From the New York Times
Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
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By DAVID STOUT and JEFF ZELENY
Published: March 10, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama called for sweeping changes in American education on Tuesday, urging states to lift limits on charter schools and exhorting teachers, parents and students to embrace a renewed commitment to learning from grade school through adulthood.
The president said it was time to erase limits on the number of charter schools, which his administration refers to as “laboratories of innovation,” while closing those that are not working. Teachers’ unions oppose the schools, saying they take away funding for public schools.
“I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place,” the president said, in his first major speech on education since he took office seven weeks ago. Caps now exist in 26 states and the District of Columbia, he said.
Putting limits on charter schools, even in places where they are performing well, “isn’t good for our children, our economy or our country,” the president said. He said recently in his budget message that he hoped to double financing for charter schools eventually, and that the Department of Education would help create “new, high-quality charter schools” while supporting the closing of those guilty of “chronic underperformance.”
Mr. Obama’s promotion of charter schools was virtually certain to be greeted with skepticism, at best, from teacher unions, as was his call for a system of merit pay for good teachers, which the president said would mean “treating teachers like the professionals they are, while also holding them more accountable.”
“New teachers will be mentored by experienced ones,” the president said, in an address to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here. “Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools.”
Teacher union leaders reacted cautiously. Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said his union’s 3.2 million members “welcome the vision” laid out by the president and look forward to working with him and Education Secretary Arne Duncan “to transform public education to prepare students to compete in a global economy.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, said her union embraced “the goals and aspirations” outlined by President Obama. “As with any public policy, the devil is in the details, and it is important that teachers’ voices are heard as we implement the president’s vision,” Ms. Weingarten said.
In his address, the president said the United States’ prosperity, security and even the American dream itself are at risk unless the country reverses years of decline and restores its education system to pre-eminence. “Let there be no doubt,” Mr. Obama said. “The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens — and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation.”
“It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career,” Mr. Obama said. “We have accepted failure for too long — enough. America’s entire education system must once more be the envy of the world.”
In promoting a merit-based system of pay for teachers, which unions generally dislike because they say it could foster favoritism, the president was following through on positions he took during his campaign — and implicitly laying down a challenge to unions, traditionally reliable supporters of Democratic candidates.
The president said too many people in his party have resisted the idea of “rewarding excellence” with extra pay, while too many Republicans have opposed spending money on early education “despite compelling evidence of its importance.”
“The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here,” Mr. Obama said. “What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students.”
While the overwhelming number of teachers are “doing an outstanding job under difficult circumstances,” states and school districts should be able “to move bad teachers out of the classroom,” the president said.
While teacher unions have generally resisted merit-pay programs, there have been some successful experiments with them across the country, especially in districts where unions are involved from the beginning in developing them.
The address on Tuesday was the first step in laying out the president’s agenda to improve American schools, officials said, with more specifics to be outlined to Congress in the coming weeks. The president noted that the recently enacted stimulus package calls for spending some $5 billion on the Early Head Start and Head Start programs — an investment that he said would be rewarded by lower welfare rolls, fewer health care costs and less crime, as well as better classroom performance.
Mr. Obama set a goal of the United States having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Nothing less than that will suffice in the 21st Century, when Americans are competing in a world made ever smaller by the Internet, the president said.
The president said the Education Department “will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative but whether it works.”
Charter school proponents were elated by the president’s speech. “With 365,000 students on charter waiting lists, there is no excuse for state laws that stifle the growth of these schools,” Nelson Smith, the president and chief executive of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a statement.
The president said new approaches to education should extend to the traditional school day and the school calendar, both of which should be longer. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land,” he said.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
School buses seen as potential terrorist targets
From the BCCT.
Finally...something Morrisville doesn't have that's a good thing.
School buses seen as potential terrorist targets
By AMANDA CREGAN
Bucks County Courier Times
Terrorism experts say homeland security begins at the school bus stop.
It's a school security gap that most parents, police and school officials don't always see, but terrorists do.
School buses can be vulnerable to a potential attacker, but are often overlooked in a school district's security plan.
That's why 75 police officers, detectives, emergency workers and school administrators from across Montgomery, Bucks and the rest of the Philadelphia region spent Monday learning how to shore up the gap in a course on "School Bus Safety in a Post 9/11 Era" held at the North Montco Technical Career Center in Towamencin and hosted by the Southeast Region Terrorism Taskforce.
Bus safety is an issue that presenter Curtis Lavarello says needs be to taken seriously.
"Based on the assumption by the FBI, there will be further terrorist attacks and school buses are soft targets," said the 23-year law enforcement veteran from Florida. "It's been found that children could be the next target for terrorists."
Because school districts are so fragmented in Pennsylvania, districts each decide if they will contract out for transportation or operate their own bus system, which makes it harder to streamline bus security across the state, he said.
Police and school administrators need to better monitor their school bus yards and need to know if the buses are in a secure compound, who has access to the buses, are they monitored by guards and are the lots properly lit.
Recently, a police officer happened to drive by a dark, unsecured school bus lot in Florida and spotted someone cutting the buses' brake lines, said Lavarello.
"It's a very real threat to our children across the country in terms of homeland security," he said.
But the first line of defense in school security can start with parents at the bus stop and the school bus drivers.
Parents need to be observant of individuals they've never seen before or strange vehicles in close proximity to their child's bus stop.
A potential attacker would also notice if parents habitually chat at length with bus drivers, prolonging the bus' stop and opening the site up to attack.
Bus drivers also need to be more aware of the emotional state of students on the bus, if they are crying or seem upset or depressed. Reporting disturbed students to school officials could be a way to stop them if they plan to carry out a violent school act.
"You have to realize that what happens in school, happens on the school bus. Everyone is focusing on the protection of schools, but the bus safety is really lacking," said Sean Burke, president of School Safety Advocacy Council. "I think we're sadly misinformed to think that people who plan to do our children harm don't know this."
Finally...something Morrisville doesn't have that's a good thing.
School buses seen as potential terrorist targets
By AMANDA CREGAN
Bucks County Courier Times
Terrorism experts say homeland security begins at the school bus stop.
It's a school security gap that most parents, police and school officials don't always see, but terrorists do.
School buses can be vulnerable to a potential attacker, but are often overlooked in a school district's security plan.
That's why 75 police officers, detectives, emergency workers and school administrators from across Montgomery, Bucks and the rest of the Philadelphia region spent Monday learning how to shore up the gap in a course on "School Bus Safety in a Post 9/11 Era" held at the North Montco Technical Career Center in Towamencin and hosted by the Southeast Region Terrorism Taskforce.
Bus safety is an issue that presenter Curtis Lavarello says needs be to taken seriously.
"Based on the assumption by the FBI, there will be further terrorist attacks and school buses are soft targets," said the 23-year law enforcement veteran from Florida. "It's been found that children could be the next target for terrorists."
Because school districts are so fragmented in Pennsylvania, districts each decide if they will contract out for transportation or operate their own bus system, which makes it harder to streamline bus security across the state, he said.
Police and school administrators need to better monitor their school bus yards and need to know if the buses are in a secure compound, who has access to the buses, are they monitored by guards and are the lots properly lit.
Recently, a police officer happened to drive by a dark, unsecured school bus lot in Florida and spotted someone cutting the buses' brake lines, said Lavarello.
"It's a very real threat to our children across the country in terms of homeland security," he said.
But the first line of defense in school security can start with parents at the bus stop and the school bus drivers.
Parents need to be observant of individuals they've never seen before or strange vehicles in close proximity to their child's bus stop.
A potential attacker would also notice if parents habitually chat at length with bus drivers, prolonging the bus' stop and opening the site up to attack.
Bus drivers also need to be more aware of the emotional state of students on the bus, if they are crying or seem upset or depressed. Reporting disturbed students to school officials could be a way to stop them if they plan to carry out a violent school act.
"You have to realize that what happens in school, happens on the school bus. Everyone is focusing on the protection of schools, but the bus safety is really lacking," said Sean Burke, president of School Safety Advocacy Council. "I think we're sadly misinformed to think that people who plan to do our children harm don't know this."
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Neshaminy: Full-day kindergarten nixed
From the BCCT.
But Morrisville still has it...
Full-day kindergarten nixed
By RACHEL CANELLI
High school administrators also talked about how they're saving money.
The vote's finally in and it's no way for full-day K - at least not next year.
During a strategic action committee meeting attended by more than 60 people that focused on the budget Monday night, the Neshaminy school board voted 6-3 that with a possible $14 million deficit, the district simply cannot afford to implement a full-day kindergarten program.
Board President Ritchie Webb recommended kicking the concept, which could cost several hundred thousand dollars, back to the administration for future reconsideration.
Board members Kim Koutsouradis, Richard Eccles and Frank Koziol, though, voted against the motion and for pursuing a plan.
Eccles said Neshaminy's students need early childhood intervention to help boost standardized test scores, and Koziol said he believes grants could fund the program.
"The conversation (about full-day K) cannot go away," said acting Superintendent Lou Muenker. "It's something our community will value and needs."
Meanwhile, the Neshaminy high school administrators said they're doing their part to help trim the fat.
Principal Alex Menio said faculty members are using electronic versus paper memos, and using white instead of colored paper.
Administrators said moving the ninth grade from the middle schools up to the high school next year could save about $100,000 by condensing athletic teams. That transition will also save the 34 cents per mile Neshaminy pays teachers who need to go to more than one building during the school day.
Officials are also looking at extending the life of uniforms, moving competitions within the district and putting course selection, newsletters, handbooks and policies online.
"We need your help," Webb told the high school staff. "Look at positions. We hope you'll continue to try to help us out."
The board also combed through some of the more than 70 suggestions from the public to cut expenses.
Some residents said they support the board looking at every dollar, and making hard decisions to help families struggling to pay their taxes. While other parents, and board members said the district needs to negotiate a new teacher's contract, or ask the certified staff to come up with concessions, before hurting the kids.
Although the board members said they're working on making a deal, district officials still need to find other ways to decrease costs.
But Morrisville still has it...
Full-day kindergarten nixed
By RACHEL CANELLI
High school administrators also talked about how they're saving money.
The vote's finally in and it's no way for full-day K - at least not next year.
During a strategic action committee meeting attended by more than 60 people that focused on the budget Monday night, the Neshaminy school board voted 6-3 that with a possible $14 million deficit, the district simply cannot afford to implement a full-day kindergarten program.
Board President Ritchie Webb recommended kicking the concept, which could cost several hundred thousand dollars, back to the administration for future reconsideration.
Board members Kim Koutsouradis, Richard Eccles and Frank Koziol, though, voted against the motion and for pursuing a plan.
Eccles said Neshaminy's students need early childhood intervention to help boost standardized test scores, and Koziol said he believes grants could fund the program.
"The conversation (about full-day K) cannot go away," said acting Superintendent Lou Muenker. "It's something our community will value and needs."
Meanwhile, the Neshaminy high school administrators said they're doing their part to help trim the fat.
Principal Alex Menio said faculty members are using electronic versus paper memos, and using white instead of colored paper.
Administrators said moving the ninth grade from the middle schools up to the high school next year could save about $100,000 by condensing athletic teams. That transition will also save the 34 cents per mile Neshaminy pays teachers who need to go to more than one building during the school day.
Officials are also looking at extending the life of uniforms, moving competitions within the district and putting course selection, newsletters, handbooks and policies online.
"We need your help," Webb told the high school staff. "Look at positions. We hope you'll continue to try to help us out."
The board also combed through some of the more than 70 suggestions from the public to cut expenses.
Some residents said they support the board looking at every dollar, and making hard decisions to help families struggling to pay their taxes. While other parents, and board members said the district needs to negotiate a new teacher's contract, or ask the certified staff to come up with concessions, before hurting the kids.
Although the board members said they're working on making a deal, district officials still need to find other ways to decrease costs.
More right to know updates
From the BCCT.
The pendulum swings wildly as the new law gets tested. Who knew that those homemade tapes of school board meetings are now part of the open records law and can be requested by others?
Open records law fuels spats with municipalities
By AMANDA PALLESCHI
The Associated Press
Every community has one: the gadfly, the complainer, the curmudgeon. The concerned citizen with a comment at the ready for the most ordinary of agenda items, pen in pocket for scouring budgets line by line to account for every dollar.
They are there to keep local government honest, with help from the state's new Right to Know Law that took effect in January.
But some municipalities are starting to complain that the law is miring them in paper work and creating logistical and financial headaches.
State and county agencies have set up offices and created positions to deal with requests under the new law. Borough feuds such as the 25-year battle that Jim Kilgore has waged against the Franklintown Borough Council in northern York County are testing how the law is working.
And Kilgore isn't just an interested citizen. He's a member of Borough Council.
"Municipal government touches residents in their everyday lives more than we do," said Joanne Burkhart, the open-records officer for Cumberland County. "They have more requests than we do."
Kilgore has made 16 requests since the law was enacted, and 11 replies were due to him by last week. The law allows five business days for replies, but the borough requested the maximum 30-day extension.
His requests ran the gamut of his gripes in the 25 years he's lived in the borough. How much is the borough secretary making? How much does the borough owe in liability insurance on a public park? What did the letter of complaint about him, read aloud at the last meeting, say?
"Things look and smell funny in this borough. That's all I really want to say," Kilgore said.
Dick Blouch, the Franklintown council president, estimated that Kilgore's requests will cost the borough $1,000 for certified mail and lawyer and administrative fees.
Governments of all sizes, even in small municipalities such as Franklintown, had better get used to it, said Matt Brouillette, the CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit think tank that develops and promotes public policies.
"This is a new day in Pennsylvania where government is going to be more open and transparent. I don't have any sympathy for government," he said. "Go cry to somebody else. Don't cry to taxpayers and citizens."
Kilgore is serving a two-year term on the Borough Council after losing the election for a four-year term in 2007. But his involvement with its agendas and politics goes back years.
It all started with the trees, he said. In 1999, Kilgore collected the signatures of 31 borough residents unhappy with trees that the borough had planted along the sidewalks in front of their houses. The petition requested that the borough replace the sidewalks because the trees' roots were starting to break up the concrete. The borough eventually took care of the trees.
Kilgore also has complained about tax increases, a neighbor burning trash and a council member who Kilgore said made a racist remark at a gas station in town. Kilgore even was accused of lunging at borough secretary Deb Walker and threatening her during a heated discussion of the sanitation budget, and he was cited with disorderly conduct.
Blouch said Kilgore is not a new problem for the 532-resident borough with a $156,000 yearly budget. But he's escalated things recently.
"It paralyzes the function and the operation of the borough," Blouch said, noting that Walker has had to spend much of her day in the borough office on Baltimore Street searching for and collating Kilgore's requests.
"He's always been after records. It could be because he retired, so he has more time," Walker said.
While Kilgore and others like him might have long been filing requests, it is now more difficult for local governments to ignore them, said Barry Fox, the deputy director of open records for the state. His office held seminars to educate local government officials on the law before it went into effect Jan. 1.
Before then, Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law was known as one of the least transparent in the country. Now, Fox said, he sees appeals come into his office frequently from those who have been ignored _ 97 in January and February.
It all comes with the territory of more government transparency, he said. He's also seen municipal officials _ who know they have residents like Kilgore _ begin to squirm.
"These citizens exist in every municipality ... these gadflies ... We get asked a lot if they are going to come out of the woodwork now," Fox said.
Gary Berresford, the borough manager in Wormleysburg, has worried that his borough's longtime agitator will begin inundating the office with requests under the new law. That person has asked for the same documents repeatedly, Berresford said.
"It's not that they want those records _ it's that they want to harass the people to get those records," Berresford said. "They are unhappy with the borough, and they are asking for things they don't even need."
But borough councils can use the open-records law to their advantage, too.
Kilgore taped Franklintown's most recent meeting Feb. 4. The council vice president served an open-records request on behalf of six residents for Kilgore's tape. Such tapes were exempt under the state's previous Right to Know Law, but they recently were ruled fair game for such requests.
Kilgore is still waiting for his five most recent requests. He's also waiting to see whether they will help him keep his municipality on its toes.
"I used to ask about a budget and get served up some sort of legal goodie," he said.
And now?
It took the full 30 days, but Walker mailed Kilgore an itemized list of answers to his first 11 requests, with eight pages of enclosed copies of treasurer's bonds and contact information for the borough's waste management service.
Kilgore's not satisfied, he said. He said he can't read the sanitation budget. Now he's waiting eagerly for replies to his remaining five requests.
If he's still not happy with the responses, there's always the appeals process.
The pendulum swings wildly as the new law gets tested. Who knew that those homemade tapes of school board meetings are now part of the open records law and can be requested by others?
