From the BCCT. Congrats to the Bristol School District.
New school nearing completion
Bristol’s new school is roughly 70 percent complete, according to the architect who designed the facility.
“We’re making very good progress with all of our prime [contractors],” said Michael Minton, a VITETTA architect, during the district’s school board meeting Thursday night.
The estimated $33.2 million school will house Bristol’s prekindergarten through eighth grade classes. It will be able to accommodate up to 1,100 students.
The building is located off Buckley Street adjacent to the current Warren Snyder-John Girotti Elementary School.
It originally was supposed to be completed in time for the beginning of the current school year, but was delayed for four months early on in the project while urban fill was removed from the site.
The building likely will be completed in early 2009, school district officials said.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Fuel Costs Update
Another story from the BCCT today about the fuel costs and how waiting things out worked for Centennial and Central Bucks while the other districts are paying higher prices.
It was a gamble. We all know that. This time it paid off. Prudent and responsible business management goes with the better solution: lock in the savings on a cooperative rate.
I'm told that a member of the school board had a problem understanding that Wednesday night. That person understood that locking in is great and if the price goes higher, the district "wins" by paying the lower locked in rate. But they did not understand the reverse of that premise. They wanted a guarantee that if the price drops, the district would still "win" by receiving the new, lower rate from the oil supplier.
Free enterprise doesn't work that way.
I also make that point to the BCCT editorial board. Their "thumbs up" award to these two school districts is dubiously earned. The districts rolled the dice and came up on top this time. Would they have earned a "thumbs down" for lack of planning had the prices continued to rise? The Centennial/CB gamble was not a prudent course of action. Even the Emperor says he will not gamble with public money.
Districts’ wait pays off with savings on fuel
The volatile cost of diesel fuel drove most districts to buy sooner instead of risking higher costs later.
By MANASEE WAGH
In an economy that has people second-guessing tomorrow’s prices for commodities, two Bucks school districts got a lucky deal on diesel fuel for school buses.
Centennial and Central Bucks stuck it out several weeks longer than 13 other Bucks districts and educational institutions, seeking a less expensive fuel supply over the next 15 months.
The gamble worked.
Now the two districts will be paying about a dollar less per gallon than the rest of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22 Cooperative Purchasing Group — a savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most districts chose to lock in the fixed price of $4.33 per gallon in early summer with Sunoco Inc., the lowest of several bidders.
Sandy Homel, Centennial School District’s acting superintendent, compared bidding on volatile fuel prices these days to a crapshoot.
“That particular day they were bidding the price was up very high and it appeared it would just be escalating. A bit of a risk was involved. Are you going to have the good fortune that it would come down?” she said.
The other districts preferred to lock in a fixed price because of budgetary concerns and a fear that the price would keep rising, said Wendy Macauley, the business administrator at the IU. Each could opt for either the fixed price or a floating price, which entailed locking in a price at a later date.
At the time, projections said oil prices would skyrocket this time of year.
Lasher, Centennial’s facilities director, advised waiting to see if the price of diesel would go down, an option that Central Bucks also liked. It was a risk, because if the price had increased, the two districts would have ended up paying more.
The newspaper was unable to reach Lasher for comment because he is on vacation.
Now the price Centennial and Central Bucks will get is $3.28 per gallon for deliveries of 6,000 gallons or more, from Oct. 1 until June 30. From July 1 through Dec. 31, 2009, they will pay $3.37 per gallon.
“[Lasher] did the right thing,” Homel said. “I guess you’d say it’s intuition and having the courage to take the risk and know that it’ll be supported.”
Centennial uses close to a quarter of a million gallons of fuel per year and operates approximately 100 school buses. That would be a savings of $250,000 over what the district would pay in the consortium pact.
Waiting was worth it for Central Bucks too, which has 235 school buses.
Morrisville and Bristol Borough did not join the diesel fuel bid at the IU because neither has daily bus service.
The IU’s Cooperative Purchasing Group is a consortium of county districts that commonly join together to get lower rates on a variety of school necessities, from paper to nursing supplies. Usually it’s a cost-saving system because items are bought in bulk.
“Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we like to join forces. Generally speaking, everybody is going to get a better deal. On this particular bid, given the pricing, we didn’t feel it was a good choice,” said Tom McCambridge, director of finance for Central Bucks School District.
Individual school systems made what they judged to be the best decision at the time, said Joseph Paradise, Neshaminy School District’s business administrator. His district got stuck with the higher price.
“It’s a major risk to wait,” he said. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Most times in the past we’ve won. Nobody knows what’s happening with fuel and oil today.”
-----------------------------------------
THUMBS UP -- To Centennial and Central Bucks school district officials for shopping around and coming up with a better deal for diesel fuel than they would have paid as part of a county consortium.
The Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22 Cooperative Purchasing Group early this summer inked a deal that will cost all but two of the county’s 15 school districts $4.33 per gallon of school bus diesel. Central Bucks and Centennial decided to wait and see what would happen. By July prices began to fall, and the two districts recently got contracts for $3.28 a gallon through June 30, 2009 and $3.37 a gallon from July 1, 2009 through the end of next year.
By prudently shopping around, Centennial and Central Bucks officials will save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It was a gamble. We all know that. This time it paid off. Prudent and responsible business management goes with the better solution: lock in the savings on a cooperative rate.
I'm told that a member of the school board had a problem understanding that Wednesday night. That person understood that locking in is great and if the price goes higher, the district "wins" by paying the lower locked in rate. But they did not understand the reverse of that premise. They wanted a guarantee that if the price drops, the district would still "win" by receiving the new, lower rate from the oil supplier.
Free enterprise doesn't work that way.
I also make that point to the BCCT editorial board. Their "thumbs up" award to these two school districts is dubiously earned. The districts rolled the dice and came up on top this time. Would they have earned a "thumbs down" for lack of planning had the prices continued to rise? The Centennial/CB gamble was not a prudent course of action. Even the Emperor says he will not gamble with public money.
Districts’ wait pays off with savings on fuel
The volatile cost of diesel fuel drove most districts to buy sooner instead of risking higher costs later.
By MANASEE WAGH
In an economy that has people second-guessing tomorrow’s prices for commodities, two Bucks school districts got a lucky deal on diesel fuel for school buses.
Centennial and Central Bucks stuck it out several weeks longer than 13 other Bucks districts and educational institutions, seeking a less expensive fuel supply over the next 15 months.
The gamble worked.
Now the two districts will be paying about a dollar less per gallon than the rest of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22 Cooperative Purchasing Group — a savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most districts chose to lock in the fixed price of $4.33 per gallon in early summer with Sunoco Inc., the lowest of several bidders.
Sandy Homel, Centennial School District’s acting superintendent, compared bidding on volatile fuel prices these days to a crapshoot.
“That particular day they were bidding the price was up very high and it appeared it would just be escalating. A bit of a risk was involved. Are you going to have the good fortune that it would come down?” she said.
The other districts preferred to lock in a fixed price because of budgetary concerns and a fear that the price would keep rising, said Wendy Macauley, the business administrator at the IU. Each could opt for either the fixed price or a floating price, which entailed locking in a price at a later date.
At the time, projections said oil prices would skyrocket this time of year.
Lasher, Centennial’s facilities director, advised waiting to see if the price of diesel would go down, an option that Central Bucks also liked. It was a risk, because if the price had increased, the two districts would have ended up paying more.
The newspaper was unable to reach Lasher for comment because he is on vacation.
Now the price Centennial and Central Bucks will get is $3.28 per gallon for deliveries of 6,000 gallons or more, from Oct. 1 until June 30. From July 1 through Dec. 31, 2009, they will pay $3.37 per gallon.
“[Lasher] did the right thing,” Homel said. “I guess you’d say it’s intuition and having the courage to take the risk and know that it’ll be supported.”
Centennial uses close to a quarter of a million gallons of fuel per year and operates approximately 100 school buses. That would be a savings of $250,000 over what the district would pay in the consortium pact.
Waiting was worth it for Central Bucks too, which has 235 school buses.
Morrisville and Bristol Borough did not join the diesel fuel bid at the IU because neither has daily bus service.
The IU’s Cooperative Purchasing Group is a consortium of county districts that commonly join together to get lower rates on a variety of school necessities, from paper to nursing supplies. Usually it’s a cost-saving system because items are bought in bulk.
“Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we like to join forces. Generally speaking, everybody is going to get a better deal. On this particular bid, given the pricing, we didn’t feel it was a good choice,” said Tom McCambridge, director of finance for Central Bucks School District.
Individual school systems made what they judged to be the best decision at the time, said Joseph Paradise, Neshaminy School District’s business administrator. His district got stuck with the higher price.
“It’s a major risk to wait,” he said. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Most times in the past we’ve won. Nobody knows what’s happening with fuel and oil today.”
-----------------------------------------
THUMBS UP -- To Centennial and Central Bucks school district officials for shopping around and coming up with a better deal for diesel fuel than they would have paid as part of a county consortium.
The Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22 Cooperative Purchasing Group early this summer inked a deal that will cost all but two of the county’s 15 school districts $4.33 per gallon of school bus diesel. Central Bucks and Centennial decided to wait and see what would happen. By July prices began to fall, and the two districts recently got contracts for $3.28 a gallon through June 30, 2009 and $3.37 a gallon from July 1, 2009 through the end of next year.
By prudently shopping around, Centennial and Central Bucks officials will save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
UPDATE: School Board Meets Tonight
You can make your own buzzword bingo card! Thanks to the emailer who sent me this link: http://www.misterharold.net/joker/bingo/
Anyone want to add to the word list?
Using this group of words, I came up with this bingo card
procurement card, budget, Morrisville, taxes
defeasement, Hellmann, Mrs Reethmeyer, it's Reithmeyer
I don't get email, move this along, speed it up, are you done
so moved, second, who seconded that, Emperor
Radosti, Dunford, Yonson, Fitzpatrick
Steve Worob, Brenda Worob, Heater, 2 Worobs in 1 sentence
Mihok, Kemp, Buckman, Farrell
Ferrara, Taylor, Huggins
it generates a card for anyone to use
Anyone want to add to the word list?
Using this group of words, I came up with this bingo card
procurement card, budget, Morrisville, taxes
defeasement, Hellmann, Mrs Reethmeyer, it's Reithmeyer
I don't get email, move this along, speed it up, are you done
so moved, second, who seconded that, Emperor
Radosti, Dunford, Yonson, Fitzpatrick
Steve Worob, Brenda Worob, Heater, 2 Worobs in 1 sentence
Mihok, Kemp, Buckman, Farrell
Ferrara, Taylor, Huggins
it generates a card for anyone to use
Saving Money
Does everyone remember how the Emperor screeched incessantly about how the old board was bad and the new board was good because they defeased the bond and saved so much on interest charges? I do. I also remember when he was confronted with the question on how it would have looked if the interest rates had behaved differently. Screeching: not so much. Dodging and evasion: Bingo!
From the BCCT today comes a lesson on conventional wisdom. It's not always that conventional or wise. Morrisville uses the IU purchasing group for many items, including fuel oil. We don't need to use the diesel for our buses. Everyone walks here.
CENTENNIAL
Thanks to an independent fuel bid, the Centennial School District will be saving its taxpayers thousands of dollars through June 2009.
Centennial was considering joining group trying to get a low rate on diesel for school buses.
Instead of joining the Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22’s Cooperative Purchasing Group, the district made a contract with Sunoco that will save about a dollar per gallon.
For a delivery of at least 6,000 gallons, the district will be paying $3.28 per gallon from Oct. 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009.
After that, the price will be $3.37 per gallon from July 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2009.
The IU cooperative group’s rate is $4.33 per gallon.
From the BCCT today comes a lesson on conventional wisdom. It's not always that conventional or wise. Morrisville uses the IU purchasing group for many items, including fuel oil. We don't need to use the diesel for our buses. Everyone walks here.
CENTENNIAL
Thanks to an independent fuel bid, the Centennial School District will be saving its taxpayers thousands of dollars through June 2009.
Centennial was considering joining group trying to get a low rate on diesel for school buses.
Instead of joining the Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22’s Cooperative Purchasing Group, the district made a contract with Sunoco that will save about a dollar per gallon.
For a delivery of at least 6,000 gallons, the district will be paying $3.28 per gallon from Oct. 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009.
After that, the price will be $3.37 per gallon from July 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2009.
The IU cooperative group’s rate is $4.33 per gallon.
School Board Meets Tonight
Reminders from the BCCT and the mv.org district website
These tedious meetings can last until well past midnight. Anyone imaginative out there who can develop a MVSB version of Buzzword Bingo? Imagine Mrs. Mihok uttering the words "procurement card" and someone yells "BINGO!"
