MORRISVILLE SCHOOLSMorrisville parents will be able to speak on basketball court this month
Posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 2:42 pm | Updated: 9:36 pm, Wed Aug 31, 2011.
Morrisville parents and teenagers will have the opportunity to discuss the abrupt removal of a basketball court at Grandview Elementary School in recent weeks. But they'll have to wait two weeks.
Rather that being taken up by the school board, the controversy will be aired at the superintendent's advisory meeting at 7 p.m. on Sept. 14 in the high school's large conference room.
"We will have a discussion and I do invite anybody who wants to discuss the basketball court at Grandview to attend our first superintendent advisory. I believe the discussion will be better held there because we can have an open dialogue with the public," said Superintendent Bill Ferrara at last week's school board meeting.
As part of a parking lot repaving project outside the school, officials removed two basketball hoops. District spokeswoman Pat Wandling said Tuesday the repaving and the removal of the hoops were done for public safety reasons. She noted there are basketball hoops for the public's use at Williamson Park, on the other side of town.
The distance from Grandview Elementary to Williamson Park on Delmorr Avenue is 1.24 miles, requiring a 30-minute walk for teens who frequented the Grandview court.
A few parents and teenagers told the school board they understood the need to temporarily remove the hoops for the paving, but were upset over the decision not to reinstall them and for not giving the public a chance to comment beforehand.
School board members cited concern that playing basketball on the property could damage parked vehicles as the reason for not putting the hoops back up.
The issue was supposed to be discussed at the school board meeting, but Ferrara said the matter would be better discussed at the superintendent advisory meeting, adding that policies need to be reviewed and that there's been undesirable loitering on other district properties. As a result, "no trespassing" signs went up.
"One of the reasons why you see the signs in front of the Intermediate/High School is because we were having large groups of non-students during the summer in our parking lot every Friday and Saturday night," Ferrara said. "Every Monday there would be large amounts of trash, which our maintenance people had to clean up. Jack Jones (police chief of Morrisville Police Department) suggested that once we put those signs up, where they would be visible, the police would be much more willing to enforce them."
He encouraged parents to review school board policy No. 707, "Use of School Facilities."
The seven-page policy specifies uses not permitted at the school facilities. Banned are partisan political activity, private social functions, any purpose prohibited by law, any activities that involve animals, and any activity deemed potentially dangerous to school district property by the superintendent or whoever is in charge. The use of basketball courts isn't mentioned.
8 comments:
"I believe the discussion will be better held there because we can have an open dialogue with the public," said Superintendent Bill Ferrara at last week's school board meeting.
That's because even the board's handpicked superintendent lapdog knows this board does not care what the public thinks.
It sounds like their minds are already made up.
These folks can't help themselves, but we can. Vote them out on November 8.
This is simply a "I'm concerned about your feelings and want to hear you (because you might be my bosses real soon)" kind of thing. You're receiving an opportunity for dialog now that its done. Ferrara wants to hear your concerns now that the parking lot is in place and the hoops are long gone. Classic. Its a bit too late for Ferrara to play both sides.
the parents are not backing down and thats the difference this time around. We have strong opionions about whats happening and we are not letting this board or this new super remove or take away anything else from the kids without it being addressed and in some cases fought for. You are not in Kansas anymore, this is a new community of concerned parents who are not going to let this board and its lacky admin do whatever they want any longer
November 8 is an opportunity to change the composition of part of the board. At least then there would be more of a voice on the board to avoid this petty divisiveness.
Deep Thoughts:
Wouldn't it have been nice if a Policy 707 sign had been put up banning decades of institutional neglect of our school buildings?
A good chunk of it was seen to by our current school board "leadres" and allies. Have you seen the headlines over the last 25-30 years? Riddled with Mihok, Buckman, Worob, Radosti references while the schools rotted.
In one case, the prolonged institutional neglect ended in a furnace explosion that crippled and closed a school (M.R. Reiter Elementary).
Talk about activity ACTUALLY, not potentially, but ACTUALLY, dangerous to school district property.
The Stop the School, Stay on Track, Stay on Course mantra.
Instructions: Repeat incessantly until re-election.
Students are lazy.
Taxes are too high.
School buildings are safe.
Teachers are ineffective.
We know best. Just cooperate.
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over” -Joseph Goebbels
Post a Comment