Open records law fuels spats with municipalities
By AMANDA PALLESCHI
The Associated Press
Every community has one: the gadfly, the complainer, the curmudgeon. The concerned citizen with a comment at the ready for the most ordinary of agenda items, pen in pocket for scouring budgets line by line to account for every dollar.
They are there to keep local government honest, with help from the state's new Right to Know Law that took effect in January.
But some municipalities are starting to complain that the law is miring them in paper work and creating logistical and financial headaches.
State and county agencies have set up offices and created positions to deal with requests under the new law. Borough feuds such as the 25-year battle that Jim Kilgore has waged against the Franklintown Borough Council in northern York County are testing how the law is working.
And Kilgore isn't just an interested citizen. He's a member of Borough Council.
"Municipal government touches residents in their everyday lives more than we do," said Joanne Burkhart, the open-records officer for Cumberland County. "They have more requests than we do."
Kilgore has made 16 requests since the law was enacted, and 11 replies were due to him by last week. The law allows five business days for replies, but the borough requested the maximum 30-day extension.
His requests ran the gamut of his gripes in the 25 years he's lived in the borough. How much is the borough secretary making? How much does the borough owe in liability insurance on a public park? What did the letter of complaint about him, read aloud at the last meeting, say?
"Things look and smell funny in this borough. That's all I really want to say," Kilgore said.
Dick Blouch, the Franklintown council president, estimated that Kilgore's requests will cost the borough $1,000 for certified mail and lawyer and administrative fees.
Governments of all sizes, even in small municipalities such as Franklintown, had better get used to it, said Matt Brouillette, the CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit think tank that develops and promotes public policies.
"This is a new day in Pennsylvania where government is going to be more open and transparent. I don't have any sympathy for government," he said. "Go cry to somebody else. Don't cry to taxpayers and citizens."
Kilgore is serving a two-year term on the Borough Council after losing the election for a four-year term in 2007. But his involvement with its agendas and politics goes back years.
It all started with the trees, he said. In 1999, Kilgore collected the signatures of 31 borough residents unhappy with trees that the borough had planted along the sidewalks in front of their houses. The petition requested that the borough replace the sidewalks because the trees' roots were starting to break up the concrete. The borough eventually took care of the trees.
Kilgore also has complained about tax increases, a neighbor burning trash and a council member who Kilgore said made a racist remark at a gas station in town. Kilgore even was accused of lunging at borough secretary Deb Walker and threatening her during a heated discussion of the sanitation budget, and he was cited with disorderly conduct.
Blouch said Kilgore is not a new problem for the 532-resident borough with a $156,000 yearly budget. But he's escalated things recently.
"It paralyzes the function and the operation of the borough," Blouch said, noting that Walker has had to spend much of her day in the borough office on Baltimore Street searching for and collating Kilgore's requests.
"He's always been after records. It could be because he retired, so he has more time," Walker said.
While Kilgore and others like him might have long been filing requests, it is now more difficult for local governments to ignore them, said Barry Fox, the deputy director of open records for the state. His office held seminars to educate local government officials on the law before it went into effect Jan. 1.
Before then, Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law was known as one of the least transparent in the country. Now, Fox said, he sees appeals come into his office frequently from those who have been ignored _ 97 in January and February.
It all comes with the territory of more government transparency, he said. He's also seen municipal officials _ who know they have residents like Kilgore _ begin to squirm.
"These citizens exist in every municipality ... these gadflies ... We get asked a lot if they are going to come out of the woodwork now," Fox said.
Gary Berresford, the borough manager in Wormleysburg, has worried that his borough's longtime agitator will begin inundating the office with requests under the new law. That person has asked for the same documents repeatedly, Berresford said.
"It's not that they want those records _ it's that they want to harass the people to get those records," Berresford said. "They are unhappy with the borough, and they are asking for things they don't even need."
But borough councils can use the open-records law to their advantage, too.
Kilgore taped Franklintown's most recent meeting Feb. 4. The council vice president served an open-records request on behalf of six residents for Kilgore's tape. Such tapes were exempt under the state's previous Right to Know Law, but they recently were ruled fair game for such requests.
Kilgore is still waiting for his five most recent requests. He's also waiting to see whether they will help him keep his municipality on its toes.
"I used to ask about a budget and get served up some sort of legal goodie," he said.
And now?
It took the full 30 days, but Walker mailed Kilgore an itemized list of answers to his first 11 requests, with eight pages of enclosed copies of treasurer's bonds and contact information for the borough's waste management service.
Kilgore's not satisfied, he said. He said he can't read the sanitation budget. Now he's waiting eagerly for replies to his remaining five requests.
If he's still not happy with the responses, there's always the appeals process.
And More Band Fallout
From the BCCT.
Another letter about the poorly phrased opinion piece condemning the band.
Yes, the BCCT has apologized for their lack of foresight and editing skills. It is not a mystery how that appeared in the paper. We know that it's good press policy to get the back and forth going with each side lining up to fire another volley of verbiage and then purchase the newspaper to see the results each day. Another day, another volley. It keeps circulation up.
Maybe, as was pointed out, the original writer did make a real hash of her point, that Pennsbury is the shining city on the hill, a beacon pointing to educational Nirvana, while Morrisville (always said with that slightly condescending twist and tone of voice), just doesn't have what it takes.
I can read the newspapers too. There's lots of people in Pennsbury who see the warts over there, as well as the good. There's good and bad in Morrisville too. Why do so many people persist in the very un-original mantra chant of Pennsbury good, Morrisville bad? Because it's easy and cheap. Aren't you tired of so many people mindlessly bashing Morrisville because it's become part of their daily day: Get up, shower, drink coffee, bash Morrisville, go to work...?
It's because right here at home, perversely, that the negative Morrisvillains dominate the political landscape. School board members who want to close the schools. Council members who want to shut the town.
If you like what you see everyday in the newspapers, then vote for the same old people with the same old ways of running things. If you want a change, then be the change and come out and vote.
And if you want Guy to do a better job of editing next time: gpetroziello@phillyBurbs.com
Misguided argument
By GUY PETROZIELLO
Bucks County Courier Times
Editor’s note: An apology has been offered.
Once again, the students of Morrisville High were the easy target of a misguided argument, when a recent guest opinion compared a live concert to a televised graduation. Though the author's points may resonate to some, she insulted the many hard-working souls of the Morrisville music program.
An apology should be offered to the students of Morrisville High School, who have felt enough negativity over the last few years, despite increasing test scores and an award-winning band.
Ken Kelman
West Philadelphia
Another letter about the poorly phrased opinion piece condemning the band.
Yes, the BCCT has apologized for their lack of foresight and editing skills. It is not a mystery how that appeared in the paper. We know that it's good press policy to get the back and forth going with each side lining up to fire another volley of verbiage and then purchase the newspaper to see the results each day. Another day, another volley. It keeps circulation up.
Maybe, as was pointed out, the original writer did make a real hash of her point, that Pennsbury is the shining city on the hill, a beacon pointing to educational Nirvana, while Morrisville (always said with that slightly condescending twist and tone of voice), just doesn't have what it takes.
I can read the newspapers too. There's lots of people in Pennsbury who see the warts over there, as well as the good. There's good and bad in Morrisville too. Why do so many people persist in the very un-original mantra chant of Pennsbury good, Morrisville bad? Because it's easy and cheap. Aren't you tired of so many people mindlessly bashing Morrisville because it's become part of their daily day: Get up, shower, drink coffee, bash Morrisville, go to work...?
It's because right here at home, perversely, that the negative Morrisvillains dominate the political landscape. School board members who want to close the schools. Council members who want to shut the town.
If you like what you see everyday in the newspapers, then vote for the same old people with the same old ways of running things. If you want a change, then be the change and come out and vote.
And if you want Guy to do a better job of editing next time: gpetroziello@phillyBurbs.com
Misguided argument
By GUY PETROZIELLO
Bucks County Courier Times
Editor’s note: An apology has been offered.
Once again, the students of Morrisville High were the easy target of a misguided argument, when a recent guest opinion compared a live concert to a televised graduation. Though the author's points may resonate to some, she insulted the many hard-working souls of the Morrisville music program.
An apology should be offered to the students of Morrisville High School, who have felt enough negativity over the last few years, despite increasing test scores and an award-winning band.
Ken Kelman
West Philadelphia
Monday, March 9, 2009
Officials worried about cost of graduation tests
From the BCCT.
Officials worried about cost of graduation tests
By RACHEL CANELLI
Although school directors are relieved that they’ll get to keep some control over statemandated graduation tests, officials are still worried about their cost.
The state Department of Education and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association struck a compromise on graduation requirements this week, reducing tensions from the past two years not only at the state level but among area school boards.
The deal will let districts use their own tests for math, English, social studies and science as long as they meet state standards. The state Education Department will split the costs of verifying the tests’ quality with local districts.
“One thing we did not need was yet another unfunded state mandate,” said Neshaminy school board member William Spitz.
He added he was pleased state education officials accepted the school board association’s input. Spitz described the proposal as strengthening graduation requirements, while allowing districts to decide what works best for them.
The agreement cleared a major hurdle to the controversial graduation competency tests by preserving the right of school districts to administer their own tests. It also delays implementation of the tests for an additional year, in place for students who graduate in 2015.
“Each district needs the flexibility and latitude to do what is best for their student population and additional state mandates are not the answer, especially unfunded mandates,” said Gregory Lucidi, president of the Pennsbury school board.
Under a new policy, juniors in that district, next year’s graduating class, will have to pass the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments in reading and math to receive diplomas, officials said. Teachers there also use alternative assessments and student portfolios to gauge pupils’ success, administrators said.
Even though Lucidi acknowledged the state’s willingness to contribute financially to the new assessments, he said it’s still not enough because taxpayers will end up footing the bill.
That’s a “huge challenge” to ask of taxpayers, especially in the current financial climate, said Harry Kramer, president of the Bensalem school board.
“Districts all over Bucks are trying to save and cut expenses without sacrificing education,” Kramer said.
But officials said they don’t know the price tag of administering the tests because it involves staffing and materials.
“There is no funding to help the students prepare for these exams, or funding to support students who cannot prove proficiency under these new rules,” said Lucidi. “I believe PDE needs to be less concerned with doing the jobs of locally elected school boards and needs to focus on more critical issues such as skyrocketing pension and special education costs.”
But the state Department of Education has argued for the graduation competency exams, saying studies show too many high school graduates aren’t prepared for higher education or work and local tests are inadequate.
State law passed last July established a one-year moratorium on any regulations regarding high school graduation requirements. The State Board of Education will continue its public hearing and input process over the next several months and will formally revisit the proposed regulations once the moratorium expires at the end of June 2009.
That’s one reason why Bristol Township school board President W. Earl Bruck said he’s reluctant to pass final judgment on the plan.
Bruck called the agreement encouraging and promising, but said his other major concern is whether the regulations will be imposed on charter, cyber and non-public schools as well.
“While there could still be an unfunded cost to local school boards, it is certainly less imposing than the proposal previously presented by the PDE,” said Bruck. “[It] reflects a recognition by the PDE that local school boards really do have the best interest of the children at heart and that their opposition to the previous plan was primarily the imposition of more involuntary, unfunded mandates.”
Staff writers Manasee Wagh and Joan Hellyer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Officials worried about cost of graduation tests
By RACHEL CANELLI
Although school directors are relieved that they’ll get to keep some control over statemandated graduation tests, officials are still worried about their cost.
The state Department of Education and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association struck a compromise on graduation requirements this week, reducing tensions from the past two years not only at the state level but among area school boards.
The deal will let districts use their own tests for math, English, social studies and science as long as they meet state standards. The state Education Department will split the costs of verifying the tests’ quality with local districts.
“One thing we did not need was yet another unfunded state mandate,” said Neshaminy school board member William Spitz.
He added he was pleased state education officials accepted the school board association’s input. Spitz described the proposal as strengthening graduation requirements, while allowing districts to decide what works best for them.
The agreement cleared a major hurdle to the controversial graduation competency tests by preserving the right of school districts to administer their own tests. It also delays implementation of the tests for an additional year, in place for students who graduate in 2015.
“Each district needs the flexibility and latitude to do what is best for their student population and additional state mandates are not the answer, especially unfunded mandates,” said Gregory Lucidi, president of the Pennsbury school board.
Under a new policy, juniors in that district, next year’s graduating class, will have to pass the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments in reading and math to receive diplomas, officials said. Teachers there also use alternative assessments and student portfolios to gauge pupils’ success, administrators said.
Even though Lucidi acknowledged the state’s willingness to contribute financially to the new assessments, he said it’s still not enough because taxpayers will end up footing the bill.
That’s a “huge challenge” to ask of taxpayers, especially in the current financial climate, said Harry Kramer, president of the Bensalem school board.
“Districts all over Bucks are trying to save and cut expenses without sacrificing education,” Kramer said.
But officials said they don’t know the price tag of administering the tests because it involves staffing and materials.
“There is no funding to help the students prepare for these exams, or funding to support students who cannot prove proficiency under these new rules,” said Lucidi. “I believe PDE needs to be less concerned with doing the jobs of locally elected school boards and needs to focus on more critical issues such as skyrocketing pension and special education costs.”
But the state Department of Education has argued for the graduation competency exams, saying studies show too many high school graduates aren’t prepared for higher education or work and local tests are inadequate.
State law passed last July established a one-year moratorium on any regulations regarding high school graduation requirements. The State Board of Education will continue its public hearing and input process over the next several months and will formally revisit the proposed regulations once the moratorium expires at the end of June 2009.
That’s one reason why Bristol Township school board President W. Earl Bruck said he’s reluctant to pass final judgment on the plan.
Bruck called the agreement encouraging and promising, but said his other major concern is whether the regulations will be imposed on charter, cyber and non-public schools as well.
“While there could still be an unfunded cost to local school boards, it is certainly less imposing than the proposal previously presented by the PDE,” said Bruck. “[It] reflects a recognition by the PDE that local school boards really do have the best interest of the children at heart and that their opposition to the previous plan was primarily the imposition of more involuntary, unfunded mandates.”
Staff writers Manasee Wagh and Joan Hellyer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Obama, Healthcare, and Morrisville?
While reading about the healthcare summit that President Obama attended last week, these quotes really seemed rather appropriate.
"We didn't get here by accident. The problems we face today are a direct consequence of actions that we failed to take yesterday. Since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform nearly a century ago, we have talked and we have tinkered. We have tried and fallen short, we've stalled for time, and again we have failed to act because of Washington politics or industry lobbying."
"In this effort, every voice has to be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table. There should be no sacred cows. Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect. If that's the measure, we will never get anything done. But when it comes to addressing our health care challenge, we can no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the essential. And I don't think anybody would argue that we are on a sustainable path when it comes to health care."
"Finally, I want to be very clear at the outset that while everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, nobody has the right to take it over and dominate. The status quo is the one option that's not on the table, and those who seek to block any reform at all -- any reform at any costs will not prevail this time around."
"Nothing is harder in politics than doing something now that costs money in order to gain benefits 20 years from now," he said. "It's the single hardest thing to do in politics, and that's part of the reason why health care reform has consistently broken down."
Check out this story with a ten minute video and the text of his remarks. If he wasn't clearly talking about healthcare, he might as well be talking about Morrisville.
It's part of the reason why Morrisville has broken down too. Do you think our current elected leaders can handle the problems of Morrisville and our school district? If they are part of the solution, then re-elect them. If they're part of the problem, then boot their butts out of office.
"We didn't get here by accident. The problems we face today are a direct consequence of actions that we failed to take yesterday. Since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform nearly a century ago, we have talked and we have tinkered. We have tried and fallen short, we've stalled for time, and again we have failed to act because of Washington politics or industry lobbying."
"In this effort, every voice has to be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table. There should be no sacred cows. Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect. If that's the measure, we will never get anything done. But when it comes to addressing our health care challenge, we can no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the essential. And I don't think anybody would argue that we are on a sustainable path when it comes to health care."
"Finally, I want to be very clear at the outset that while everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, nobody has the right to take it over and dominate. The status quo is the one option that's not on the table, and those who seek to block any reform at all -- any reform at any costs will not prevail this time around."
"Nothing is harder in politics than doing something now that costs money in order to gain benefits 20 years from now," he said. "It's the single hardest thing to do in politics, and that's part of the reason why health care reform has consistently broken down."
Check out this story with a ten minute video and the text of his remarks. If he wasn't clearly talking about healthcare, he might as well be talking about Morrisville.
It's part of the reason why Morrisville has broken down too. Do you think our current elected leaders can handle the problems of Morrisville and our school district? If they are part of the solution, then re-elect them. If they're part of the problem, then boot their butts out of office.
More Band Fallout
From the BCCT.
I notice that the newspaper has apologized at least twice now, but not the letter writer.