Morrisville school board: 7:30 p.m., Large Group Instruction Room of the Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St. Agenda: Consider painting and renovating high school auditorium, other issues. 215-736-2681 [Could they consider some padding on the seats? Those seats are pretty uncomfortable.]
Board of Ed
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Education Committee Meeting Time: 6:30PM
The Education Committee Meeting will be in held the G Hall Conference Room at 6:30PM in the Middle Senior High School.
HR Committee Meeting Time: 7:00PM
The HR Committee Meeting will be held in the G Hall Conference Room at 7:000PM in the Middle Senior High School.
Board Meeting Time: 7:30PM [Keep checking for an agenda to be posted]
The monthly school board meeting will be held in the LGI room located in the Middle Senior High School at 7:30 p.m. in the LGI Room of the Morrisville Middle Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer Street, Morrisville, PA.
These tedious meetings can last until well past midnight. Anyone imaginative out there who can develop a MVSB version of Buzzword Bingo? Imagine Mrs. Mihok uttering the words "procurement card" and someone yells "BINGO!"
Morrisville school board: 7:30 p.m., Large Group Instruction Room of the Middle/Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer St. Agenda: Consider painting and renovating high school auditorium, other issues. 215-736-2681 [Could they consider some padding on the seats? Those seats are pretty uncomfortable.]
Board of Ed
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Education Committee Meeting Time: 6:30PM
The Education Committee Meeting will be in held the G Hall Conference Room at 6:30PM in the Middle Senior High School.
HR Committee Meeting Time: 7:00PM
The HR Committee Meeting will be held in the G Hall Conference Room at 7:000PM in the Middle Senior High School.
Board Meeting Time: 7:30PM [Keep checking for an agenda to be posted]
The monthly school board meeting will be held in the LGI room located in the Middle Senior High School at 7:30 p.m. in the LGI Room of the Morrisville Middle Senior High School, 550 W. Palmer Street, Morrisville, PA.
Baltimore Special Education Woes
From the Baltimore Sun.
The Milwaukee special education issue is dispiriting enough, but here's an article describing the decades long battles in the Baltimore school system.
The lesson is not that big school systems have big problems. These are just the districts and problems that everyone notices.
The lesson here is that bells cannot be unrung. Once the mistake is made, there are years, and maybe even decades, spent paying for and fixing the mistake.
Alonso calls for a loosening of court controls
Education official tells judge that Baltimore schools have made progress in special education under 20-year-old consent decree
By Sara Neufeld September 22, 2008
Riding high on recent improvements in student test scores, Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso says special education in the city should be subject to less court oversight under a decades-old lawsuit.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick also says there's been improvement, and she'd like to see the court begin transferring responsibilities back to the state, which monitors special education in Maryland's other 23 school districts. "If we were talking about the Cold War, we would normalize the operation," she said.
The city school system and the state education department are defendants in a 1984 federal class action suit filed on behalf of students with disabilities.
In a required update to U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis filed this month, the school system does not officially ask for relief but says it is turning around under the leadership of Alonso, who became CEO in July 2007. The filing, which Alonso described as "aggressive," goes beyond the specifics of the case to describe scores of new initiatives, from reorganizing the central office to giving principals more autonomy to revising curriculum. As evidence that reform is beginning to take hold, it cites the improved test scores.
Though their academic performance still lags, the city's special education students improved more than the student body as a whole on this year's standardized tests for children in third through eighth grades. And city students improved more than their peers across the state.
"The dramatic gains in achievement and other outcomes for students overall, and for special education students in particular, are expected to continue or accelerate due to a series of bold new reforms under the direction of Dr. Alonso," the court papers say.
But the tests do not measure the performance of high school students, and the system's secondary schools have had more problems in special education than have elementary schools. To get out from under the consent decree that's been in place since 1988, the system must show it can sustain improvement. It's too soon to know whether many of Alonso's initiatives will work; nearly a third of city schools have new principals this year.
The parties in the suit seem to agree there's been progress, but they disagree about how much. A state monitoring report issued last month found improvement, but not the same extent as the system claims.
The system's court filing contends that Baltimore "is performing better than other school districts across Maryland in a number of areas in providing services to special education students," and those districts aren't the subject of lawsuits.
"This doesn't mean in any way that I think we have our act together," Alonso said in an interview, but said improvement should be rewarded. He said the system is spending a "flabbergasting" amount of time and money on professional development for special education.
In 2000, the parties in the suit agreed to 15 measures by which the system would be evaluated. Over the years, the court agreed the system was in compliance with eight of the 15.
Of the seven areas remaining, the system says it is now in full or substantial compliance with three: It's integrating students with disabilities into classes with their nondisabled peers, with appropriate support; it's sending them to schools in their neighborhoods; and it's taking their disabilities into account in determining and executing appropriate discipline.
The state monitoring report, however, says "there has been no significant progress made" in reducing the disproportionate number of special education students who are subject to disciplinary action.
The lawsuit's special master, Amy Totenberg, issued a report last winter concluding that the system was integrating most special education students into regular classes but often without giving them the support they need, particularly in secondary schools.
Since the system has in the past improved only to slide backward again, Alonso said he could understand if Garbis isn't ready to start loosening the reins. "If I were a judge, I might be nervous," he said.
The system had made strides before a budget crisis in 2004, which prompted a breakdown in serving special education students. In 2005, Garbis ordered a team of state-appointed managers into the system. The team remains, but with fewer people and with a relationship that Alonso describes as more collaborative than supervisory. Grasmick attributes much of the recent improvement to the team's work.
Alonso said he wants a clear definition from the court of what constitutes success and how long that success must be maintained before the court will lift the oversight, which costs the system millions of dollars a year. The system must cover the costs not only of its own lawyers but also of the plaintiffs' attorneys, the special master's office, the four state managers and expensive makeup services to children as determined by a court formula.
System officials say they are out of compliance with only one of the seven measures the court is monitoring: the requirement that they provide legally mandated services such as speech therapy and counseling without interruption.
They say they are in partial compliance with three measures, two involving the graduation rates for students with disabilities. Since 2005, the system says, the graduation rate has increased 8.9 percentage points. Still, it's only 36 percent. Last week, Alonso ordered the city's high schools to try to track down 925 students - some with disabilities and some without - who have dropped out since January and get them back into class.
In the lawsuit, the next step will be a response from Totenberg, who is expected to provide her assessment of the city's compliance. Alonso said the system will determine how to proceed based on her feedback. Totenberg also monitors a continuing special education lawsuit in Washington, where she recently issued a scathing report.
The students' lawyers, at the Maryland Disability Law Center, declined to comment on the status of Baltimore's special education program.
The Milwaukee special education issue is dispiriting enough, but here's an article describing the decades long battles in the Baltimore school system.
The lesson is not that big school systems have big problems. These are just the districts and problems that everyone notices.
The lesson here is that bells cannot be unrung. Once the mistake is made, there are years, and maybe even decades, spent paying for and fixing the mistake.
Alonso calls for a loosening of court controls
Education official tells judge that Baltimore schools have made progress in special education under 20-year-old consent decree
By Sara Neufeld September 22, 2008
Riding high on recent improvements in student test scores, Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso says special education in the city should be subject to less court oversight under a decades-old lawsuit.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick also says there's been improvement, and she'd like to see the court begin transferring responsibilities back to the state, which monitors special education in Maryland's other 23 school districts. "If we were talking about the Cold War, we would normalize the operation," she said.
The city school system and the state education department are defendants in a 1984 federal class action suit filed on behalf of students with disabilities.
In a required update to U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis filed this month, the school system does not officially ask for relief but says it is turning around under the leadership of Alonso, who became CEO in July 2007. The filing, which Alonso described as "aggressive," goes beyond the specifics of the case to describe scores of new initiatives, from reorganizing the central office to giving principals more autonomy to revising curriculum. As evidence that reform is beginning to take hold, it cites the improved test scores.
Though their academic performance still lags, the city's special education students improved more than the student body as a whole on this year's standardized tests for children in third through eighth grades. And city students improved more than their peers across the state.
"The dramatic gains in achievement and other outcomes for students overall, and for special education students in particular, are expected to continue or accelerate due to a series of bold new reforms under the direction of Dr. Alonso," the court papers say.
But the tests do not measure the performance of high school students, and the system's secondary schools have had more problems in special education than have elementary schools. To get out from under the consent decree that's been in place since 1988, the system must show it can sustain improvement. It's too soon to know whether many of Alonso's initiatives will work; nearly a third of city schools have new principals this year.
The parties in the suit seem to agree there's been progress, but they disagree about how much. A state monitoring report issued last month found improvement, but not the same extent as the system claims.
The system's court filing contends that Baltimore "is performing better than other school districts across Maryland in a number of areas in providing services to special education students," and those districts aren't the subject of lawsuits.
"This doesn't mean in any way that I think we have our act together," Alonso said in an interview, but said improvement should be rewarded. He said the system is spending a "flabbergasting" amount of time and money on professional development for special education.
In 2000, the parties in the suit agreed to 15 measures by which the system would be evaluated. Over the years, the court agreed the system was in compliance with eight of the 15.
Of the seven areas remaining, the system says it is now in full or substantial compliance with three: It's integrating students with disabilities into classes with their nondisabled peers, with appropriate support; it's sending them to schools in their neighborhoods; and it's taking their disabilities into account in determining and executing appropriate discipline.
The state monitoring report, however, says "there has been no significant progress made" in reducing the disproportionate number of special education students who are subject to disciplinary action.
The lawsuit's special master, Amy Totenberg, issued a report last winter concluding that the system was integrating most special education students into regular classes but often without giving them the support they need, particularly in secondary schools.
Since the system has in the past improved only to slide backward again, Alonso said he could understand if Garbis isn't ready to start loosening the reins. "If I were a judge, I might be nervous," he said.
The system had made strides before a budget crisis in 2004, which prompted a breakdown in serving special education students. In 2005, Garbis ordered a team of state-appointed managers into the system. The team remains, but with fewer people and with a relationship that Alonso describes as more collaborative than supervisory. Grasmick attributes much of the recent improvement to the team's work.
Alonso said he wants a clear definition from the court of what constitutes success and how long that success must be maintained before the court will lift the oversight, which costs the system millions of dollars a year. The system must cover the costs not only of its own lawyers but also of the plaintiffs' attorneys, the special master's office, the four state managers and expensive makeup services to children as determined by a court formula.
System officials say they are out of compliance with only one of the seven measures the court is monitoring: the requirement that they provide legally mandated services such as speech therapy and counseling without interruption.
They say they are in partial compliance with three measures, two involving the graduation rates for students with disabilities. Since 2005, the system says, the graduation rate has increased 8.9 percentage points. Still, it's only 36 percent. Last week, Alonso ordered the city's high schools to try to track down 925 students - some with disabilities and some without - who have dropped out since January and get them back into class.
In the lawsuit, the next step will be a response from Totenberg, who is expected to provide her assessment of the city's compliance. Alonso said the system will determine how to proceed based on her feedback. Totenberg also monitors a continuing special education lawsuit in Washington, where she recently issued a scathing report.
The students' lawyers, at the Maryland Disability Law Center, declined to comment on the status of Baltimore's special education program.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Comprehensive Plan Backed
From the BCCT
Council backs plan to revitalize downtown
Forty-two percent of all residential properties in the borough are rentals.
By DANNY ADLER
A common theme in Morrisville’s new comprehensive plan is to revitalize the borough’s downtown and make it a focus of future economic development efforts.
The 156-page plan, which gained unanimous support from the borough council last week, also addresses housing issues in Morrisville, where 42 percent of all residential properties are rentals.
The plan was created by the borough and Bucks County planning commissions and serves as a policy guide to decisions regarding the town’s physical development. It makes dozens of recommendations.
“We’re trying to enhance the borough,” said council President Nancy Sherlock. However, she later added, the problem is that there isn’t a lot of room to build in Morrisville.
Councilwoman Jane Burger said many of the goals in the plan can be achieved “but not quickly.”
“All of these things probably won’t happen in 10 years, but we need to keep working toward that,” she said. “It’s a guideline. If you were doing a painting, I’d describe the comprehensive plan as the background. … It takes time.”
The plan says the borough can increase its tax base by attracting non-residential development. One such area to develop, the plan says, is south of Bridge Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and the Delaware Canal, which could serve as an extension to the downtown business district.
It also asks Morrisville officials to adopt form-based zoning that can control the design of the borough’s downtown. Form-based zoning codes, according to the Form-Based Codes Institute’s Web site, “address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks,” with less of a focus on land use.
