Tuesday effective Oct. 18.
Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson said it was with regret that she accepted the resignation. Dunford has been with the district 4 years.
“Reba Dunford is an excellent business administrator. She restructured the business office and made it more efficient. She is an important member of my team and I will miss her,” Yonson said Wednesday.
Dunford and Yonson have been the subject of heated and often public criticism from the new school board majority. Soft-spoken Dunford sparred openly at times with School Board President Bill Hellmann in recent budget work sessions in which Hellmann presented his own budget drafts.
The board, despite Yonson’s protest, reduced her contract from the five years approved by the previous board to three.
Steve, pick up the needle, man
A follow up to this post.
Folks, this is what passes for a "high public official" in Morrisville.
Comments To This Article:
* kim - Pennsbury needs to re-register also!!!
(08/15/2008 )
I don't think the kids from Trenton are being dropped off to attend Morrisville, I see kids waiting at bus stops for Pennsbury buses in cars with NJ plates.
* Steve - FrATTY More twists and more misinformation!!
(08/16/2008 )
Here Kate goes again!! Just like the misspelling in the title above twisting the truth to hurt her political opposites whom volunteer their time and save the taxpayers money. Small example, why does she exclusively state that the re-registration is to purge the children from Trenton? Because she hopes to plant the seeds of perceived prejudice against the new school board. The misinformation in Fratti's article is more voluminous than what I have time to refute however Kate, given the dubious history of mis-managment and corruption in the school district, why should we trust school employees with sensitive information more than long term highly respected residents? Maybe you'd feel better if we brought back Frank or the good doctor to oversee things!! This type of re-registration has worked well in the past but Kate fails to mention that. She is a fine example of why her rag newspaper is going down the drain. Feel that pink slip getting closer Kate??????????
* Ann - In Steve We Trust...
(08/16/2008 )
Small example, why does she exclusively state that the re-registration is to purge the children from Trenton?
It's probably from stuff like this, which is a quote from a commenter at the March 26, 2008 Morrisville school board meeting:
I feel that board should consider a registration process for all students entering school in September of ’08. Parents of students should have to submit tax bills for proof of residency and renters would have to submit copies of the lease along with any necessary legal documentation in the event that the students is under their guardianship, but in actually is not their child/children. Perhaps this process should be carried out each year to eliminate students that should no be enrolled in MHS. This could definitely be a savings. I personally have heard the parents who stated that their children are enrolled in the Morrisville School System. “Quote…”the one mother said, just take them across the bridge it is easy to do”. She did it. She was telling the other Mothers “I know you don’t want your kids in Trenton High…why put up with that when you can put them in Morrisville.
* kate - what worries me . . .
(08/16/2008 )
I don't feel the pink slip, Steve, but when I read this kind of careless, angry rant from an elected official I do feel my lunch come up ... especially since this terrific little town is so in need of reputable, thoughtful, ethical leadership to move it forward.
* kate - Doh!
(08/16/2008 )
Given the fat jokes I've endured from this particular official, I realize I just opened myself up to further critique of my diet what with a reference to lunch and all ...
* Ann - Bonehead Appetit
(08/16/2008 )
April 20, 1997 New York Times:
''When school lets out and you see a lot of cars with out-of-state license plates picking children up, that's a problem,'' said Stephen Worob, treasurer of the Morrisville board and a leading supporter of the new policy. ''Another board member and I followed some over the border, on a kind of fact-finding mission. We're convinced that there are a substantial number of out-of-district kids in our schools illegally.''
* Steve - Golly Ann !!!
(08/17/2008 )
You're almost as good a truth twister as Kate. How do you equate that a 1997 quote about "out of state license plates," means that a re-registration is to purge Trenton kids. Dah!!! Won't it purge all illegal students equally? How dare you use an anecdotal comment from an unnamed source to support the racial undertones of Kate's hateful article. She is so blinded by her hate for the new school board that she can't help herself. Maybe it is time for Dale or Pat to talk to her. I personally do not subscribe to the Courier Times anymore. Kate is a part of the reason. By the way Kate, do you even live in Morrisville?
* Ann - Gee Whiz
(08/17/2008 )
I wasn't trying to equate anything, other than the mental image of you and some other board member following cars with out-of-state license plates over the border 11 years ago on a fact-finding mission. How far did you follow them, by the way? And who was that other board member?
* kate - Oh, now I see ...
(08/17/2008 )
Steve, are we to believe that you followed students to the Princenton border? I haven't heard a soul argue that re-registration aimed at insuring all enrolled students actually reside in the boro is a bad idea. It's necessary, I suppose. Morrisville can not pick up the tab for Trenton's failures. That said, using volunteers to conduct re-registration is unnecessary and an afront to parents worried about exposing their private information to strangers instead of paid, trained staff. As for the veiled threat that somehow my superiors would be chagrinned by my comments, it isn't so. I'm charged with commenting on the goings on around me as they might interest readers. My reader response indicates I've struck a nerve in Morrisville. The goings on here, bear watching to inform the average citizen. I do not live in Morrisville, Mr. Worob. You needn't to live there to observe the challenges it faces.
* kate - Not enough information for hate
(08/17/2008 )
Mr. Worob, I can honestly say I don't know any of the Morrisville School Board members except for the most casual acquaintance in the last 6 months. The only thing I "hate" is disregard for taxpaying residents. Some of them are parents who depend on these schools for the education of their children. It is an education that generations of Morrisville residents before them took for granted. I do not live in Morrisville. You don't have to live there to see some elected officials are acting badly.
* kate - sorry
(08/17/2008 )
Forgive me, in my impatience to be approved by the "blog master" (who is he anyway?) I posted twice.
* steve - Ok Kate, but are you fair.
(08/19/2008 )
Believe it or not, I have a certain amount of respect for a tenacious person who stands up and fights. Even if they are short sighted and biased. I realize Kate that you are not a typical reporter with an obligation to convey both sides. You are a feel good story teller or a rip their throat out reporter who thrives on emotions rather than unbiased, fair reporting. That being said, before a little weasel can fill up your ears, you should at least afford a little courtesy to the other side. On one hand you state you "do not mean to demean volunteers," "they may be very nice people." Then, on the other hand you allude they may be "thieves and gossips." You really don't know these people and never bothered to speak to them but I'll tell you this, at least one of them you hurt very badly. Why? because you are closed minded and set in your ways but I now offer you a chance to change this. Let's face it, you consider yourself a voice and champion of the good people who need your help. Am I right? OK. I think I'm a good person(believe it or not) and I can use your help. Please tell me, what do you think about a Bucks County judge who presides over an unfair trial and then tells the person who was fighting for the people that,"if you appeal my decision, I will do everything in my power to stop you." Yes it's true Kate, there is a judge with high aspirations who believes he has more power than we have rights. Then some poor court reporter felt obligated to omit his threat from the transcript and lie about it. I kid you not, there are many witnesses to this. If you are a fair person for the people then call me for the story or your life.
* steve - Typo!!!
(08/19/2008 )
Sorry Kate it's late. That was supposed to end,"the story OF your life. My bad.
* - Score
(08/19/2008 )
KATE; 1 STEVE; 0
* Ann - Victim or Aggressor?
(08/19/2008 )
Among the problems I have with what you’re saying, Steve, is that the trial of which you speak was not “the people vs. former Morrisville School District Superintendent Dr. John Gould”, it was “Dr. John Gould vs. Steve Worob, the guy who brazenly and recklessly shot his mouth off so much about Dr. Gould’s alleged corruption, which he was unable to prove, that Dr. Gould got tired of it and sued him for ‘slander per se’ for damaging his reputation and hurting his prospects for future employment”. And Dr. Gould won, to the tune of over $100,000.
You see, you may have a point, even a good point, but you can’t maliciously tear someone down just because you think you’re right. Even if there was something there, you couldn’t back it up. I’m not defending corruption or Dr. Gould (who seems to have done an adequate job of defending himself). But I am defending the principle of innocent until proven guilty, a presumption I’m sure you would want if you were facing charges.
His words may have been harsh, but I think the Judge was trying to do you a favor. I think he was trying to say “Let it go. End this destructive vendetta, for everyone’s sake, including yours.” Kind of like on June 9, 1954, when Joseph Welch said to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R – Wisconsin), “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”. Does that mean there were absolutely zero commies in the entire U.S. Government? No. But do the ends always justify the means? No. The world’s not perfect, but overall I think justice was served in your case.
* steve - Ann
(08/19/2008 )
Ann, I really didn't like you before but now I'm beginning to feel sorry for you. You're pathetic and you don't even realize it.
* steve - How about it Kate.
(08/19/2008 )
A great story about an unscrupulous judge who is a member of the good old Republicans club that controls the courthouse and politics in Bucks County. I'm a life long Republican but when something stinks in my party I am not afraid to expose it. You see, the debacle that unfolded in Morrisville was just the tip of the iceberg of pervasive corruption that is rooted in large bond issues to school districts from major federal lending institutions. All of this buried by a Republican controlled justice system. Get in the way and the boys in black robes will crush you. It makes me wonder how many people are unjustly sitting in jail. But Ann would say "justice was served" I guess.
* kate - Did we change the subject ?
(08/20/2008 )
Steve, pick up the needle, man. You've been playing the same old song for so long. Publish the book you promise. Who could tell your version of the story better than you?
As for the volunteers, they may be very nice people, but they've been organized by people who aren't always so nice ... I still wonder if they share the school board majority's view that privacy laws are a nuisance. It's a fair question in the case of a re-registration that requires personanal information be released to them.
* kate - And about that intimidation thing you do ...
(08/20/2008 )
Freud says there are no accidents....the story or my life? sheesh.
Folks, this is what passes for a "high public official" in Morrisville.
Comments To This Article:
* kim - Pennsbury needs to re-register also!!!
(08/15/2008 )
I don't think the kids from Trenton are being dropped off to attend Morrisville, I see kids waiting at bus stops for Pennsbury buses in cars with NJ plates.
* Steve - FrATTY More twists and more misinformation!!
(08/16/2008 )
Here Kate goes again!! Just like the misspelling in the title above twisting the truth to hurt her political opposites whom volunteer their time and save the taxpayers money. Small example, why does she exclusively state that the re-registration is to purge the children from Trenton? Because she hopes to plant the seeds of perceived prejudice against the new school board. The misinformation in Fratti's article is more voluminous than what I have time to refute however Kate, given the dubious history of mis-managment and corruption in the school district, why should we trust school employees with sensitive information more than long term highly respected residents? Maybe you'd feel better if we brought back Frank or the good doctor to oversee things!! This type of re-registration has worked well in the past but Kate fails to mention that. She is a fine example of why her rag newspaper is going down the drain. Feel that pink slip getting closer Kate??????????
* Ann - In Steve We Trust...
(08/16/2008 )
Small example, why does she exclusively state that the re-registration is to purge the children from Trenton?
It's probably from stuff like this, which is a quote from a commenter at the March 26, 2008 Morrisville school board meeting:
I feel that board should consider a registration process for all students entering school in September of ’08. Parents of students should have to submit tax bills for proof of residency and renters would have to submit copies of the lease along with any necessary legal documentation in the event that the students is under their guardianship, but in actually is not their child/children. Perhaps this process should be carried out each year to eliminate students that should no be enrolled in MHS. This could definitely be a savings. I personally have heard the parents who stated that their children are enrolled in the Morrisville School System. “Quote…”the one mother said, just take them across the bridge it is easy to do”. She did it. She was telling the other Mothers “I know you don’t want your kids in Trenton High…why put up with that when you can put them in Morrisville.
* kate - what worries me . . .
(08/16/2008 )
I don't feel the pink slip, Steve, but when I read this kind of careless, angry rant from an elected official I do feel my lunch come up ... especially since this terrific little town is so in need of reputable, thoughtful, ethical leadership to move it forward.
* kate - Doh!
(08/16/2008 )
Given the fat jokes I've endured from this particular official, I realize I just opened myself up to further critique of my diet what with a reference to lunch and all ...
* Ann - Bonehead Appetit
(08/16/2008 )
April 20, 1997 New York Times:
''When school lets out and you see a lot of cars with out-of-state license plates picking children up, that's a problem,'' said Stephen Worob, treasurer of the Morrisville board and a leading supporter of the new policy. ''Another board member and I followed some over the border, on a kind of fact-finding mission. We're convinced that there are a substantial number of out-of-district kids in our schools illegally.''
* Steve - Golly Ann !!!
(08/17/2008 )
You're almost as good a truth twister as Kate. How do you equate that a 1997 quote about "out of state license plates," means that a re-registration is to purge Trenton kids. Dah!!! Won't it purge all illegal students equally? How dare you use an anecdotal comment from an unnamed source to support the racial undertones of Kate's hateful article. She is so blinded by her hate for the new school board that she can't help herself. Maybe it is time for Dale or Pat to talk to her. I personally do not subscribe to the Courier Times anymore. Kate is a part of the reason. By the way Kate, do you even live in Morrisville?
* Ann - Gee Whiz
(08/17/2008 )
I wasn't trying to equate anything, other than the mental image of you and some other board member following cars with out-of-state license plates over the border 11 years ago on a fact-finding mission. How far did you follow them, by the way? And who was that other board member?
* kate - Oh, now I see ...
(08/17/2008 )
Steve, are we to believe that you followed students to the Princenton border? I haven't heard a soul argue that re-registration aimed at insuring all enrolled students actually reside in the boro is a bad idea. It's necessary, I suppose. Morrisville can not pick up the tab for Trenton's failures. That said, using volunteers to conduct re-registration is unnecessary and an afront to parents worried about exposing their private information to strangers instead of paid, trained staff. As for the veiled threat that somehow my superiors would be chagrinned by my comments, it isn't so. I'm charged with commenting on the goings on around me as they might interest readers. My reader response indicates I've struck a nerve in Morrisville. The goings on here, bear watching to inform the average citizen. I do not live in Morrisville, Mr. Worob. You needn't to live there to observe the challenges it faces.