Derogatory comment
Bucks County Courier Times
I am appalled at the Guest Opinion by Gloria DelVecchio and cannot believe that your paper would print something so derogatory for the children of Morrisville's band to read. It is one thing for Mrs. DelVecchio to be angry with the people in Morrisville and Pennsbury; but to attack innocent children who put many long hours into practicing and gather great pleasure in playing in the band, was uncalled for.
The children of Morrisville are Morrisville's future, a future that I am very worried about. If people keep attacking our children, they will never come back and give to a community where they were treated like outcasts. We have great children in our community. I know this from all the time I spend with them. They have so much to offer and people like Mrs. DelVecchio need to spend more time with them to understand that.
As for the performance she watched on Morrisville's educational channel, it was a rebroadcast of an event that took place outside on an evening in June. We all know that sound quality of the educational channel is not all that great.
If Mrs. DelVecchio took the time to attend one of our concerts, she would see and hear what wonderful children our town is privileged to have. No one has ever walked away disappointed after one of our children's performances.
Before someone puts our children down, they should take the time to see a live performance. That way they can write an informed article. Mrs. DelVecchio and the Bucks County Courier Times owe the children of Morrisville's band an apology.
Donna Wilson
Editor’s note: We cannot speak for Mrs. DelVecchio but believe her sleight was unintentional, as her point was that Morrisville children would have greater opportunities at Pennsbury High School. In retrospect, however, her comments should have been softened. We regret that students might have been hurt.
I notice that the newspaper has apologized at least twice now, but not the letter writer.
Derogatory comment
Bucks County Courier Times
I am appalled at the Guest Opinion by Gloria DelVecchio and cannot believe that your paper would print something so derogatory for the children of Morrisville's band to read. It is one thing for Mrs. DelVecchio to be angry with the people in Morrisville and Pennsbury; but to attack innocent children who put many long hours into practicing and gather great pleasure in playing in the band, was uncalled for.
The children of Morrisville are Morrisville's future, a future that I am very worried about. If people keep attacking our children, they will never come back and give to a community where they were treated like outcasts. We have great children in our community. I know this from all the time I spend with them. They have so much to offer and people like Mrs. DelVecchio need to spend more time with them to understand that.
As for the performance she watched on Morrisville's educational channel, it was a rebroadcast of an event that took place outside on an evening in June. We all know that sound quality of the educational channel is not all that great.
If Mrs. DelVecchio took the time to attend one of our concerts, she would see and hear what wonderful children our town is privileged to have. No one has ever walked away disappointed after one of our children's performances.
Before someone puts our children down, they should take the time to see a live performance. That way they can write an informed article. Mrs. DelVecchio and the Bucks County Courier Times owe the children of Morrisville's band an apology.
Donna Wilson
Editor’s note: We cannot speak for Mrs. DelVecchio but believe her sleight was unintentional, as her point was that Morrisville children would have greater opportunities at Pennsbury High School. In retrospect, however, her comments should have been softened. We regret that students might have been hurt.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Look For the Union Worker
From the BCCT.
Boondoggle to make sure that union members get the jobs, or responsible government regulation?
The idea has merit, but I question why any council member would spend their time on an issue like this when the borough is taking a second turn around in the swirling water of a financial toilet. Is this really a pertinent issue today?
If it's about being "responsible", does this mean that there's no responsible bidding process already in place? Or that the bidding contractor is not already held responsible when placing a bid? If so, that's a glaring hole in the borough process and that needs to be addressed.
Maybe it would be better to see five shovels in the ground bringing jobs back to Morrisville rather than one perfectly trained shovel working to government specification?
I know this: All things being equal, if I have the chance to hire a local contractor over a contractor from somewhere else, the local guy wins. I want to spend my money here at home.
Council to consider contractor ordinance
By DANNY ADLER
The Morrisville council will consider a law that supporters say is designed to ensure all public construction and maintenance contracts are awarded to responsible, qualified firms that meet a long list of requirements and participate in an apprenticeship program.
Similar responsible-contractor laws have been criticized for their apprenticeship requirements, with critics saying such a rule restricts contracts to union shops. Backers say that isn’t true.
One backer of the borough’s proposed responsible-contractor ordinance is Councilman David Rivella, a union journeyman electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 269.
Rivella, a member of the borough’s ordinance committee, said the proposal will add another layer of security when the council awards contracts worth $10,000 or more. He said the ordinance in no way is meant to promote union work, or IBEW work.
“It’s about being qualified,” Rivella said. “This ordinance is for all trades.
“I don’t know why, but some people like to say that apprenticeship means union,” he added. “People like to try to tie it to that. There’s not one word in the ordinance that says union.”
As of Wednesday, there were 10,890 union apprentices and 1,430 non-union apprentices in Pennsylvania’s construction industry, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Councilwoman Jane Burger, chairwoman of the ordinance committee, said the ordinance could hurt smaller businesses that don’t have apprenticeship programs and could negatively affect smaller local contractors.
She also called the proposal limited, saying, “This does not cover all of our bids.”
Several other municipalities in Lower Bucks County have similar laws.
A responsible-contractor law was criticized by some Lower Makefield residents when the township enacted its version.
Under Morrisville’s proposed ordinance, contractors would have to confirm that they hadn’t defaulted on any project or been prohibited from bidding on any federal, state or local government contracts in the last three years. In addition to having an apprenticeship program, they’d also have to be free of “willful violations” of federal or state safety laws.
One provision in the eight page ordinance says contractors must confirm that “all employees are United States citizens or properly documented legal aliens (who can legally work in the U.S.).” Another provision would require contractors to adhere to prevailing wage rates and fringe benefit requirements.
Once a bid is awarded, the borough would have 30 days to determine whether the contractor is qualified under the ordinance. The contractor’s responsibility certification, list of subcontractors and their responsibility certifications would be available for public review.
“This actually protects taxpayer dollars because you know who you’re dealing with upfront,” Rivella said. “Basically, if the contractor has not been debarred or defaulted on any projects or doesn’t have any serious law violations, they have nothing to worry about. This is designed to weed out the unscrupulous firms with bad track records.”
The draft ordinance likely will be discussed at the borough council’s 7:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting in borough hall, 35 Union St. The council could vote on the proposal at its regular 7:30 p.m. meeting March 16 in borough hall.
Boondoggle to make sure that union members get the jobs, or responsible government regulation?
The idea has merit, but I question why any council member would spend their time on an issue like this when the borough is taking a second turn around in the swirling water of a financial toilet. Is this really a pertinent issue today?
If it's about being "responsible", does this mean that there's no responsible bidding process already in place? Or that the bidding contractor is not already held responsible when placing a bid? If so, that's a glaring hole in the borough process and that needs to be addressed.
Maybe it would be better to see five shovels in the ground bringing jobs back to Morrisville rather than one perfectly trained shovel working to government specification?
I know this: All things being equal, if I have the chance to hire a local contractor over a contractor from somewhere else, the local guy wins. I want to spend my money here at home.
Council to consider contractor ordinance
By DANNY ADLER
The Morrisville council will consider a law that supporters say is designed to ensure all public construction and maintenance contracts are awarded to responsible, qualified firms that meet a long list of requirements and participate in an apprenticeship program.
Similar responsible-contractor laws have been criticized for their apprenticeship requirements, with critics saying such a rule restricts contracts to union shops. Backers say that isn’t true.
One backer of the borough’s proposed responsible-contractor ordinance is Councilman David Rivella, a union journeyman electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 269.
Rivella, a member of the borough’s ordinance committee, said the proposal will add another layer of security when the council awards contracts worth $10,000 or more. He said the ordinance in no way is meant to promote union work, or IBEW work.
“It’s about being qualified,” Rivella said. “This ordinance is for all trades.
“I don’t know why, but some people like to say that apprenticeship means union,” he added. “People like to try to tie it to that. There’s not one word in the ordinance that says union.”
As of Wednesday, there were 10,890 union apprentices and 1,430 non-union apprentices in Pennsylvania’s construction industry, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Councilwoman Jane Burger, chairwoman of the ordinance committee, said the ordinance could hurt smaller businesses that don’t have apprenticeship programs and could negatively affect smaller local contractors.
She also called the proposal limited, saying, “This does not cover all of our bids.”
Several other municipalities in Lower Bucks County have similar laws.
A responsible-contractor law was criticized by some Lower Makefield residents when the township enacted its version.
Under Morrisville’s proposed ordinance, contractors would have to confirm that they hadn’t defaulted on any project or been prohibited from bidding on any federal, state or local government contracts in the last three years. In addition to having an apprenticeship program, they’d also have to be free of “willful violations” of federal or state safety laws.
One provision in the eight page ordinance says contractors must confirm that “all employees are United States citizens or properly documented legal aliens (who can legally work in the U.S.).” Another provision would require contractors to adhere to prevailing wage rates and fringe benefit requirements.
Once a bid is awarded, the borough would have 30 days to determine whether the contractor is qualified under the ordinance. The contractor’s responsibility certification, list of subcontractors and their responsibility certifications would be available for public review.
“This actually protects taxpayer dollars because you know who you’re dealing with upfront,” Rivella said. “Basically, if the contractor has not been debarred or defaulted on any projects or doesn’t have any serious law violations, they have nothing to worry about. This is designed to weed out the unscrupulous firms with bad track records.”
The draft ordinance likely will be discussed at the borough council’s 7:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting in borough hall, 35 Union St. The council could vote on the proposal at its regular 7:30 p.m. meeting March 16 in borough hall.
Locks of Love and Gym Night
From the BCCT.
Thank you to all of the staff and students. Job well done!
Lots of donations for Locks of Love
More students than ever participated in the event this year.
By MANASEE WAGH
At least five feet of hair will soon be flying through the mail from Morrisville.
Three students and three teachers got their ponytails lopped off Friday in front of the entire student body in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School. The hair will be donated to Locks of Love, which fashions it into hairpieces for children who have lost their own hair due to medical conditions.
“I wanted to get my hair cut anyway, and I also wanted to do it for the cause,” said sixth-grader Maggie Colon, 11. Wearing the school colors, blue and gold, in her tie-dyed knee socks, and sporting blue paw prints on her cheeks, she left the event gripping several inches of hair in her hand, secured at one end by rubber bands.
Other students wearing blue and gold saturated the gym with cheers and school spirit during the school’s annual Gym Night, a primarily athletic competition pitting one half of the student body against the other.
The afternoon event started with some students and a teacher playing the national anthem on electric guitars. During a variety of games, students in grades six through eight ran in relay races, shot hoops and participated in other contests. In the evening, grades nine through 12 had their own Gym Night with similar events, including dance and cheerleading competitions and an art contest.
Kids were judged on sportsmanship and school spirit, the teachers said.
It was the third Gym Night where staff and students had their hair cut for Locks of Love, said French teacher and National Honor Society adviser Elizabeth Glaum-Lathbury. Each time she has organized the charitable event, the response has grown, especially from students, she said.
“This is a fun event and a great cause,” she said, adding that many students said they wanted to participate next year when their hair would be long enough. Locks of Love requires a hair donation to be at least 10 inches long.
The donors sat in folding chairs over a sheet of blue tarp for the quickest haircuts of their lives.
“I’ve done it twice already. I’ve been wanting to do it again,” said senior Nichole Kamann, 18, holding up a hank of dark brown hair in her fist.
Students from the National Honor Society sold more than $100 of raffle tickets to the student body for a chance to cut a teacher’s hair. The school is sending a $200 check from ticket sales and other donated funds to Locks of Love, along with the ponytails.
While the ponytails came from female heads, teacher Kevin Jones got his head shaved. It’s not enough to donate, but his gesture did raise more money through ticket sales. The rest of the time, Jones ran around dressed up as the school’s bulldog mascot and pretended to cut the hair of people in the crowd with oversized plastic scissors.
After understandably unprofessional cuts, the kids got a chance to have their hair snipped and styled by Barbara Girton, a hairdresser in a Morrisville barbershop. She volunteers to help clean up after the pony tail snips every time the school holds the event.
One of Girton’s daughters was diagnosed with leukemia a couple of years ago, so helping a Locks of Love event is more meaningful than ever to her. Her daughter is now in remission from the cancer.
“This town was very supportive through all of that,” she said. “Anytime I can do this, I don’t mind.”
Thank you to all of the staff and students. Job well done!
Lots of donations for Locks of Love
More students than ever participated in the event this year.
By MANASEE WAGH
At least five feet of hair will soon be flying through the mail from Morrisville.
Three students and three teachers got their ponytails lopped off Friday in front of the entire student body in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School. The hair will be donated to Locks of Love, which fashions it into hairpieces for children who have lost their own hair due to medical conditions.
“I wanted to get my hair cut anyway, and I also wanted to do it for the cause,” said sixth-grader Maggie Colon, 11. Wearing the school colors, blue and gold, in her tie-dyed knee socks, and sporting blue paw prints on her cheeks, she left the event gripping several inches of hair in her hand, secured at one end by rubber bands.
Other students wearing blue and gold saturated the gym with cheers and school spirit during the school’s annual Gym Night, a primarily athletic competition pitting one half of the student body against the other.
The afternoon event started with some students and a teacher playing the national anthem on electric guitars. During a variety of games, students in grades six through eight ran in relay races, shot hoops and participated in other contests. In the evening, grades nine through 12 had their own Gym Night with similar events, including dance and cheerleading competitions and an art contest.
Kids were judged on sportsmanship and school spirit, the teachers said.
It was the third Gym Night where staff and students had their hair cut for Locks of Love, said French teacher and National Honor Society adviser Elizabeth Glaum-Lathbury. Each time she has organized the charitable event, the response has grown, especially from students, she said.
“This is a fun event and a great cause,” she said, adding that many students said they wanted to participate next year when their hair would be long enough. Locks of Love requires a hair donation to be at least 10 inches long.
The donors sat in folding chairs over a sheet of blue tarp for the quickest haircuts of their lives.
“I’ve done it twice already. I’ve been wanting to do it again,” said senior Nichole Kamann, 18, holding up a hank of dark brown hair in her fist.
Students from the National Honor Society sold more than $100 of raffle tickets to the student body for a chance to cut a teacher’s hair. The school is sending a $200 check from ticket sales and other donated funds to Locks of Love, along with the ponytails.
While the ponytails came from female heads, teacher Kevin Jones got his head shaved. It’s not enough to donate, but his gesture did raise more money through ticket sales. The rest of the time, Jones ran around dressed up as the school’s bulldog mascot and pretended to cut the hair of people in the crowd with oversized plastic scissors.After understandably unprofessional cuts, the kids got a chance to have their hair snipped and styled by Barbara Girton, a hairdresser in a Morrisville barbershop. She volunteers to help clean up after the pony tail snips every time the school holds the event.
One of Girton’s daughters was diagnosed with leukemia a couple of years ago, so helping a Locks of Love event is more meaningful than ever to her. Her daughter is now in remission from the cancer.
“This town was very supportive through all of that,” she said. “Anytime I can do this, I don’t mind.”
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Record Collector
From the Inquirer.
Does anyone remember the Record Collector? After Pryor's moved out (and before the gentleman's club brouhaha), the corner of Pennsylvania and Bridge used to host a rather amazing and eclectic collection of vinyl LP, cassette, and CD format music.
This is an example of "what coulda been" if Morrisville was a more proactive and welcoming business community.
Too bad the DeLorean's time circuits are all kerfarbled...
Music in store
Performers share space with vintage vinyl at Bordentown's Record Collector.
By Susan Van Dongen, For The Inquirer Posted on Fri, Mar. 6, 2009
On a recent Saturday night after a particularly bad week of economic news, a few dozen people enjoyed almost more live music than they could handle, and for a song.
The Buicks, one of the region's best original blues bands, rocked the room at the Record Collector, in the tiny colonial city of Bordentown. Admission was a recession-friendly 10 bucks.
There were no overpriced drinks to drain your wallet, and no elbow-to-elbow indifferent crowds disrespecting the band. People came to the Record Collector for the music, or maybe to peruse the vintage vinyl, posters and rock-and-roll memorabilia, things like a Beatles tray, a Conway Twitty ashtray, a Monkees charm bracelet, and a Jerry Garcia puppet.
It's like this every weekend at this venue, where there is live music - or sometimes comedy - offered on Friday and Saturday nights. The Record Collector welcomes singer-songwriter Lisa Bouchelle and the all-female group the Refugees tonight. It's the Figgs and Kitty & the Kowalskis on Saturday night.
The store, housed in a renovated art-deco-era bowling alley, can comfortably seat 60 people, but the number at times swells to 75 and more. If you don't want to sit, you can hang out among the records and CDs on the lower tier - not quite a mosh pit, but a fine place to dance.
Promoter and WTSR-FM DJ Randy "Now" Ellis, who used to put on punk and New Wave concerts at the former City Gardens in Trenton, isn't hesitant to reach out to the famous and bring them to Bordentown. Pete Best, the original drummer for the Beatles, was here in October and is scheduled to return July 5.