As far as housing is concerned, the plan recommends Morrisville look at sources of funding for housing rehabilitation and explore creating a program to turn duplexes and other rental conversions back to single family, owner-occupied housing.
Sherlock said the borough has been taking some steps to revert rentals back to owner occupancy; when a house sells, it reverts back to single-family home ownership.
So many rental units increase transience and absentee landlords who “only care about the rent check,” Burger said.
Some other recommendations in the plan: develop community greening and gardening programs; update the borough’s 1999 open space plan; market the borough as a historic and an affordable town; establish a shade tree commission; require all new developments to plant trees along streets; designate a historic district; work with the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission to implement solutions to congestion problems.
Council backs plan to revitalize downtown
Forty-two percent of all residential properties in the borough are rentals.
By DANNY ADLER
A common theme in Morrisville’s new comprehensive plan is to revitalize the borough’s downtown and make it a focus of future economic development efforts.
The 156-page plan, which gained unanimous support from the borough council last week, also addresses housing issues in Morrisville, where 42 percent of all residential properties are rentals.
The plan was created by the borough and Bucks County planning commissions and serves as a policy guide to decisions regarding the town’s physical development. It makes dozens of recommendations.
“We’re trying to enhance the borough,” said council President Nancy Sherlock. However, she later added, the problem is that there isn’t a lot of room to build in Morrisville.
Councilwoman Jane Burger said many of the goals in the plan can be achieved “but not quickly.”
“All of these things probably won’t happen in 10 years, but we need to keep working toward that,” she said. “It’s a guideline. If you were doing a painting, I’d describe the comprehensive plan as the background. … It takes time.”
The plan says the borough can increase its tax base by attracting non-residential development. One such area to develop, the plan says, is south of Bridge Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and the Delaware Canal, which could serve as an extension to the downtown business district.
It also asks Morrisville officials to adopt form-based zoning that can control the design of the borough’s downtown. Form-based zoning codes, according to the Form-Based Codes Institute’s Web site, “address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks,” with less of a focus on land use.
As far as housing is concerned, the plan recommends Morrisville look at sources of funding for housing rehabilitation and explore creating a program to turn duplexes and other rental conversions back to single family, owner-occupied housing.
Sherlock said the borough has been taking some steps to revert rentals back to owner occupancy; when a house sells, it reverts back to single-family home ownership.
So many rental units increase transience and absentee landlords who “only care about the rent check,” Burger said.
Some other recommendations in the plan: develop community greening and gardening programs; update the borough’s 1999 open space plan; market the borough as a historic and an affordable town; establish a shade tree commission; require all new developments to plant trees along streets; designate a historic district; work with the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission to implement solutions to congestion problems.
"We’re Playing Games With People’s Lives"
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. MPS has had their share of bad news, and now the school board is ready to cut and run. With $700,000,000,000 ready to bail out the bankers, who would notice another $100 billion for the schools?
Wouldn't that be a great idea? Instead of saddling future generations with debt that paid for salaries and perks and lunches, at least in this case it would be an investment in the future.
Sorry. There's no white knights here in this story. It's just another story where people in power play with people lives just because they can.
Nobody’s waiting to bail MPS out
Posted: Sept. 20, 2008
Eugene Kane
In a week when America’s financial markets experienced a meltdown, perhaps it shouldn’t have been that surprising to learn Milwaukee Public Schools was also apparently in dire financial straits.
Last week, a shake-up of major Wall Street firms sent shock waves through the stock market. The federal government announced a risky, multibillion-dollar bailout of endangered institutions amid concerns about the worst financial crisis in decades. With all that turmoil afoot, it was almost anticlimactic to learn the School Board had voted to look into ways to dissolve the public school system because of increasing financial problems.
Yes, that’s right; dissolve it.
Most folks knew things were bad at MPS; nobody suspected it was that bad. At least one board member, Michael Bonds, still isn’t convinced.
“I was outraged,” said Bonds, who left the room shortly after a 6-3 vote by MPS board members to consider options for dissolving the state’s largest school district. “Yes, that’s why I left the room.”
Bonds said he understood the daunting budget considerations that led to the vote. But as a new board member, he’s been encouraged by positive developments at MPS, such as restoring driver education courses, music and art curricula and other measures to address the poverty of some MPS students.
Instead of passing such a controversial resolution, he thought the board should have concentrated more on resolving budget problems.
“I think it was one of the most disgusting and cowardly acts I’ve ever seen,” he said during an interview. He noted that talks about dissolving MPS essentially meant discussing the future of more than 80,000 students and 13,000 district employees.
“It’s like we’re playing games with people’s lives,” he said.
Bonds, a university professor elected to the board in 2007 on a reform ticket, was skeptical anyone had really thought the measure through.
“What are we going to put in its place?” he asked rhetorically.
It’s comforting to know that Bonds didn’t agree with the high-stakes game of chicken that other board members and MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos appear to be playing with the public and legislators.
Frankly, even though local governments have taken over the schools in some cities, the results have been mixed. At least in New Orleans, they had a good reason: Hurricane Katrina.
In Milwaukee, the only natural disaster seems to be the failure of some local politicians and bureaucrats to deal with increasing costs and declining aid from the state to finance the state’s largest education system for the most at-risk minority students in Wisconsin. Even with all that, Bonds insists the district wasn’t at a crisis point yet.
“After all, we’re not talking bankruptcy,” he said.
There’s been talk of the City of Milwaukee taking over MPS, but Bonds thinks Mayor Tom Barrett isn’t serious about such plans. He also doubts if the city’s financial situation would be that much better.
“The city has its own problems,” he said.
There’s also some doubt whether the School Board can even dissolve the system on its own. According to state officials, the Legislature would have to get involved.
It makes you wonder if the School Board’s vote was nothing more than an attention-getting gimmick that caused unnecessary anxiety in some households. Bonds said “it’s already caused a panic” among some constituents he’s heard from.
Like others in town, Bonds worries that the amount of money spent on the school choice program in Milwaukee contributes to the district’s woes. He’s also concerned about political interference by members of the business community who strongly support more school choice and have ties to various School Board members.
That’s why he’s not willing to discount talk of dissolving MPS as just a scare tactic to get a solution for current budget problems.
“I have colleagues (on the board) who would love to see it,” he said. “There are lots of people in town who want control over our budget.”
It’s disheartening to realize the School Board has either decided to govern through fear by alarming parents, students and employees, or is seriously thinking about blowing up MPS in favor of something yet to be determined.
It’s time to consider innovative changes, renewed strategies for success and alternative funding sources for MPS, but dissolving the school district doesn’t seem like a good solution for thousands of students who depend on a stable educational system.
Unlike on Wall Street, if it fails, there will likely be nobody waiting to bail them out.
Wouldn't that be a great idea? Instead of saddling future generations with debt that paid for salaries and perks and lunches, at least in this case it would be an investment in the future.
Sorry. There's no white knights here in this story. It's just another story where people in power play with people lives just because they can.
Nobody’s waiting to bail MPS out
Posted: Sept. 20, 2008
Eugene Kane
In a week when America’s financial markets experienced a meltdown, perhaps it shouldn’t have been that surprising to learn Milwaukee Public Schools was also apparently in dire financial straits.
Last week, a shake-up of major Wall Street firms sent shock waves through the stock market. The federal government announced a risky, multibillion-dollar bailout of endangered institutions amid concerns about the worst financial crisis in decades. With all that turmoil afoot, it was almost anticlimactic to learn the School Board had voted to look into ways to dissolve the public school system because of increasing financial problems.
Yes, that’s right; dissolve it.
Most folks knew things were bad at MPS; nobody suspected it was that bad. At least one board member, Michael Bonds, still isn’t convinced.
“I was outraged,” said Bonds, who left the room shortly after a 6-3 vote by MPS board members to consider options for dissolving the state’s largest school district. “Yes, that’s why I left the room.”
Bonds said he understood the daunting budget considerations that led to the vote. But as a new board member, he’s been encouraged by positive developments at MPS, such as restoring driver education courses, music and art curricula and other measures to address the poverty of some MPS students.
Instead of passing such a controversial resolution, he thought the board should have concentrated more on resolving budget problems.
“I think it was one of the most disgusting and cowardly acts I’ve ever seen,” he said during an interview. He noted that talks about dissolving MPS essentially meant discussing the future of more than 80,000 students and 13,000 district employees.
“It’s like we’re playing games with people’s lives,” he said.
Bonds, a university professor elected to the board in 2007 on a reform ticket, was skeptical anyone had really thought the measure through.
“What are we going to put in its place?” he asked rhetorically.
It’s comforting to know that Bonds didn’t agree with the high-stakes game of chicken that other board members and MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos appear to be playing with the public and legislators.
Frankly, even though local governments have taken over the schools in some cities, the results have been mixed. At least in New Orleans, they had a good reason: Hurricane Katrina.
In Milwaukee, the only natural disaster seems to be the failure of some local politicians and bureaucrats to deal with increasing costs and declining aid from the state to finance the state’s largest education system for the most at-risk minority students in Wisconsin. Even with all that, Bonds insists the district wasn’t at a crisis point yet.
“After all, we’re not talking bankruptcy,” he said.
There’s been talk of the City of Milwaukee taking over MPS, but Bonds thinks Mayor Tom Barrett isn’t serious about such plans. He also doubts if the city’s financial situation would be that much better.
“The city has its own problems,” he said.
There’s also some doubt whether the School Board can even dissolve the system on its own. According to state officials, the Legislature would have to get involved.
It makes you wonder if the School Board’s vote was nothing more than an attention-getting gimmick that caused unnecessary anxiety in some households. Bonds said “it’s already caused a panic” among some constituents he’s heard from.
Like others in town, Bonds worries that the amount of money spent on the school choice program in Milwaukee contributes to the district’s woes. He’s also concerned about political interference by members of the business community who strongly support more school choice and have ties to various School Board members.
That’s why he’s not willing to discount talk of dissolving MPS as just a scare tactic to get a solution for current budget problems.
“I have colleagues (on the board) who would love to see it,” he said. “There are lots of people in town who want control over our budget.”
It’s disheartening to realize the School Board has either decided to govern through fear by alarming parents, students and employees, or is seriously thinking about blowing up MPS in favor of something yet to be determined.
It’s time to consider innovative changes, renewed strategies for success and alternative funding sources for MPS, but dissolving the school district doesn’t seem like a good solution for thousands of students who depend on a stable educational system.
Unlike on Wall Street, if it fails, there will likely be nobody waiting to bail them out.
2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad? Now It's 1 Out of 2.
From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
In these days of mega-bailouts for mega-stupid financial decisions, this seems almost, well, reasonable. Try hard and you'll get 50%.
It's sort of like, a participation trophy to real life. You get half credit for respiration and a body temperature.
Yeah. Anyone try that with their boss lately? How did that turn out?
Hey, Mr. Landlord! I can pay 50% of the rent. Wait...Why are you throwing my stuff out the window?
Eyebrows raised over city school policy that sets 50% as minimum score
1+1=3? In city schools, it's half right
Monday, September 22, 2008
By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they want to give struggling children a chance, but the district is raising eyebrows with a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work.
The district and teachers union last week issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President John Tarka said the policy is several years old.
While some districts use "F" as a failing grade, the city uses an "E."
"The 'E' is to be recorded no lower than a 50 percent, regardless of the actual percent earned. For example, if the student earns a 20 percent on a class assignment, the grade is recorded as a 50 percent," said the memo from Jerri Lippert, the district's executive director of curriculum, instruction and professional development, and Mary VanHorn, a PFT vice president.
In each subject, a student's percentage scores on tests and other work are averaged into a grade for each of the four marking periods. Percentages for marking periods later are averaged into semester and year-end grades.
A student receives an "A" for scores ranging from 100 percent to 90 percent, a "B" for scores ranging from 89 percent to 80 percent, a "C" for scores ranging from 79 percent to 70 percent, a "D" for scores ranging from 69 percent to 60 percent and an "E" for scores ranging from 59 percent to the cutoff, 50 percent.
The district and union insist the policy still holds students accountable for performance.
"A failing grade is a failing grade," district spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said.
At the same time, they said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, Ms. Pugh said, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester.
"We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up," she said, adding a sense of helplessness can lead to behavior and attendance problems.
"It's not grade inflation. We're not saying, 'Give people passing grades,' " Ms. Pugh said.
But the policy strikes some teachers and parents as rewarding bad work and at odds with the district's "Excellence for All" improvement campaign.
"Clearly, some people will not be pleased with this policy," Mr. Tarka said. But he added, "We stand by that decision."
