Morrisville Schools releases glimpse of potential future
Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 10:25 pm | Updated: 1:48 am, Wed Nov 14, 2012.
Posted on November 13, 2012
Morrisville School District laid out nine potential scenarios that the district can take in the future, though none will be implemented next school year, officials said.“At this point it’s more of brainstorming. Nothing is set in stone,” school director Damon Miller said at Tuesday’s Education Committee meeting. “No option is off the table right now.”
He wrote the list on an easel, but didn’t delve into details about individual items or discuss the pros and cons of each. That will be left for future meetings, he told the eight parents and two school board members in attendance.
School director Daniel Dingle, also a member of the committee, said that these aren’t the only options. The district will consider suggestions from the public in the upcoming months, he said.
Here are the options, in no particular order, favored by the district, but in the order that Miller wrote them down Tuesday:
The committee, which consists of Miller, Dingle, school Director Jack Buckman and Superintendant Bill Ferrara, said the future of the district could feature a combination of items from the list.
Miller said merging and tuitioning out the high school students are “two different animals.”
He added that there are many questions, and the administration will have to provide more information moving forward. And of course finances will play a major role in the process.
The committee was adamant that whatever direction the district takes, the administration and the school board hope to make the decision with the feedback and input of the community. Most important, they said, is to provide students at least the same education that the district is currently providing, or better.
Miller said any potential transition will take “a long time” and “I don’t see it happening next year. We just passed a three-year teachers contract, our finances are in decent shape, but we need to look forward and have a vision.”
The next Education Committee meeting will be in early or mid December, he said.
School director Daniel Dingle, also a member of the committee, said that these aren’t the only options. The district will consider suggestions from the public in the upcoming months, he said.
Here are the options, in no particular order, favored by the district, but in the order that Miller wrote them down Tuesday:
- Status quo
- Five-period day (currently, the high school runs with six periods)
- Cyber courses
- Increasing the number of students attending Bucks County Technical High School in Bristol Township
- Tuition out high school students
- Increase dual enrollment with Bucks County Community College
- Full district merger
- Split schedule (staggering school entrance times)
- Multi-district cyber courses (a pool of districts offering a variety of cyber classes)
The committee, which consists of Miller, Dingle, school Director Jack Buckman and Superintendant Bill Ferrara, said the future of the district could feature a combination of items from the list.
Miller said merging and tuitioning out the high school students are “two different animals.”
He added that there are many questions, and the administration will have to provide more information moving forward. And of course finances will play a major role in the process.
The committee was adamant that whatever direction the district takes, the administration and the school board hope to make the decision with the feedback and input of the community. Most important, they said, is to provide students at least the same education that the district is currently providing, or better.
Miller said any potential transition will take “a long time” and “I don’t see it happening next year. We just passed a three-year teachers contract, our finances are in decent shape, but we need to look forward and have a vision.”
The next Education Committee meeting will be in early or mid December, he said.
10 comments:
Wait...I'm confused! So we CAN send more students to the tech school?
Yeah. It's A Whole New World ( Alan Menken, lyrics by Tim Rice)...
I was just wondering how you go about doing that. You can't force a kid to go to Tech, right? So, do you just encourage them more than the District has been? That kind of implies that the District has been discouraging kids from going to Tech. Uh ...
My 2 cents:
Some of the ideas floated last night are to save money, some may cost more money. Some are to preserve or expand the educational offerings, some may reduce options. This "more kids to Tech" idea seems to fall more into the expand the educational offerings bucket. Costs and other ramifications? Unknown at this time.
All this stuff is preliminary, to start discussions and solicit community feedback, and figure out which avenues to explore further in terms of pros, cons, costs, etc. A lot more info needs to be collected and analyzed.
Increasing slots for the Tech School students would be a big help.
I've heard of a number of students who didn't get in because there were not enough slots via the lottery process.
Not sure if this is accurate, but should be looked into sooner instead of later since many Tech school students can graduate with some type of occupational training.
Good point, we spend 2007-11 demonizing tech and getting into lawsuits with them, now common sense is returning. thank GOD!
"Some of the ideas floated last night are to save money, some may cost more money. Some are to preserve or expand the educational offerings, some may reduce options. This "more kids to Tech" idea seems to fall more into the expand the educational offerings bucket. Costs and other ramifications? Unknown at this time."
Yeah, the article fails to state what the goal is. These are all ideas worth considering but to decide on the right one you need to understand which problem we're trying to solve. Is it financial? Physical space? Quality of Education?
Does anyone know? (Yes, I realize I might know if I made it to the meeting. That's often not possible these days.)
Brief excerpt from last night's School Board Meeting, or a March 31, 1968 speech by Lyndon B. Johnson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_qZru8M3BM
you wont get answers on the blog, if you cannot make a meeting email dmiller@mv.org, who is heading up the committee be a part of the solutions not the problem
I have gotten plenty of answers on this blog. Don't get me wrong, there's junk too, and it's not a substitute for involvement. Reasonable people (like Peter) can collect and analyze bits of information, separate the wheat from the chaff, and learn from it.
FOOTBALL GAME TONIGHT HOME FIELD AGAINST CONWELL/EGAN 7PM.
COMMUNITY PEP RALLY FOR THE FOOTBALL TEAM WILL BE HELD NEXT WEDS 11/21 6PM HIGH SCHOOL GYM. GOME OUT SUPPORT THE KIDS AND CHECK OUT THE TABLES SET UP FOR ITEMS FOR SALE, RAFFLE TICKETS AND NEW BULLDOG CLOTHING ITEMS.
CEC beat the Bulldogs b/c they are a disciplined team. Morrisville may have equal or greater talent, but negative zero leadership. It's ashame. I'm happy to see our team win, but imagine how good we could be if our coaches were leaders instead of friends.
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