Peter Tork of the Monkees has been in Bordentown twice with his band, Shoe Suede Blues. Rockabilly great Robert Gordon put on a lively show, as did Graham Parker, Marshall Crenshaw and Ian McLagan.
Scheduled between the better-known acts are some of the tri-state area's most talented bands and performers who play rock, pop, punk, blues and world music.
Owner John Chrambanis opened the store at its Farnsworth Avenue location in the fall of 2006. He previously had a place in Morrisville, and in Trenton before that. With more than 25 years of purveying vintage vinyl to music lovers from all over the country, Chrambanis has an amazing personal collection.
"I really do have an inventory of one million records," he says.
Currently, one of the most valuable items on display at the store is Elvis Presley's first hit single, "That's All Right" with the B-side "Blue Moon of Kentucky," released in 1954. Framed and mounted, it's valued at about $1,200. There's also a recording from 1958 by Mickey Mantle titled My Favorite Hits, with the slugger singing his favorite songs, worth about $100. Previously, Chrambanis had a copy of the Beatles' 1966 release Yesterday and Today, the famed "Butcher Cover" edition, which was pulled by their record company for being in bad taste. Chrambanis sold that record for $1,500.
The tidy, well-organized store also sells sheet music, candy and other goodies, a few kitschy books and sound equipment - including turntables to play all those great records.
Free, live concerts at this vinyl haven began about a year ago, and quickly became a hit. Ellis raised the price of admission to $3, presenting the Grip Weeds to a standing-room-only crowd last July 4.
"I realized that we had something here, so I started pursuing some bigger names," Ellis says. His real coup was getting Best and his band, the beginning of a streak of top-notch concerts that doesn't seem to be slowing down.
You'll find all generations of music lovers at the Record Collector's live shows. "Bring your kids to the show," Ellis says. "It's cheaper than a baby sitter and it's a history lesson."
Does anyone remember the Record Collector? After Pryor's moved out (and before the gentleman's club brouhaha), the corner of Pennsylvania and Bridge used to host a rather amazing and eclectic collection of vinyl LP, cassette, and CD format music.
This is an example of "what coulda been" if Morrisville was a more proactive and welcoming business community.
Too bad the DeLorean's time circuits are all kerfarbled...
Music in store
Performers share space with vintage vinyl at Bordentown's Record Collector.
By Susan Van Dongen, For The Inquirer Posted on Fri, Mar. 6, 2009
On a recent Saturday night after a particularly bad week of economic news, a few dozen people enjoyed almost more live music than they could handle, and for a song.
The Buicks, one of the region's best original blues bands, rocked the room at the Record Collector, in the tiny colonial city of Bordentown. Admission was a recession-friendly 10 bucks.
There were no overpriced drinks to drain your wallet, and no elbow-to-elbow indifferent crowds disrespecting the band. People came to the Record Collector for the music, or maybe to peruse the vintage vinyl, posters and rock-and-roll memorabilia, things like a Beatles tray, a Conway Twitty ashtray, a Monkees charm bracelet, and a Jerry Garcia puppet.
It's like this every weekend at this venue, where there is live music - or sometimes comedy - offered on Friday and Saturday nights. The Record Collector welcomes singer-songwriter Lisa Bouchelle and the all-female group the Refugees tonight. It's the Figgs and Kitty & the Kowalskis on Saturday night.
The store, housed in a renovated art-deco-era bowling alley, can comfortably seat 60 people, but the number at times swells to 75 and more. If you don't want to sit, you can hang out among the records and CDs on the lower tier - not quite a mosh pit, but a fine place to dance.
Promoter and WTSR-FM DJ Randy "Now" Ellis, who used to put on punk and New Wave concerts at the former City Gardens in Trenton, isn't hesitant to reach out to the famous and bring them to Bordentown. Pete Best, the original drummer for the Beatles, was here in October and is scheduled to return July 5.
Peter Tork of the Monkees has been in Bordentown twice with his band, Shoe Suede Blues. Rockabilly great Robert Gordon put on a lively show, as did Graham Parker, Marshall Crenshaw and Ian McLagan.
Scheduled between the better-known acts are some of the tri-state area's most talented bands and performers who play rock, pop, punk, blues and world music.
Owner John Chrambanis opened the store at its Farnsworth Avenue location in the fall of 2006. He previously had a place in Morrisville, and in Trenton before that. With more than 25 years of purveying vintage vinyl to music lovers from all over the country, Chrambanis has an amazing personal collection.
"I really do have an inventory of one million records," he says.
Currently, one of the most valuable items on display at the store is Elvis Presley's first hit single, "That's All Right" with the B-side "Blue Moon of Kentucky," released in 1954. Framed and mounted, it's valued at about $1,200. There's also a recording from 1958 by Mickey Mantle titled My Favorite Hits, with the slugger singing his favorite songs, worth about $100. Previously, Chrambanis had a copy of the Beatles' 1966 release Yesterday and Today, the famed "Butcher Cover" edition, which was pulled by their record company for being in bad taste. Chrambanis sold that record for $1,500.
The tidy, well-organized store also sells sheet music, candy and other goodies, a few kitschy books and sound equipment - including turntables to play all those great records.
Free, live concerts at this vinyl haven began about a year ago, and quickly became a hit. Ellis raised the price of admission to $3, presenting the Grip Weeds to a standing-room-only crowd last July 4.
"I realized that we had something here, so I started pursuing some bigger names," Ellis says. His real coup was getting Best and his band, the beginning of a streak of top-notch concerts that doesn't seem to be slowing down.
You'll find all generations of music lovers at the Record Collector's live shows. "Bring your kids to the show," Ellis says. "It's cheaper than a baby sitter and it's a history lesson."
Dangers of an Abandoned School
From MSNBC.con.
Who knew abandoned schoolhouses were so prevalent.
And the dangers that lurk inside of them...
Alligator starts abandoned school fire
updated 10:12 p.m. ET, Fri., March. 6, 2009
PENNSYLVANIA: Authorities believe an alligator may be to blame for a fire inside an abandoned school.
The blaze began at the former Mount Jackson Elementary School in North Beaver Township, near New Castle.
Authorities said the man who owns the property, Brian Simpson, was living with a menagerie of animals in the building, including the alligator, about 70 rabbits and unspecified "aquatic animals."
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is now involved in caring for the animals rescued from the fire.
Fire Chief Paul Henry said the building's owner believes the alligator started the fire by knocking over a portable heater.
Firefighters removed the animal, but only after taping its mouth shut.
"I basically got on top of it," said Wes Osborne, of Crit-R-Done Wildlife Control. "One of the fellows in there had already handled it a little bit by the tail, and we were able to duct-tape it to keep anybody from getting bit."
Neighbors said they've been complaining about the rundown property for years.
"My concerns are the hazard to children that play in the neighborhood," said neighbor Missy Argiro. "It's an eyesore, obviously. I've known that he's had animals in there for many years. We can hear dogs barking every night."
The Fish and Game Commission said no laws were broken, so they're turning all the animals back over to the owner.
Who knew abandoned schoolhouses were so prevalent.
And the dangers that lurk inside of them...
Alligator starts abandoned school fire
updated 10:12 p.m. ET, Fri., March. 6, 2009
PENNSYLVANIA: Authorities believe an alligator may be to blame for a fire inside an abandoned school.
The blaze began at the former Mount Jackson Elementary School in North Beaver Township, near New Castle.
Authorities said the man who owns the property, Brian Simpson, was living with a menagerie of animals in the building, including the alligator, about 70 rabbits and unspecified "aquatic animals."
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is now involved in caring for the animals rescued from the fire.
Fire Chief Paul Henry said the building's owner believes the alligator started the fire by knocking over a portable heater.
Firefighters removed the animal, but only after taping its mouth shut.
"I basically got on top of it," said Wes Osborne, of Crit-R-Done Wildlife Control. "One of the fellows in there had already handled it a little bit by the tail, and we were able to duct-tape it to keep anybody from getting bit."
Neighbors said they've been complaining about the rundown property for years.
"My concerns are the hazard to children that play in the neighborhood," said neighbor Missy Argiro. "It's an eyesore, obviously. I've known that he's had animals in there for many years. We can hear dogs barking every night."
The Fish and Game Commission said no laws were broken, so they're turning all the animals back over to the owner.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Gym Night TONIGHT 6:30 P.M.
Make sure you come out tonight for the 45th (and nearing the last) Gym Night at Morrisville High School. Come cheer on the blue and the gold.
Be there: 6:30 P.M. in the MHS gym.
Here's a recap of last year's Gym Night.
Last year not one school board member showed up. Maybe one will this year?
Be there: 6:30 P.M. in the MHS gym.
Here's a recap of last year's Gym Night.
Last year not one school board member showed up. Maybe one will this year?
Game plan in motion for new school
From the BCCT.
Game plan in motion for new school
By JOAN HELLYER
Bristol’s new, estimated $34 million Warren Snyder-John Girotti School is expected to open in six months when the 2009-10 school year begins Sept. 9, district officials said.
But before that can happen, crews have to finish building the school off Beaver Street, and district administrators have to develop a game plan for the school that will be able to serve up to 1,100 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade.
The administrators gave school board members an update Thursday night about what they’ve already come up with and explained what areas still need to be worked out.
Among the areas covered were time schedules, which will be staggered for the students depending on their grade level.
Middle school kids in sixth through eighth grade will begin their day at 7:45 a.m. and their school day will end at 2:31 p.m., according to administrators. Elementary school students will begin their day at 8:05 a.m. and end it at 2:40 p.m. Details on student drop-off and pickup are being worked out.
Also addressed during the meeting were core curriculums for the two levels. Both will continue, as will all middle level electives and other courses, including the exploratory language program, the administrators said.
Administrators will continue working out operation plans and give the board an update in May about several issues including time schedules for both elementary and middle level students.
Principal Rosemary Parmigiani will meet in July with fire officials in the borough to develop an emergency exit plan.
During the meeting, the board approved the 2009-10 district calendar that includes the Sept. 9 start day for the new school year. That differs from the start dates in recent years, when kids were generally back in school by the end of August.
The later start date will enable district officials to have enough time to make sure the school is ready for business, Superintendent Broadus Davis Jr. said.
Game plan in motion for new school
By JOAN HELLYER
Bristol’s new, estimated $34 million Warren Snyder-John Girotti School is expected to open in six months when the 2009-10 school year begins Sept. 9, district officials said.
But before that can happen, crews have to finish building the school off Beaver Street, and district administrators have to develop a game plan for the school that will be able to serve up to 1,100 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade.
The administrators gave school board members an update Thursday night about what they’ve already come up with and explained what areas still need to be worked out.
Among the areas covered were time schedules, which will be staggered for the students depending on their grade level.
Middle school kids in sixth through eighth grade will begin their day at 7:45 a.m. and their school day will end at 2:31 p.m., according to administrators. Elementary school students will begin their day at 8:05 a.m. and end it at 2:40 p.m. Details on student drop-off and pickup are being worked out.
Also addressed during the meeting were core curriculums for the two levels. Both will continue, as will all middle level electives and other courses, including the exploratory language program, the administrators said.
Administrators will continue working out operation plans and give the board an update in May about several issues including time schedules for both elementary and middle level students.
Principal Rosemary Parmigiani will meet in July with fire officials in the borough to develop an emergency exit plan.
During the meeting, the board approved the 2009-10 district calendar that includes the Sept. 9 start day for the new school year. That differs from the start dates in recent years, when kids were generally back in school by the end of August.
The later start date will enable district officials to have enough time to make sure the school is ready for business, Superintendent Broadus Davis Jr. said.
Grades 4-12 under one roof
From BucksLocalNews.com.
No, it's not a surprise. Now there's two sure votes to close Reiter. We already know about the Emperor's RATTRAP!!! Now, Jack Buckman confirms his vote to close Reiter: "We have to restructure to fit all the students in the space we're going to have."
Then there's this gem of a quote: Buckman, who previously served on Morrisville Borough Council, said the board majority had planned on restructuring "long before we had any problems with M.R. Reiter School."
There's a plan? Let's see it. Jack: You have now confirmed it exists. Release it to all of us.
Reliable toadyism: Morrisville has it.
Grades 4-12 under one roof
The school board approved putting kids ages nine through 18 in the same school.
By Petra Chesner Schlatter; Staff Editor Posted on Thu, Mar 5, 2009
A controversial restructuring plan was adopted for Morrisville schools in which elementary school children will attend class in the same building as high-school students. The plan was approved at the Morrisville School Board meeting Feb. 25 in a 6-2 vote.
Students in fourth through 12th grades in the Morrisville School District will attend classes in the Middle/Senior High School building. The new plan will be effective July 2009.
Voting to approve the restructuring was Board Chairman Bill Hellman, and Board Members Marlys Mihok, Bill Farrell, Al Rodosti, Brenda Worob and Jack Buckman.
Voting against the measure were Gloria Heater and Joe Kemp.
Board Member Robin Reithmeyer was not present.
Buckman, who previously served on Morrisville Borough Council, said the board majority had planned on restructuring "long before we had any problems with M.R. Reiter School." He noted people have objected, saying the board was restructuring because of the problem with Reiter.
In December, Reiter was closed because the school's furnace had exploded. Reiter students have been going to class since then at either Grandview Elementary School or the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School.
As a result, Morrisville Borough Council voted to make a portion of Grand-view Avenue one-way because children were being dropped off or picked up with children running across the street.
Attending Grandview Elementary School in the fall will be pre-K to third grade. Fourth through eighth grades will attend an intermediate-level school within the Middle/Senior High School. Under the plan, the fourth to sixth grades will be separated from seventh and eighth grade classes.
Board Member Joe Kemp was not in favor of the restructuring. Later, he tried to table the motion, but was unsuccessful.
According to Buckman, the school district "has to plan on doing this. This involves changing structure - you want to prepare a head of time."
He added, "We have to restructure to fit all the students in the space we're going to have."
Some students at Grand-view will attend classes in modular units as a result of the closing of M.R. Reiter.
The school board recently held a public hearing about whether to close Reiter, during which time parents vehemently opposed the proposal. The board had 90 days after that hearing to decide if the school should be mothballed.
No, it's not a surprise. Now there's two sure votes to close Reiter. We already know about the Emperor's RATTRAP!!! Now, Jack Buckman confirms his vote to close Reiter: "We have to restructure to fit all the students in the space we're going to have."
Then there's this gem of a quote: Buckman, who previously served on Morrisville Borough Council, said the board majority had planned on restructuring "long before we had any problems with M.R. Reiter School."
There's a plan? Let's see it. Jack: You have now confirmed it exists. Release it to all of us.
Reliable toadyism: Morrisville has it.
Grades 4-12 under one roof
The school board approved putting kids ages nine through 18 in the same school.
By Petra Chesner Schlatter; Staff Editor Posted on Thu, Mar 5, 2009
A controversial restructuring plan was adopted for Morrisville schools in which elementary school children will attend class in the same building as high-school students. The plan was approved at the Morrisville School Board meeting Feb. 25 in a 6-2 vote.
Students in fourth through 12th grades in the Morrisville School District will attend classes in the Middle/Senior High School building. The new plan will be effective July 2009.
Voting to approve the restructuring was Board Chairman Bill Hellman, and Board Members Marlys Mihok, Bill Farrell, Al Rodosti, Brenda Worob and Jack Buckman.
Voting against the measure were Gloria Heater and Joe Kemp.
Board Member Robin Reithmeyer was not present.
Buckman, who previously served on Morrisville Borough Council, said the board majority had planned on restructuring "long before we had any problems with M.R. Reiter School." He noted people have objected, saying the board was restructuring because of the problem with Reiter.
In December, Reiter was closed because the school's furnace had exploded. Reiter students have been going to class since then at either Grandview Elementary School or the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School.
As a result, Morrisville Borough Council voted to make a portion of Grand-view Avenue one-way because children were being dropped off or picked up with children running across the street.
Attending Grandview Elementary School in the fall will be pre-K to third grade. Fourth through eighth grades will attend an intermediate-level school within the Middle/Senior High School. Under the plan, the fourth to sixth grades will be separated from seventh and eighth grade classes.
Board Member Joe Kemp was not in favor of the restructuring. Later, he tried to table the motion, but was unsuccessful.
According to Buckman, the school district "has to plan on doing this. This involves changing structure - you want to prepare a head of time."
He added, "We have to restructure to fit all the students in the space we're going to have."
Some students at Grand-view will attend classes in modular units as a result of the closing of M.R. Reiter.
The school board recently held a public hearing about whether to close Reiter, during which time parents vehemently opposed the proposal. The board had 90 days after that hearing to decide if the school should be mothballed.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Seniors want say in contract talks
From the BCCT.