Judy Leonardi, a Stanton Heights resident and retired district home economics teacher, said she objected to the notion that a student could "walk in the door, breathe the air and get 50 percent for that."
"I don't think it sets kids up properly for college, for competition in life," she said.
To Ms. Leonardi, a 20 percent score means a student isn't trying or needs more help with the material. Automatically putting 50 percent in the grade book, she said, doesn't help the student in either case.
"To me, it's morally wrong," she said.
Ms. Leonardi worries that the policy could cause high-performing students to goof off from time to time, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't have to bounce back from anything lower than a 50 percent.
And she said one teacher she knows already worries about how awkward it will look when a student correctly answers three of 10 questions on a math quiz -- and gets a 50 percent.
The state Department of Education doesn't regulate grading scales, and schools and districts across the state use various models. Districts nationwide have debated use of a 50 percent minimum.
Northside Urban Pathways, a Downtown charter school, gives students zero credit for any work below a "C." Linda Clautti, chief executive officer, said that approach complements the school's college-preparatory mission.
"I have not had any complaints. We do parent surveys every year," Ms. Clautti said.
In a recent article in Harvard Educational Review, Freedom Area School District Superintendent Ron Sofo recounted an experimental program that he said helped to dramatically raise the math scores of struggling sixth-graders. Among other features, the program included "A, B, Not Yet" grading, in which students were required to redo work until it merited an A or B.
Some Freedom Area teachers opposed the special grading scale, calling it coddling of bad students, Dr. Sofo said.
In suburban Philadelphia, a Bensalem School District task force on testing and grading has recommended that 50 percent be the minimum score a student receive.
Superintendent James Lombardo said he's in favor of implementing the idea, partly as a fairness issue. He noted that a failing grade carries far more mathematical weight than any other grade if the "E" or "F" has a range of zero to 59 percent.
"I guess I laud the Pittsburgh district for recognizing some of the foibles of our numerical system," he said, adding low percentage scores sometimes are given to students because of their attitude or work ethic, rather than their level of accomplishment.
Asked whether she agreed with the 50 percent minimum, Regina Holley, principal of Pittsburgh Lincoln K-8 and president of the Pittsburgh Administrators Association, said: "Well, that's the board's policy, and that's what we have to use."
She said teachers and principals should take other steps to give parents a clearer picture of how their children are performing in class.
"Our school provides that to the parents in a conference. We provide it in a letter. We give it to the parents in a phone call," Dr. Holley said.
In these days of mega-bailouts for mega-stupid financial decisions, this seems almost, well, reasonable. Try hard and you'll get 50%.
It's sort of like, a participation trophy to real life. You get half credit for respiration and a body temperature.
Yeah. Anyone try that with their boss lately? How did that turn out?
Hey, Mr. Landlord! I can pay 50% of the rent. Wait...Why are you throwing my stuff out the window?
Eyebrows raised over city school policy that sets 50% as minimum score
1+1=3? In city schools, it's half right
Monday, September 22, 2008
By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they want to give struggling children a chance, but the district is raising eyebrows with a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work.
The district and teachers union last week issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President John Tarka said the policy is several years old.
While some districts use "F" as a failing grade, the city uses an "E."
"The 'E' is to be recorded no lower than a 50 percent, regardless of the actual percent earned. For example, if the student earns a 20 percent on a class assignment, the grade is recorded as a 50 percent," said the memo from Jerri Lippert, the district's executive director of curriculum, instruction and professional development, and Mary VanHorn, a PFT vice president.
In each subject, a student's percentage scores on tests and other work are averaged into a grade for each of the four marking periods. Percentages for marking periods later are averaged into semester and year-end grades.
A student receives an "A" for scores ranging from 100 percent to 90 percent, a "B" for scores ranging from 89 percent to 80 percent, a "C" for scores ranging from 79 percent to 70 percent, a "D" for scores ranging from 69 percent to 60 percent and an "E" for scores ranging from 59 percent to the cutoff, 50 percent.
The district and union insist the policy still holds students accountable for performance.
"A failing grade is a failing grade," district spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said.
At the same time, they said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, Ms. Pugh said, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester.
"We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up," she said, adding a sense of helplessness can lead to behavior and attendance problems.
"It's not grade inflation. We're not saying, 'Give people passing grades,' " Ms. Pugh said.
But the policy strikes some teachers and parents as rewarding bad work and at odds with the district's "Excellence for All" improvement campaign.
"Clearly, some people will not be pleased with this policy," Mr. Tarka said. But he added, "We stand by that decision."
Judy Leonardi, a Stanton Heights resident and retired district home economics teacher, said she objected to the notion that a student could "walk in the door, breathe the air and get 50 percent for that."
"I don't think it sets kids up properly for college, for competition in life," she said.
To Ms. Leonardi, a 20 percent score means a student isn't trying or needs more help with the material. Automatically putting 50 percent in the grade book, she said, doesn't help the student in either case.
"To me, it's morally wrong," she said.
Ms. Leonardi worries that the policy could cause high-performing students to goof off from time to time, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't have to bounce back from anything lower than a 50 percent.
And she said one teacher she knows already worries about how awkward it will look when a student correctly answers three of 10 questions on a math quiz -- and gets a 50 percent.
The state Department of Education doesn't regulate grading scales, and schools and districts across the state use various models. Districts nationwide have debated use of a 50 percent minimum.
Northside Urban Pathways, a Downtown charter school, gives students zero credit for any work below a "C." Linda Clautti, chief executive officer, said that approach complements the school's college-preparatory mission.
"I have not had any complaints. We do parent surveys every year," Ms. Clautti said.
In a recent article in Harvard Educational Review, Freedom Area School District Superintendent Ron Sofo recounted an experimental program that he said helped to dramatically raise the math scores of struggling sixth-graders. Among other features, the program included "A, B, Not Yet" grading, in which students were required to redo work until it merited an A or B.
Some Freedom Area teachers opposed the special grading scale, calling it coddling of bad students, Dr. Sofo said.
In suburban Philadelphia, a Bensalem School District task force on testing and grading has recommended that 50 percent be the minimum score a student receive.
Superintendent James Lombardo said he's in favor of implementing the idea, partly as a fairness issue. He noted that a failing grade carries far more mathematical weight than any other grade if the "E" or "F" has a range of zero to 59 percent.
"I guess I laud the Pittsburgh district for recognizing some of the foibles of our numerical system," he said, adding low percentage scores sometimes are given to students because of their attitude or work ethic, rather than their level of accomplishment.
Asked whether she agreed with the 50 percent minimum, Regina Holley, principal of Pittsburgh Lincoln K-8 and president of the Pittsburgh Administrators Association, said: "Well, that's the board's policy, and that's what we have to use."
She said teachers and principals should take other steps to give parents a clearer picture of how their children are performing in class.
"Our school provides that to the parents in a conference. We provide it in a letter. We give it to the parents in a phone call," Dr. Holley said.
Monday, September 22, 2008
How Would I Know?
From Epitome, a leadership blog, answering the question, "What Does a Leader Look Like?"
Leadership Attributes
How do we suitably define the role of leadership? We cannot. Like wisdom, truth, love, and life, leadership cannot be adequately defined in a library full of books. But what we do identify with, having been subject to good leadership, is the following eight (8) characteristics that surely speak volumes in the study of leadership:
1. Leaders ooze authenticity:
Good leaders are genuine and their integrity is beyond question. They lead in transparent what-you-see-is-what-you-get ways. They can’t be second-guessed because their thinking is based in the moment with the exact information at hand. They only deal covertly for the overall benefit of the team i.e. for instance, when a time calls for temporarily keeping one’s cards close to the chest.
2. Leaders conform:
This may appear to be wrong but it paradoxically isn’t. We might say, ‘Don’t leaders set the pace, not merely ‘following’?’ Uh-huh! Leaders work for organisations. Organisations have macro-objectives. Leaders must not only conform to organisation’s agenda, they must also believe in it; they’re active advocates for it. Now, there’s a selfless commitment required right there. Leaders who do not conform weaken organisations. True leaders don’t have a problem re-setting their priorities to align with the organisation’s provided their core values aren’t compromised.
3. Leaders are models (for safety, values etc):
Leaders are role models of the positive variety through and through. They’re examples that stand out to the casual observer and particularly to the impressionable. Integrity has already been mentioned, but good leaders know the effect they have on others and they appreciate the privilege of leadership; they don’t take their role of model to others lightly. They will staunchly model the best behaviours.
4. Providing context and alignment:
As the environment inevitably changes, the leader provides the necessary flux to assist in clarifying specific targets and goals. Whilst they elucidate the bigger picture and the ‘must do’s,’ they also identify clearly the smaller critical issues determining milestone success. And they do all this in a way that fits back into the organisation’s strategy lattice, as they always seek feedback from senior personnel in the organisation and persistently look for cues toward alignment and re-alignment.
5. Provide coaching and empowerment:
Leaders of note are great one-on-one, but not only that, they can influence individuals in the collective environment, embracing opportunities to provide feedback and encouragement. They don’t overdo supervision and they trust their charges. They genuinely value the ability for the team to diversify and delegation is a key tool in their kit. In this way again, like the captain of a successful sporting team, they’re selfless for the greater team gain. Their leadership cultivates more leadership and the acceptance of responsibility.
6. Leaders develop their team:
Going on from above, exceptional leaders know the value of team multiplicity. They don’t see the investment in people as a threat and they don’t become disconcerted when well-developed team members go on to better things; they simply wish them well, and have the ability to be genuinely thankful for their contributions. They know that other leaders also develop their people and they have faith that they too will certainly benefit directly from this. It’s a free exchange with no regret and everyone’s a winner.
7. Leaders communicate well and broadly:
Understanding is difficult to achieve and the outstanding leader is constantly wary of this; their communications are imprinted with care. They pitch their language, pace, tone, and media for the situation, and they also recognise the impact of broadening the message so everyone can benefit. They’re champions of promotion and feedback and in this way their courage and faith are continuously on display.
8. Leaders show empathy and care:
Finally, leaders are people who care for people. They have the ability to experience joy and sorrow at appropriate times in appropriate ways. For this reason they’re often popular and are ‘around’ things that people discuss. Team members of great leaders have no problem sharing their concerns, frustrations, and disappointments, as well as their successes.
Leadership is many things. Ultimately, I believe it’s inspirational and motivational or nothing at all.
Leadership Attributes
How do we suitably define the role of leadership? We cannot. Like wisdom, truth, love, and life, leadership cannot be adequately defined in a library full of books. But what we do identify with, having been subject to good leadership, is the following eight (8) characteristics that surely speak volumes in the study of leadership:
1. Leaders ooze authenticity:
Good leaders are genuine and their integrity is beyond question. They lead in transparent what-you-see-is-what-you-get ways. They can’t be second-guessed because their thinking is based in the moment with the exact information at hand. They only deal covertly for the overall benefit of the team i.e. for instance, when a time calls for temporarily keeping one’s cards close to the chest.
2. Leaders conform:
This may appear to be wrong but it paradoxically isn’t. We might say, ‘Don’t leaders set the pace, not merely ‘following’?’ Uh-huh! Leaders work for organisations. Organisations have macro-objectives. Leaders must not only conform to organisation’s agenda, they must also believe in it; they’re active advocates for it. Now, there’s a selfless commitment required right there. Leaders who do not conform weaken organisations. True leaders don’t have a problem re-setting their priorities to align with the organisation’s provided their core values aren’t compromised.
3. Leaders are models (for safety, values etc):
Leaders are role models of the positive variety through and through. They’re examples that stand out to the casual observer and particularly to the impressionable. Integrity has already been mentioned, but good leaders know the effect they have on others and they appreciate the privilege of leadership; they don’t take their role of model to others lightly. They will staunchly model the best behaviours.
4. Providing context and alignment:
As the environment inevitably changes, the leader provides the necessary flux to assist in clarifying specific targets and goals. Whilst they elucidate the bigger picture and the ‘must do’s,’ they also identify clearly the smaller critical issues determining milestone success. And they do all this in a way that fits back into the organisation’s strategy lattice, as they always seek feedback from senior personnel in the organisation and persistently look for cues toward alignment and re-alignment.
5. Provide coaching and empowerment:
Leaders of note are great one-on-one, but not only that, they can influence individuals in the collective environment, embracing opportunities to provide feedback and encouragement. They don’t overdo supervision and they trust their charges. They genuinely value the ability for the team to diversify and delegation is a key tool in their kit. In this way again, like the captain of a successful sporting team, they’re selfless for the greater team gain. Their leadership cultivates more leadership and the acceptance of responsibility.