* kate - Not enough information for hate
(08/17/2008 )
Mr. Worob, I can honestly say I don't know any of the Morrisville School Board members except for the most casual acquaintance in the last 6 months. The only thing I "hate" is disregard for taxpaying residents. Some of them are parents who depend on these schools for the education of their children. It is an education that generations of Morrisville residents before them took for granted. I do not live in Morrisville. You don't have to live there to see some elected officials are acting badly.
* kate - sorry
(08/17/2008 )
Forgive me, in my impatience to be approved by the "blog master" (who is he anyway?) I posted twice.
* steve - Ok Kate, but are you fair.
(08/19/2008 )
Believe it or not, I have a certain amount of respect for a tenacious person who stands up and fights. Even if they are short sighted and biased. I realize Kate that you are not a typical reporter with an obligation to convey both sides. You are a feel good story teller or a rip their throat out reporter who thrives on emotions rather than unbiased, fair reporting. That being said, before a little weasel can fill up your ears, you should at least afford a little courtesy to the other side. On one hand you state you "do not mean to demean volunteers," "they may be very nice people." Then, on the other hand you allude they may be "thieves and gossips." You really don't know these people and never bothered to speak to them but I'll tell you this, at least one of them you hurt very badly. Why? because you are closed minded and set in your ways but I now offer you a chance to change this. Let's face it, you consider yourself a voice and champion of the good people who need your help. Am I right? OK. I think I'm a good person(believe it or not) and I can use your help. Please tell me, what do you think about a Bucks County judge who presides over an unfair trial and then tells the person who was fighting for the people that,"if you appeal my decision, I will do everything in my power to stop you." Yes it's true Kate, there is a judge with high aspirations who believes he has more power than we have rights. Then some poor court reporter felt obligated to omit his threat from the transcript and lie about it. I kid you not, there are many witnesses to this. If you are a fair person for the people then call me for the story or your life.
* steve - Typo!!!
(08/19/2008 )
Sorry Kate it's late. That was supposed to end,"the story OF your life. My bad.
* - Score
(08/19/2008 )
KATE; 1 STEVE; 0
* Ann - Victim or Aggressor?
(08/19/2008 )
Among the problems I have with what you’re saying, Steve, is that the trial of which you speak was not “the people vs. former Morrisville School District Superintendent Dr. John Gould”, it was “Dr. John Gould vs. Steve Worob, the guy who brazenly and recklessly shot his mouth off so much about Dr. Gould’s alleged corruption, which he was unable to prove, that Dr. Gould got tired of it and sued him for ‘slander per se’ for damaging his reputation and hurting his prospects for future employment”. And Dr. Gould won, to the tune of over $100,000.
You see, you may have a point, even a good point, but you can’t maliciously tear someone down just because you think you’re right. Even if there was something there, you couldn’t back it up. I’m not defending corruption or Dr. Gould (who seems to have done an adequate job of defending himself). But I am defending the principle of innocent until proven guilty, a presumption I’m sure you would want if you were facing charges.
His words may have been harsh, but I think the Judge was trying to do you a favor. I think he was trying to say “Let it go. End this destructive vendetta, for everyone’s sake, including yours.” Kind of like on June 9, 1954, when Joseph Welch said to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R – Wisconsin), “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”. Does that mean there were absolutely zero commies in the entire U.S. Government? No. But do the ends always justify the means? No. The world’s not perfect, but overall I think justice was served in your case.
* steve - Ann
(08/19/2008 )
Ann, I really didn't like you before but now I'm beginning to feel sorry for you. You're pathetic and you don't even realize it.
* steve - How about it Kate.
(08/19/2008 )
A great story about an unscrupulous judge who is a member of the good old Republicans club that controls the courthouse and politics in Bucks County. I'm a life long Republican but when something stinks in my party I am not afraid to expose it. You see, the debacle that unfolded in Morrisville was just the tip of the iceberg of pervasive corruption that is rooted in large bond issues to school districts from major federal lending institutions. All of this buried by a Republican controlled justice system. Get in the way and the boys in black robes will crush you. It makes me wonder how many people are unjustly sitting in jail. But Ann would say "justice was served" I guess.
* kate - Did we change the subject ?
(08/20/2008 )
Steve, pick up the needle, man. You've been playing the same old song for so long. Publish the book you promise. Who could tell your version of the story better than you?
As for the volunteers, they may be very nice people, but they've been organized by people who aren't always so nice ... I still wonder if they share the school board majority's view that privacy laws are a nuisance. It's a fair question in the case of a re-registration that requires personanal information be released to them.
* kate - And about that intimidation thing you do ...
(08/20/2008 )
Freud says there are no accidents....the story or my life? sheesh.
Pennsbury Back to School Profile
From the BCCT
Going high tech, going green
By MANASEE WAGH
Pennsbury is using its $1.17 million Classrooms for the Future state grant to enhance education at the high school. Students and teachers already have started using integrated technology such as microscope analysis systems hooked up to an interactive whiteboard at the front of the classroom.
The district’s Makefield Elementary School will go green. Both the school and the environment will benefit from sustainable practices like a green roof covered with plants that help insulate the building and reduce storm water runoff, rooftop solar panels that gather energy and a variety of energy conservation designs.
Abby Brazina, a social studies teacher at William Penn Middle School, was selected from a national pool of more than 1,700 applicants to be an honored guest of the Japanese government as part of the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program.
As part of a group of 160 American educators, she will travel to Japan for three weeks in October to promote greater intercultural understanding. Brazina hopes to learn how the Japanese incorporate cultural values and customs into schools to promote character education and civic responsibility.
Pennsbury serves more than 12,500 students in Falls, Tullytown, Lower Makefield and Yardley.
It employs more than 1,531, including 809 teachers, with a $167.5 million budget. For information, visit www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us WHO’S WHO IN THE SCHOOLS?
Chief Executive Officer:
Paul Long, 215-428-4100, ext. 10001
Assistant superintendents:
Kevin McHugh, (interim director of curriculum and instruction, K-12), 215-428-4100, ext. 10014
Donald Harm (administration), 215-428-4100, ext. 10012
Principals:
Pennsbury High East: W. David Bowman, 215-949-6700 Pennsbury High West: Lisa Becker, 215-949-6780 Charles Boehm Middle: Theresa Ricci, 215-428-4220 William Penn Middle: Larry Ricci, 215-428-4280 Pennwood Middle: Patricia Steckroat (acting principal), 215-428-4237 Afton Elementary: Norman Gross, 215-321-8540 Walt Disney Elementary: Fay Manicke, 215-949-6868 Edgewood Elementary: Michele Spack, 215-321-2410 Fallsington Elementary: David Hughes, 215-428-4170 Makefield Elementary: Donna McCormick-Miller, 215-321-2420 Manor Elementary: Richard Houseknecht, 215-949-6770 Oxford Valley Elementary: Fran Nitkin, 215-949-6808 Penn Valley Elementary: Peggy Schiavone, 215-949-6800 Quarry Hill Elementary: Karen Laarkamp, 215-321-2400 Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary: Robert Wurst, 215-428-4256 Village Park Elementary: Joe Masgai, 215-949-6740
SCHOOL BOARD
Members: President Gregory Lucidi Jr., Gene Dolnick, Michielle Deis, Howard Goldberg, Arlene Gordon, Adele Governatore, Richard Johnson, Linda Palsky and Gabriele Smyth. The board meets at 8 p.m. on the second and third Thursdays of the month, except in July and August, in the auditorium of the Fallsington Elementary School on Yardley Avenue. The first meeting of the 2007-2008 school year will be on Aug. 23. To contact the board, visit www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us.
SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept 2, First day of school Sept 30-Oct 1, Rosh Hashana – no school Oct 9, Yom Kippur – no school Nov 11, Veterans Day – no school Nov 12-14, Parent-teacher conferences, half-day grades 1-5 Nov 27, 28, Thanksgiving holiday – no school Dec 24-Jan 2, Christmas holidays – no school Jan 19, Martin Luther King Day no school Feb 16, Presidents Day – no school April 9, 10, Passover/Easter/spring recess – no school
April 15-17, Parent-teacher conferences, half-day grades 1-5 May 25, Memorial Day, no school June 17, Last day of school
FAST FACTS ABOUT PENNSBURY
Average SAT scores
(Unofficial scores for 2007-2008):
Critical reading: 530 Math: 545 Writing: 516
Total number of AP courses: 20
Student – teacher average ratios: Elementary: 23 – 1 Middle: 25 – 1 High School: 25 – 1
Average Teacher’s Salary: $77,524.41
Percentage of 2008 class that planned to go on to higher education: 93.34
Median household income in Pennsbury: $72,029.52
Cost per student: Elementary: $9,647.27 Secondary: $12,010.64
Partnerships with businesses: More than 1,000 through the Pennsbury Partners Program, including Yardley Jewelers, Yardley Flower Company, VFW Post 6393, Exelon Generation, International Culinary Schools of the Arts Institute, Transcend Sports Training Systems and Newtown Chamber Orchestra. AYP Status: All but two individual Pennsbury schools are meeting AYP. Penn Valley and Fallsington Elementary Schools each have one subgroup that did not achieve the required benchmark in reading.
Going high tech, going green
By MANASEE WAGH
Pennsbury is using its $1.17 million Classrooms for the Future state grant to enhance education at the high school. Students and teachers already have started using integrated technology such as microscope analysis systems hooked up to an interactive whiteboard at the front of the classroom.
The district’s Makefield Elementary School will go green. Both the school and the environment will benefit from sustainable practices like a green roof covered with plants that help insulate the building and reduce storm water runoff, rooftop solar panels that gather energy and a variety of energy conservation designs.
Abby Brazina, a social studies teacher at William Penn Middle School, was selected from a national pool of more than 1,700 applicants to be an honored guest of the Japanese government as part of the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program.As part of a group of 160 American educators, she will travel to Japan for three weeks in October to promote greater intercultural understanding. Brazina hopes to learn how the Japanese incorporate cultural values and customs into schools to promote character education and civic responsibility.
Pennsbury serves more than 12,500 students in Falls, Tullytown, Lower Makefield and Yardley.
It employs more than 1,531, including 809 teachers, with a $167.5 million budget. For information, visit www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us WHO’S WHO IN THE SCHOOLS?
Chief Executive Officer:
Paul Long, 215-428-4100, ext. 10001
Assistant superintendents:
Kevin McHugh, (interim director of curriculum and instruction, K-12), 215-428-4100, ext. 10014
Donald Harm (administration), 215-428-4100, ext. 10012
Principals:
Pennsbury High East: W. David Bowman, 215-949-6700 Pennsbury High West: Lisa Becker, 215-949-6780 Charles Boehm Middle: Theresa Ricci, 215-428-4220 William Penn Middle: Larry Ricci, 215-428-4280 Pennwood Middle: Patricia Steckroat (acting principal), 215-428-4237 Afton Elementary: Norman Gross, 215-321-8540 Walt Disney Elementary: Fay Manicke, 215-949-6868 Edgewood Elementary: Michele Spack, 215-321-2410 Fallsington Elementary: David Hughes, 215-428-4170 Makefield Elementary: Donna McCormick-Miller, 215-321-2420 Manor Elementary: Richard Houseknecht, 215-949-6770 Oxford Valley Elementary: Fran Nitkin, 215-949-6808 Penn Valley Elementary: Peggy Schiavone, 215-949-6800 Quarry Hill Elementary: Karen Laarkamp, 215-321-2400 Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary: Robert Wurst, 215-428-4256 Village Park Elementary: Joe Masgai, 215-949-6740
SCHOOL BOARD
Members: President Gregory Lucidi Jr., Gene Dolnick, Michielle Deis, Howard Goldberg, Arlene Gordon, Adele Governatore, Richard Johnson, Linda Palsky and Gabriele Smyth. The board meets at 8 p.m. on the second and third Thursdays of the month, except in July and August, in the auditorium of the Fallsington Elementary School on Yardley Avenue. The first meeting of the 2007-2008 school year will be on Aug. 23. To contact the board, visit www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us.
SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept 2, First day of school Sept 30-Oct 1, Rosh Hashana – no school Oct 9, Yom Kippur – no school Nov 11, Veterans Day – no school Nov 12-14, Parent-teacher conferences, half-day grades 1-5 Nov 27, 28, Thanksgiving holiday – no school Dec 24-Jan 2, Christmas holidays – no school Jan 19, Martin Luther King Day no school Feb 16, Presidents Day – no school April 9, 10, Passover/Easter/spring recess – no school
April 15-17, Parent-teacher conferences, half-day grades 1-5 May 25, Memorial Day, no school June 17, Last day of school
FAST FACTS ABOUT PENNSBURY
Average SAT scores
(Unofficial scores for 2007-2008):
Critical reading: 530 Math: 545 Writing: 516
Total number of AP courses: 20
Student – teacher average ratios: Elementary: 23 – 1 Middle: 25 – 1 High School: 25 – 1
Average Teacher’s Salary: $77,524.41
Percentage of 2008 class that planned to go on to higher education: 93.34
Median household income in Pennsbury: $72,029.52
Cost per student: Elementary: $9,647.27 Secondary: $12,010.64
Partnerships with businesses: More than 1,000 through the Pennsbury Partners Program, including Yardley Jewelers, Yardley Flower Company, VFW Post 6393, Exelon Generation, International Culinary Schools of the Arts Institute, Transcend Sports Training Systems and Newtown Chamber Orchestra. AYP Status: All but two individual Pennsbury schools are meeting AYP. Penn Valley and Fallsington Elementary Schools each have one subgroup that did not achieve the required benchmark in reading.