Seniors can and should have a say. It's when the seniors have the complete and final say that there's a problem. The needs of the students and the parents need to be part of the balanced equation.
It's just not as simple as "Don't raise my taxes."
Seniors want say in contract talks
By RACHEL CANELLI
Residents can question their school board representatives.
Lower Southampton hopes to give senior citizens a voice in the ongoing Neshaminy teacher labor contract talks.
The township's Senior Task Force Board is hosting a public meeting in the Lower Southampton Library's community room this afternoon to let residents express concerns and seek answers to their questions from school board representatives Joseph Blasch and Kim Koutsouradis.
The teachers have been working without a contract since June and district administrators are projecting a $14 million deficit and a potential average tax increase of $500.
The gathering, which will also address the contract's effect on property taxes, is open to the public, according to former Neshaminy school board member Sue Barrett.
"We know that the school board's listening, but nobody's negotiating for us," said 68-year-old Cynthia Zengolewicz, chairwoman of the task force board. "We don't really feel that we're being heard as a people."
The goal of the informal session is to create a committee that will recommend solutions to the school board, Zengolewicz said.
The Neshaminy Federation of Teachers recently turned down the school board's proposed 3 percent salary increase, which includes step pay increases for longevity and education, and a requirement that teachers pay 15, 16 and 17 percent for health care premiums over a three-year contract, officials said.
The union countered with an offer seeking a 6 percent annual salary increase, including steps, and a continuation of the current health care package, with teachers not contributing anything to their premiums, administrators said.
Neshaminy, which operates 14 public schools in Middletown, Lower Southampton, Penndel, Langhorne Manor and Hulmeville, is the only district in Bucks County where employees pay nothing toward insurance premiums. Union members do pay $15 for doctor visits and $5 and $20 for generic and brand-name drugs, respectively, through Personal Choice, the district's human resources department reported.
District educator salaries start at an average of $51,976 after experience and education and top out at roughly $95,923. The average Neshaminy teacher's salary is $76,000, administrators said.
The salary and benefits for the district's staff, which includes more than 700 teachers, accounts for more than 80 percent of Neshaminy's budget, officials said.
Seniors can and should have a say. It's when the seniors have the complete and final say that there's a problem. The needs of the students and the parents need to be part of the balanced equation.
It's just not as simple as "Don't raise my taxes."
Seniors want say in contract talks
By RACHEL CANELLI
Residents can question their school board representatives.
Lower Southampton hopes to give senior citizens a voice in the ongoing Neshaminy teacher labor contract talks.
The township's Senior Task Force Board is hosting a public meeting in the Lower Southampton Library's community room this afternoon to let residents express concerns and seek answers to their questions from school board representatives Joseph Blasch and Kim Koutsouradis.
The teachers have been working without a contract since June and district administrators are projecting a $14 million deficit and a potential average tax increase of $500.
The gathering, which will also address the contract's effect on property taxes, is open to the public, according to former Neshaminy school board member Sue Barrett.
"We know that the school board's listening, but nobody's negotiating for us," said 68-year-old Cynthia Zengolewicz, chairwoman of the task force board. "We don't really feel that we're being heard as a people."
The goal of the informal session is to create a committee that will recommend solutions to the school board, Zengolewicz said.
The Neshaminy Federation of Teachers recently turned down the school board's proposed 3 percent salary increase, which includes step pay increases for longevity and education, and a requirement that teachers pay 15, 16 and 17 percent for health care premiums over a three-year contract, officials said.
The union countered with an offer seeking a 6 percent annual salary increase, including steps, and a continuation of the current health care package, with teachers not contributing anything to their premiums, administrators said.
Neshaminy, which operates 14 public schools in Middletown, Lower Southampton, Penndel, Langhorne Manor and Hulmeville, is the only district in Bucks County where employees pay nothing toward insurance premiums. Union members do pay $15 for doctor visits and $5 and $20 for generic and brand-name drugs, respectively, through Personal Choice, the district's human resources department reported.
District educator salaries start at an average of $51,976 after experience and education and top out at roughly $95,923. The average Neshaminy teacher's salary is $76,000, administrators said.
The salary and benefits for the district's staff, which includes more than 700 teachers, accounts for more than 80 percent of Neshaminy's budget, officials said.
Public hears options for future of district
From the BCCT.
Public hears options for future of district
The least expensive option could be almost half the cost of the most expensive — $100 million for a single elementary school building.
By MANASEE WAGH
Centennial’s six elementary schools could undergo $92.4 million in renovations in a few years.
Or they all might be closed, sold and replaced by a single, $100 million consolidated K-5 school serving more than 2,600 students in Upper Southampton, Warminster and Ivyland.
These are among 13 options presented to the public at a meeting this week of Centennial’s operations committee. At least 70 residents and teachers listened with concerned looks as a consultant presented the plans.
Each strives to save operational costs in the long run, make optimum use of current classrooms and spaces, and provides similar programs for all kindergarten through fifth-grade students, including full-day kindergarten, said board members.
The board has been considering improving the elementary schools for some time. Currently, the existing six schools underutilize space, according to feasibility studies prepared by the architectural design firm Burt Hill. Architect Michael Preston said Centennial could eliminate as many as 64 classrooms through consolidation.
At about 50 years old, existing elementary schools require renovations to bring them up to modern standards.
At the meeting Tuesday, large posters in the Everett McDonald Elementary School auditorium listed the positive and negative aspects of each plan. Options ranged from simply renovating each of the buildings to selling all of them and constructing a single building to house the district’s 2,633 elementary students. For planning purposes, architects are using a 10 percent higher population of 2,896 and a class size of 23.
Some residents opposed shutting down neighborhood schools. Many were skeptical of some options that would split students into different schools by grade.
“I think the ones where they split the kids is ridiculous,” said Patti McGorrey, the parent of two children at William W.H. Davis Elementary in Southampton. She wondered how to drop her kids off at different schools at the same time.
Operations committee and board member Mark Miller praised the idea of a single new building for about $100 million because it would save the district duplicate operational costs and duplicate facilities such as cafeterias and libraries, he said. The single building solution would cut down on the number of administrators and make it easier to provide the same services to all students.
Different grade levels in the building could be kept in separate wings, with common resources in the middle, Preston said.
At $55.6 million, the least expensive choice the board is considering is renovating four elementary schools. No new construction would be needed, and the remaining two schools would be closed and sold. Depending on which schools are closed, the cost to renovate the rest could raise the currently projected cost, architects said.
A sale could generate millions of dollars, though architects didn’t include that revenue in their cost projections. Former school properties could be turned into taxable residential sites, which would produce more income for the district, Preston said.
Each of the options is eligible for a state reimbursement of up to $9 million.
After Burt Hill’s presentation, the operations committee, administration officials and architects addressed dozens of community questions on a range of topics.
Some wondered how bus transportation would change, whether Centennial talked to other districts with similar elementary school designs, and how much money would be saved in the budget after the changes.
Board members said they will look for answers to many of the questions raised as they look more deeply into the options. The operations committee will continue discussions at its next public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on March 18.
Once the full board decides on a single plan, the design and construction process would take two to three years, said Preston.
Details of the 13 options in the Burt Hill study are posted on the district Web site, at www.centennialsd.org.
Public hears options for future of district
The least expensive option could be almost half the cost of the most expensive — $100 million for a single elementary school building.
By MANASEE WAGH
Centennial’s six elementary schools could undergo $92.4 million in renovations in a few years.
Or they all might be closed, sold and replaced by a single, $100 million consolidated K-5 school serving more than 2,600 students in Upper Southampton, Warminster and Ivyland.
These are among 13 options presented to the public at a meeting this week of Centennial’s operations committee. At least 70 residents and teachers listened with concerned looks as a consultant presented the plans.
Each strives to save operational costs in the long run, make optimum use of current classrooms and spaces, and provides similar programs for all kindergarten through fifth-grade students, including full-day kindergarten, said board members.
The board has been considering improving the elementary schools for some time. Currently, the existing six schools underutilize space, according to feasibility studies prepared by the architectural design firm Burt Hill. Architect Michael Preston said Centennial could eliminate as many as 64 classrooms through consolidation.
At about 50 years old, existing elementary schools require renovations to bring them up to modern standards.
At the meeting Tuesday, large posters in the Everett McDonald Elementary School auditorium listed the positive and negative aspects of each plan. Options ranged from simply renovating each of the buildings to selling all of them and constructing a single building to house the district’s 2,633 elementary students. For planning purposes, architects are using a 10 percent higher population of 2,896 and a class size of 23.
Some residents opposed shutting down neighborhood schools. Many were skeptical of some options that would split students into different schools by grade.
“I think the ones where they split the kids is ridiculous,” said Patti McGorrey, the parent of two children at William W.H. Davis Elementary in Southampton. She wondered how to drop her kids off at different schools at the same time.
Operations committee and board member Mark Miller praised the idea of a single new building for about $100 million because it would save the district duplicate operational costs and duplicate facilities such as cafeterias and libraries, he said. The single building solution would cut down on the number of administrators and make it easier to provide the same services to all students.
Different grade levels in the building could be kept in separate wings, with common resources in the middle, Preston said.
At $55.6 million, the least expensive choice the board is considering is renovating four elementary schools. No new construction would be needed, and the remaining two schools would be closed and sold. Depending on which schools are closed, the cost to renovate the rest could raise the currently projected cost, architects said.
A sale could generate millions of dollars, though architects didn’t include that revenue in their cost projections. Former school properties could be turned into taxable residential sites, which would produce more income for the district, Preston said.
Each of the options is eligible for a state reimbursement of up to $9 million.
After Burt Hill’s presentation, the operations committee, administration officials and architects addressed dozens of community questions on a range of topics.
Some wondered how bus transportation would change, whether Centennial talked to other districts with similar elementary school designs, and how much money would be saved in the budget after the changes.
Board members said they will look for answers to many of the questions raised as they look more deeply into the options. The operations committee will continue discussions at its next public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on March 18.
Once the full board decides on a single plan, the design and construction process would take two to three years, said Preston.
Details of the 13 options in the Burt Hill study are posted on the district Web site, at www.centennialsd.org.
Stalemate broken on school tests
From the Inquirer.
Stalemate broken on school tests
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Pennsylvania stalemate over adopting mandatory high school tests as a graduation requirement was broken yesterday when state education officials backed down and agreed to voluntary tests.
To graduate under current regulations, students must pass the PSSAs or, if they fail, they must pass an assessment given by their local districts. Those include standardized local tests, passing core courses, or showing proficiency from an examination of students' course work.
Last year, state education officials proposed a set of mandatory state subject tests that students who failed the PSSAs could take and had proposed limiting the use of local assessments to standardized tests. School boards and teachers' unions blocked that plan; yesterday's proposal was an effort to break the logjam.
Under the new plan, a third option would be added: a battery of new state tests to be developed in various subject areas, including English, math, sciences, and social studies. Passing those tests would show that a student had met the standards in that area. Good scores on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests would also meet the graduation requirement.
The plan is to be formally proposed by the state Board of Education this summer. If it goes through the regulatory process intact, it will apply to seniors graduating in June 2015.
Students who failed the state tests, which would be called "Keystone Exams," would get remedial help and retake them; the state is developing a model curriculum and diagnostic tools to help teachers find out what material students don't understand.
Also, the proposal said that school district assessments must be examined by an independent organization to confirm that they meet state academic standards. The state and local districts would share the cost of making sure the local assessments meet state benchmarks. Special education students can graduate if they meet the requirements of their individualized education plans.
A study released last week said that only a handful of Pennsylvania's school districts could show that their local reading and math assessments met state standards and were being used in a way that ensured that all high school graduates had mastered all required material. In 2007, about 56,000 11th-grade students who had failed at least one PSSA test the year before graduated after passing passed a local assessment.
At a news conference, the new plan was announced yesterday by Thomas Gentzel, the executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association; Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak and Board of Education Chairman Joseph Torsella. The association had opposed mandatory testing. Gentzel said he supports the the new plan because the state tests are voluntary and the local assessments can still be used.
"We believe this new language recognizes the need to ensure that all students in the commonwealth graduate from high school with essential skills, yet balances that with the need to provide local school boards with significant and meaningful flexibility in achieving that goal," he said in a statement.
Zahorchak said the proposal would ensure that for students taking a course "across the hall or across the state," the subject matter would be equally rigorous.
Eventually, the state would like to see the Keystone Exams replace the 11th-grade PSSA - the state's No Child Left Behind Accountability tests, Zahorchak said.
In January 2008, the state Board of Education proposed that all districts must use state subject tests. That plan was met with a storm of opposition from the school boards association, teachers' unions and education-reform groups. In July, the state legislature placed a one-year hold on the proposal.
This year, Sen. Jane Orie (R, Allegheny) introduced a bill that would block the Board of Education from imposing any new state graduation requirement without legislative approval. In a statement yesterday, Orie said the new proposal did not change her mind. "The truth is, we already know what schools are struggling and what students are failing," she said.
State Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman (D., Chester), was even more emphatic in his opposition. The 10 new proposed state tests and the process of making sure local tests meet state standards would cost "tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars," he said, adding, "We have struggling taxpayers, not just struggling students - how would he [Zahorchak] pay those bills?"
Education Department spokesman Michael Race said that the tests would cost about $30 million to develop and that the state is asking for $9.8 million to develop them this year. No cost estimate of the expense for validating the local tests has been arrived at.
State Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. (D., Phila.), the chairman of the House Education Committee, was more positive. "I think this is a substantial step forward - this begins to move them into the necessary dialogue that will ultimately resolve much of the opposition," he said.
But James Testerman the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, while saying that the union had not made a final decision about the new proposal, said: "On the surface, it looks like they are still trying to put in place a series of high-stakes exit exams for high school, and we're opposed to that."
Stalemate broken on school tests
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Pennsylvania stalemate over adopting mandatory high school tests as a graduation requirement was broken yesterday when state education officials backed down and agreed to voluntary tests.
To graduate under current regulations, students must pass the PSSAs or, if they fail, they must pass an assessment given by their local districts. Those include standardized local tests, passing core courses, or showing proficiency from an examination of students' course work.
Last year, state education officials proposed a set of mandatory state subject tests that students who failed the PSSAs could take and had proposed limiting the use of local assessments to standardized tests. School boards and teachers' unions blocked that plan; yesterday's proposal was an effort to break the logjam.
Under the new plan, a third option would be added: a battery of new state tests to be developed in various subject areas, including English, math, sciences, and social studies. Passing those tests would show that a student had met the standards in that area. Good scores on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests would also meet the graduation requirement.
The plan is to be formally proposed by the state Board of Education this summer. If it goes through the regulatory process intact, it will apply to seniors graduating in June 2015.
Students who failed the state tests, which would be called "Keystone Exams," would get remedial help and retake them; the state is developing a model curriculum and diagnostic tools to help teachers find out what material students don't understand.
Also, the proposal said that school district assessments must be examined by an independent organization to confirm that they meet state academic standards. The state and local districts would share the cost of making sure the local assessments meet state benchmarks. Special education students can graduate if they meet the requirements of their individualized education plans.
A study released last week said that only a handful of Pennsylvania's school districts could show that their local reading and math assessments met state standards and were being used in a way that ensured that all high school graduates had mastered all required material. In 2007, about 56,000 11th-grade students who had failed at least one PSSA test the year before graduated after passing passed a local assessment.
At a news conference, the new plan was announced yesterday by Thomas Gentzel, the executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association; Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak and Board of Education Chairman Joseph Torsella. The association had opposed mandatory testing. Gentzel said he supports the the new plan because the state tests are voluntary and the local assessments can still be used.
"We believe this new language recognizes the need to ensure that all students in the commonwealth graduate from high school with essential skills, yet balances that with the need to provide local school boards with significant and meaningful flexibility in achieving that goal," he said in a statement.
Zahorchak said the proposal would ensure that for students taking a course "across the hall or across the state," the subject matter would be equally rigorous.
Eventually, the state would like to see the Keystone Exams replace the 11th-grade PSSA - the state's No Child Left Behind Accountability tests, Zahorchak said.
In January 2008, the state Board of Education proposed that all districts must use state subject tests. That plan was met with a storm of opposition from the school boards association, teachers' unions and education-reform groups. In July, the state legislature placed a one-year hold on the proposal.
This year, Sen. Jane Orie (R, Allegheny) introduced a bill that would block the Board of Education from imposing any new state graduation requirement without legislative approval. In a statement yesterday, Orie said the new proposal did not change her mind. "The truth is, we already know what schools are struggling and what students are failing," she said.
State Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman (D., Chester), was even more emphatic in his opposition. The 10 new proposed state tests and the process of making sure local tests meet state standards would cost "tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars," he said, adding, "We have struggling taxpayers, not just struggling students - how would he [Zahorchak] pay those bills?"