6. Leaders develop their team:
Going on from above, exceptional leaders know the value of team multiplicity. They don’t see the investment in people as a threat and they don’t become disconcerted when well-developed team members go on to better things; they simply wish them well, and have the ability to be genuinely thankful for their contributions. They know that other leaders also develop their people and they have faith that they too will certainly benefit directly from this. It’s a free exchange with no regret and everyone’s a winner.
7. Leaders communicate well and broadly:
Understanding is difficult to achieve and the outstanding leader is constantly wary of this; their communications are imprinted with care. They pitch their language, pace, tone, and media for the situation, and they also recognise the impact of broadening the message so everyone can benefit. They’re champions of promotion and feedback and in this way their courage and faith are continuously on display.
8. Leaders show empathy and care:
Finally, leaders are people who care for people. They have the ability to experience joy and sorrow at appropriate times in appropriate ways. For this reason they’re often popular and are ‘around’ things that people discuss. Team members of great leaders have no problem sharing their concerns, frustrations, and disappointments, as well as their successes.
Leadership is many things. Ultimately, I believe it’s inspirational and motivational or nothing at all.
Education Policy: Obama vs. McCain
From the Christian Science Monitor.
Schools: Obama stresses more investment, McCain parental choice
A growing chorus of business and education-reform advocates are hoping the next president will create a ‘Sputnik moment’ for education.
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer / September 21, 2008 edition
Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama offer different visions for how the federal government can help America’s students get ahead.
Senator McCain’s drumbeat is parental choice and empowerment – making it easier for students in substandard schools to take funding with them, whether to a tutoring company or another public or private school. Senator Obama’s thrust is strategic investment – more federal dollars to put good teachers into high-needs schools, increase charter-school options, and boost early childhood development to stave off achievement gaps.
But in an election dominated by economics, war, and a surprise vice presidential pick, such education issues resemble a kid in the back of the class, frantically waving for attention. Still, a growing chorus of business and education-reform advocates are on that kid’s side. They hope that whoever becomes the next president will help create the educational equivalent of the “Sputnik moment” – when America reached for the moon.
Whose vision will enter the Oval Office?
“The key difference is that Obama puts the emphasis on improving the public schools, working through the schools themselves, and McCain believes in outside pressures through the free market,” says Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit research group in Washington that advocates for more-effective public schools.
While McCain has offered several policies to increase parental choice, such as an expansion of a voucher program in the District of Columbia, he has not put out a broad voucher proposal, senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin says.
McCain energized the audience at the Republican National Convention when he emphasized standing up to entrenched interests in education, saying, “We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, … attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.” By contrast, Mr. Holtz-Eakin says, “Senator Obama’s not really taking on … the unions, the school boards, the entire hierarchy.”
Obama has been endorsed by the major teachers unions, as Democratic candidates typically are. But he prompted boos from union members this summer by embracing aspects of accountability that they traditionally oppose.
Obama’s plan, for instance, supports merit-pay plans, if developed in cooperation with teachers. In a speech on education this month in Dayton, Ohio, he said, “[We] need to give every child the assurance that they’ll have the teacher they need to be successful…. Teachers who are doing a poor job, they’ve got to get extra support, but if they don’t improve, then they have to be replaced.”
“[Obama] has really been a champion for investment in our kids … but at the same time pushing hard on accountability, on standards, on parental choice in a way that strengthens public education,” Jonathan Schnur, an adviser to Obama, said at the Aspen Institute’s recent national education summit in Washington.
One of Obama’s criticisms of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is that it has asked schools to achieve vastly more without delivering the resources promised when it passed with bipartisan support in 2001. His campaign criticizes McCain for planning to hold education spending even and just reallocate the dollars. Obama proposes to spend an additional $19 billion on his pre-K-12 proposals by using money from cuts in other parts of the federal budget.
Both candidates have called attention to the need for high-quality teaching, particularly in underperforming schools. McCain wants to give states incentives to recruit teachers from among the top 25 percent of college graduates. Obama’s education plan is longer and more detailed than McCain’s, including details on recruiting, training, and retaining teachers. One proposal would pay for teacher education for those willing to work four years in a hard-to-staff location or field, such as special education.
The two candidates also share a hesitancy to offer much detail about how they would handle the key education item come January: the long overdue reauthorization of NCLB. “They’re doing this dance of talking about education without talking about No Child Left Behind,” says Michael Petrilli, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a research group in Washington that supports standards and school choice. “A lot of the country hates No Child Left Behind … and yet the principles within the law around accountability and transparency both candidates want to embrace, because they want to show they are reformers.”
Both campaigns have praised the goals of NCLB and suggested they would make changes to it, such as testing the individual gains of students rather than relying on group averages. But “the guts of it, test-based accountability, that’s likely to stay,” says Patrick McGuinn, a political scientist at Drew University in Madison, N.J.
The law has prompted splits within each party. Among Republicans, one camp wants to continue NCLB’s momentum, while another says control should be returned to states and local school districts. A key education adviser to McCain, former Arizona schools superintendent Lisa Graham Keegan, has said McCain will champion assessment and federal accountability. While education circles debate how to even out vastly different state standards, she said during last week’s Washington summit, “what would concern me is if we take our eye off the improvement of the kids in the classroom today. We’ve got data right now [showing low achievement].”
Among Democrats, teachers unions and civil rights groups are facing off over issues such as the law’s testing regimen. Obama has acknowledged both sides: “Don’t tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend most of the year preparing him to fill in a few bubbles on a standardized test,” he said in Dayton. Yet his plan is not to throw out tests, but rather to help states develop broader assessments to measure skills such as problem-solving and scientific investigation.
A sample of Obama’s policy proposals:
K-12
• Double funding for quality charter schools.
• Invest in and improve teaching
• Require professional accreditation of teacher preparation programs.
• Expand mentoring for beginner teachers and give them a stipend during training in exchange for service in a high-needs district.
• Support districts that work with teachers to create compensation systems that recognize accomplishment in the classroom and leadership in hard-to-staff locations.
• $200 million in grants for longer school days or school years to assist students in need.
• Double funding for after-school 21st Century Learning Centers.
• Help create appropriate tests for students learning English and hold schools accountable for making sure they reach graduation.
Early education
• Expand tax credits so low-income families can receive up to 50 percent credit for child-care expenses.
• Grants to promote “zero to five” efforts focused on young children and parents, and to help states move toward voluntary universal preschool.
• Increase Head Start funding, quadruple the size of Early Head Start, and improve the quality of both.
Higher education
• Create an American Opportunity Tax Credit – a $4,000 tax credit per year for low- and moderate-income students to attend college for up to four years, in exchange for community service (those not earning enough to pay taxes would also qualify).
• Simplify the application for financial aid by allowing people to check a box on their tax return to determine aid eligibility.
• Community College Partnership Program to reward schools where more students graduate or transfer to four-year colleges.
A sample of McCain’s policy proposals
K-12
• Expand online learning.
• $500 million of current education funds would go toward building virtual schools.
• $250 million would support states to expand online offerings.
• $250 million would create “digital passport scholarships” to help low-income students do online courses or tutoring.
• Encourage alternative teacher certification and give states incentives to recruit teachers from the top 25 percent of their college class.
• Bonuses to teachers who locate in challenging settings and raise student achievement.
• In schools failing to meet federal standards, allow students to access tutoring more quickly. Tutoring providers certified by the federal government would be able to market directly to parents and be paid directly, rather than through the child’s school.
Early education
• Create Centers of Excellence in Head Start. One Head Start Center in each state would be chosen as a model and receive a grant to expand its reach and share best practices.
Higher education
• Simplify higher education tax benefits and federal financial aid so that more families understand their eligibility.
Schools: Obama stresses more investment, McCain parental choice
A growing chorus of business and education-reform advocates are hoping the next president will create a ‘Sputnik moment’ for education.
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer / September 21, 2008 edition
Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama offer different visions for how the federal government can help America’s students get ahead.
Senator McCain’s drumbeat is parental choice and empowerment – making it easier for students in substandard schools to take funding with them, whether to a tutoring company or another public or private school. Senator Obama’s thrust is strategic investment – more federal dollars to put good teachers into high-needs schools, increase charter-school options, and boost early childhood development to stave off achievement gaps.
But in an election dominated by economics, war, and a surprise vice presidential pick, such education issues resemble a kid in the back of the class, frantically waving for attention. Still, a growing chorus of business and education-reform advocates are on that kid’s side. They hope that whoever becomes the next president will help create the educational equivalent of the “Sputnik moment” – when America reached for the moon.
Whose vision will enter the Oval Office?
“The key difference is that Obama puts the emphasis on improving the public schools, working through the schools themselves, and McCain believes in outside pressures through the free market,” says Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit research group in Washington that advocates for more-effective public schools.
While McCain has offered several policies to increase parental choice, such as an expansion of a voucher program in the District of Columbia, he has not put out a broad voucher proposal, senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin says.
McCain energized the audience at the Republican National Convention when he emphasized standing up to entrenched interests in education, saying, “We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, … attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.” By contrast, Mr. Holtz-Eakin says, “Senator Obama’s not really taking on … the unions, the school boards, the entire hierarchy.”
Obama has been endorsed by the major teachers unions, as Democratic candidates typically are. But he prompted boos from union members this summer by embracing aspects of accountability that they traditionally oppose.
Obama’s plan, for instance, supports merit-pay plans, if developed in cooperation with teachers. In a speech on education this month in Dayton, Ohio, he said, “[We] need to give every child the assurance that they’ll have the teacher they need to be successful…. Teachers who are doing a poor job, they’ve got to get extra support, but if they don’t improve, then they have to be replaced.”
“[Obama] has really been a champion for investment in our kids … but at the same time pushing hard on accountability, on standards, on parental choice in a way that strengthens public education,” Jonathan Schnur, an adviser to Obama, said at the Aspen Institute’s recent national education summit in Washington.
One of Obama’s criticisms of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is that it has asked schools to achieve vastly more without delivering the resources promised when it passed with bipartisan support in 2001. His campaign criticizes McCain for planning to hold education spending even and just reallocate the dollars. Obama proposes to spend an additional $19 billion on his pre-K-12 proposals by using money from cuts in other parts of the federal budget.
Both candidates have called attention to the need for high-quality teaching, particularly in underperforming schools. McCain wants to give states incentives to recruit teachers from among the top 25 percent of college graduates. Obama’s education plan is longer and more detailed than McCain’s, including details on recruiting, training, and retaining teachers. One proposal would pay for teacher education for those willing to work four years in a hard-to-staff location or field, such as special education.
The two candidates also share a hesitancy to offer much detail about how they would handle the key education item come January: the long overdue reauthorization of NCLB. “They’re doing this dance of talking about education without talking about No Child Left Behind,” says Michael Petrilli, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a research group in Washington that supports standards and school choice. “A lot of the country hates No Child Left Behind … and yet the principles within the law around accountability and transparency both candidates want to embrace, because they want to show they are reformers.”
Both campaigns have praised the goals of NCLB and suggested they would make changes to it, such as testing the individual gains of students rather than relying on group averages. But “the guts of it, test-based accountability, that’s likely to stay,” says Patrick McGuinn, a political scientist at Drew University in Madison, N.J.
The law has prompted splits within each party. Among Republicans, one camp wants to continue NCLB’s momentum, while another says control should be returned to states and local school districts. A key education adviser to McCain, former Arizona schools superintendent Lisa Graham Keegan, has said McCain will champion assessment and federal accountability. While education circles debate how to even out vastly different state standards, she said during last week’s Washington summit, “what would concern me is if we take our eye off the improvement of the kids in the classroom today. We’ve got data right now [showing low achievement].”
Among Democrats, teachers unions and civil rights groups are facing off over issues such as the law’s testing regimen. Obama has acknowledged both sides: “Don’t tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend most of the year preparing him to fill in a few bubbles on a standardized test,” he said in Dayton. Yet his plan is not to throw out tests, but rather to help states develop broader assessments to measure skills such as problem-solving and scientific investigation.
A sample of Obama’s policy proposals:
K-12
• Double funding for quality charter schools.
• Invest in and improve teaching
• Require professional accreditation of teacher preparation programs.
• Expand mentoring for beginner teachers and give them a stipend during training in exchange for service in a high-needs district.
• Support districts that work with teachers to create compensation systems that recognize accomplishment in the classroom and leadership in hard-to-staff locations.
• $200 million in grants for longer school days or school years to assist students in need.
• Double funding for after-school 21st Century Learning Centers.