Morrisville Back to School Profile
Next in the BCCT PSSA/Back to School queue: Morrisville
Computers enhance lessons
Students earn college credit for language classes in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Japanese at the high school.
By MANASEE WAGH
Morrisville Middle/Senior High School recently received a Classrooms for the Future grant, enabling students to use more computers and integrated technology to enhance classroom lessons.
The technology already has boosted learning in science and social studies classes in the past year and will soon be used in math and English classes. Teachers used interactive whiteboards and laptops to develop lessons.
Students can research online, develop photo and storybooks, do assessments online, make instructional review games and develop projects, said former high school Principal Melanie Gehrens.
Morrisville received a dual enrollment grant last year, which allows students to take college classes while still in high school. Students were able to take Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Japanese via distance-learning college programs.
Students said that the dual enrollment courses helped prepare them and get ahead, according to Gehrens.
Thirty of last year’s graduating seniors accumulated a total of 197 college credits through the dual enrollment program. Currently, 41 students are enrolled to take dual enrollment college courses next year.
All schools made AYP in 2008-09, with significant gains in 11th-grade math scores. Proficiency scores increased 28 percent.
The school district serves more than 980 students in three schools. It employs 140 people and runs on a $19.8 million annual budget. For information, visit www.mv.org
WHO’S WHO IN THE SCHOOLS:
Superintendent: Dr. Elizabeth Hammond Yonson, 215-736-5930
Principals:
Morrisville Middle/Senior High School: TBA (Melanie Gehrens just left district), 215-736-5260
Grandview Elementary School: Kate Taylor, 215-736-52380
M.R. Reiter Elementary School, Karen Huggins, 215-736-5270
School board: William Hellmann (president), Alfred Radosti (vice president), Marlys Mihok (secretary), Brenda Worob (treasurer), William Farrell, John “Jack” Buckman, Joseph Kemp, Robin Reithmeyer, Gloria Heater. The board meets the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m., except in July, in the Large Group Instruction Room of the Middle/Senior High School on West Palmer Street. For information, visit www.mv.org.
SCHOOL CALENDAR:
Sept 3, First day of school Sept 30, Rosh Hashana – no school Oct 9, Yom Kippur – no school Nov 10, Clerical day – early dismissal Nov 25, Teacher conferences – early dismissal Nov 27, 28, Thanksgiving holiday – no school Dec 24-Jan 2, Christmas holidays – no school Jan 19, Martin Luther King Day – no school Feb 13, no school Feb 16, Presidents Day – no school April 8, Clerical day – early dismissal April 9-13, Spring Break, no school May 25, Memorial Day, no school June 16, Last day of school
FAST FACTS
Average SAT scores 2006 -2007: Verbal: 458 Math: 442
2006-2007 average teacher salary: $69,000 Number of AP courses: 15 Student/teacher ratio:
Elementary: 20:1 Grades 7-8: 20:1 Secondary: 22:1
District’s cost per student for elementary and for secondary:
Elementary $13,023.41 Secondary $14,214.71
Median income in the district: $53,316
Partnerships with businesses: UPS, Air Products, Waste Management, Silver Lake, Bucks County Workforce Investment Board Inc., School Works, Morrisville Collaborative, YMCA AYP Status: All schools made AYP
Computers enhance lessons
Students earn college credit for language classes in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Japanese at the high school.
By MANASEE WAGH
Morrisville Middle/Senior High School recently received a Classrooms for the Future grant, enabling students to use more computers and integrated technology to enhance classroom lessons.
The technology already has boosted learning in science and social studies classes in the past year and will soon be used in math and English classes. Teachers used interactive whiteboards and laptops to develop lessons.
Students can research online, develop photo and storybooks, do assessments online, make instructional review games and develop projects, said former high school Principal Melanie Gehrens.
Morrisville received a dual enrollment grant last year, which allows students to take college classes while still in high school. Students were able to take Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Japanese via distance-learning college programs.
Students said that the dual enrollment courses helped prepare them and get ahead, according to Gehrens.Thirty of last year’s graduating seniors accumulated a total of 197 college credits through the dual enrollment program. Currently, 41 students are enrolled to take dual enrollment college courses next year.
All schools made AYP in 2008-09, with significant gains in 11th-grade math scores. Proficiency scores increased 28 percent.
The school district serves more than 980 students in three schools. It employs 140 people and runs on a $19.8 million annual budget. For information, visit www.mv.org
WHO’S WHO IN THE SCHOOLS:
Superintendent: Dr. Elizabeth Hammond Yonson, 215-736-5930
Principals:
Morrisville Middle/Senior High School: TBA (Melanie Gehrens just left district), 215-736-5260
Grandview Elementary School: Kate Taylor, 215-736-52380
M.R. Reiter Elementary School, Karen Huggins, 215-736-5270
School board: William Hellmann (president), Alfred Radosti (vice president), Marlys Mihok (secretary), Brenda Worob (treasurer), William Farrell, John “Jack” Buckman, Joseph Kemp, Robin Reithmeyer, Gloria Heater. The board meets the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m., except in July, in the Large Group Instruction Room of the Middle/Senior High School on West Palmer Street. For information, visit www.mv.org.
SCHOOL CALENDAR:
Sept 3, First day of school Sept 30, Rosh Hashana – no school Oct 9, Yom Kippur – no school Nov 10, Clerical day – early dismissal Nov 25, Teacher conferences – early dismissal Nov 27, 28, Thanksgiving holiday – no school Dec 24-Jan 2, Christmas holidays – no school Jan 19, Martin Luther King Day – no school Feb 13, no school Feb 16, Presidents Day – no school April 8, Clerical day – early dismissal April 9-13, Spring Break, no school May 25, Memorial Day, no school June 16, Last day of school
FAST FACTS
Average SAT scores 2006 -2007: Verbal: 458 Math: 442
2006-2007 average teacher salary: $69,000 Number of AP courses: 15 Student/teacher ratio:
Elementary: 20:1 Grades 7-8: 20:1 Secondary: 22:1
District’s cost per student for elementary and for secondary:
Elementary $13,023.41 Secondary $14,214.71
Median income in the district: $53,316
Partnerships with businesses: UPS, Air Products, Waste Management, Silver Lake, Bucks County Workforce Investment Board Inc., School Works, Morrisville Collaborative, YMCA AYP Status: All schools made AYP
Morrisville Borough Council recap
From the BCCT.
PUBLIC MEETING WRAP
Morrisville council
215-295-8181
When: Monday, Aug. 18.
Issue: Accept April 21 meeting minutes.
Vote: Approved 8-0 by nancy Sherlock, Kathryn Panzitta, George Bolos, Jane Burger, Eileen Dreisbach, Rita Ledger, David Rivella and Stephen Worob.
Issue: Pay bills; pay $64,165.68 to J.L. Gruber Contractor Inc., for curb and sidewalk replacement on South Pennsylvania Avenue.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Morrisville Rotary’s request to use Williamson Park for a carnival from Oct. 2 through Oct. 5.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Three projects to possibly be funded by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission’s compact authorization investment program; direct the borough manager and engineer to send a list of the projects and an application to the bridge commission.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Impact: The borough wants to install new curbs and sidewalks on the north side of West Bridge Street from Harding to Cox avenues at an estimated cost of $100,000, the north side of Philadelphia Avenue between South Pennsylvania Avenue and Washington Street at an estimated cost of $70,000 and both sides of Washington Street between Philadelphia Avenue and Green Street at an estimated cost of $75,000. The borough was given approximately $1.5 million from the bridge commission for improvements to West Bridge Street and South Pennsylvania Avenue. Because bids for those projects came in low, the borough has a surplus of about $345,000. If these projects are approved by the bridge commission, that would leave the borough with an approximate $100,000 surplus.
Issue: Resolution for sewer extension for the Falkowski/Kulpinski subdivision at 130 Delaware Ave.; 2008 Labor Day Run following the previously established route; amend the resolution reducing membership of the UCC Board of Appeals from five members to three members
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Appoint Paul Kavanagh to a three-year term on the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Appoint Karen Kane to a three-year term on the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.
Vote: Approved 4-0 by Burger, Dreisbach, Ledger and Rivella. Other council members voted for two other applicants.
PUBLIC MEETING WRAP
Morrisville council
215-295-8181
When: Monday, Aug. 18.
Issue: Accept April 21 meeting minutes.
Vote: Approved 8-0 by nancy Sherlock, Kathryn Panzitta, George Bolos, Jane Burger, Eileen Dreisbach, Rita Ledger, David Rivella and Stephen Worob.
Issue: Pay bills; pay $64,165.68 to J.L. Gruber Contractor Inc., for curb and sidewalk replacement on South Pennsylvania Avenue.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Morrisville Rotary’s request to use Williamson Park for a carnival from Oct. 2 through Oct. 5.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Three projects to possibly be funded by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission’s compact authorization investment program; direct the borough manager and engineer to send a list of the projects and an application to the bridge commission.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Impact: The borough wants to install new curbs and sidewalks on the north side of West Bridge Street from Harding to Cox avenues at an estimated cost of $100,000, the north side of Philadelphia Avenue between South Pennsylvania Avenue and Washington Street at an estimated cost of $70,000 and both sides of Washington Street between Philadelphia Avenue and Green Street at an estimated cost of $75,000. The borough was given approximately $1.5 million from the bridge commission for improvements to West Bridge Street and South Pennsylvania Avenue. Because bids for those projects came in low, the borough has a surplus of about $345,000. If these projects are approved by the bridge commission, that would leave the borough with an approximate $100,000 surplus.
Issue: Resolution for sewer extension for the Falkowski/Kulpinski subdivision at 130 Delaware Ave.; 2008 Labor Day Run following the previously established route; amend the resolution reducing membership of the UCC Board of Appeals from five members to three members
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Appoint Paul Kavanagh to a three-year term on the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Issue: Appoint Karen Kane to a three-year term on the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.
Vote: Approved 4-0 by Burger, Dreisbach, Ledger and Rivella. Other council members voted for two other applicants.
Federal Lawsuit over Strip Club
From the BCCT
Developer sues borough in federal court over strip club
Posted in News on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm by Courier Times staff writer Danny Adler
MORRISVILLE — Strip clubs aren’t illegal. And a New Jersey developer is saying Morrisville’s “framework of zoning and regulatory ordinances, which … impose restrictions and prohibitions on First Amendment protected expression” to bring a gentlemen’s club to the borough is unconstitutional, according to a federal lawsuit against Morrisville and the borough’s zoning hearing board.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, says the borough’s restrictions “chill” and make it impossible to operate an adult entertainment facility.
The strip club and bar Sugar & Spice is located about one-third of a mile south of Stockham Interests proposed go-go joint.
Stockham Interests LLC also seeks damages in excess of $75,000.
The suit also challenges the zoning hearing board’s denial of a 1,000-square-foot “soft” vinyl billboard on the side of the building facing Route 1 - which was proposed after great opposition of the strip club. The suit says the denial prevents protected commercial speech.
The Morrisville zoning hearing board’s May decision denying Stockham Interests variances to allow adult entertainment in the Stockham Building at Pennsylvania Avenue and Bridge Street and variances from sign regulations was based on “no evidence” and was an “abuse of discretion,” the suit alleges.
The request for the variances was unanimously denied by the zoning hearing board in May.
The developer was planning for a “burlesque-style” strip club for the second floor of the four-story Stockham Building. Plans also called for a first-floor restaurant and bakery, as well as a fitness center on the third and fourth floors.
Calls to Stockham Interests attorney, Joseph Beller, and borough Solicitor James Downey III were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Developer sues borough in federal court over strip club
Posted in News on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm by Courier Times staff writer Danny Adler
MORRISVILLE — Strip clubs aren’t illegal. And a New Jersey developer is saying Morrisville’s “framework of zoning and regulatory ordinances, which … impose restrictions and prohibitions on First Amendment protected expression” to bring a gentlemen’s club to the borough is unconstitutional, according to a federal lawsuit against Morrisville and the borough’s zoning hearing board.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, says the borough’s restrictions “chill” and make it impossible to operate an adult entertainment facility.
The strip club and bar Sugar & Spice is located about one-third of a mile south of Stockham Interests proposed go-go joint.
Stockham Interests LLC also seeks damages in excess of $75,000.
The suit also challenges the zoning hearing board’s denial of a 1,000-square-foot “soft” vinyl billboard on the side of the building facing Route 1 - which was proposed after great opposition of the strip club. The suit says the denial prevents protected commercial speech.
The Morrisville zoning hearing board’s May decision denying Stockham Interests variances to allow adult entertainment in the Stockham Building at Pennsylvania Avenue and Bridge Street and variances from sign regulations was based on “no evidence” and was an “abuse of discretion,” the suit alleges.
The request for the variances was unanimously denied by the zoning hearing board in May.
The developer was planning for a “burlesque-style” strip club for the second floor of the four-story Stockham Building. Plans also called for a first-floor restaurant and bakery, as well as a fitness center on the third and fourth floors.
Calls to Stockham Interests attorney, Joseph Beller, and borough Solicitor James Downey III were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tullytown's High Tech Trash Pile
From the Inquirer.
Pa.'s high-tech trash pile
By Sandy Bauers, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted on Mon, Aug. 18, 2008
For 38 years, the mountains of trash have risen, all but surrounding William Penn's historic summer home, Pennsbury.
Nearby, in Tullytown, a 14-story peak now looms over one end of the tidy borough in lower Bucks County.
From afar, the mountain is big enough that the trash trucks - queueing at the top to dump up to 10,000 tons a day - look like insects.
Over the years, the two mega landfills - GROWS (Geological Reclamation of Waste Services) and Tullytown, on 6,000 acres beside the former U.S. Steel Fairless Works - have become a regional trash hub, with two-thirds of its waste now coming from out of state, mostly New York and New Jersey.