Education Department spokesman Michael Race said that the tests would cost about $30 million to develop and that the state is asking for $9.8 million to develop them this year. No cost estimate of the expense for validating the local tests has been arrived at.
State Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. (D., Phila.), the chairman of the House Education Committee, was more positive. "I think this is a substantial step forward - this begins to move them into the necessary dialogue that will ultimately resolve much of the opposition," he said.
But James Testerman the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, while saying that the union had not made a final decision about the new proposal, said: "On the surface, it looks like they are still trying to put in place a series of high-stakes exit exams for high school, and we're opposed to that."
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Perspectives from Another Small District
Thanks to the emailer who saw this letter and the reply in the Burlington County Times.
Not surprised by report card
Burlington County Times
I am appalled, but not surprised, by the statistics of the School Report Card story.
I live in Pemberton Township and have two children who attend a parochial school. I chose to send my children out of the district for many reasons, but the biggest reason was these statistics.
I can not believe that in Pemberton only 22.6 percent of the students go on to attend a four-year college or university.
If you look through the other numbers, there seem to be some missing children out there not doing much of anything...Where are they ?
I am sure we can all figure out what they are doing and it is a shame. It seems to me that spending $18,818 per child is not helping them become academically ready for post-secondary education.
Am I to assume that maybe not all that money is going toward each child and maybe to the over priced salary of administrators and teachers? Is there anyone who can justify why these professionals are highly paid and and possibly higher than at other school districts that produce more qualified students ?
I am quite happy I am sending my children out of the district and will continue to for as long as I live in this school district. I hope that this school district will take a good look at these statistics and come up with a way to change their curriculum to better prepare students for post-secondary education. I am not from here and feel that I was greatly educated by the public school system [I attended in another state]. It prepared me well for college, but unfortunately, I do not feel the same way about this public school system.
Melissa Peso-Watkins
Pemberton Township
February 16, 2009
Teacher responds to Pemberton writer
By Gretchen Barrett
Burlington County Times
This is a letter in response to Melissa Peso-Watkins [Feb. 16]. She sends her children to private school because she does not want them attending the [Pemberton] township schools.
That is her choice and if she can afford it, that is nice for her. Her concern is that not enough students from Pemberton Township attend college after graduation and she doesn't want her children exposed to these seemingly unmotivated individuals and ineffective teachers. Well, Mrs. Peso-Watkins, I went to Pemberton Township High School. I went to college and I went to grad school. I am in grad school again, just because I want to be. By the way, my undergraduate degree is in biology and my graduate work is in embryology.
My current graduate work is in a Ph.D program in childhood studies. It was not the school that affected my educational choices, it was my parents. Many students from Pemberton have gone to college and done very well. Many have not gone to college and have also done well in their chosen fields. Where is it written that in order to be successful a person must attend college? What about our students who go on to a military career? Or those who become mechanics or plumbers, or carpenters or other occupations not requiring college? Go ahead, ask a poet from Princeton to change your oil and see how far you get. This world requires all kinds of skills, not only those learned in college.
You say you are not from here. That is obvious. This community once consisted almost entirely of farming families. The people who live here now work very hard to make a living and for many of our residents, it is financially difficult, if not impossible, to send their children to college. But you would not know that because you are not from here and have obviously not invested any time in acquainting yourself with your new community. Many of our students end their school day only to begin their workday. College is a financial impossibility for them. Some of them will go to college when their employer pays part of the bill. That is not included in the statistics you see.
Here is another point to consider; how many of the students going to college in those other districts remain in college? How many of them go on to graduate? Maybe those are the statistics we should be looking at.
As for your comment about the overpaid educators, you are way off base. Why is it that teachers are always pointed out as being overpaid? You are entrusting me, the teacher, with your most precious posession, your child. During the day I laugh with them, I cry with them, I calm their fears, I guide them, we make jokes together, I correct their language and behavior, and I teach them the subject matter. After they have left for the day, I clean up the messes they have left behind and I prepare so that I am ready for them the next day. And by the way, every week I take money from my own pocket to pay for things I need in my classroom. Yet, I am still paid only a fraction of what athletes or musicians make and that is still too much according to you.
I guess you think we are overpaid because we have the whole summer off. When do you think we have time to learn new techniques or brush up on some new material? This usually happens during our summers. Summer by the way, is not three months for us. If we leave June 23rd and return September 1st it does not add up to three months.
Maybe it's the fact that most of us are done with work at 3pm. You forget we started at 7 when you were probably still snoozing or just enjoying your first cup of coffee. And our day does not end when the final bell rings. When do you think we prepare our lessons, grade the papers, enter the grades into the computer, participate in conferences, meetings, and run the many clubs your children so enjoy?
I have taught at Pemberton Township High School for 22 years. Our entire staff, not just the faculty, does an amazing job. There are many factors affecting whether or not our students go to college. Would we like to see the numbers be higher? Of course we would, but we do not live in a perfect world and sometimes reality is a bitter pill. I would like to recommend that Mrs. Peso-Watkins and any of you other educator bashers out there open your eyes, look around, and begin realizing what reality is.
Petra Farmer
Eastampton
March 03, 2009
Not surprised by report card
Burlington County Times
I am appalled, but not surprised, by the statistics of the School Report Card story.
I live in Pemberton Township and have two children who attend a parochial school. I chose to send my children out of the district for many reasons, but the biggest reason was these statistics.
I can not believe that in Pemberton only 22.6 percent of the students go on to attend a four-year college or university.
If you look through the other numbers, there seem to be some missing children out there not doing much of anything...Where are they ?
I am sure we can all figure out what they are doing and it is a shame. It seems to me that spending $18,818 per child is not helping them become academically ready for post-secondary education.
Am I to assume that maybe not all that money is going toward each child and maybe to the over priced salary of administrators and teachers? Is there anyone who can justify why these professionals are highly paid and and possibly higher than at other school districts that produce more qualified students ?
I am quite happy I am sending my children out of the district and will continue to for as long as I live in this school district. I hope that this school district will take a good look at these statistics and come up with a way to change their curriculum to better prepare students for post-secondary education. I am not from here and feel that I was greatly educated by the public school system [I attended in another state]. It prepared me well for college, but unfortunately, I do not feel the same way about this public school system.
Melissa Peso-Watkins
Pemberton Township
February 16, 2009
Teacher responds to Pemberton writer
By Gretchen Barrett
Burlington County Times
This is a letter in response to Melissa Peso-Watkins [Feb. 16]. She sends her children to private school because she does not want them attending the [Pemberton] township schools.
That is her choice and if she can afford it, that is nice for her. Her concern is that not enough students from Pemberton Township attend college after graduation and she doesn't want her children exposed to these seemingly unmotivated individuals and ineffective teachers. Well, Mrs. Peso-Watkins, I went to Pemberton Township High School. I went to college and I went to grad school. I am in grad school again, just because I want to be. By the way, my undergraduate degree is in biology and my graduate work is in embryology.
My current graduate work is in a Ph.D program in childhood studies. It was not the school that affected my educational choices, it was my parents. Many students from Pemberton have gone to college and done very well. Many have not gone to college and have also done well in their chosen fields. Where is it written that in order to be successful a person must attend college? What about our students who go on to a military career? Or those who become mechanics or plumbers, or carpenters or other occupations not requiring college? Go ahead, ask a poet from Princeton to change your oil and see how far you get. This world requires all kinds of skills, not only those learned in college.
You say you are not from here. That is obvious. This community once consisted almost entirely of farming families. The people who live here now work very hard to make a living and for many of our residents, it is financially difficult, if not impossible, to send their children to college. But you would not know that because you are not from here and have obviously not invested any time in acquainting yourself with your new community. Many of our students end their school day only to begin their workday. College is a financial impossibility for them. Some of them will go to college when their employer pays part of the bill. That is not included in the statistics you see.
Here is another point to consider; how many of the students going to college in those other districts remain in college? How many of them go on to graduate? Maybe those are the statistics we should be looking at.
As for your comment about the overpaid educators, you are way off base. Why is it that teachers are always pointed out as being overpaid? You are entrusting me, the teacher, with your most precious posession, your child. During the day I laugh with them, I cry with them, I calm their fears, I guide them, we make jokes together, I correct their language and behavior, and I teach them the subject matter. After they have left for the day, I clean up the messes they have left behind and I prepare so that I am ready for them the next day. And by the way, every week I take money from my own pocket to pay for things I need in my classroom. Yet, I am still paid only a fraction of what athletes or musicians make and that is still too much according to you.
I guess you think we are overpaid because we have the whole summer off. When do you think we have time to learn new techniques or brush up on some new material? This usually happens during our summers. Summer by the way, is not three months for us. If we leave June 23rd and return September 1st it does not add up to three months.
Maybe it's the fact that most of us are done with work at 3pm. You forget we started at 7 when you were probably still snoozing or just enjoying your first cup of coffee. And our day does not end when the final bell rings. When do you think we prepare our lessons, grade the papers, enter the grades into the computer, participate in conferences, meetings, and run the many clubs your children so enjoy?
I have taught at Pemberton Township High School for 22 years. Our entire staff, not just the faculty, does an amazing job. There are many factors affecting whether or not our students go to college. Would we like to see the numbers be higher? Of course we would, but we do not live in a perfect world and sometimes reality is a bitter pill. I would like to recommend that Mrs. Peso-Watkins and any of you other educator bashers out there open your eyes, look around, and begin realizing what reality is.
Petra Farmer
Eastampton
March 03, 2009
Neshaminy Opinions
From the BCCT.
New learning experience: Fire striking teachers
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Neshaminy District Teachers and Neshaminy teachers union for giving their students another valuable learning opportunity, i.e., that greed and self enrichment are worthy goals.
The recent Page 1 story made me more convinced that the teachers and their union are not aware of or do not care about the realities of the economic conditions that are affecting the lives of the people who are paying their salaries. If they are unaware, they do not deserve to be teaching; if they are unconcerned, they do not deserve to be influencing our children.
I work for a company that recently announced that 7,000 positions will be eliminated and merit increases will not be offered during 2009. Now, I wait to hear whether I will remain employed, and consequently be able to pay my mortgage and property taxes. I imagine that many other taxpayers in the Neshaminy School District are facing similar worries.
The union is demanding a scandalously large increase in salaries and is rejecting any reasonable proposal that teachers pay anything similar to the amount that the average taxpayer pays toward health insurance coverage. The union president says she will work with the district and the members, but not the media. In other words, she and the teachers will not allow the taxpayers to be a part of the process.
I urge the Neshaminy school board to tender a final offer: no increase in salary; and pay the state average of what taxpayers pay for health insurance. If the teachers go on strike, fire them all and put in people who are smart enough to understand that they are replaceable.
Wouldn’t that be an interesting learning experience for students?
Jack Bracken Middletown
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hard to believe
Bucks County Courier Times
Regarding the front page article, "Neshaminy teachers reject latest contract offer." First, let me preface this by saying that I have great respect for the teaching profession. However, it's hard to believe that the teachers are not willing to pay a percentage of their salaries toward health insurance and prescription coverage when everyone else pays a significant portion of their salary for coverage.
I stand to be corrected; everyone except the millions of people who have lost their jobs and are without coverage because they can't afford it. I am sure these people would be eager to pay for insurance if they had a job.
Shame on the Neshaminy teachers and double shame on the union that represents them. Too bad they can't be pink-slipped like the rest of the world.
Alberta Cherry
Newtown Township
---------------------------------------------------------------
Make do with less
Bucks County Courier Times
We're hearing that tired song again. The school teachers and the public servants have both invested their pensions on the stock market + and took a big hit. Now they're calling for tax hikes to make up for the losses.
Where are "we the people" going to come up with the money? We don't have money trees growing in our backyards. People everywhere are losing jobs, insurance coverage, pensions, or they are seeing their pay cut. As for investments and pensions, all of us are taking a big hit there too, in 401(k)s and other investments. We can't vote ourselves a raise, so we have to tighten our belts and make do with less.
It's well past time that the public employees and the school teachers come to terms with the fact that the world has changed. They, too, are going to have to make do with less, just like everybody else.
Face up to it, people! The days of champagne and prime rib are over. You're going to have to learn how to make do with pizza and beer, just like the rest of us.
Thomas Pallanta Jr.
Middletown
New learning experience: Fire striking teachers
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Neshaminy District Teachers and Neshaminy teachers union for giving their students another valuable learning opportunity, i.e., that greed and self enrichment are worthy goals.
The recent Page 1 story made me more convinced that the teachers and their union are not aware of or do not care about the realities of the economic conditions that are affecting the lives of the people who are paying their salaries. If they are unaware, they do not deserve to be teaching; if they are unconcerned, they do not deserve to be influencing our children.
I work for a company that recently announced that 7,000 positions will be eliminated and merit increases will not be offered during 2009. Now, I wait to hear whether I will remain employed, and consequently be able to pay my mortgage and property taxes. I imagine that many other taxpayers in the Neshaminy School District are facing similar worries.
The union is demanding a scandalously large increase in salaries and is rejecting any reasonable proposal that teachers pay anything similar to the amount that the average taxpayer pays toward health insurance coverage. The union president says she will work with the district and the members, but not the media. In other words, she and the teachers will not allow the taxpayers to be a part of the process.
I urge the Neshaminy school board to tender a final offer: no increase in salary; and pay the state average of what taxpayers pay for health insurance. If the teachers go on strike, fire them all and put in people who are smart enough to understand that they are replaceable.
Wouldn’t that be an interesting learning experience for students?
Jack Bracken Middletown
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hard to believe
Bucks County Courier Times
Regarding the front page article, "Neshaminy teachers reject latest contract offer." First, let me preface this by saying that I have great respect for the teaching profession. However, it's hard to believe that the teachers are not willing to pay a percentage of their salaries toward health insurance and prescription coverage when everyone else pays a significant portion of their salary for coverage.
I stand to be corrected; everyone except the millions of people who have lost their jobs and are without coverage because they can't afford it. I am sure these people would be eager to pay for insurance if they had a job.
Shame on the Neshaminy teachers and double shame on the union that represents them. Too bad they can't be pink-slipped like the rest of the world.
Alberta Cherry
Newtown Township
---------------------------------------------------------------
Make do with less
Bucks County Courier Times
We're hearing that tired song again. The school teachers and the public servants have both invested their pensions on the stock market + and took a big hit. Now they're calling for tax hikes to make up for the losses.
Where are "we the people" going to come up with the money? We don't have money trees growing in our backyards. People everywhere are losing jobs, insurance coverage, pensions, or they are seeing their pay cut. As for investments and pensions, all of us are taking a big hit there too, in 401(k)s and other investments. We can't vote ourselves a raise, so we have to tighten our belts and make do with less.
It's well past time that the public employees and the school teachers come to terms with the fact that the world has changed. They, too, are going to have to make do with less, just like everybody else.
Face up to it, people! The days of champagne and prime rib are over. You're going to have to learn how to make do with pizza and beer, just like the rest of us.
Thomas Pallanta Jr.
Middletown
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Alternate Solution, Part II
Here's the second suggestion. It's a good idea for all of us.
Goodnight Computer
March 2009 By ZACH PATTON
How to save money by logging off.
Your computer has an off-button. But if you're like most people, you don't use it very often. Maybe you like to leave certain programs or files open so that you can easily pick up working where you last left off. Maybe your computer's start-up process is frustratingly slow. But leaving these devices on all the time is a problem. A typical desktop computer wastes almost half of the energy it draws, mostly in the form of heat. Turning a computer off when you're done for the day — and utilizing built-in "sleep" or "hibernate" modes — can reduce the amount of energy consumed by 60 percent. Still, many employees prefer to leave their computers on all night rather than logging off and shutting down.
More and more states are trying to change that. Faced with volatile energy prices and a growing budget crisis, governments are trying to increase efficiency wherever they can. That goal points quickly to all sorts of "green IT" policies, such as buying more energy-saving computers and servers and using that equipment more efficiently. The notion that these initiatives might be good for the environment seems secondary to most of the people pushing them. Rather, green IT is mostly about the bottom line. At a recent conference of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), 68 percent of the technology officers in attendance said they were implementing green initiatives in order to reduce energy costs — not to combat climate change or reverse environmental damage.
The good news is that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit: Governments have lagged behind the private sector when it comes to technological efficiency. But what CIOs are finding is that there's only so much they can accomplish with leaner and better hardware. A lot of the green IT idea simply comes down to working with employees, changing old habits and, yes, getting people more acquainted with the off-button. "You can only do so much from a central perspective," says Kansas CIO Denise Moore. "But there's so much more you can accomplish when your employees have the mindset that their individual actions really are tied in to the state's overall energy use."