• Help create appropriate tests for students learning English and hold schools accountable for making sure they reach graduation.
Early education
• Expand tax credits so low-income families can receive up to 50 percent credit for child-care expenses.
• Grants to promote “zero to five” efforts focused on young children and parents, and to help states move toward voluntary universal preschool.
• Increase Head Start funding, quadruple the size of Early Head Start, and improve the quality of both.
Higher education
• Create an American Opportunity Tax Credit – a $4,000 tax credit per year for low- and moderate-income students to attend college for up to four years, in exchange for community service (those not earning enough to pay taxes would also qualify).
• Simplify the application for financial aid by allowing people to check a box on their tax return to determine aid eligibility.
• Community College Partnership Program to reward schools where more students graduate or transfer to four-year colleges.
A sample of McCain’s policy proposals
K-12
• Expand online learning.
• $500 million of current education funds would go toward building virtual schools.
• $250 million would support states to expand online offerings.
• $250 million would create “digital passport scholarships” to help low-income students do online courses or tutoring.
• Encourage alternative teacher certification and give states incentives to recruit teachers from the top 25 percent of their college class.
• Bonuses to teachers who locate in challenging settings and raise student achievement.
• In schools failing to meet federal standards, allow students to access tutoring more quickly. Tutoring providers certified by the federal government would be able to market directly to parents and be paid directly, rather than through the child’s school.
Early education
• Create Centers of Excellence in Head Start. One Head Start Center in each state would be chosen as a model and receive a grant to expand its reach and share best practices.
Higher education
• Simplify higher education tax benefits and federal financial aid so that more families understand their eligibility.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Pennsylvania Teacher Strikes: Not Going Away
From leighvalleylive.com
Pennsbury's contract is up next year. Was the strike the last time worth it?
Morrisville's is up in a few years. Is there anyone who thinks the teachers would willingly go along with the Emperor's farm plan? Think about this last line from the article, "...historically PSEA is a very active association that bargains hard with school boards..." Would you willingly sign a contract that eliminated the jobs of more than one third of your co-workers?
Teacher strikes likely to stay in Pennsylvania
Little appetite in Harrisburg for changing law. State among few that allows walkouts.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
By SARA K. SATULLO
The Express-Times
Every time a Pennsylvania school district goes on strike, Harrisburg takes notice.
Eyes are on the Saucon Valley School District this month as its more than 180 teachers head into their second week of picketing -- exercising a right enjoyed by teachers in only 12 other states.
But it is doubtful the renewed attention will result in any major overhauls to Act 88, the 16-year-old law that governs teachers' strikes. Pennsylvania is a union state where collective bargaining is often considered an ingrained right.
"Historically, there's been no appetite on the part of the Legislature -- Republicans or Democrats -- or any governor to take away the right to strike," said former state Rep. Ron Cowell, who is now president of The Education Policy and Leadership Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.
Lawmakers sound off
While there isn't support among Lehigh Valley state lawmakers to ban strikes outright or change the law, many warned that shifts in public opinion force change.
State Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh/Northampton, a district resident and former school board president, calls herself a champion for teachers and education. But she says the strike leaves her scratching her head since the 4.7 percent salary raise offer is so generous.
"Saucon Valley teachers are making it increasingly difficult for legislators who have been supportive of their ability to strike to continue to be supportive," Beyer said.
State Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh, is looking at modifying bargaining with secret ballots for teacher strike votes and presentations of offers to a quorum of teachers before a strike vote.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association opposes revising Act 88, although it admits it has its flaws.
"We just think there is the potential to make it worse," PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever said. "We think striking should be a last option but we think it should be a legal last option."
One of the hottest issues on the bargaining table leading to recent strikes has been health insurance contributions.
On Monday, the state House is expected to consider creating a commission that would look at putting all public school employees into a state benefits program, something the PSEA supports.
When unions resist making health insurance contributions, as most taxpayers do, they often lose public support if negotiation details are released, says the Pennsylvania School Board Association.
"(Employee contributions) are happening in every other place of employment, so it just seems very equitable to the public," said PSBA director of school personnel services Tom Templeton. "That is the constant drum beat."
Teachers' strike history
Nationally, teachers' strikes are less than half a century old; the first one took place in New York City in 1960. Pennsylvania teachers earned the right to strike in 1970. New Jersey teachers aren't allowed to strike.
From 1970 to 1991, Pennsylvania saw 775 strikes, according to the PSBA, many of which happened with little notice and for long periods. Act 88 was passed in 1992 in an attempt to preserve the right to strike with limits. Under the act, teachers unions must give 48 hours notice of a strike, and it spells out deadlines if the two sides aren't voluntarily negotiating.
It also gives the state power to step in if the strike is jeopardizing the 180-day school year ending June 30.
Saucon Valley teachers may strike until Oct. 17, when they must enter nonbinding arbitration, according to the law. If either side rejects the arbitrator's recommendation, they can strike again until they hit the point they jeopardize the 180-day calendar.
In the years since Act 88, rumblings about revamping it or even banning strikes have been frequent in Harrisburg, politicians and education officials say. But few gain momentum, Cowell said.
Despite the passage of Act 88, Pennsylvania is still the leader among states that allow teachers to strike.
From 2000 to 2007, 137 strikes occurred, 82 of which were in Pennsylvania, according to a 2007 Allegheny Institute for Public Policy study of teacher strikes. The institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education research group.
Those numbers can be misleading, warned Keever, the PSEA spokesman. Hawaii has the right to strike but it is one statewide district. Pennsylvania has 600-plus local districts, with about 200 bargaining each year and an average of 10 strikes a year, he said.
The state school board association acknowledges since 1992 there's been a measurable decline in teachers' strikes.
But historically PSEA is a very active association that bargains hard with school boards, which are trying to balance the needs of employees, taxpayers and students.
"All of that mixed together can still cause work stoppages," Templeton said.
Pennsbury's contract is up next year. Was the strike the last time worth it?
Morrisville's is up in a few years. Is there anyone who thinks the teachers would willingly go along with the Emperor's farm plan? Think about this last line from the article, "...historically PSEA is a very active association that bargains hard with school boards..." Would you willingly sign a contract that eliminated the jobs of more than one third of your co-workers?
Teacher strikes likely to stay in Pennsylvania
Little appetite in Harrisburg for changing law. State among few that allows walkouts.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
By SARA K. SATULLO
The Express-Times
Every time a Pennsylvania school district goes on strike, Harrisburg takes notice.
Eyes are on the Saucon Valley School District this month as its more than 180 teachers head into their second week of picketing -- exercising a right enjoyed by teachers in only 12 other states.
But it is doubtful the renewed attention will result in any major overhauls to Act 88, the 16-year-old law that governs teachers' strikes. Pennsylvania is a union state where collective bargaining is often considered an ingrained right.
"Historically, there's been no appetite on the part of the Legislature -- Republicans or Democrats -- or any governor to take away the right to strike," said former state Rep. Ron Cowell, who is now president of The Education Policy and Leadership Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.
Lawmakers sound off
While there isn't support among Lehigh Valley state lawmakers to ban strikes outright or change the law, many warned that shifts in public opinion force change.
State Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh/Northampton, a district resident and former school board president, calls herself a champion for teachers and education. But she says the strike leaves her scratching her head since the 4.7 percent salary raise offer is so generous.
"Saucon Valley teachers are making it increasingly difficult for legislators who have been supportive of their ability to strike to continue to be supportive," Beyer said.
State Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh, is looking at modifying bargaining with secret ballots for teacher strike votes and presentations of offers to a quorum of teachers before a strike vote.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association opposes revising Act 88, although it admits it has its flaws.
"We just think there is the potential to make it worse," PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever said. "We think striking should be a last option but we think it should be a legal last option."
One of the hottest issues on the bargaining table leading to recent strikes has been health insurance contributions.
On Monday, the state House is expected to consider creating a commission that would look at putting all public school employees into a state benefits program, something the PSEA supports.
When unions resist making health insurance contributions, as most taxpayers do, they often lose public support if negotiation details are released, says the Pennsylvania School Board Association.
"(Employee contributions) are happening in every other place of employment, so it just seems very equitable to the public," said PSBA director of school personnel services Tom Templeton. "That is the constant drum beat."
Teachers' strike history
Nationally, teachers' strikes are less than half a century old; the first one took place in New York City in 1960. Pennsylvania teachers earned the right to strike in 1970. New Jersey teachers aren't allowed to strike.
From 1970 to 1991, Pennsylvania saw 775 strikes, according to the PSBA, many of which happened with little notice and for long periods. Act 88 was passed in 1992 in an attempt to preserve the right to strike with limits. Under the act, teachers unions must give 48 hours notice of a strike, and it spells out deadlines if the two sides aren't voluntarily negotiating.
It also gives the state power to step in if the strike is jeopardizing the 180-day school year ending June 30.
Saucon Valley teachers may strike until Oct. 17, when they must enter nonbinding arbitration, according to the law. If either side rejects the arbitrator's recommendation, they can strike again until they hit the point they jeopardize the 180-day calendar.
In the years since Act 88, rumblings about revamping it or even banning strikes have been frequent in Harrisburg, politicians and education officials say. But few gain momentum, Cowell said.
Despite the passage of Act 88, Pennsylvania is still the leader among states that allow teachers to strike.
From 2000 to 2007, 137 strikes occurred, 82 of which were in Pennsylvania, according to a 2007 Allegheny Institute for Public Policy study of teacher strikes. The institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education research group.
Those numbers can be misleading, warned Keever, the PSEA spokesman. Hawaii has the right to strike but it is one statewide district. Pennsylvania has 600-plus local districts, with about 200 bargaining each year and an average of 10 strikes a year, he said.
The state school board association acknowledges since 1992 there's been a measurable decline in teachers' strikes.
But historically PSEA is a very active association that bargains hard with school boards, which are trying to balance the needs of employees, taxpayers and students.
"All of that mixed together can still cause work stoppages," Templeton said.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Philadelphia Magazine Top 50 Philly School Districts. Guess Who's on the List :)
From the BCCT this morning. Here's a link to the article and the PDF of the districts.
We're in at 68. A very solid performance. Kudos to Dr. Yonson, the administration and staff, and especially the students. Despite the efforts of the Stop the School controlled Board of Education to paint you as such, you are not idiotic, incompetent, inept, or downright moronic.
Will the Emperor or any of his court of toadies have the decency or guts to recognize this publicly? Nah...they'll be too busy with their agenda of destruction and dismemberment.
Philadelphia Magazine’s recently published 2008 list of the top 50 public school districts in the eight-county Philadelphia area ranked 27 of Bucks and Montgomery counties’ schools among the best.
Besides schools in Chester, Montgomery and Delaware counties, the following Bucks districts were also rated amongst the highest: New Hope-Solebury (7); Central Bucks (10); Hatboro-Horsham (14); Council Rock (15); North Penn (21); Quakertown (37); Palisades (38); Pennsbury (39); Souderton (40); Pennridge (43); Neshaminy (44); Centennial (46) and Upper Moreland (49).
Also included in the top 100 were: Bensalem (64); Morrisville (68); Bristol Borough (78); and Bristol Township (83).
The schools were ranked based on district-wide comparisons of reading and math test scores, SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, graduation rates, and enrollment in two and four-year colleges.
We're in at 68. A very solid performance. Kudos to Dr. Yonson, the administration and staff, and especially the students. Despite the efforts of the Stop the School controlled Board of Education to paint you as such, you are not idiotic, incompetent, inept, or downright moronic.
Will the Emperor or any of his court of toadies have the decency or guts to recognize this publicly? Nah...they'll be too busy with their agenda of destruction and dismemberment.
Philadelphia Magazine’s recently published 2008 list of the top 50 public school districts in the eight-county Philadelphia area ranked 27 of Bucks and Montgomery counties’ schools among the best.
Besides schools in Chester, Montgomery and Delaware counties, the following Bucks districts were also rated amongst the highest: New Hope-Solebury (7); Central Bucks (10); Hatboro-Horsham (14); Council Rock (15); North Penn (21); Quakertown (37); Palisades (38); Pennsbury (39); Souderton (40); Pennridge (43); Neshaminy (44); Centennial (46) and Upper Moreland (49).
Also included in the top 100 were: Bensalem (64); Morrisville (68); Bristol Borough (78); and Bristol Township (83).
The schools were ranked based on district-wide comparisons of reading and math test scores, SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, graduation rates, and enrollment in two and four-year colleges.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Meet the New Boss: Same as the Old Boss
From the BCCT. Now it begins to make sense why the Emperor wants to merge with Pennsbury.
He would feel right at home.