Pennsylvania is the nation's leading trash importer, and here by the Delaware River sits the state's busiest landfill complex, which received 3.5 million tons last year.
It's going to get busier still. The owner, Waste Management, just received permission for a major expansion in April, and at least two more are planned.
This high-tech waste monolith is a heap of contradictions. It embodies many advanced technologies, including a system to capture methane - a product of decomposition - and send it to a nearby power plant to make energy.
Yet Waste Management is also being fined millions of dollars until a new system to handle leachate - liquid that collects at the landfill's bottom - is finished.
The owner and the site's neighbors have reached a certain harmony, bolstered by improving technology and the tens of millions of dollars that the firm showers on residents of its "host" towns.
But the relationship was stressed in recent weeks when officials learned the company planned to accept sludge from a Montgomery County water-treatment plant that had been slightly contaminated with radioactive matter.
It had come from a company that cleaned uniforms and coveralls worn at nuclear power plants.
Scared and angered, officials vowed to intercede.
But both the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection concluded that the contamination was insignificant - less than someone would be exposed to while watching TV - and was allowed under current regulations.
Last week the trucks rolled in, depositing 499 tons of the sludge in the GROWS landfill.
In retrospect, said Tullytown borough manager Andrew Warren, the sludge itself wasn't a big deal. The problem arose because "it was a surprise."
Notification had come, but it was obscured in a 32-inch high stack of Waste Management folders, all but toppling off a table in the borough hall - which money from Waste Management had built.
A former Bucks County commissioner, Warren maintains that the company "has been and is a good neighbor."
Likewise, Falls Township manager Peter Gray termed relations with the waste giant "very positive."
But what fault lines there were have sharpened.
When the landfill was created in 1970 - on a floodplain abutting the Delaware River, a debatable siting if proposed today - "it was with certain size limitations," said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. Over the years, it has expanded upward and outward.
"And so that insult that began all those years ago just becomes greater and greater," she said. "It just keeps growing."
Many people think of landfills as holes, but they're actually mountains, and their anatomy has evolved.
When GROWS was built in 1970, it was one of the first lined landfills in the country. Before that, landfills simply leaked their liquids into the groundwater.
In 1988, the Tullytown landfill opened. In April, the DEP approved a new 124-acre disposal area, called GROWS North.
Its six layers of liner - several redundancies worth of barrier and absorbent materials - are still visible, even as massive machinery dumps load after load of trash into the first corner of its "cells."
The bottom is banked so that any liquid will flow to a collection system to be pumped out. Much of it from the complex is then pre-treated and piped to the Morrisville wastewater treatment plant.
The leachate system is partly governed by a 2006 consent decree, updated last month, that addressed the Tullytown facility's lack of storage capacity. More than $1.7 million in fines have been paid to the state, and more is accumulating.
Next comes two feet of stone, then eight feet of "fluff lift" - soft trash without things such as fence posts that could puncture the liner.
At each day's end, the trash is topped with six inches of soil to control odors and deter birds.
And misters release plumes of ionized water to absorb odors.
"What we try to operate here is a no-nuisance facility," said senior district manager Bob Iuliucci, who started as a bulldozer operator 20 years ago when the Tullytown landfill was being created.
"Landfills in reality are complex environmental systems that need to be managed as ongoing construction projects," said DEP regional director Joseph A. Feola.
And so they grow.
The bulk that arrives, in about 650 trucks a day, is municipal household waste, with some construction material, infectious waste and asbestos. No "hazardous waste" - a category that does not include slightly radioactive material - is permitted.
About 10 percent came from Bucks County, nearly 15 percent from Philadelphia and 71 percent from out of state.
Atop the newest leavings are 120,000-pound compacting vehicles with studded rollers that chew and compress the material into as much as a ton per cubic yard.
Under current permits, Waste Management anticipates having enough room to take trash through 2013 at Tullytown and 2014 at GROWS.
Then the landfills will be capped with an impervious layer much like the bottom liner, then 18 inches of soil and seeded with grass, although the company has been experimenting with wildflowers, shrubs and trees.
Over the years, Tullytown and Falls Township have been all but transformed by the influx of "host" money from Waste Management.
Falls has received more than $171.5 million since 1988, based on a percentage of tipping fees. It has kept taxes falling even as expenses rise, said township manager Gray.
Tullytown funnels much of its host money directly to residents, in effect paying their borough, county and school taxes, with $2,000 per household left over. Checks come in the mail every December. Both municipalities have built parks, hired additional police officers and repaved roads with Waste Management money. And all the residents get free trash pickup.
What worries Warren isn't the trash piling up, but the day it stops.
Both municipalities have savings accounts - $33 million in Falls, $50 million in Tullytown - but Warren fears it will go fast unless taxes rise to meet expenses.
"Fact of the matter is, we've been living high on trash for a long time," Warren said. "The days of reckoning are coming."
The way van Rossum sees it, Waste Management has essentially "bought off the community" so it can bring in what it wants with "little exposure or opposition."
She'd like the expansions to end, but that's unlikely.
Under state review is a 35-acre site, Tullytown East.
Meanwhile, the company has an option to buy 252 acres at the former U.S. Steel facility next door.
Pa.'s high-tech trash pile
By Sandy Bauers, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted on Mon, Aug. 18, 2008
For 38 years, the mountains of trash have risen, all but surrounding William Penn's historic summer home, Pennsbury.
Nearby, in Tullytown, a 14-story peak now looms over one end of the tidy borough in lower Bucks County.
From afar, the mountain is big enough that the trash trucks - queueing at the top to dump up to 10,000 tons a day - look like insects.
Over the years, the two mega landfills - GROWS (Geological Reclamation of Waste Services) and Tullytown, on 6,000 acres beside the former U.S. Steel Fairless Works - have become a regional trash hub, with two-thirds of its waste now coming from out of state, mostly New York and New Jersey.
Pennsylvania is the nation's leading trash importer, and here by the Delaware River sits the state's busiest landfill complex, which received 3.5 million tons last year.
It's going to get busier still. The owner, Waste Management, just received permission for a major expansion in April, and at least two more are planned.
This high-tech waste monolith is a heap of contradictions. It embodies many advanced technologies, including a system to capture methane - a product of decomposition - and send it to a nearby power plant to make energy.
Yet Waste Management is also being fined millions of dollars until a new system to handle leachate - liquid that collects at the landfill's bottom - is finished.
The owner and the site's neighbors have reached a certain harmony, bolstered by improving technology and the tens of millions of dollars that the firm showers on residents of its "host" towns.
But the relationship was stressed in recent weeks when officials learned the company planned to accept sludge from a Montgomery County water-treatment plant that had been slightly contaminated with radioactive matter.
It had come from a company that cleaned uniforms and coveralls worn at nuclear power plants.
Scared and angered, officials vowed to intercede.
But both the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection concluded that the contamination was insignificant - less than someone would be exposed to while watching TV - and was allowed under current regulations.
Last week the trucks rolled in, depositing 499 tons of the sludge in the GROWS landfill.
In retrospect, said Tullytown borough manager Andrew Warren, the sludge itself wasn't a big deal. The problem arose because "it was a surprise."
Notification had come, but it was obscured in a 32-inch high stack of Waste Management folders, all but toppling off a table in the borough hall - which money from Waste Management had built.
A former Bucks County commissioner, Warren maintains that the company "has been and is a good neighbor."
Likewise, Falls Township manager Peter Gray termed relations with the waste giant "very positive."
But what fault lines there were have sharpened.
When the landfill was created in 1970 - on a floodplain abutting the Delaware River, a debatable siting if proposed today - "it was with certain size limitations," said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. Over the years, it has expanded upward and outward.
"And so that insult that began all those years ago just becomes greater and greater," she said. "It just keeps growing."
Many people think of landfills as holes, but they're actually mountains, and their anatomy has evolved.
When GROWS was built in 1970, it was one of the first lined landfills in the country. Before that, landfills simply leaked their liquids into the groundwater.
In 1988, the Tullytown landfill opened. In April, the DEP approved a new 124-acre disposal area, called GROWS North.
Its six layers of liner - several redundancies worth of barrier and absorbent materials - are still visible, even as massive machinery dumps load after load of trash into the first corner of its "cells."
The bottom is banked so that any liquid will flow to a collection system to be pumped out. Much of it from the complex is then pre-treated and piped to the Morrisville wastewater treatment plant.
The leachate system is partly governed by a 2006 consent decree, updated last month, that addressed the Tullytown facility's lack of storage capacity. More than $1.7 million in fines have been paid to the state, and more is accumulating.
Next comes two feet of stone, then eight feet of "fluff lift" - soft trash without things such as fence posts that could puncture the liner.
At each day's end, the trash is topped with six inches of soil to control odors and deter birds.
And misters release plumes of ionized water to absorb odors.
"What we try to operate here is a no-nuisance facility," said senior district manager Bob Iuliucci, who started as a bulldozer operator 20 years ago when the Tullytown landfill was being created.
"Landfills in reality are complex environmental systems that need to be managed as ongoing construction projects," said DEP regional director Joseph A. Feola.
And so they grow.
The bulk that arrives, in about 650 trucks a day, is municipal household waste, with some construction material, infectious waste and asbestos. No "hazardous waste" - a category that does not include slightly radioactive material - is permitted.
About 10 percent came from Bucks County, nearly 15 percent from Philadelphia and 71 percent from out of state.
Atop the newest leavings are 120,000-pound compacting vehicles with studded rollers that chew and compress the material into as much as a ton per cubic yard.
Under current permits, Waste Management anticipates having enough room to take trash through 2013 at Tullytown and 2014 at GROWS.
Then the landfills will be capped with an impervious layer much like the bottom liner, then 18 inches of soil and seeded with grass, although the company has been experimenting with wildflowers, shrubs and trees.
Over the years, Tullytown and Falls Township have been all but transformed by the influx of "host" money from Waste Management.
Falls has received more than $171.5 million since 1988, based on a percentage of tipping fees. It has kept taxes falling even as expenses rise, said township manager Gray.
Tullytown funnels much of its host money directly to residents, in effect paying their borough, county and school taxes, with $2,000 per household left over. Checks come in the mail every December. Both municipalities have built parks, hired additional police officers and repaved roads with Waste Management money. And all the residents get free trash pickup.
What worries Warren isn't the trash piling up, but the day it stops.
Both municipalities have savings accounts - $33 million in Falls, $50 million in Tullytown - but Warren fears it will go fast unless taxes rise to meet expenses.
"Fact of the matter is, we've been living high on trash for a long time," Warren said. "The days of reckoning are coming."
The way van Rossum sees it, Waste Management has essentially "bought off the community" so it can bring in what it wants with "little exposure or opposition."
She'd like the expansions to end, but that's unlikely.
Under state review is a 35-acre site, Tullytown East.
Meanwhile, the company has an option to buy 252 acres at the former U.S. Steel facility next door.
Tales From the Re-Registration, Week 2
Week two of the Morrisville 2008 re-registration is now in the books. Any stories to share?
Empty diplomas?
Editorial from the BCCT
PSSAs and graduation: Empty diplomas?
School districts argue that state assessment tests are of little value and so students who flunk them get diplomas anyway.
When folks are embarrassed about something, they tend not to want to talk about it. Pressed on the issue, they’ll change the subject, talk their way around it or rationalize — sometimes all three.
Public school officials did a lot of each when our reporter tried to talk to them about state assessment tests and whether they ought to factor into the graduation formula. The response of Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education, was typical: “The PSSAs [Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests) are broad brush strokes of understanding.” Essentially, Desko says the assessments don’t paint an accurate picture of students’ abilities.
Really? Seems to us that kids who don’t pass the assessment tests haven’t learned the least they need to know to function effectively in the real world. Yet Desko disputes the tests’ value, arguing that students know more than the tests say they know.
Desko’s tortured logic is typical of the justifications school district officials offer for giving diplomas to kids who, according the PSSAs, don’t meet minimal requirements for core subjects.
How many?
We mostly don’t know — not district by district — because district officials wouldn’t tell us. We asked and they refused. Palisades in Upper Bucks was the lone exception.
We wanted the information because the state Department of Education raised the issue a few months ago, when it reported that 56,000 Pennsylvania high school students flunked state math and reading tests — but graduated anyway.
State officials characterized this as giving students “empty diplomas.” At Gov. Rendell’s urgings, the department pushed the idea of making students pass a battery of graduation tests before giving them a diploma.
We thought it was a pretty good idea — better than passing kids onto college or sending them into the work place without having competency in math and reading.
We’re not talking mastery; just minimum ability.
Yet school officials lined up pretty solidly against the proposal.
New Hope-Solebury High School Principal Steve Young is one of them. He said some students “simply do not test well.”
Be that as it may, Palisades gave us the information we requested. Here it is: 14 percent of students graduated with a less-than-proficient score in reading; 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSAA; and 4.6 percent didn’t meet the writing requirement.
If you want to know how many students in your district received diplomas without scoring passing grades on the PSSAs, call your district and ask. Folks in Neshaminy might be told, as we were, that the district doesn’t actually track how many graduates passed the PSSAs.
That might not come as a surprise considering Neshaminy is the only district in our area that failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
We know it’s convenient not to track PSSA results as they correlate to the graduation rate, especially when nosey reporters start asking questions. But how is Neshaminy benefiting from its head-in-the-sand strategy?
More to the point: How are students benefiting?
PSSAs and graduation: Empty diplomas?
School districts argue that state assessment tests are of little value and so students who flunk them get diplomas anyway.
When folks are embarrassed about something, they tend not to want to talk about it. Pressed on the issue, they’ll change the subject, talk their way around it or rationalize — sometimes all three.