Green computing is not just about desktop hardware. One set of priorities centers around shrinking the total number of electronic devices that need to be working at any one time. Right now, according to NASCIO, more than 35 states are involved in or planning an effort to consolidate some aspect of their IT infrastructure. That can be as simple as eliminating excess machines. Michigan, for example, recently removed 8,000 unnecessary fax machines and printers from its system. Consolidation also can involve streamlining data centers, which are huge facilities that require massive amounts of energy to keep the equipment cool.
Another green IT strategy is called "virtualization." This means getting numerous applications, which might otherwise require their own server, to run on one machine. Virtualization, like data-center consolidation, can dramatically reduce the amount of power required to run IT systems. Moore says Kansas has cut the electricity consumption of its computing resources by over 70 percent through consolidation and virtualization of servers in the past few years.
But state CIOs also are focusing on energy consumption at a desktop-by-desktop level. In Minnesota, that's where technology directors started, with policies aimed at making each computer run more efficiently, says state CIO Gopal Khanna. "In our green IT efforts, Minnesota began with the desktop, realizing immediate savings through energy-efficient standards and through power-usage policies."
Initially, Minnesota's efforts centered around a new policy requiring all executive-branch employees to turn off their computers when they're done for the day. The state estimated it would save about $50 a year per computer. But those savings weren't guaranteed — they would materialize only if employees complied. Enforcement of the new policy was left to agency managers, some of whom took it more seriously than others. "It wasn't a campaign," says Cathy de Moll, a spokeswoman for the state's Office of Enterprise Technology. "It was just, -This is what's happening. This is what you're going to do.'"
The state of Michigan has gone through a similar experience. Two years ago, Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an executive order aimed at decreasing the state's energy consumption. Among other things, the order instructed state employees to power off their desktop computers when not in use. However, short of having someone walk around cubicles after hours, flipping the switch on all 55,000 of Michigan's desktop computers, it's been hard for the state to ensure consistency.
That's about to change. Michigan is implementing a new program that essentially removes the human factor. New technology, which the state hopes to have in place by the end of the year, will allow managers in the central Department of Information Technology to monitor usage of every computer in the state's network — and switch idle computers to sleep mode. This kind of technology is already popular with private-sector companies, but is relatively new in government. "Up until this point, it's been up to agency managers to make sure the policy is being implemented," says Judy Odett, the design and delivery director for the state's Office of Automation Services. "Now, we're taking it to the next step, actually leveraging technology to enforce it."
Environmental concerns may not top the list of reasons why states are pursuing green IT initiatives. But the same policies can play a part in reducing a government's carbon footprint — something that dozens of governors have pledged to do. With that goal in mind, several states have joined a private-sector effort called the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
Started in 2007 by Google and Intel, Climate Savers is a group of corporations and organizations that is committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions through the technology they purchase or produce. Members commit to buy only power-saving computer products and to employ power-management strategies to use those devices more efficiently. The organization's ambitious goal is to reduce global CO2 emissions from computers by 54 million tons annually by 2010. It's quite an aggressive aim — 2010 is, after all, next year. But with 350 corporate affiliates already on board, the group has reason to be optimistic.
Although Climate Savers was conceived as a private-sector venture, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and Oregon have signed on, as well. So have a few localities, including Seattle and Riverside, California. Governments can play a crucial role in the effort, says Climate Savers executive director Pat Tiernan. "States can be — and need to be — a model. In terms of how they participate, they're not all that different from private-sector businesses. But because they have such a high profile and a more direct connection to their shareholders, states have more of an opportunity to heighten the awareness of how important a step this is."
Moore, the Kansas CIO, agrees. "It's always important for states to take a lead," she says. Joining Climate Savers was a way for her state to help solidify its commitment to green IT. "There's already an awareness that people have about energy issues. Especially as gas prices went up last year, people personally became more aware of it. We're under pressure to reduce our impact, and this is a big step in that direction."
Goodnight Computer
March 2009 By ZACH PATTON
How to save money by logging off.
Your computer has an off-button. But if you're like most people, you don't use it very often. Maybe you like to leave certain programs or files open so that you can easily pick up working where you last left off. Maybe your computer's start-up process is frustratingly slow. But leaving these devices on all the time is a problem. A typical desktop computer wastes almost half of the energy it draws, mostly in the form of heat. Turning a computer off when you're done for the day — and utilizing built-in "sleep" or "hibernate" modes — can reduce the amount of energy consumed by 60 percent. Still, many employees prefer to leave their computers on all night rather than logging off and shutting down.
More and more states are trying to change that. Faced with volatile energy prices and a growing budget crisis, governments are trying to increase efficiency wherever they can. That goal points quickly to all sorts of "green IT" policies, such as buying more energy-saving computers and servers and using that equipment more efficiently. The notion that these initiatives might be good for the environment seems secondary to most of the people pushing them. Rather, green IT is mostly about the bottom line. At a recent conference of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), 68 percent of the technology officers in attendance said they were implementing green initiatives in order to reduce energy costs — not to combat climate change or reverse environmental damage.
The good news is that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit: Governments have lagged behind the private sector when it comes to technological efficiency. But what CIOs are finding is that there's only so much they can accomplish with leaner and better hardware. A lot of the green IT idea simply comes down to working with employees, changing old habits and, yes, getting people more acquainted with the off-button. "You can only do so much from a central perspective," says Kansas CIO Denise Moore. "But there's so much more you can accomplish when your employees have the mindset that their individual actions really are tied in to the state's overall energy use."
Green computing is not just about desktop hardware. One set of priorities centers around shrinking the total number of electronic devices that need to be working at any one time. Right now, according to NASCIO, more than 35 states are involved in or planning an effort to consolidate some aspect of their IT infrastructure. That can be as simple as eliminating excess machines. Michigan, for example, recently removed 8,000 unnecessary fax machines and printers from its system. Consolidation also can involve streamlining data centers, which are huge facilities that require massive amounts of energy to keep the equipment cool.
Another green IT strategy is called "virtualization." This means getting numerous applications, which might otherwise require their own server, to run on one machine. Virtualization, like data-center consolidation, can dramatically reduce the amount of power required to run IT systems. Moore says Kansas has cut the electricity consumption of its computing resources by over 70 percent through consolidation and virtualization of servers in the past few years.
But state CIOs also are focusing on energy consumption at a desktop-by-desktop level. In Minnesota, that's where technology directors started, with policies aimed at making each computer run more efficiently, says state CIO Gopal Khanna. "In our green IT efforts, Minnesota began with the desktop, realizing immediate savings through energy-efficient standards and through power-usage policies."
Initially, Minnesota's efforts centered around a new policy requiring all executive-branch employees to turn off their computers when they're done for the day. The state estimated it would save about $50 a year per computer. But those savings weren't guaranteed — they would materialize only if employees complied. Enforcement of the new policy was left to agency managers, some of whom took it more seriously than others. "It wasn't a campaign," says Cathy de Moll, a spokeswoman for the state's Office of Enterprise Technology. "It was just, -This is what's happening. This is what you're going to do.'"
The state of Michigan has gone through a similar experience. Two years ago, Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an executive order aimed at decreasing the state's energy consumption. Among other things, the order instructed state employees to power off their desktop computers when not in use. However, short of having someone walk around cubicles after hours, flipping the switch on all 55,000 of Michigan's desktop computers, it's been hard for the state to ensure consistency.
That's about to change. Michigan is implementing a new program that essentially removes the human factor. New technology, which the state hopes to have in place by the end of the year, will allow managers in the central Department of Information Technology to monitor usage of every computer in the state's network — and switch idle computers to sleep mode. This kind of technology is already popular with private-sector companies, but is relatively new in government. "Up until this point, it's been up to agency managers to make sure the policy is being implemented," says Judy Odett, the design and delivery director for the state's Office of Automation Services. "Now, we're taking it to the next step, actually leveraging technology to enforce it."
Environmental concerns may not top the list of reasons why states are pursuing green IT initiatives. But the same policies can play a part in reducing a government's carbon footprint — something that dozens of governors have pledged to do. With that goal in mind, several states have joined a private-sector effort called the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
Started in 2007 by Google and Intel, Climate Savers is a group of corporations and organizations that is committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions through the technology they purchase or produce. Members commit to buy only power-saving computer products and to employ power-management strategies to use those devices more efficiently. The organization's ambitious goal is to reduce global CO2 emissions from computers by 54 million tons annually by 2010. It's quite an aggressive aim — 2010 is, after all, next year. But with 350 corporate affiliates already on board, the group has reason to be optimistic.
Although Climate Savers was conceived as a private-sector venture, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and Oregon have signed on, as well. So have a few localities, including Seattle and Riverside, California. Governments can play a crucial role in the effort, says Climate Savers executive director Pat Tiernan. "States can be — and need to be — a model. In terms of how they participate, they're not all that different from private-sector businesses. But because they have such a high profile and a more direct connection to their shareholders, states have more of an opportunity to heighten the awareness of how important a step this is."
Moore, the Kansas CIO, agrees. "It's always important for states to take a lead," she says. Joining Climate Savers was a way for her state to help solidify its commitment to green IT. "There's already an awareness that people have about energy issues. Especially as gas prices went up last year, people personally became more aware of it. We're under pressure to reduce our impact, and this is a big step in that direction."
Alternate Solutions, Part I
Thanks to the emailer who sent in two suggestions on how to think outside of the box. Here's the first.
Take a look at this and maybe Morrisville can use it to fix our schools. "When an old bridge, road or any piece of infrastructure is so worn out that it must be replaced entirely, should it simply be shut down to make way for the construction crews? The response: Close the roads. Utah followed the advice, which accelerated the project dramatically. "We should be bolder about that sort of thing...The public understands it and they'll adjust."
Minneapolis Speedway
March 2009 By JOSH GOODMAN, GOVERNING.COM
A bridge collapsed. Minnesota’s DOT replaced it in just 13 months. Here’s how they did it.
John Chiglo is looking up from the banks of the Mississippi River at a huge ivory monolith. It's the new I-35W bridge, built on the site in Minneapolis where an old span collapsed suddenly on August 1, 2007, killing 13 people. The four giant support piers on each side of the river curve gently into the superstructure, giving the new bridge a slightly arced appearance when viewed from a distance. But up close, from where Chiglo stands, what's most striking is how polished a brand-new bridge looks, before the rust and grime of age settle in. "That's 50,000 yards of concrete," Chiglo says, sounding like a baseball fan rattling off the slugging percentage of his favorite player. "Seventeen million pounds of steel, 740 miles of post-tension steel strands."
Chiglo served as the Minnesota Department of Transportation's project manager for the I-35W bridge, also known as the St. Anthony Falls Bridge. He has good reason to be proud of it. The new span opened to traffic barely a year after the tragic collapse. Not only did MinnDOT beat an almost ludicrously ambitious deadline by three months, but it did so without any serious injuries to workers. The project came in respectably close to its budget — it went less than 2 percent over.
In the world of bridge construction, this story is a bit unusual. Bridge projects, like other big infrastructure endeavors, have a way of dragging out months or years behind schedule — and blasting through their budgets. It doesn't have to be that way. That's especially important to remember as the federal government hands some $36 billion over to states for road, bridge and transit projects in an effort to get the economy going again. MinnDOT's handling of the I-35W rebuilding demonstrates that states can spend lots of money, put people to work and make something with lasting value — and do those things both quickly and efficiently.
Getting the process right isn't easy, however. For bridge construction to work better, states have to manage delicate relationships with contractors and force different levels of government to work together more cooperatively. And, as the collapse of the old I-35W bridge made all too clear, construction is only half of the nation's infrastructure challenge. Maintenance and inspection of old bridges remains a huge problem in many states, even after the Minneapolis tragedy. The federal government lists 12 percent of all bridges in the United States as structurally deficient, and an additional 13 percent as functionally obsolete. So as states begin spending their stimulus money, they should not be thinking only about how to build bridges quickly and cheaply. They also should be strategizing about how to keep these assets in good condition for decades to come.
How was the new I-35W bridge built so quickly? The short answer is that the state of Minnesota didn't give the construction company in charge of the bridge, Flatiron Construction Corp., much of a choice.
Flatiron's base contract was for $234 million. In addition, the company was offered up to $27 million if it completed the project early — and faced financial penalties if it finished late. That was incentive enough for construction workers to adopt a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week schedule. Says Chiglo: "We worked holidays, weekends, day, night, rain, snow, sleet, ice." Ultimately, Flatiron received a $25 million bonus.
But while Minnesota demanded precisely WHEN the bridge should be built, the state left to Flatiron the details of HOW the bridge should be built. That's not the way state-issued construction contracts typically work. The most common process is what's known in the construction world as "design-bid-build." State employees design what needs to be built, then they put it up for bid and the private sector builds it based on the state's specifications. Those specifications can be exceptionally prescriptive. Often, they don't just stipulate what needs to be built — they also order the contractor to build it using a specific process.
By contrast, the new I-35W span was erected through a method known as "design-build." Under this model, many of the details of a project are left to the contractors, which allows them to put their expertise to work. Design-build isn't universally embraced among DOTs; the results are only as good as the contractors selected. But the big advantage of design-build is that initial construction can begin before the final design decisions are made, often allowing projects to get started swiftly. That's exactly how it worked out in Minneapolis, where construction began, remarkably, just three months after the old bridge fell.
To be sure, some of that urgency came from the emergency nature of the collapse. Bureaucracies moved at record speed, and cooperated across every level of government. Federal permits that normally take months to obtain were ready in days. The City of Minneapolis rapidly gave approval to the design of the new bridge. "Nobody," says Bob French, Flatiron's chief operating officer, "wanted to be the individual or agency that stopped that bridge from getting built." The unusual amount of political momentum that emerged out of the crisis is a big reason why French thinks it would be difficult to replicate this success story elsewhere.
There's another reason, too. Ironically, the collapse itself made it easier to get the new bridgework done quickly. Under less tragic circumstances, one of the big challenges in replacing an old bridge with a new one is keeping the existing span operating while the work goes on. Transportation officials are loathe to shut down a critical artery before the new one is ready, for fear of tying traffic in knots. At the same time, however, the old bridge inevitably gets in the way, complicating the construction process. In Minneapolis, of course, the old bridge was gone.
Unusual as that situation was, it raises an interesting question: When an old bridge, road or any piece of infrastructure is so worn out that it must be replaced entirely, should it simply be shut down to make way for the construction crews? One person who believes that the answer is yes — at least in some cases — is Tom Warne, a former Utah transportation director who now works as a consultant. In the 1990s, when Utah was rebuilding I-15 in and around Salt Lake City, Warne polled drivers on what they would prefer: the acute, if temporary, disruption of widespread road closures, or keeping the roads open and under construction for a longer period of time. The response: Close the roads. Utah followed the advice, which accelerated the project dramatically. "We should be bolder about that sort of thing," Warne says. "The public understands it and they'll adjust."
While the Minneapolis bridge collapse shook up the DOT in Minnesota, the tragedy's impact on the rest of the country has been surprisingly muted. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, state officials everywhere described the disaster as a wake-up call. Since then, many of them have hit the snooze button.
One year after the collapse, an Associated Press analysis looked at each state's 20 most heavily traveled structurally deficient bridges. Of the bridges analyzed, only one in 10 had been fixed up in the year after the collapse.
People in the industry don't dispute that less has happened since August 2007 than they would have liked. Part of the reason is that the scale of the problem is so enormous. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials estimates that $140 billion is needed to repair more than 150,000 bridges that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. That's only a fraction of the $2.2 trillion the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates for the nation's total infrastructure needs. With state revenue foundering and gas taxes in particular drying up, the past year and a half has proven to be a difficult time for states to make new investments.
But the problems run deeper than that. Glacial permitting processes mean that, for large projects, it can take a dozen years for a new bridge to become reality. The construction industry is deeply fragmented, with separate teams of suppliers, engineers and contractors needed just to build a bridge. "It would be a seismic event for the construction industry to change itself in one year," says Barry LePatner, a New York construction lawyer. "It remains a truly inefficient industry."
Nonetheless, there have been gradual signs of change. More and more states are following the Minneapolis model by making a contractor's payments contingent on getting the work done on time. Design-build was considered novel when Warne was using it in Utah a decade ago. Now, it's becoming more commonplace.
And, there's at least some reason to believe that the federal economic stimulus will continue these trends. "Shovel-ready" is the buzzword of the moment — the feds want to fund projects that can put people to work immediately. Since design-build can hasten the start date for projects, it may be the tool of choice for state DOTs in the months ahead.
If there's one state that isn't shy about trying new ideas, it's Missouri. A couple of years ago, Missouri proposed an experiment, known as the Safe and Sound bridge program. The intent was nothing less than to upend most of the basic tenets of bridge building and maintenance in the United States.