Free pass: Pennsbury officials answer to no one
By JONATHAN SHAIN
The Pennsbury school board recently held its first regular meeting of the new 2008-09 school year. As usual, the meeting was held at 8 p.m. in the gym of the Fallsington Elementary School. And, sadly, as usual, I was surrounded by a sea of empty folding chairs. In fact, the five or so residents who bothered to attend were easily outnumbered by members of the school board and the administration.
True, there were no major controversies on the agenda for last Thursday’s board meeting; no teacher strikes, no elimination of full-day kindergarten, and nothing else to arouse the community. But, do not be fooled into thinking that the actions taken by our school board only matter when a strike is in progress or a cherished educational program is at risk.
For example, at last week’s board meeting, the administration presented its goals for the coming school year. Among the goals was the negotiation of a new contract next year with the Pennsbury Education Association, the teachers union. How does the administration plan to conduct the negotiations? How will they work to avoid another strike? What are the financial limitations that will inform their bargaining with the PEA? Who will represent the district in the negotiations and how much will he be paid?
These are all questions that could and should have been put to the board and the administration, but without public attendance at the board meeting, the board and the administration were left to their own devices. I, for one, do not want to get the answers to these questions after a strike starts.
Similarly, with virtually no community members in attendance, the board held a last-minute “special” meeting in August and decided to spend more than $20,000 on a “public opinion survey.” This is the same board that consistently claims Pennsbury cannot afford the equipment needed to broadcast board meetings on cable TV, but yet somehow managed to find enough money to fund an opinion survey.
No doubt some members of the community might have challenged the wisdom of spending money on a survey when there are so many other pressing priorities — if anyone had shown up either that night, or at the recent board meeting.
A final example: Pennsbury spends tens of thousands of dollars a year (if not more) on tuition payments for special needs and other children who are educated at taxpayer expense at private schools in the area. These payments are routinely approved at almost every board meeting. These payments are not publicized, and are only listed in the agenda packets handed out at board meetings. Yes, students and parents have a right to confidentiality, but the community has a right to receive considerably more information about where and why these payments are made, and the standards that are utilized to evaluate the propriety of these payments in a manner that will not violate the privacy or confidentiality rights of students.
Yet again, without community participation at board meetings, the hard questions are never put to the board or the administration, and the payments are always approved without comment.
The unresponsiveness of the Pennsbury school board and the administration have, unfortunately, led most folks simply to throw up their hands and give up, believing that nothing they can say or do at a board meeting will make a difference. I understand that feeling, and I share the frustration.
But, I know that change can only occur if more people get involved, come to board meetings, fill up those empty folding chairs and force the decisions of the board and the administration out into the sunlight.
He would feel right at home.
Free pass: Pennsbury officials answer to no one
By JONATHAN SHAIN
The Pennsbury school board recently held its first regular meeting of the new 2008-09 school year. As usual, the meeting was held at 8 p.m. in the gym of the Fallsington Elementary School. And, sadly, as usual, I was surrounded by a sea of empty folding chairs. In fact, the five or so residents who bothered to attend were easily outnumbered by members of the school board and the administration.
True, there were no major controversies on the agenda for last Thursday’s board meeting; no teacher strikes, no elimination of full-day kindergarten, and nothing else to arouse the community. But, do not be fooled into thinking that the actions taken by our school board only matter when a strike is in progress or a cherished educational program is at risk.
For example, at last week’s board meeting, the administration presented its goals for the coming school year. Among the goals was the negotiation of a new contract next year with the Pennsbury Education Association, the teachers union. How does the administration plan to conduct the negotiations? How will they work to avoid another strike? What are the financial limitations that will inform their bargaining with the PEA? Who will represent the district in the negotiations and how much will he be paid?
These are all questions that could and should have been put to the board and the administration, but without public attendance at the board meeting, the board and the administration were left to their own devices. I, for one, do not want to get the answers to these questions after a strike starts.
Similarly, with virtually no community members in attendance, the board held a last-minute “special” meeting in August and decided to spend more than $20,000 on a “public opinion survey.” This is the same board that consistently claims Pennsbury cannot afford the equipment needed to broadcast board meetings on cable TV, but yet somehow managed to find enough money to fund an opinion survey.
No doubt some members of the community might have challenged the wisdom of spending money on a survey when there are so many other pressing priorities — if anyone had shown up either that night, or at the recent board meeting.
A final example: Pennsbury spends tens of thousands of dollars a year (if not more) on tuition payments for special needs and other children who are educated at taxpayer expense at private schools in the area. These payments are routinely approved at almost every board meeting. These payments are not publicized, and are only listed in the agenda packets handed out at board meetings. Yes, students and parents have a right to confidentiality, but the community has a right to receive considerably more information about where and why these payments are made, and the standards that are utilized to evaluate the propriety of these payments in a manner that will not violate the privacy or confidentiality rights of students.
Yet again, without community participation at board meetings, the hard questions are never put to the board or the administration, and the payments are always approved without comment.
The unresponsiveness of the Pennsbury school board and the administration have, unfortunately, led most folks simply to throw up their hands and give up, believing that nothing they can say or do at a board meeting will make a difference. I understand that feeling, and I share the frustration.
But, I know that change can only occur if more people get involved, come to board meetings, fill up those empty folding chairs and force the decisions of the board and the administration out into the sunlight.
School Starts Today in Souderton
From the Inquirer.
School reopens Friday in Souderton
By Dan Hardy, Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
Striking teachers in Montgomery County's Souderton Area School District will be back in their classrooms tomorrow, with the two sides agreeing to enter into non-binding arbitration.
The Schools will reopen at their regular times.
State law mandates that the teachers would have had to go back to work next Wednesday, in order to get in 180 days of instruction by June 15. The strike began Sept. 2.
But with negotiations between the teachers and the board in the 6,900-student district at a virtual standstill on wages and healthcare, the main issues, the two sides reached an agreement last night for the teachers to return to work a few days early. The union membership voted this afternoon to end the strike while the arbitration process plays out.
The arbitration process which is dictated by state law, works like this: a three-member panel will be established, with each side appointing one member and a neutral member selected from a list. The panel will receive each side's proposals, which will be made public, and will hold hearings. Then it will issue a proposed agreement, based on the two sides' positions. The process normally takes several months.
Either side can reject the arbitration board's proposed settlement; the district's 512 teachers could then go back on strike but would have to return to work in time for students to get in 180 days of classes by June 30.
The two sides remain far apart on wage and benefit issues.
The school board estimates that the two sides are about $1.5 million apart on the cost of their health care proposals and about $10 million apart on the combined costs of health care and salaries. The union leadership says it is willing to reduce its salary demands, but only if the school board improves its healthcare offer.
The teachers' last wage proposal was for a four-year contract with average payroll increases of 5.98 percent in the first year, 9.4 percent in the second year, 7.14 percent in the third, and 6.9 percent in the fourth. The school board is proposing a three-year contract with increases of 2.5 percent each year.
On health care, the district now offers three insurance plans, with teachers contributing 10 percent of the premium for the most comprehensive one, 5 percent for one that has fewer benefits and more co-payments, and no premium contribution for a bare-bones plan. The board wants to eliminate the most comprehensive plan, to charge teachers a 4 percent premium contribution for the plan that used to have no contribution, and to charge a 12 percent premium contribution for the other plan.
The school district is now self-insured; the union wants to switch to a Blue Cross / Blue Shield plan, leave the percentages of premium contributions the same and add some improvements.
School reopens Friday in Souderton
By Dan Hardy, Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
Striking teachers in Montgomery County's Souderton Area School District will be back in their classrooms tomorrow, with the two sides agreeing to enter into non-binding arbitration.
The Schools will reopen at their regular times.
State law mandates that the teachers would have had to go back to work next Wednesday, in order to get in 180 days of instruction by June 15. The strike began Sept. 2.
But with negotiations between the teachers and the board in the 6,900-student district at a virtual standstill on wages and healthcare, the main issues, the two sides reached an agreement last night for the teachers to return to work a few days early. The union membership voted this afternoon to end the strike while the arbitration process plays out.
The arbitration process which is dictated by state law, works like this: a three-member panel will be established, with each side appointing one member and a neutral member selected from a list. The panel will receive each side's proposals, which will be made public, and will hold hearings. Then it will issue a proposed agreement, based on the two sides' positions. The process normally takes several months.
Either side can reject the arbitration board's proposed settlement; the district's 512 teachers could then go back on strike but would have to return to work in time for students to get in 180 days of classes by June 30.
The two sides remain far apart on wage and benefit issues.
The school board estimates that the two sides are about $1.5 million apart on the cost of their health care proposals and about $10 million apart on the combined costs of health care and salaries. The union leadership says it is willing to reduce its salary demands, but only if the school board improves its healthcare offer.
The teachers' last wage proposal was for a four-year contract with average payroll increases of 5.98 percent in the first year, 9.4 percent in the second year, 7.14 percent in the third, and 6.9 percent in the fourth. The school board is proposing a three-year contract with increases of 2.5 percent each year.
On health care, the district now offers three insurance plans, with teachers contributing 10 percent of the premium for the most comprehensive one, 5 percent for one that has fewer benefits and more co-payments, and no premium contribution for a bare-bones plan. The board wants to eliminate the most comprehensive plan, to charge teachers a 4 percent premium contribution for the plan that used to have no contribution, and to charge a 12 percent premium contribution for the other plan.
The school district is now self-insured; the union wants to switch to a Blue Cross / Blue Shield plan, leave the percentages of premium contributions the same and add some improvements.
Buns and Rolls
Strip clubs, bakeries, and church schools. What a great mix. From Long Island Newsday.
Here in Morrisville, didn't our plan call for a bakery to accompany the strip club?
Strip club blows top off charter school plan
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND | September 18, 2008
An establishment with a Web site advertising the "absolute best" in topless entertainment, Taste of Honey bar in downtown Hempstead would hardly rate as an ideal neighbor for grade-schoolers.
So state officials were scrambling to explain their policies yesterday, after a Hempstead school board member pointed out that the state had approved an independent charter school to open with a listed address next to a local strip club.
State officials added they hadn't visited the site but would, and would never let a school operate in such a location.
"We're always working to better our practices. That's something we take great pride in," said Cynthia M. Proctor, spokeswoman for a state university institute that handles charter school applications.
For example, she added, the institute might in the future ask applicants for more details regarding planned school locations, such as nearby businesses.
Proctor stressed, however, that the institute is already cautious in approving new charter schools, through a process that lasts for months and includes painstaking checks of applicants' academic and financial records.
Tuesday, state university trustees approved the creation of seven new charter schools - out of 19 applications. Among those approved was Academy Charter School in Hempstead, which is to open next fall with 168 students in grades K-2.
Typically, charter schools are not inspected until a month or two before they open, to give operators time to obtain required building permits.
The school lists its future address as 253A Fulton Ave., next to Taste of Honey. Hempstead school district authorities, who worry that the charter school will draw away students and property tax revenues, quickly criticized the location.
"I definitely wouldn't want to see anyone's children next to the Taste of Honey," said board president Charles Renfroe.
Not to worry, say charter school sponsors, who include leaders of Calvary Tabernacle, a local evangelical church. They note other sites are available, including a three-story building at 80 N. Franklin St., which houses the church's Sunday-school classrooms.
"We have plenty of space that's not next to a topless bar," said Robert Stewart, the church's chief operating officer.
Sponsors say they originally listed the Fulton Avenue site after an architect said the building, which the church owns and once served as its youth center, could be easily converted to an elementary school. Sponsors now concede the site is unacceptable from a political standpoint, and an attorney for the bar owner said the site was also inappropriate because of heavy vehicle traffic.
Still, sponsors regard all the furor as a bit silly, considering that Taste of Honey is in an area where bars are common. It doesn't open until 5 p.m. and its stucco exterior reveals nothing about its activities.
Said Stewart, "Many of the kids thought it was a bakery."
Here in Morrisville, didn't our plan call for a bakery to accompany the strip club?
Strip club blows top off charter school plan
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND | September 18, 2008
An establishment with a Web site advertising the "absolute best" in topless entertainment, Taste of Honey bar in downtown Hempstead would hardly rate as an ideal neighbor for grade-schoolers.
So state officials were scrambling to explain their policies yesterday, after a Hempstead school board member pointed out that the state had approved an independent charter school to open with a listed address next to a local strip club.
State officials added they hadn't visited the site but would, and would never let a school operate in such a location.
"We're always working to better our practices. That's something we take great pride in," said Cynthia M. Proctor, spokeswoman for a state university institute that handles charter school applications.