Public school officials did a lot of each when our reporter tried to talk to them about state assessment tests and whether they ought to factor into the graduation formula. The response of Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education, was typical: “The PSSAs [Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests) are broad brush strokes of understanding.” Essentially, Desko says the assessments don’t paint an accurate picture of students’ abilities.
Really? Seems to us that kids who don’t pass the assessment tests haven’t learned the least they need to know to function effectively in the real world. Yet Desko disputes the tests’ value, arguing that students know more than the tests say they know.
Desko’s tortured logic is typical of the justifications school district officials offer for giving diplomas to kids who, according the PSSAs, don’t meet minimal requirements for core subjects.
How many?
We mostly don’t know — not district by district — because district officials wouldn’t tell us. We asked and they refused. Palisades in Upper Bucks was the lone exception.
We wanted the information because the state Department of Education raised the issue a few months ago, when it reported that 56,000 Pennsylvania high school students flunked state math and reading tests — but graduated anyway.
State officials characterized this as giving students “empty diplomas.” At Gov. Rendell’s urgings, the department pushed the idea of making students pass a battery of graduation tests before giving them a diploma.
We thought it was a pretty good idea — better than passing kids onto college or sending them into the work place without having competency in math and reading.
We’re not talking mastery; just minimum ability.
Yet school officials lined up pretty solidly against the proposal.
New Hope-Solebury High School Principal Steve Young is one of them. He said some students “simply do not test well.”
Be that as it may, Palisades gave us the information we requested. Here it is: 14 percent of students graduated with a less-than-proficient score in reading; 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSAA; and 4.6 percent didn’t meet the writing requirement.
If you want to know how many students in your district received diplomas without scoring passing grades on the PSSAs, call your district and ask. Folks in Neshaminy might be told, as we were, that the district doesn’t actually track how many graduates passed the PSSAs.
That might not come as a surprise considering Neshaminy is the only district in our area that failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
We know it’s convenient not to track PSSA results as they correlate to the graduation rate, especially when nosey reporters start asking questions. But how is Neshaminy benefiting from its head-in-the-sand strategy?
More to the point: How are students benefiting?
Two committee meetings tomorrow night
Committee Meeting Reminder tomorrow night:
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville,
Morrisville, PA, will hold a Facilities Committee meeting followed by a Finance Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/ Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:30 pm.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
Notice is hereby given that the School District of Borough of Morrisville,
Morrisville, PA, will hold a Facilities Committee meeting followed by a Finance Committee meeting in the G-Hall conference room of the Morrisville Middle/ Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St., Morrisville, PA on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:30 pm.
Marlys Mihok, Secretary
Monday, August 18, 2008
Test score melt down in high school
From the Allentown Morning Call
Test score melt down in high school
By Genevieve Marshall, Steve Esack and William J. Ford Of The Morning Call, August 17, 2008
Between the last year of middle school and the junior year in high school, something happens to Pennsylvania students -- and it's not just puberty.
After years of building on math and reading skills and showing consistent gains on state tests, those improvements come to a screeching halt in high school. Not only do students stop improving in reading, they actually seem to lose math skills.
''It's almost like falling off a cliff,'' said state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak.
Two out of every five Pennsylvania high school students tested below grade level in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading and math tests, which were released last week.
At the current pace of improvement, it would take 40 years for all high school juniors to meet standards, Zahorchak said -- even though they're expected to do so within six years.
''Clearly we need to do more to improve the high school experience and ensure those students stay engaged and challenged through graduation,'' Zahorchak said. ''We simply cannot afford to be content with the status quo.''
With the federal No Child Left Behind law pushing states to make all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, Pennsylvania school districts, including those in the Lehigh Valley area, have a long way to go.
The 35 school districts in the eight-county area averaged a double-digit drop in the percentage of students that scored proficiently between eighth grade and 11th grade. The drop was significant regardless of race and income, though it was worse for minority, low-income and special education students.
This generation of students wants to understand the reason behind a classroom lesson or standardized test in order to put in the effort, said Kevin Bush, a social studies teacher and track coach at Bethlehem's Liberty High School. There is no consequence for poor performers, he said. The test is not factored into students' grades or directly tied to graduation.
''On the second day of school students will be taking a state test,'' Bush said. ''Students are so over-tested right now without seeing what the relevance is.''
It's a matter of priorities, said Cedar Beach lifeguard Nick Carbonetto, an incoming William Allen High School senior who said he did not study for the state tests because he was busy with soccer, baseball and organizing the prom.
''Colleges don't focus on PSSAs, but the SATs,'' he said.
Matt Trexler, also a senior at Allen, said he studied for the spring PSSA during class and at night when he got home from his part-time job at a restaurant.
With the help of a $9.6 million federal grant, Lee Kern, a Lehigh University professor, is leading a team of researchers to find ways educators can help high-schoolers succeed and not drop out.
Kern said data do not explain why scores fall in high school. But they do show that the problem is worse for low-income students.
''Poor attendance and homework completion become more problematic with secondary-age students,'' Kern said. ''Also, families who are more affluent are probably more concerned about test scores, given that they anticipate their children will go to college.''
'We don't teach reading'
Searching for new ideas, state education officials are pushing a controversial plan for more and different exams. They also propose a standardized curriculum for high schools.
An undetermined amount of this year's education budget will go toward creating a standardized curriculum for math, English, science and social studies, said Leah Harris, spokeswoman for the state Education Department.
Districts would not be required to adopt the new curriculum but it would give struggling schools better guidelines, Harris said.
The controversy is centered on a plan to require students to pass six of 10 state-created final exams in order to receive for a diploma. The plan has stalled as the Legislature reviews it.
In the past three years, the Education Department has launched several programs targeting high school student performance.
Classrooms for the Future provides students with laptops and gives teachers intensive training in how to use them in class. Dual Enrollment pitches in $10 million to cover tuition for high-schoolers who want to earn college credits.
But neither of those programs has racked up results in the short term.
Among the more creative ideas was Project 720 -- for the total amount of days teenagers spend in high school. It breaks large schools into small academies of up to 600 students. Class sizes shrink and class periods grow longer.
But like the other programs that have sparked hope among educators, Project 720 has not proved to be a silver bullet.
Last year, the Norristown Area School District was one of the first in the state to reorganize its high school under Project 720. Lisa Andrejko, then district superintendent. led the effort to break the 2,000-student school into six academies.
Norristown Area did not make adequate yearly progress this year, PSSA results show.
One year is not enough time to judge the project a failure, said Andrejko, who now heads Quakertown Area School District. It takes at least five years to get hard data, she said.
The solution isn't merely in teaching with computers or in smaller groups, Andrejko said. It will require a greater emphasis on basic reading instruction, she said, the kind students receive in elementary school.
''We don't teach reading in high school,'' Andrejko noted.
Employers and colleges have told state education officials that Pennsylvania high school graduates, on the whole, are not up to speed in writing, reading and math, Harris said.
''They're graduating without basic skills,'' she said. ''That's a problem for the student, and for the entire state.''
Getting back to the basics
Easton Area High School administrators created a program to reinforce basic math and reading skills in the classroom and during after-school tutoring.
Bangor Area High School received a warning from the state because its 11th-graders didn't score high enough on the math or reading test.
Pat Mulroy, assistant superintendent of the Bangor Area School District, partly blames the same factors affecting high schools across the state: a lack of funding and slow-moving reform.
For decades, education policy and funding have focused on teaching preschool and elementary school students how to read. Only in the last decade have policy experts realized high schools need that help, too.
Bangor High needs, but cannot afford, four reading specialists, Mulroy said. And those specialists are usually trained at the elementary level.
So Bangor is retraining its high school teachers to teach reading and math in all content areas, she said. Now, ''every teacher is a teacher of math or reading.''
Allentown's middle-schoolers have made the transition almost seamlessly to high school in terms of reading retention. Nearly 46 percent of eighth-graders were proficient compared with 43 percent of high school juniors.
In math, though, their decline is clear. Just over half of Allentown's eighth-graders scored proficient or better on the math PSSA this year, compared with 39 percent of 11th-graders.
Allentown Superintendent Karen S. Angello said that when those juniors were in middle school, not enough was done to rescue students who were close to failing. That's why three years ago, the district began placing at-risk students in back-to-back math periods, offering intensive tutoring and additional math courses, she said.
This year, the district plans to hire more math coaches and begin tracking student progress on a daily basis. With early intervention, Angello said, they will spot problems sooner.
In the Bethlehem Area School District, Superintendent Joseph Lewis is planning major changes at his two high schools this fall, with the focus on reading and math. Because Liberty High School has failed to significantly improve its scores over a number of years, it is technically eligible for state takeover, although Zahorchak, the state education secretary, said that possibility was ''remote.''
Every student will take Algebra I in ninth grade -- no exceptions, Lewis said.
''It's time to stop complaining about the test,'' he said. ''It's not necessarily about meeting the targets, but showing our kids can grow.''
Test score melt down in high school
By Genevieve Marshall, Steve Esack and William J. Ford Of The Morning Call, August 17, 2008
Between the last year of middle school and the junior year in high school, something happens to Pennsylvania students -- and it's not just puberty.
After years of building on math and reading skills and showing consistent gains on state tests, those improvements come to a screeching halt in high school. Not only do students stop improving in reading, they actually seem to lose math skills.
''It's almost like falling off a cliff,'' said state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak.
Two out of every five Pennsylvania high school students tested below grade level in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading and math tests, which were released last week.
At the current pace of improvement, it would take 40 years for all high school juniors to meet standards, Zahorchak said -- even though they're expected to do so within six years.
''Clearly we need to do more to improve the high school experience and ensure those students stay engaged and challenged through graduation,'' Zahorchak said. ''We simply cannot afford to be content with the status quo.''
With the federal No Child Left Behind law pushing states to make all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, Pennsylvania school districts, including those in the Lehigh Valley area, have a long way to go.
The 35 school districts in the eight-county area averaged a double-digit drop in the percentage of students that scored proficiently between eighth grade and 11th grade. The drop was significant regardless of race and income, though it was worse for minority, low-income and special education students.
This generation of students wants to understand the reason behind a classroom lesson or standardized test in order to put in the effort, said Kevin Bush, a social studies teacher and track coach at Bethlehem's Liberty High School. There is no consequence for poor performers, he said. The test is not factored into students' grades or directly tied to graduation.
''On the second day of school students will be taking a state test,'' Bush said. ''Students are so over-tested right now without seeing what the relevance is.''
It's a matter of priorities, said Cedar Beach lifeguard Nick Carbonetto, an incoming William Allen High School senior who said he did not study for the state tests because he was busy with soccer, baseball and organizing the prom.
''Colleges don't focus on PSSAs, but the SATs,'' he said.
Matt Trexler, also a senior at Allen, said he studied for the spring PSSA during class and at night when he got home from his part-time job at a restaurant.
With the help of a $9.6 million federal grant, Lee Kern, a Lehigh University professor, is leading a team of researchers to find ways educators can help high-schoolers succeed and not drop out.
Kern said data do not explain why scores fall in high school. But they do show that the problem is worse for low-income students.
''Poor attendance and homework completion become more problematic with secondary-age students,'' Kern said. ''Also, families who are more affluent are probably more concerned about test scores, given that they anticipate their children will go to college.''
'We don't teach reading'
Searching for new ideas, state education officials are pushing a controversial plan for more and different exams. They also propose a standardized curriculum for high schools.
An undetermined amount of this year's education budget will go toward creating a standardized curriculum for math, English, science and social studies, said Leah Harris, spokeswoman for the state Education Department.
Districts would not be required to adopt the new curriculum but it would give struggling schools better guidelines, Harris said.
The controversy is centered on a plan to require students to pass six of 10 state-created final exams in order to receive for a diploma. The plan has stalled as the Legislature reviews it.
In the past three years, the Education Department has launched several programs targeting high school student performance.
Classrooms for the Future provides students with laptops and gives teachers intensive training in how to use them in class. Dual Enrollment pitches in $10 million to cover tuition for high-schoolers who want to earn college credits.
But neither of those programs has racked up results in the short term.
Among the more creative ideas was Project 720 -- for the total amount of days teenagers spend in high school. It breaks large schools into small academies of up to 600 students. Class sizes shrink and class periods grow longer.
But like the other programs that have sparked hope among educators, Project 720 has not proved to be a silver bullet.
Last year, the Norristown Area School District was one of the first in the state to reorganize its high school under Project 720. Lisa Andrejko, then district superintendent. led the effort to break the 2,000-student school into six academies.
Norristown Area did not make adequate yearly progress this year, PSSA results show.
One year is not enough time to judge the project a failure, said Andrejko, who now heads Quakertown Area School District. It takes at least five years to get hard data, she said.
The solution isn't merely in teaching with computers or in smaller groups, Andrejko said. It will require a greater emphasis on basic reading instruction, she said, the kind students receive in elementary school.
''We don't teach reading in high school,'' Andrejko noted.
Employers and colleges have told state education officials that Pennsylvania high school graduates, on the whole, are not up to speed in writing, reading and math, Harris said.
''They're graduating without basic skills,'' she said. ''That's a problem for the student, and for the entire state.''
Getting back to the basics
Easton Area High School administrators created a program to reinforce basic math and reading skills in the classroom and during after-school tutoring.
Bangor Area High School received a warning from the state because its 11th-graders didn't score high enough on the math or reading test.
Pat Mulroy, assistant superintendent of the Bangor Area School District, partly blames the same factors affecting high schools across the state: a lack of funding and slow-moving reform.
For decades, education policy and funding have focused on teaching preschool and elementary school students how to read. Only in the last decade have policy experts realized high schools need that help, too.
Bangor High needs, but cannot afford, four reading specialists, Mulroy said. And those specialists are usually trained at the elementary level.
So Bangor is retraining its high school teachers to teach reading and math in all content areas, she said. Now, ''every teacher is a teacher of math or reading.''