The state had 802 bridges, most of them small and in rural areas, which had fallen into poor condition. Normally, a state would bid out repair work on each bridge separately. Instead, Missouri offered them all up in one giant contract. Normally, the state would prescribe how each bridge would be brought into good condition. But Missouri wasn't telling the contractors whether they had to repair the existing bridges or replace them. And, normally, contractors are paid in full when bridgework happens. In Missouri's case, the contractors were to finance all the costs for the first five years. Payment to the team in charge of the bridges was to be contingent on the contractors' keeping them in good shape for an additional 25 years.
Although it was formulated before the I-35W bridge collapsed, Missouri's plan represents a logical extension of the ideas coming out of Minneapolis. You can tell that from its name: "design-build-finance-maintain." Many of the goals — giving contractors more flexibility, but paying them only for getting results — are the same.
That, says Don Hillis, director of System Management for the Missouri Department of Transportation, is a big reason for the state's optimism about the concept. The idea here is that handing hundreds of the bridges over to one team can reap economies of scale — especially when the contractors have free reign to design their own approach. Because of the maintenance component, the pressure is on the contractors to produce work that would stand the test of time. Plus, private funding is seen as a way to speed up work in spite of the limited public money available. The contract required that all 802 bridges be in good shape within five years.
As it turned out, the decision to use private-sector funds was the plan's Achilles' Heel. Missouri selected its team of contractors, but as the availability of credit tightened last fall, they were unable to obtain financing. The plan in its original form had to be scrapped and revised.
Missouri's new plan is still groundbreaking. This spring, it will hand out a single design-build contract for 554 of the original 802 bridges. Government-issued bonds will fund the project, and it won't have the 25-year maintenance component. Nonetheless, the experiment will test whether putting a single team in charge of hundreds of bridges can lead to more efficient construction."We still think it's a good concept," says Hillis. "When the private sector has the ability to muster funds at very good rates, I think it's something that could happen again."
Not everyone is so sure that Missouri has discovered the formula of the future. The state's plan would have greatly expanded the role of the private sector in bridge financing and maintenance, placing public assets in private hands. While private control of infrastructure is common in Europe and Canada, it remains controversial in the United States. But if there's one point that Missouri clearly had right, it's this: States need to focus just as much on bridge maintenance as they do on construction.
That's because maintenance is just as big a problem area as construction. Basic steps are routinely neglected, such as painting bridges regularly to prevent rusting and removing corrosive road salt. The result is that bridges have to be repaired or replaced years earlier than if they were maintained properly.
Some observers fear that the federal stimulus will only make the situation worse, by creating more bridges and roads that need upkeep. "We can't even maintain the size of the infrastructure that we have now," says Michael Pagano, an infrastructure expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We're going to add to it? I think that's insane."
The reasons for the maintenance problem are diverse. One of the most troubling is that there's a built-in disincentive to do the right thing. When bridges fall into disrepair, they become eligible for federal funds to replace them. So there's little motivation for states and localities to be proactive and spend their own money on maintenance up front. Another problem: Bridge inspections remain shockingly rudimentary. Examiners spend most of their time doing a visual once-over. They might tap various bridge parts with a hammer to see if metal has corroded, but these techniques often miss serious problems developing within the bridge structure.
Peter Vanderzee is one of a growing number of people who believe that there is a better way. Vanderzee runs a company that sells sensors that allow for computerized monitoring of bridges. He compares the current inspection regimen to that of a doctor who makes a diagnosis simply by looking at the patient.
The purpose of the sensors isn't primarily to identify an imminent bridge collapse on the order of the one in Minneapolis. Instead, the main purpose is to find subtle stresses and cracks early on, before those problems turn into visible signs of trouble. Plus, Vanderzee sees another benefit to the sensors. He's the rare person who thinks the condition of American bridges is considerably better than is commonly recognized. His argument: With visual inspections, lots of bridges are lumped together as needing repairs. Sensors, he says, can tell which ones need help more than others. "If it's in better shape, we can delay repairs and we can delay replacement," Vanderzee says. "If it's in worse shape, at least we know."
While this technology has been around for quite a while, it hasn't been widely utilized. States are reluctant to pay the upfront costs of installing the sensors based on the promise of long-term savings. (They also aren't eager to go drilling holes into old bridges and perhaps weakening them even more.) One span that does have them, though, is the new I-35W bridge in Minneapolis — it has 323 sensors to be precise. Data from those sensors will be fed to MinnDOT and the University of Minnesota, where staff will be able to monitor the bridge's condition in real time.
The sensors are just one reason that almost everyone in Minnesota views their new bridge as a success. But, as a result, Minnesotans also have higher expectations for the Department of Transportation going forward. "That didn't take long," Chiglo says. "People are already asking why we can't build every bridge so fast.
Take a look at this and maybe Morrisville can use it to fix our schools. "When an old bridge, road or any piece of infrastructure is so worn out that it must be replaced entirely, should it simply be shut down to make way for the construction crews? The response: Close the roads. Utah followed the advice, which accelerated the project dramatically. "We should be bolder about that sort of thing...The public understands it and they'll adjust."
Minneapolis Speedway
March 2009 By JOSH GOODMAN, GOVERNING.COM
A bridge collapsed. Minnesota’s DOT replaced it in just 13 months. Here’s how they did it.
John Chiglo is looking up from the banks of the Mississippi River at a huge ivory monolith. It's the new I-35W bridge, built on the site in Minneapolis where an old span collapsed suddenly on August 1, 2007, killing 13 people. The four giant support piers on each side of the river curve gently into the superstructure, giving the new bridge a slightly arced appearance when viewed from a distance. But up close, from where Chiglo stands, what's most striking is how polished a brand-new bridge looks, before the rust and grime of age settle in. "That's 50,000 yards of concrete," Chiglo says, sounding like a baseball fan rattling off the slugging percentage of his favorite player. "Seventeen million pounds of steel, 740 miles of post-tension steel strands."
Chiglo served as the Minnesota Department of Transportation's project manager for the I-35W bridge, also known as the St. Anthony Falls Bridge. He has good reason to be proud of it. The new span opened to traffic barely a year after the tragic collapse. Not only did MinnDOT beat an almost ludicrously ambitious deadline by three months, but it did so without any serious injuries to workers. The project came in respectably close to its budget — it went less than 2 percent over.
In the world of bridge construction, this story is a bit unusual. Bridge projects, like other big infrastructure endeavors, have a way of dragging out months or years behind schedule — and blasting through their budgets. It doesn't have to be that way. That's especially important to remember as the federal government hands some $36 billion over to states for road, bridge and transit projects in an effort to get the economy going again. MinnDOT's handling of the I-35W rebuilding demonstrates that states can spend lots of money, put people to work and make something with lasting value — and do those things both quickly and efficiently.
Getting the process right isn't easy, however. For bridge construction to work better, states have to manage delicate relationships with contractors and force different levels of government to work together more cooperatively. And, as the collapse of the old I-35W bridge made all too clear, construction is only half of the nation's infrastructure challenge. Maintenance and inspection of old bridges remains a huge problem in many states, even after the Minneapolis tragedy. The federal government lists 12 percent of all bridges in the United States as structurally deficient, and an additional 13 percent as functionally obsolete. So as states begin spending their stimulus money, they should not be thinking only about how to build bridges quickly and cheaply. They also should be strategizing about how to keep these assets in good condition for decades to come.
How was the new I-35W bridge built so quickly? The short answer is that the state of Minnesota didn't give the construction company in charge of the bridge, Flatiron Construction Corp., much of a choice.
Flatiron's base contract was for $234 million. In addition, the company was offered up to $27 million if it completed the project early — and faced financial penalties if it finished late. That was incentive enough for construction workers to adopt a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week schedule. Says Chiglo: "We worked holidays, weekends, day, night, rain, snow, sleet, ice." Ultimately, Flatiron received a $25 million bonus.
But while Minnesota demanded precisely WHEN the bridge should be built, the state left to Flatiron the details of HOW the bridge should be built. That's not the way state-issued construction contracts typically work. The most common process is what's known in the construction world as "design-bid-build." State employees design what needs to be built, then they put it up for bid and the private sector builds it based on the state's specifications. Those specifications can be exceptionally prescriptive. Often, they don't just stipulate what needs to be built — they also order the contractor to build it using a specific process.
By contrast, the new I-35W span was erected through a method known as "design-build." Under this model, many of the details of a project are left to the contractors, which allows them to put their expertise to work. Design-build isn't universally embraced among DOTs; the results are only as good as the contractors selected. But the big advantage of design-build is that initial construction can begin before the final design decisions are made, often allowing projects to get started swiftly. That's exactly how it worked out in Minneapolis, where construction began, remarkably, just three months after the old bridge fell.
To be sure, some of that urgency came from the emergency nature of the collapse. Bureaucracies moved at record speed, and cooperated across every level of government. Federal permits that normally take months to obtain were ready in days. The City of Minneapolis rapidly gave approval to the design of the new bridge. "Nobody," says Bob French, Flatiron's chief operating officer, "wanted to be the individual or agency that stopped that bridge from getting built." The unusual amount of political momentum that emerged out of the crisis is a big reason why French thinks it would be difficult to replicate this success story elsewhere.
There's another reason, too. Ironically, the collapse itself made it easier to get the new bridgework done quickly. Under less tragic circumstances, one of the big challenges in replacing an old bridge with a new one is keeping the existing span operating while the work goes on. Transportation officials are loathe to shut down a critical artery before the new one is ready, for fear of tying traffic in knots. At the same time, however, the old bridge inevitably gets in the way, complicating the construction process. In Minneapolis, of course, the old bridge was gone.
Unusual as that situation was, it raises an interesting question: When an old bridge, road or any piece of infrastructure is so worn out that it must be replaced entirely, should it simply be shut down to make way for the construction crews? One person who believes that the answer is yes — at least in some cases — is Tom Warne, a former Utah transportation director who now works as a consultant. In the 1990s, when Utah was rebuilding I-15 in and around Salt Lake City, Warne polled drivers on what they would prefer: the acute, if temporary, disruption of widespread road closures, or keeping the roads open and under construction for a longer period of time. The response: Close the roads. Utah followed the advice, which accelerated the project dramatically. "We should be bolder about that sort of thing," Warne says. "The public understands it and they'll adjust."
While the Minneapolis bridge collapse shook up the DOT in Minnesota, the tragedy's impact on the rest of the country has been surprisingly muted. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, state officials everywhere described the disaster as a wake-up call. Since then, many of them have hit the snooze button.
One year after the collapse, an Associated Press analysis looked at each state's 20 most heavily traveled structurally deficient bridges. Of the bridges analyzed, only one in 10 had been fixed up in the year after the collapse.
People in the industry don't dispute that less has happened since August 2007 than they would have liked. Part of the reason is that the scale of the problem is so enormous. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials estimates that $140 billion is needed to repair more than 150,000 bridges that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. That's only a fraction of the $2.2 trillion the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates for the nation's total infrastructure needs. With state revenue foundering and gas taxes in particular drying up, the past year and a half has proven to be a difficult time for states to make new investments.
But the problems run deeper than that. Glacial permitting processes mean that, for large projects, it can take a dozen years for a new bridge to become reality. The construction industry is deeply fragmented, with separate teams of suppliers, engineers and contractors needed just to build a bridge. "It would be a seismic event for the construction industry to change itself in one year," says Barry LePatner, a New York construction lawyer. "It remains a truly inefficient industry."
Nonetheless, there have been gradual signs of change. More and more states are following the Minneapolis model by making a contractor's payments contingent on getting the work done on time. Design-build was considered novel when Warne was using it in Utah a decade ago. Now, it's becoming more commonplace.
And, there's at least some reason to believe that the federal economic stimulus will continue these trends. "Shovel-ready" is the buzzword of the moment — the feds want to fund projects that can put people to work immediately. Since design-build can hasten the start date for projects, it may be the tool of choice for state DOTs in the months ahead.
If there's one state that isn't shy about trying new ideas, it's Missouri. A couple of years ago, Missouri proposed an experiment, known as the Safe and Sound bridge program. The intent was nothing less than to upend most of the basic tenets of bridge building and maintenance in the United States.
The state had 802 bridges, most of them small and in rural areas, which had fallen into poor condition. Normally, a state would bid out repair work on each bridge separately. Instead, Missouri offered them all up in one giant contract. Normally, the state would prescribe how each bridge would be brought into good condition. But Missouri wasn't telling the contractors whether they had to repair the existing bridges or replace them. And, normally, contractors are paid in full when bridgework happens. In Missouri's case, the contractors were to finance all the costs for the first five years. Payment to the team in charge of the bridges was to be contingent on the contractors' keeping them in good shape for an additional 25 years.
Although it was formulated before the I-35W bridge collapsed, Missouri's plan represents a logical extension of the ideas coming out of Minneapolis. You can tell that from its name: "design-build-finance-maintain." Many of the goals — giving contractors more flexibility, but paying them only for getting results — are the same.
That, says Don Hillis, director of System Management for the Missouri Department of Transportation, is a big reason for the state's optimism about the concept. The idea here is that handing hundreds of the bridges over to one team can reap economies of scale — especially when the contractors have free reign to design their own approach. Because of the maintenance component, the pressure is on the contractors to produce work that would stand the test of time. Plus, private funding is seen as a way to speed up work in spite of the limited public money available. The contract required that all 802 bridges be in good shape within five years.
As it turned out, the decision to use private-sector funds was the plan's Achilles' Heel. Missouri selected its team of contractors, but as the availability of credit tightened last fall, they were unable to obtain financing. The plan in its original form had to be scrapped and revised.
Missouri's new plan is still groundbreaking. This spring, it will hand out a single design-build contract for 554 of the original 802 bridges. Government-issued bonds will fund the project, and it won't have the 25-year maintenance component. Nonetheless, the experiment will test whether putting a single team in charge of hundreds of bridges can lead to more efficient construction."We still think it's a good concept," says Hillis. "When the private sector has the ability to muster funds at very good rates, I think it's something that could happen again."
Not everyone is so sure that Missouri has discovered the formula of the future. The state's plan would have greatly expanded the role of the private sector in bridge financing and maintenance, placing public assets in private hands. While private control of infrastructure is common in Europe and Canada, it remains controversial in the United States. But if there's one point that Missouri clearly had right, it's this: States need to focus just as much on bridge maintenance as they do on construction.
That's because maintenance is just as big a problem area as construction. Basic steps are routinely neglected, such as painting bridges regularly to prevent rusting and removing corrosive road salt. The result is that bridges have to be repaired or replaced years earlier than if they were maintained properly.
Some observers fear that the federal stimulus will only make the situation worse, by creating more bridges and roads that need upkeep. "We can't even maintain the size of the infrastructure that we have now," says Michael Pagano, an infrastructure expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We're going to add to it? I think that's insane."
The reasons for the maintenance problem are diverse. One of the most troubling is that there's a built-in disincentive to do the right thing. When bridges fall into disrepair, they become eligible for federal funds to replace them. So there's little motivation for states and localities to be proactive and spend their own money on maintenance up front. Another problem: Bridge inspections remain shockingly rudimentary. Examiners spend most of their time doing a visual once-over. They might tap various bridge parts with a hammer to see if metal has corroded, but these techniques often miss serious problems developing within the bridge structure.
Peter Vanderzee is one of a growing number of people who believe that there is a better way. Vanderzee runs a company that sells sensors that allow for computerized monitoring of bridges. He compares the current inspection regimen to that of a doctor who makes a diagnosis simply by looking at the patient.
The purpose of the sensors isn't primarily to identify an imminent bridge collapse on the order of the one in Minneapolis. Instead, the main purpose is to find subtle stresses and cracks early on, before those problems turn into visible signs of trouble. Plus, Vanderzee sees another benefit to the sensors. He's the rare person who thinks the condition of American bridges is considerably better than is commonly recognized. His argument: With visual inspections, lots of bridges are lumped together as needing repairs. Sensors, he says, can tell which ones need help more than others. "If it's in better shape, we can delay repairs and we can delay replacement," Vanderzee says. "If it's in worse shape, at least we know."
While this technology has been around for quite a while, it hasn't been widely utilized. States are reluctant to pay the upfront costs of installing the sensors based on the promise of long-term savings. (They also aren't eager to go drilling holes into old bridges and perhaps weakening them even more.) One span that does have them, though, is the new I-35W bridge in Minneapolis — it has 323 sensors to be precise. Data from those sensors will be fed to MinnDOT and the University of Minnesota, where staff will be able to monitor the bridge's condition in real time.
The sensors are just one reason that almost everyone in Minnesota views their new bridge as a success. But, as a result, Minnesotans also have higher expectations for the Department of Transportation going forward. "That didn't take long," Chiglo says. "People are already asking why we can't build every bridge so fast.
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