For example, she added, the institute might in the future ask applicants for more details regarding planned school locations, such as nearby businesses.
Proctor stressed, however, that the institute is already cautious in approving new charter schools, through a process that lasts for months and includes painstaking checks of applicants' academic and financial records.
Tuesday, state university trustees approved the creation of seven new charter schools - out of 19 applications. Among those approved was Academy Charter School in Hempstead, which is to open next fall with 168 students in grades K-2.
Typically, charter schools are not inspected until a month or two before they open, to give operators time to obtain required building permits.
The school lists its future address as 253A Fulton Ave., next to Taste of Honey. Hempstead school district authorities, who worry that the charter school will draw away students and property tax revenues, quickly criticized the location.
"I definitely wouldn't want to see anyone's children next to the Taste of Honey," said board president Charles Renfroe.
Not to worry, say charter school sponsors, who include leaders of Calvary Tabernacle, a local evangelical church. They note other sites are available, including a three-story building at 80 N. Franklin St., which houses the church's Sunday-school classrooms.
"We have plenty of space that's not next to a topless bar," said Robert Stewart, the church's chief operating officer.
Sponsors say they originally listed the Fulton Avenue site after an architect said the building, which the church owns and once served as its youth center, could be easily converted to an elementary school. Sponsors now concede the site is unacceptable from a political standpoint, and an attorney for the bar owner said the site was also inappropriate because of heavy vehicle traffic.
Still, sponsors regard all the furor as a bit silly, considering that Taste of Honey is in an area where bars are common. It doesn't open until 5 p.m. and its stucco exterior reveals nothing about its activities.
Said Stewart, "Many of the kids thought it was a bakery."
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tech School Funding: Motion to Dissemble, Discuss, and Delay
From the BCCT.
My cracked and dusty crystal ball sees two future articles. One starts out like this: "Business managers of school districts served by Bucks County Technical High School agreed today to delay the revision of the school’s funding formula until the 2010-2011 budget.
" 'We've been examining this for over a year', said XXX. 'Taking the time to do this right will best serve all of our districts: student and taxpayer alike. The holidays are upon us, and the first budget drafts are due in January. Before you know it, it's June and we're starting all over again.' "
The other article? Miracle upon miracles, unanimity reigns and they actually agree upon a new plan. I didn't bother to write a draft of that article. That's the unlikely outcome.
Save the emails: This isn't bashing Neshaminy because they are mentioned. This isn't even bashing the Emperor and his board of chosen accomplices from Morrisville. It's a recognition that these six suburban districts have many similarities and several deep differences. The only course here is whether or not they can find a way to unite like the 13 colonies of 1776, or splinter apart like the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia of today.
I have four simple steps to fix this:
Put them back in the meeting room.
Serve lots of water and coffee.
Lock the bathrooms.
Agree on the plan.
See what a little motivation can accomplish?
Back to the drawing board for tech school funding formula
Posted in News on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 4:25 pm by Joan Hellyer
Business managers of school districts served by Bucks County Technical High School agreed today to take another stab at revising the school’s funding formula.
At issue is whether some costs should be separated from the overall contributions of the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts. Right now, the costs are split among the six districts based on a formula involving fixed and variable costs.
The business managers suggested in 2007 to separate costs associated with special needs students from the formula because special education expenses are potentially more expensive than basic education costs.
However, one of the sending school districts did not support the proposed formula change because its school system could potentially face additional expenses. Neshaminy was the lone hold out to the change after projections suggested the district would have had to pay about $450,000 more in 2007-2008 had the new formula been in place for the comprehensive technical high school.
Any change to the school’s Articles of Agreement, including a funding formula revision, has to be unanimously approved before it can be implemented, school officials said.
Representatives of all six sending districts got together with tech school officials today to decide if something else could be done.
The managers agreed to meet within the next few weeks with Sharon Rendeiro, the tech school’s business administrator, to further break down the special education costs.
In addition, they also will break down the costs of each of the more than 30 trades offered at the school. Those costs vary depending on staff salaries, which are based on years of experience and level of education, and equipment, textbooks and supplies used in each trade, officials said.
The business administrators also agreed to take a look at how other comprehensive technical high schools in the state are funded.
They will then decide if any changes should be made to the current formula and suggest them to the tech school’s joint board committee. The committee, made up of school board members from each of the sending districts, will have to agree unanimously to make the changes before they can be implemented.
Attendees at today’s funding formula summit agreed the changes must be made by late November in order to be incorporated into the 2009-2010 budget.
My cracked and dusty crystal ball sees two future articles. One starts out like this: "Business managers of school districts served by Bucks County Technical High School agreed today to delay the revision of the school’s funding formula until the 2010-2011 budget.
" 'We've been examining this for over a year', said XXX. 'Taking the time to do this right will best serve all of our districts: student and taxpayer alike. The holidays are upon us, and the first budget drafts are due in January. Before you know it, it's June and we're starting all over again.' "
The other article? Miracle upon miracles, unanimity reigns and they actually agree upon a new plan. I didn't bother to write a draft of that article. That's the unlikely outcome.
Save the emails: This isn't bashing Neshaminy because they are mentioned. This isn't even bashing the Emperor and his board of chosen accomplices from Morrisville. It's a recognition that these six suburban districts have many similarities and several deep differences. The only course here is whether or not they can find a way to unite like the 13 colonies of 1776, or splinter apart like the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia of today.
I have four simple steps to fix this:
Put them back in the meeting room.
Serve lots of water and coffee.
Lock the bathrooms.
Agree on the plan.
See what a little motivation can accomplish?
Back to the drawing board for tech school funding formula
Posted in News on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 4:25 pm by Joan Hellyer
Business managers of school districts served by Bucks County Technical High School agreed today to take another stab at revising the school’s funding formula.
At issue is whether some costs should be separated from the overall contributions of the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts. Right now, the costs are split among the six districts based on a formula involving fixed and variable costs.
The business managers suggested in 2007 to separate costs associated with special needs students from the formula because special education expenses are potentially more expensive than basic education costs.
However, one of the sending school districts did not support the proposed formula change because its school system could potentially face additional expenses. Neshaminy was the lone hold out to the change after projections suggested the district would have had to pay about $450,000 more in 2007-2008 had the new formula been in place for the comprehensive technical high school.
Any change to the school’s Articles of Agreement, including a funding formula revision, has to be unanimously approved before it can be implemented, school officials said.
Representatives of all six sending districts got together with tech school officials today to decide if something else could be done.
The managers agreed to meet within the next few weeks with Sharon Rendeiro, the tech school’s business administrator, to further break down the special education costs.
In addition, they also will break down the costs of each of the more than 30 trades offered at the school. Those costs vary depending on staff salaries, which are based on years of experience and level of education, and equipment, textbooks and supplies used in each trade, officials said.
The business administrators also agreed to take a look at how other comprehensive technical high schools in the state are funded.
They will then decide if any changes should be made to the current formula and suggest them to the tech school’s joint board committee. The committee, made up of school board members from each of the sending districts, will have to agree unanimously to make the changes before they can be implemented.
Attendees at today’s funding formula summit agreed the changes must be made by late November in order to be incorporated into the 2009-2010 budget.
Souderton: “There’s a price to be paid"
From the BCCT
Strike proves costly for many
By RICH PIETRAS
It’s hard to predict the outcome of the Souderton Area School District strike. But it goes without saying, before the teachers decide to put their picket signs down, the price tag is going up.
Parents and students are taking a hit. Children have nowhere to spend afternoons once occupied in the classroom. The cost of childcare, plus the gas to get them there, is a burden.
While teachers are somewhat insulated from lost wages because 180 school days will have to be fulfilled, the average teacher could lose $3,000 in pay because of the strike.
According to Bill Lukridge, president of the teachers union, teachers stand to lose 5 percent of their salary. Based on the average salary in the district ($61,630 for the 2005-06 school year) that comes to about $3,000.
School board solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik sounded surprised that it took the union so long to realize there was salary at stake.
“There’s a price to be paid for going on strike,” Sultanik said.
Teachers, who have been on strike since Sept. 2, do not get a paycheck during the strike, but will receive checks after they are forced to return to work on Wednesday as the sides move into nonbinding arbitration. If no deal is reached, teachers could strike again in the spring, but would have to return after about a week to guarantee students will get 180 days of schooling.
What the teachers will lose is the in-service days in their contracts. The teachers worked three of those days in August, but nine remain.
Sultanik said the district does not intend to make up the nine in-service days.
“They already lost the days of the strike,” Sultanik said. “And in our opinion, it’s not our intention to make up those days.”
The union estimates the district would save nearly $1.5 million from the work stoppage by not having to pay teachers for those nine days. And, it argues, that $1.5 million is enough to close nearly the entire gap between the school board and union’s health plan proposals.
“If the union is willing to give up those makeup days, we are willing to talk about that in terms of the overall context of the bargaining,” Sultanik said.
Keep up on the latest in the Souderton strike at www.intelligencernow.com/category/souderton-school-strike. For updates on negotiations, visit www.soudertonsd.org and www.saea.info/.
Strike proves costly for many
By RICH PIETRAS
It’s hard to predict the outcome of the Souderton Area School District strike. But it goes without saying, before the teachers decide to put their picket signs down, the price tag is going up.
Parents and students are taking a hit. Children have nowhere to spend afternoons once occupied in the classroom. The cost of childcare, plus the gas to get them there, is a burden.
While teachers are somewhat insulated from lost wages because 180 school days will have to be fulfilled, the average teacher could lose $3,000 in pay because of the strike.
According to Bill Lukridge, president of the teachers union, teachers stand to lose 5 percent of their salary. Based on the average salary in the district ($61,630 for the 2005-06 school year) that comes to about $3,000.
School board solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik sounded surprised that it took the union so long to realize there was salary at stake.
“There’s a price to be paid for going on strike,” Sultanik said.
Teachers, who have been on strike since Sept. 2, do not get a paycheck during the strike, but will receive checks after they are forced to return to work on Wednesday as the sides move into nonbinding arbitration. If no deal is reached, teachers could strike again in the spring, but would have to return after about a week to guarantee students will get 180 days of schooling.
What the teachers will lose is the in-service days in their contracts. The teachers worked three of those days in August, but nine remain.
Sultanik said the district does not intend to make up the nine in-service days.
“They already lost the days of the strike,” Sultanik said. “And in our opinion, it’s not our intention to make up those days.”
The union estimates the district would save nearly $1.5 million from the work stoppage by not having to pay teachers for those nine days. And, it argues, that $1.5 million is enough to close nearly the entire gap between the school board and union’s health plan proposals.
“If the union is willing to give up those makeup days, we are willing to talk about that in terms of the overall context of the bargaining,” Sultanik said.
Keep up on the latest in the Souderton strike at www.intelligencernow.com/category/souderton-school-strike. For updates on negotiations, visit www.soudertonsd.org and www.saea.info/.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tech School Funding: Still Discussing
From the BCCT. Still. No. Budget. Formula. Decision.
This should be setting the Emperor's famously short fuse for time wasting to "Warp Core Breach" levels.
Who is representing Morrisville now? Reba Dunford is an excellent representative, but she's nearly out the door.
Funding formula review set for Wednesday
Posted in News on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 4:21 pm by Joan Hellyer
Representatives of six area school districts will meet with Bucks County Technical High School staff Wednesday to examine costs associated with educating each of the school’s estimated 1,500 students.
The goal will be to determine if changes should be made to the funding formula at the comprehensive technical high school off Wistar Road in Bristol Township, said BCTHS Administrative Director Scott Parks.
The school serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts.
“The group would have to come up with a funding formula that appears to be fair to all six [sending] districts. That’s what I’m shooting for,” Parks said.
The noon meeting will be held in the board room near the administrative offices. Call 215-949-1700 for more information.
This should be setting the Emperor's famously short fuse for time wasting to "Warp Core Breach" levels.
Who is representing Morrisville now? Reba Dunford is an excellent representative, but she's nearly out the door.
Funding formula review set for Wednesday
Posted in News on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 4:21 pm by Joan Hellyer
Representatives of six area school districts will meet with Bucks County Technical High School staff Wednesday to examine costs associated with educating each of the school’s estimated 1,500 students.
The goal will be to determine if changes should be made to the funding formula at the comprehensive technical high school off Wistar Road in Bristol Township, said BCTHS Administrative Director Scott Parks.
The school serves the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school districts.
“The group would have to come up with a funding formula that appears to be fair to all six [sending] districts. That’s what I’m shooting for,” Parks said.
The noon meeting will be held in the board room near the administrative offices. Call 215-949-1700 for more information.
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