Allentown's middle-schoolers have made the transition almost seamlessly to high school in terms of reading retention. Nearly 46 percent of eighth-graders were proficient compared with 43 percent of high school juniors.
In math, though, their decline is clear. Just over half of Allentown's eighth-graders scored proficient or better on the math PSSA this year, compared with 39 percent of 11th-graders.
Allentown Superintendent Karen S. Angello said that when those juniors were in middle school, not enough was done to rescue students who were close to failing. That's why three years ago, the district began placing at-risk students in back-to-back math periods, offering intensive tutoring and additional math courses, she said.
This year, the district plans to hire more math coaches and begin tracking student progress on a daily basis. With early intervention, Angello said, they will spot problems sooner.
In the Bethlehem Area School District, Superintendent Joseph Lewis is planning major changes at his two high schools this fall, with the focus on reading and math. Because Liberty High School has failed to significantly improve its scores over a number of years, it is technically eligible for state takeover, although Zahorchak, the state education secretary, said that possibility was ''remote.''
Every student will take Algebra I in ninth grade -- no exceptions, Lewis said.
''It's time to stop complaining about the test,'' he said. ''It's not necessarily about meeting the targets, but showing our kids can grow.''
Bensalem School District
BCCT Back to School/PSSA Profiles continue:
BENSALEM SCHOOL DISTRICT
Smaller first-grade, kindergarten classes
New district initiatives target young and special education students.
By JOAN HELLYER
As part of its improvement plan for 2008-09, Bensalem is reducing its class size for kindergarten and first grade to a maximum of 20 students.
The reduced class size will help improve the district’s youngest students’ academic development because teachers will have more time to focus on the individual needs of the students in the class, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
Bensalem also is expanding its full day kindergarten offers from two classes in the district to six.
Each of Bensalem’s six elementary schools will house a full-day kindergarten class, administrators said.
Plus, the district will begin offering 90 minutes worth of Spanish language instruction to all Bensalem third graders this year.
And, the district is making every effort to increase the time special needs students participate in regular education settings, he said. The goal is to provide the special education kids with more access to the district’s standards-based curriculum mandated by the state.
The Bensalem Township School District serves approximately 6,000 students in nine schools in a township of more than 60,000 people. The district employs more than 900 people and runs on an approximately $111 million budget. WHO’S WHO IN THE
SCHOOLS:
Superintendent:
James Lombardo, 215-750-2800, ext. 4100
Assistant Superintendent:
William Gretzula, 215-750-2800, ext. 4103
Principals:
Bensalem High School: Francis Perry, 215-750-2800, ext. 3000
Robert K. Shafer Middle School: William Incollingo Jr., 215-750-2800, ext. 2200
Cecelia Snyder Middle School: Deborah B. McKay, 215-750-2800, ext. 2300
Belmont Hills Elementary School: Marla Zeisler, 215-750-2800, ext. 1100
Cornwells Elementary School: Shawn Mark, 215-750-2800, ext. 1200
Samuel K. Faust Elementary School: Maribel Camps, 215-750-2800, ext. 1300
Benjamin Rush Elementary School: Mary Gentile, 215-750-2800, ext. 1400
Russell C. Struble Elementary School: Lana Judy, 215-750-2800, ext. 1500
Valley Elementary School: Mary Glaesser 215-750-2800, ext. 1600
School board:
President Harry Kramer, Vice President Lewis Brandt, James Bodnar, Rose Jacobs, Carol Jones, Carol McGuire, Heather Nicholas, Stephen Nowmos, and Eugene Rothenberg.
Meeting schedule: Generally the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. except in July in the boardroom of the Dorothy D. Call Administrative Center off Donallen Drive.
Note: The board’s first meeting in October will be Oct. 7 in observance Yom Kippur, which begins the following day at sundown on the second Wednesday of the month. Its second meeting of November will be Nov. 25 because the following day, the fourth Wednesday of the month, begins the district’s Thanksgiving holiday observance. And the board’s second meeting of December will be Dec. 17 because the district’s Winter Recess begins on Dec. 24, the fourth Wednesday of the month.
For more information, visit the district’s Web site, www.bensalemsd.org
2008-09 SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept. 2, First day of school
Sept. 29, Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Sept. 30, Oct. 1, Rosh Hashanah holiday
Oct. 9, Yom Kippur holiday
Nov. 4, Election Day
Nov. 11, Veterans Day
Nov. 25, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
Nov. 26, Parent conferences and Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Nov. 27, Nov. 28, Thanksgiving holiday
Dec. 24, Winter recess begins
Jan. 1, New Year’s Day
Jan. 5, Schools reopen
Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Day
Jan. 20, No school for elementary and middle school students and full day of class for high school students
Jan. 26, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 27, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 28, No school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Feb. 16, Presidents Day
April 8, Spring break begins
April 14, Students return to school
April 17, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
April 20, Parent conferences, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
May 19, Election Day, professional development day
May 25, Memorial Day
June 10, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
June 11, Tentative last day of school for students, half day for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
2007 AVERAGE SAT SCORES:
Verbal – 471
Math – 476
Writing – 467
FAST FACTS ABOUT BENSALEM
2007-08 Average teacher salary:
$76,322
AP courses: 10 – American history, chemistry, calculus, English language, English literature, European history, government, physics, psychology and statistics
Student/teacher ratio:
Elementary schools, 15.6 to 1; Middle and high schools, 14.9 to 1
Cost per student: Elementary schools, $12,070 and secondary, $11,375.
Partnerships with businesses:
Commerce Bank, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Ninety Nine, Texas Roadhouse, Smokin’ Dudes BBQ, Brown’s Family Shop Rite, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Rita’s Water Ice.
2008 Adequate Yearly Progress status: Met AYP goal
BENSALEM SCHOOL DISTRICT
Smaller first-grade, kindergarten classes
New district initiatives target young and special education students.
By JOAN HELLYER
As part of its improvement plan for 2008-09, Bensalem is reducing its class size for kindergarten and first grade to a maximum of 20 students.
The reduced class size will help improve the district’s youngest students’ academic development because teachers will have more time to focus on the individual needs of the students in the class, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
Bensalem also is expanding its full day kindergarten offers from two classes in the district to six.
Each of Bensalem’s six elementary schools will house a full-day kindergarten class, administrators said.
Plus, the district will begin offering 90 minutes worth of Spanish language instruction to all Bensalem third graders this year.
And, the district is making every effort to increase the time special needs students participate in regular education settings, he said. The goal is to provide the special education kids with more access to the district’s standards-based curriculum mandated by the state.
The Bensalem Township School District serves approximately 6,000 students in nine schools in a township of more than 60,000 people. The district employs more than 900 people and runs on an approximately $111 million budget. WHO’S WHO IN THE
SCHOOLS:
Superintendent:
James Lombardo, 215-750-2800, ext. 4100
Assistant Superintendent:
William Gretzula, 215-750-2800, ext. 4103
Principals:
Bensalem High School: Francis Perry, 215-750-2800, ext. 3000
Robert K. Shafer Middle School: William Incollingo Jr., 215-750-2800, ext. 2200
Cecelia Snyder Middle School: Deborah B. McKay, 215-750-2800, ext. 2300
Belmont Hills Elementary School: Marla Zeisler, 215-750-2800, ext. 1100
Cornwells Elementary School: Shawn Mark, 215-750-2800, ext. 1200
Samuel K. Faust Elementary School: Maribel Camps, 215-750-2800, ext. 1300
Benjamin Rush Elementary School: Mary Gentile, 215-750-2800, ext. 1400
Russell C. Struble Elementary School: Lana Judy, 215-750-2800, ext. 1500
Valley Elementary School: Mary Glaesser 215-750-2800, ext. 1600
School board:
President Harry Kramer, Vice President Lewis Brandt, James Bodnar, Rose Jacobs, Carol Jones, Carol McGuire, Heather Nicholas, Stephen Nowmos, and Eugene Rothenberg.
Meeting schedule: Generally the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. except in July in the boardroom of the Dorothy D. Call Administrative Center off Donallen Drive.
Note: The board’s first meeting in October will be Oct. 7 in observance Yom Kippur, which begins the following day at sundown on the second Wednesday of the month. Its second meeting of November will be Nov. 25 because the following day, the fourth Wednesday of the month, begins the district’s Thanksgiving holiday observance. And the board’s second meeting of December will be Dec. 17 because the district’s Winter Recess begins on Dec. 24, the fourth Wednesday of the month.
For more information, visit the district’s Web site, www.bensalemsd.org
2008-09 SCHOOL CALENDAR
Sept. 2, First day of school
Sept. 29, Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Sept. 30, Oct. 1, Rosh Hashanah holiday
Oct. 9, Yom Kippur holiday
Nov. 4, Election Day
Nov. 11, Veterans Day
Nov. 25, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
Nov. 26, Parent conferences and Act 80 Day, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
Nov. 27, Nov. 28, Thanksgiving holiday
Dec. 24, Winter recess begins
Jan. 1, New Year’s Day
Jan. 5, Schools reopen
Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Day
Jan. 20, No school for elementary and middle school students and full day of class for high school students
Jan. 26, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 27, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Jan. 28, No school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
Feb. 16, Presidents Day
April 8, Spring break begins
April 14, Students return to school
April 17, Parent conferences, no class for elementary students
April 20, Parent conferences, no class for elementary, middle and high school students
May 19, Election Day, professional development day
May 25, Memorial Day
June 10, Half day of school for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
June 11, Tentative last day of school for students, half day for high school students and full day of class for elementary and middle school students
2007 AVERAGE SAT SCORES:
Verbal – 471
Math – 476
Writing – 467
FAST FACTS ABOUT BENSALEM
2007-08 Average teacher salary:
$76,322
AP courses: 10 – American history, chemistry, calculus, English language, English literature, European history, government, physics, psychology and statistics
Student/teacher ratio:
Elementary schools, 15.6 to 1; Middle and high schools, 14.9 to 1
Cost per student: Elementary schools, $12,070 and secondary, $11,375.
Partnerships with businesses:
Commerce Bank, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Ninety Nine, Texas Roadhouse, Smokin’ Dudes BBQ, Brown’s Family Shop Rite, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Rita’s Water Ice.
2008 Adequate Yearly Progress status: Met AYP goal
Borough Council Meeting tonight
GOVERNMENT
Morrisville Council: 7:30 p.m., borough hall, 35 Union St.
Agenda: Regular reports and business; consider directing the borough manager and engineer to send a list and application to the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission regarding additional projects that will be requested with the surplus money from the Compact Authorization Investment Program; consider paying $64,165.68 to J.L. Gruber Contractor, Inc., for curb and sidewalk replacement on South Pennsylvania Avenue; consider approving the projects to be funded by the remaining DRJTBC grant money; consider adopting sewer extension resolution for the Falkowski/Kulpinski subdivision at 130 Delaware Ave.; consider approving 2008 Labor Day Run; consider motion to acknowledge Randy Kenner’s resignation from the zoning hearing board; consider two 3-year appointments to the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.; consider amending resolution regarding the UCC Board of Appeals reducing membership from five members to three members. 215-295-8181
Morrisville Council: 7:30 p.m., borough hall, 35 Union St.
Agenda: Regular reports and business; consider directing the borough manager and engineer to send a list and application to the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission regarding additional projects that will be requested with the surplus money from the Compact Authorization Investment Program; consider paying $64,165.68 to J.L. Gruber Contractor, Inc., for curb and sidewalk replacement on South Pennsylvania Avenue; consider approving the projects to be funded by the remaining DRJTBC grant money; consider adopting sewer extension resolution for the Falkowski/Kulpinski subdivision at 130 Delaware Ave.; consider approving 2008 Labor Day Run; consider motion to acknowledge Randy Kenner’s resignation from the zoning hearing board; consider two 3-year appointments to the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.; consider amending resolution regarding the UCC Board of Appeals reducing membership from five members to three members. 215-295-8181
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Reaction to the PSSA scores from district officials
Another in the BCCT series on the 2008 PSSA scores
Reaction to the PSSA scores from district officials
BENSALEM: “CONSISTENT PROGRESS”
The district earned Adequate Yearly Progress for a second year in a row, but improvement still needs to be made, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
“What’s most important to me is not achieving an arbitrary point, but instead consistent, significant progress,” Lombardo said.
Bensalem High School is in Corrective Action for a second year because of its special education students’ performance on the PSSA math and reading tests, according to state results. In addition, Samuel K. Faust, Benjamin Rush and Valley elementary schools received a Warning either because not enough of its minority, special education or economically disadvantaged students performed at grade level.
The district has methods in place or will implement various strategies this school year to address the performance discrepancies, Lombardo said.
BRISTOL BOROUGH: “SUPER JOB”
As a whole, Bristol is moving in the right direction, Superintendent Broadus Davis said.
He pointed to the third grade’s strong performance on the test.
“This is a credit to the grade level teachers and support staff and, most importantly, to the hard work and dedication of the students for doing a super job,” Davis said.
However, improvements are still needed at the district’s high school level, he said.
Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School received a Warning this year because its overall student population and its economically disadvantaged subgroup did not have a high enough proficiency rate on the 2008 PSSA reading test. In order to improve the high school students’ performance, “the district administrative team will provide on-going staff development and training in data analysis as well as support in reading and math,” Davis said.
BRISTOL TOWNSHIP: “GREAT IMPROVEMENTS”
The district “is being watched very closely” because of its recent student performance gains, Superintendent Ellen Budman said. For the first time in several years, Harry S Truman High School made Adequate Yearly Progress, according to state 2008 PSSA results.
“We’ve made great improvements. We’re closing the gap between minority and white students. This is what we do here,” Budman said.
But some improvements are still needed, specifically at Clara Barton, Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools, she said. Not enough black students at Barton achieved proficiency in reading. Lafayette’s overall population as well as the economically disadvantaged subgroup did not achieve proficiency on the reading PSSA tests. And not enough of Lincoln’s black and special education students performed at grade level in reading.
The district is implementing various strategies to correct the shortfalls in performance, Budman said.
“I expect all schools to make AYP next year,” she said.
BUCKS COUNTY MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL: “REAPS BENEFITS”
“As far as what we do, we really don’t teach to the test. We have a really rigorous curriculum. Our scores tend to be very strong in third grade and increase each year,” said Principal Brian Long.
By the time they get to the highest grade in the school, sixth grade, scores tend to be at 100 percent proficient, he said.
That was the case with this year’s sixth graders for their math and reading scores.
“It’s something we really pride ourselves in. We have kids work with materials early on. It reaps benefits later on,” said Long.
Students learn advanced concepts in the Montessori curriculum and end up with a strong understanding of math and reading, he said.
BUCKS COUNTY TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: “NOT SHOCKED”
The performance of Bucks County Technical High School students on the 2008 PSSA tests left school Administrative Director Scott R. Parks “disappointed but not shocked.”
The comprehensive technical high school that serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts achieved Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time in 2007
But it received a Warning from the state this year because not enough of its overall population and special education subgroup achieved proficiency in reading. In addition, not enough of its white students and special education students were proficient in math.
Parks blames it on a combina tion of complacency and a learning curve the teachers are trying to overcome as they figure out how to use new technology in the classroom to deliver their lessons. In order to regain AYP status, teachers will work to master the technology and the school will require students clearly in need of additional learning support to attend mandatory tutoring sessions. Parks said.
CENTENNIAL: “IMPRESSIVE GAINS”
“Last year, our high school, despite being classified as Corrective Action 2 [first year], saw impressive gains in mathematics,” said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, director of teaching and learning.
The district has made AYP for the third year in a row.
While William Tennent High school will remain in Corrective Action status for one more year, its “Making Progress” status means that students made great strides in both mathematics and reading in all populations, including the special education population, said Foight-Cressman.
The district attributes the successes in part to periodic benchmark assessments of skills to make sure they are up to state standards, the continual refinement of the high school reading program and the use of tools like Study Island. Because two schools have slipped into “warning” status, their principals will be working closely with teachers, special education supervisors and Foight-Cressman to identify the root causes of low scores and create a plan to raise the performance levels in the coming year.
CENTER FOR STUDENT LEARNING: READING SCORES DECREASE
The center’s AYP status is School Improvement II, which means it has been trying to make Adequate Yearly Progress for the third consecutive year. Grade 8 math scores increased from last year but reading scores decreased. Grade 11 math and reading scores decreased.
Typically, schools with CSL’s status have to engage students in tutoring and further assessments. The school also has to work on an overall improvement plan.
A school official was unavailable for comment.
COUNCIL ROCK: “QUALITY INSTRUCTION”
All schools in the traditionally high-performing district earned Adequate Yearly Progress status, according to state results.
“We continue to emphasize quality instruction in the classrooms,” Superintendent Mark Klein said. “While we are pleased with the scores on the state assessment, we measure progress for our students across many measures over the course of the school year.”
MORRISVILLE: “SIGNIFICANT CHANGE”
The district and all schools made Adequate Yearly Progress this year. The 11th grade math scores went up significantly, with 28 percent higher scores than last year.
There is still an increase in 11th grade math scores after adding the data of students who are in alternative placements.
“I attribute this to the hard work of our administrators Ferrara as well as our teachers. Through analysis and focused instruction we were able to affect significant change,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson.
NESHAMINY: FOCUS ON SUBGROUPS
The district did not meet AYP because of special education reading.
Although Poquessing and Maple Point Middle Schools did make it, Sandburg and Neshaminy Middle School did not because of special education scores in math and reading.
The high school’s math and reading scores increased double digits over last year’s figures and that school improved in special education, too. But since that Middletown school’s economically disadvantaged students didn’t meet the reading targets, Neshaminy High School is in Corrective Action II.
Neshaminy Superintendent Paul Kadri compared increasing student performance to long distance running.
“As a district, we wish we made AYP,” he said. “We’re sad about the high school, too, but they had a wonderful year. We’re pretty excited about the double digit increase. We need to look and see what’s going on [with the economtion, formative reading assessments and other measures, said district spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
Pennsbury High School made the necessary improvements to be placed in the category of “making progress,” though it’s still in corrective action status.
The high school is in its second year of improvement with the special education subgroup.
Charles Boehm and Pennwood middle schools, which were in warning status last year, are both now making AYP.
SCHOOL LANE CHARTER SCHOOL: YEARLONG FOCUS HELPED
The charter school off Bristol Pike in Bensalem made Adequate Yearly Progress with over 70 percent of its students demonstrating proficiency in math and nearly 70 percent scoring proficient or better in reading.
Karen Schade, the school’s principal, attributes student performance growth to a yearlong focus on reading and vocabulary instruction.
The school serves about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade who live in Bensalem, Philadelphia and other surrounding communities.
Comments compiled by education reporters Joan Hellyer, Manasee Wagh and Rachel Canelli.
Reaction to the PSSA scores from district officials
BENSALEM: “CONSISTENT PROGRESS”
The district earned Adequate Yearly Progress for a second year in a row, but improvement still needs to be made, Superintendent James Lombardo said.
“What’s most important to me is not achieving an arbitrary point, but instead consistent, significant progress,” Lombardo said.
Bensalem High School is in Corrective Action for a second year because of its special education students’ performance on the PSSA math and reading tests, according to state results. In addition, Samuel K. Faust, Benjamin Rush and Valley elementary schools received a Warning either because not enough of its minority, special education or economically disadvantaged students performed at grade level.
The district has methods in place or will implement various strategies this school year to address the performance discrepancies, Lombardo said.
BRISTOL BOROUGH: “SUPER JOB”
As a whole, Bristol is moving in the right direction, Superintendent Broadus Davis said.
He pointed to the third grade’s strong performance on the test.
“This is a credit to the grade level teachers and support staff and, most importantly, to the hard work and dedication of the students for doing a super job,” Davis said.
However, improvements are still needed at the district’s high school level, he said.
Bristol Borough Junior/Senior High School received a Warning this year because its overall student population and its economically disadvantaged subgroup did not have a high enough proficiency rate on the 2008 PSSA reading test. In order to improve the high school students’ performance, “the district administrative team will provide on-going staff development and training in data analysis as well as support in reading and math,” Davis said.
BRISTOL TOWNSHIP: “GREAT IMPROVEMENTS”
The district “is being watched very closely” because of its recent student performance gains, Superintendent Ellen Budman said. For the first time in several years, Harry S Truman High School made Adequate Yearly Progress, according to state 2008 PSSA results.
“We’ve made great improvements. We’re closing the gap between minority and white students. This is what we do here,” Budman said.
But some improvements are still needed, specifically at Clara Barton, Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools, she said. Not enough black students at Barton achieved proficiency in reading. Lafayette’s overall population as well as the economically disadvantaged subgroup did not achieve proficiency on the reading PSSA tests. And not enough of Lincoln’s black and special education students performed at grade level in reading.
The district is implementing various strategies to correct the shortfalls in performance, Budman said.
“I expect all schools to make AYP next year,” she said.
BUCKS COUNTY MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL: “REAPS BENEFITS”
“As far as what we do, we really don’t teach to the test. We have a really rigorous curriculum. Our scores tend to be very strong in third grade and increase each year,” said Principal Brian Long.
By the time they get to the highest grade in the school, sixth grade, scores tend to be at 100 percent proficient, he said.
That was the case with this year’s sixth graders for their math and reading scores.
“It’s something we really pride ourselves in. We have kids work with materials early on. It reaps benefits later on,” said Long.
Students learn advanced concepts in the Montessori curriculum and end up with a strong understanding of math and reading, he said.
BUCKS COUNTY TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: “NOT SHOCKED”
The performance of Bucks County Technical High School students on the 2008 PSSA tests left school Administrative Director Scott R. Parks “disappointed but not shocked.”
The comprehensive technical high school that serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts achieved Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time in 2007
But it received a Warning from the state this year because not enough of its overall population and special education subgroup achieved proficiency in reading. In addition, not enough of its white students and special education students were proficient in math.
Parks blames it on a combina tion of complacency and a learning curve the teachers are trying to overcome as they figure out how to use new technology in the classroom to deliver their lessons. In order to regain AYP status, teachers will work to master the technology and the school will require students clearly in need of additional learning support to attend mandatory tutoring sessions. Parks said.
CENTENNIAL: “IMPRESSIVE GAINS”
“Last year, our high school, despite being classified as Corrective Action 2 [first year], saw impressive gains in mathematics,” said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, director of teaching and learning.
The district has made AYP for the third year in a row.
While William Tennent High school will remain in Corrective Action status for one more year, its “Making Progress” status means that students made great strides in both mathematics and reading in all populations, including the special education population, said Foight-Cressman.
The district attributes the successes in part to periodic benchmark assessments of skills to make sure they are up to state standards, the continual refinement of the high school reading program and the use of tools like Study Island. Because two schools have slipped into “warning” status, their principals will be working closely with teachers, special education supervisors and Foight-Cressman to identify the root causes of low scores and create a plan to raise the performance levels in the coming year.
CENTER FOR STUDENT LEARNING: READING SCORES DECREASE
The center’s AYP status is School Improvement II, which means it has been trying to make Adequate Yearly Progress for the third consecutive year. Grade 8 math scores increased from last year but reading scores decreased. Grade 11 math and reading scores decreased.
Typically, schools with CSL’s status have to engage students in tutoring and further assessments. The school also has to work on an overall improvement plan.
A school official was unavailable for comment.
COUNCIL ROCK: “QUALITY INSTRUCTION”
All schools in the traditionally high-performing district earned Adequate Yearly Progress status, according to state results.
“We continue to emphasize quality instruction in the classrooms,” Superintendent Mark Klein said. “While we are pleased with the scores on the state assessment, we measure progress for our students across many measures over the course of the school year.”
MORRISVILLE: “SIGNIFICANT CHANGE”
The district and all schools made Adequate Yearly Progress this year. The 11th grade math scores went up significantly, with 28 percent higher scores than last year.
There is still an increase in 11th grade math scores after adding the data of students who are in alternative placements.
“I attribute this to the hard work of our administrators Ferrara as well as our teachers. Through analysis and focused instruction we were able to affect significant change,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson.
NESHAMINY: FOCUS ON SUBGROUPS
The district did not meet AYP because of special education reading.
Although Poquessing and Maple Point Middle Schools did make it, Sandburg and Neshaminy Middle School did not because of special education scores in math and reading.
The high school’s math and reading scores increased double digits over last year’s figures and that school improved in special education, too. But since that Middletown school’s economically disadvantaged students didn’t meet the reading targets, Neshaminy High School is in Corrective Action II.
Neshaminy Superintendent Paul Kadri compared increasing student performance to long distance running.
“As a district, we wish we made AYP,” he said. “We’re sad about the high school, too, but they had a wonderful year. We’re pretty excited about the double digit increase. We need to look and see what’s going on [with the economtion, formative reading assessments and other measures, said district spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
Pennsbury High School made the necessary improvements to be placed in the category of “making progress,” though it’s still in corrective action status.
The high school is in its second year of improvement with the special education subgroup.
Charles Boehm and Pennwood middle schools, which were in warning status last year, are both now making AYP.
SCHOOL LANE CHARTER SCHOOL: YEARLONG FOCUS HELPED
The charter school off Bristol Pike in Bensalem made Adequate Yearly Progress with over 70 percent of its students demonstrating proficiency in math and nearly 70 percent scoring proficient or better in reading.
Karen Schade, the school’s principal, attributes student performance growth to a yearlong focus on reading and vocabulary instruction.
The school serves about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade who live in Bensalem, Philadelphia and other surrounding communities.
Comments compiled by education reporters Joan Hellyer, Manasee Wagh and Rachel Canelli.
Should PSSAs be factor in graduation?
Another in the BCCT series on the 2008 PSSA scores
Should PSSAs be factor in graduation?
By MANASEE WAGH
Though they place great value on increasing state assessment scores, most Bucks County school districts say they don’t consider those results the best indicator of academic performance.
As such, proficiency on the PSSAs shouldn’t be a determining factor for graduation, say many district officials. Most declined to provide percentages of how many students graduated with a less-than-proficient score.
“They have access to that data and whether they choose to provide it is up to them,” said Michael Race, deputy press secretary at the state Department of Education. To get a close estimation of how many graduates did poorly on the PSSAs, look at the number of graduates and the number of below-proficient scores during their junior year, he said, though that doesn’t provide the most accurate picture.
Comments across the county vary as to why PSSA proficiency shouldn’t be a graduation factor, but all respondents agree on one point: The state’s PSSA assessments don’t necessarily paint an accurate picture of a student’s abilities in the core areas of math and reading.
“The PSSAs are broad brush strokes of understanding,” said Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education. The tests don’t measure how well a student may be performing in class, he said. Like other districts, Council Rock relies on other means of assessment besides the state exams.
Competency is based on how an individual performs in each curricular area through class work and course exams, Desko said.
“Kids in high school are taking so many tests. How many assessments do we need to give evidence of student achievement?” he said.
Desko’s sentiments were echoed in a number of other districts.
In Morrisville, which showed marked improvement in the PSSAs this year, students take quarterly assessments that are closely modeled after the state assessments. If an 11th -grade student fails to attain PSSA proficiency, he or she can graduate only after taking further steps.
Graduation requires a 2.0 grade point average as well as a good score on the quarterly district assessments in English and math. Students also must retake the state test in the fall of their senior year.
Those who fail to pass quarterly assessments must join small focus-instruction groups to strengthen the concepts they haven’t grasped.
“The problem is that the PSSA is one test,” said Elizabeth Yonson, Morrisville’s superintendent. During each quarter, the district is already teaching the state standards, she said. In fact, district quarterly assessments are more rigorous than the PSSAs, and the state wants to see Morrisville’s quarterly exams, she added.
The district has improved state assessment scores over three years because of curricular changes, demonstrating that the current system is working, said Yonson.
Centennial, Morrisville, New Hope-Solebury, Council Rock, Central Bucks, Palisades, Neshaminy, Pennridge and Pennsbury all said students usually do better on the PSSAs after retesting their senior year. Otherwise they have to complete other district assessments.
Palisades was one of the only districts to provide information about how many graduates did not pass the PSSAs.
About 14 percent of students in Palisades graduated this year with a less-than-proficient score in reading, while 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSSAs. In the writing assessment, 4.6 percent of graduates did not pass, said Rich Heffernan, principal of Palisades High School.
“Every district is different and every district has different challenges,” he said.
At Pennridge, 131 out of 587 graduates, or about 22 percent, failed one or more of the math, reading and writing tests after the second opportunity to take them, said Arlene Zielinski, the district’s assistant superintendent for programs. However, “a good portion” of those are special education students whose individual education plans were used for assessment instead, she added.
A disconnect exists between 11th -grade PSSA scores and graduation rates, said Sheila Ballen, director of communications at the state education department. At the same time, it’s a valuable means to evaluate a student, she said.
“The PSSA is a very good tool in assessing reading and math at certain grade levels,” Ballen said. “It gives us a good snapshot in time.”
From Steven Young’s point of view, the PSSAs are a gauge for whether students need more help in certain areas. Therefore, the goal is to attain a proficient or better score.
“However, this is an unlikely result given the variation in aptitude, disposition and life circumstance among students. It is also the case that some students simply do not test well,” said the New Hope-Solebury High School principal.
The way his district gets around a low score is by recognizing the individuality of each student, he said. Teachers use a variety of assessment tools to meet curricular objectives, including tests, project work, papers, oral assessments and formal presentations.
Young called this mixture of tools a “far superior” way to relying on the PSSA, “a single measure of progress.”
Before this year’s results were released, Superintendent Paul Kadri of Neshaminy, which failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards, said the district doesn’t track how many graduates pass the PSSAs. Instead, it looks at a student’s individual education plan.
The district has implemented a kindergarten through 12-grade writing program as one way to improve scores next year.
In the meantime, state proficiency rate targets are increasing, from 54 percent in reading in 2007 to 63 percent this year, and 45 percent to 56 percent in math. By 2014, all students have to score proficient or better to keep up with federal No Child Left Behind standards.
Should PSSAs be factor in graduation?
By MANASEE WAGH
Though they place great value on increasing state assessment scores, most Bucks County school districts say they don’t consider those results the best indicator of academic performance.
As such, proficiency on the PSSAs shouldn’t be a determining factor for graduation, say many district officials. Most declined to provide percentages of how many students graduated with a less-than-proficient score.
“They have access to that data and whether they choose to provide it is up to them,” said Michael Race, deputy press secretary at the state Department of Education. To get a close estimation of how many graduates did poorly on the PSSAs, look at the number of graduates and the number of below-proficient scores during their junior year, he said, though that doesn’t provide the most accurate picture.
Comments across the county vary as to why PSSA proficiency shouldn’t be a graduation factor, but all respondents agree on one point: The state’s PSSA assessments don’t necessarily paint an accurate picture of a student’s abilities in the core areas of math and reading.
“The PSSAs are broad brush strokes of understanding,” said Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education. The tests don’t measure how well a student may be performing in class, he said. Like other districts, Council Rock relies on other means of assessment besides the state exams.
Competency is based on how an individual performs in each curricular area through class work and course exams, Desko said.
“Kids in high school are taking so many tests. How many assessments do we need to give evidence of student achievement?” he said.
Desko’s sentiments were echoed in a number of other districts.
In Morrisville, which showed marked improvement in the PSSAs this year, students take quarterly assessments that are closely modeled after the state assessments. If an 11th -grade student fails to attain PSSA proficiency, he or she can graduate only after taking further steps.
Graduation requires a 2.0 grade point average as well as a good score on the quarterly district assessments in English and math. Students also must retake the state test in the fall of their senior year.
Those who fail to pass quarterly assessments must join small focus-instruction groups to strengthen the concepts they haven’t grasped.
“The problem is that the PSSA is one test,” said Elizabeth Yonson, Morrisville’s superintendent. During each quarter, the district is already teaching the state standards, she said. In fact, district quarterly assessments are more rigorous than the PSSAs, and the state wants to see Morrisville’s quarterly exams, she added.
The district has improved state assessment scores over three years because of curricular changes, demonstrating that the current system is working, said Yonson.
Centennial, Morrisville, New Hope-Solebury, Council Rock, Central Bucks, Palisades, Neshaminy, Pennridge and Pennsbury all said students usually do better on the PSSAs after retesting their senior year. Otherwise they have to complete other district assessments.
Palisades was one of the only districts to provide information about how many graduates did not pass the PSSAs.
About 14 percent of students in Palisades graduated this year with a less-than-proficient score in reading, while 22 percent of graduates did not pass the math PSSAs. In the writing assessment, 4.6 percent of graduates did not pass, said Rich Heffernan, principal of Palisades High School.
“Every district is different and every district has different challenges,” he said.
At Pennridge, 131 out of 587 graduates, or about 22 percent, failed one or more of the math, reading and writing tests after the second opportunity to take them, said Arlene Zielinski, the district’s assistant superintendent for programs. However, “a good portion” of those are special education students whose individual education plans were used for assessment instead, she added.
A disconnect exists between 11th -grade PSSA scores and graduation rates, said Sheila Ballen, director of communications at the state education department. At the same time, it’s a valuable means to evaluate a student, she said.
“The PSSA is a very good tool in assessing reading and math at certain grade levels,” Ballen said. “It gives us a good snapshot in time.”
From Steven Young’s point of view, the PSSAs are a gauge for whether students need more help in certain areas. Therefore, the goal is to attain a proficient or better score.
“However, this is an unlikely result given the variation in aptitude, disposition and life circumstance among students. It is also the case that some students simply do not test well,” said the New Hope-Solebury High School principal.
The way his district gets around a low score is by recognizing the individuality of each student, he said. Teachers use a variety of assessment tools to meet curricular objectives, including tests, project work, papers, oral assessments and formal presentations.
Young called this mixture of tools a “far superior” way to relying on the PSSA, “a single measure of progress.”
Before this year’s results were released, Superintendent Paul Kadri of Neshaminy, which failed to meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standards, said the district doesn’t track how many graduates pass the PSSAs. Instead, it looks at a student’s individual education plan.
The district has implemented a kindergarten through 12-grade writing program as one way to improve scores next year.
In the meantime, state proficiency rate targets are increasing, from 54 percent in reading in 2007 to 63 percent this year, and 45 percent to 56 percent in math. By 2014, all students have to score proficient or better to keep up with federal No Child Left Behind standards.
All PSSA, All Day
The BCCT is devoting a large portion of today's edition, and this week, to examining the PSSA scores for the area.
ABCs The of your schools
PSSA: Changes coming to student evaluations
Revisions in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-10 school year, a state education department official said.
By JOAN HELLYER
The clock is ticking down to 2014.
But some area school districts could be in trouble if revisions are not made to the way special education scores are handled.
By 2014 the federal government wants all students to be learning on their respective grade level or higher.
Such performance is necessary to help students develop the academic skills they’ll need in adulthood, according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The federal government looks for proof of student performance levels, in part, in the results of standardized tests. The state administers the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests each spring to provide that information.
In response to the federal mandate, most local school systems have used a variety of methods in recent years to develop student ability. Some tactics have worked. Others have not.
Oftentimes, that’s because all students learn on grade level, educators say. Special education students, in particular, learn on grade levels three or four years lower than do their peers, educa tors said.
“It’s illogical to expect [the special education] population to perform at grade level,” said Bensalem Superintendent James Lombardo.
But yet they are expected to demonstrate grade-level proficiency on the PSSA mathematics and reading tests. The proficiency rate is a combination of students who scored in either the proficient or advanced range on the tests.
The special education students’ scores count as a subgroup against a school’s overall performance grade if at least 40 spe cial needs kids in a respective building take the test.
Larger numbers of schools are likely to fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress status, as required by NCLB, if special education scores continue to be included in the results the way they are now, Lombardo said.
“That’s because the [proficiency] threshold keeps rising. That makes it very, very difficult for the subgroups to make it,” Lombardo said.
Changes in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-2010 school year, said Shula Nedley, director of the state education department’s Bureau of Assessment and Accountability.
In the meantime, the state added 13 percentage points to PSSA performance rates involving special education scores this year to see if that would bring the results into the proficient range.
But even with that extra 13 points, about a dozen local schools either received a Warning or face some sort of School Improvement or Corrective Action measures because not enough of its special needs students performed at grade level this year, according to state results released last week.
That despite the fact that the overall student population in some of the schools achieved healthy or near perfect proficiency rates.
In fact, only two local high schools, Neshaminy and Bensalem, will get a thorough going over by the state because both schools are in Corrective Action II status for more than one year.
NESHAMINY’S CHALLENGE
In Neshaminy’s case, not enough economically disadvantaged students earned a proficient score on the PSSA reading test. In Bensalem, not enough special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA math and reading tests.
The state is looking at each situation individually to see what’s being done to correct the situation internally before it takes action, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania’s education department secretary.
“Oftentimes it’s an inadequacy of funding in those districts. In terms of resources and quality, we’re building on that capacity,” the secretary said in a Thursday conference call from Harrisburg.
Those resources will be in addition to the variety of methods area schools and districts already use to develop and monitor student progress, local administrators said.
The methods include periodic student testing with programs like 4Sight and Study Island. The testing materials are paid for through a variety of resources, including general funds and state and federal grants, administrators said.
School systems have realized a benefit in using these monitoring tools they said.
It helps identify students who need extra help and provides students the chance to become aware of test content and techniques, said Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
In Centennial, the intervention efforts have proved most beneficial to William Tennent High School’s special education population, said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, the district’s director of teaching and learning.
Over the last two years, Tennent special education students demonstrated a combined 28 percent leap in performance at proficient and advanced levels, she said.
Given the special education students success, Tennent was able, for the first time in six years to make AYP by reaching “Making Progress” status, Foight-Cressman said.
ABCs The of your schools
PSSA: Changes coming to student evaluations
Revisions in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-10 school year, a state education department official said.
By JOAN HELLYER
The clock is ticking down to 2014.
But some area school districts could be in trouble if revisions are not made to the way special education scores are handled.
By 2014 the federal government wants all students to be learning on their respective grade level or higher.
Such performance is necessary to help students develop the academic skills they’ll need in adulthood, according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The federal government looks for proof of student performance levels, in part, in the results of standardized tests. The state administers the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests each spring to provide that information.
In response to the federal mandate, most local school systems have used a variety of methods in recent years to develop student ability. Some tactics have worked. Others have not.
Oftentimes, that’s because all students learn on grade level, educators say. Special education students, in particular, learn on grade levels three or four years lower than do their peers, educa tors said.
“It’s illogical to expect [the special education] population to perform at grade level,” said Bensalem Superintendent James Lombardo.
But yet they are expected to demonstrate grade-level proficiency on the PSSA mathematics and reading tests. The proficiency rate is a combination of students who scored in either the proficient or advanced range on the tests.
The special education students’ scores count as a subgroup against a school’s overall performance grade if at least 40 spe cial needs kids in a respective building take the test.
Larger numbers of schools are likely to fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress status, as required by NCLB, if special education scores continue to be included in the results the way they are now, Lombardo said.
“That’s because the [proficiency] threshold keeps rising. That makes it very, very difficult for the subgroups to make it,” Lombardo said.
Changes in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-2010 school year, said Shula Nedley, director of the state education department’s Bureau of Assessment and Accountability.
In the meantime, the state added 13 percentage points to PSSA performance rates involving special education scores this year to see if that would bring the results into the proficient range.
But even with that extra 13 points, about a dozen local schools either received a Warning or face some sort of School Improvement or Corrective Action measures because not enough of its special needs students performed at grade level this year, according to state results released last week.
That despite the fact that the overall student population in some of the schools achieved healthy or near perfect proficiency rates.
In fact, only two local high schools, Neshaminy and Bensalem, will get a thorough going over by the state because both schools are in Corrective Action II status for more than one year.
NESHAMINY’S CHALLENGE
In Neshaminy’s case, not enough economically disadvantaged students earned a proficient score on the PSSA reading test. In Bensalem, not enough special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA math and reading tests.
The state is looking at each situation individually to see what’s being done to correct the situation internally before it takes action, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania’s education department secretary.
“Oftentimes it’s an inadequacy of funding in those districts. In terms of resources and quality, we’re building on that capacity,” the secretary said in a Thursday conference call from Harrisburg.
Those resources will be in addition to the variety of methods area schools and districts already use to develop and monitor student progress, local administrators said.
The methods include periodic student testing with programs like 4Sight and Study Island. The testing materials are paid for through a variety of resources, including general funds and state and federal grants, administrators said.
School systems have realized a benefit in using these monitoring tools they said.
It helps identify students who need extra help and provides students the chance to become aware of test content and techniques, said Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
In Centennial, the intervention efforts have proved most beneficial to William Tennent High School’s special education population, said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, the district’s director of teaching and learning.
Over the last two years, Tennent special education students demonstrated a combined 28 percent leap in performance at proficient and advanced levels, she said.
Given the special education students success, Tennent was able, for the first time in six years to make AYP by reaching “Making Progress” status, Foight-Cressman said.
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