Friday, November 30, 2012

School Boards to Reorganize

School boards to reorganize
 Posted: Friday, November 30, 2012 4:20 pm | Updated: 6:57 pm, Fri Nov 30, 2012.



Six of the eight school boards in Lower Bucks County will meet in special session Monday night to reorganize.The state requires school boards to reorganize the first week of December, usually on the first Monday of the month.
The Bensalem, Bristol Township, Centennial, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school boards will reorganize Monday night.
The Council Rock board will reorganize during its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday.
The Bristol board will not reorganize until Dec. 13. The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching district officials on Friday to find out why.

Santa and Mrs. Claus to Highlight Morrisville Winterfest on Saturday


Santa and Mrs. Claus to highlight Morrisville Winterfest on Saturday

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Posted: Friday, November 30, 2012 5:00 am | Updated: 6:19 am, Fri Nov 30, 2012.
Santa arrives early Saturday to get Morrisville’s annual Winterfest Celebration off to a rousing start for the young ones.
Kids of all ages can begin the day at breakfast with Santa at 8 a.m. at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, at Osborne and Stockham streets. A silent auction will take place at the same time.
Santa and Mrs. Claus will be popping in and out of the festivities throughout the day, and a live nativity and lighting of the borough Christmas tree will celebrate the real meaning of the holiday at day’s end.
As always, the day will include the very popular annual Winterfest Parade, set to march at 10:30 a.m. The processional begins on West Post Road, travels up South Pennsylvania Avenue; turns right on Delaware Avenue, left onto Washington Street, left onto East Bridge Street, right onto Lafayette Avenue, and left onto Palmer Avenue. The parade ends at Morrisville High School at 399 Cox Ave.
This year, for the first time, the parade will host a float competition. Santa will announce the winner during the evening festivities at borough hall.
The parade will feature Little Miss Winterfest, Victoria Sullivan, 11, a fourth-grader at Holy Trinity School. She will be accompanied by Mr. Winterfest, Tyler Kartal, 17, who attends Bucks County Technical School.
Look for them wearing their crowns while riding together on a float.
At the high school following the parade, the Morrisville School District’s 21st Century Community Learning Center will host its Open House & Morrisville Winter Celebration from 11:30 a.m. till 4 p.m.
Homemade holiday items, jewelry, needlework and other unique merchandise will be on sale. The Morrisville Senior Center will be at the high school selling food, such as soups and chili, along with handmade crafts.
From noon until 3 p.m. kids can enjoy writing letters to Santa, making reindeer food and reindeer candy canes, and working on pipe cleaner crafts. Bring your camera because from 12:30 until 3 p.m., your children can visit with Mr. and Mrs. Claus.
Entertainment will include various local groups throughout the day, including the center’s musical theater in a performance of “A Christmas Carol.” Also on tap will be performances by the district’s elementary school chorus, bell tones and recorders.
Also taking place during the day is the Solid Rock Youth Center’s family open house from 4 to 6 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Morrisville, at 50 N. Pennsylvania Ave. Check out the facilities, play some games, meet the staff and enjoy refreshments.
At 6 p.m., the church will host a live nativity and children’s show. Pet the animals and reflect on the real meaning of Christmas.
Also at 6 p.m., “The Night Before Christmas” will be read at borough hall on Union Street, followed by the borough’s traditional tree lighting and arrival of Santa riding on a fire truck at 6:30 p.m.
The Morrisville-Yardley Area Rotary Club will serve free hot dogs and cider to help guests stay warm.
From 6:30 until 9 p.m. the youth center will host a Christmas party for sixth- through 12th-graders.
Santa will be back in Morrisville on Sunday for a second breakfast with Santa from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at Morrisville High School. Proceeds will benefit Good Friends Inc.
For additional information, call 215-736-2861.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Morrisville OKs no Tax Increase, Cut in Trash Hauling Fees and Raises for Employees

Morrisville OKs no tax increase, cut in trash hauling fees and raises for employees

Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 6:30 pm | Updated: 7:17 pm, Tue Nov 20, 2012.
 
Morrisville Borough Council voted Monday night to approve a $5.6 million preliminary budget for 2013.The budget, which totals $5,660,929, includes no property tax increase, officials said.The municipal tax rate is projected to remain at 40.93 mills in 2013. The owners of an average home assessed at $20,000 will pay $818 to the borough.
The proposed borough spending plan for 2013 would also charge residents about $20 less for trash pickup next year.
“It’s a balanced budget and there is no tax increase,” said borough Manager Tom Bates. “The residents will also get another break on sanitation and recycling fees.”
The 2012 final budget charged residents $52 less for trash pickup, bringing the total reduction over the last two years to $72, said Bates.
Morrisville’s budget comprises eight separate funds totaling the proposed $5.6 million budget.
Roughly 28 percent of that money, $1.6 million, will go toward supporting the police department. The other largest line item in the spending plan is sanitation at $1.03 million.
Non-uniformed administrative employees salaries range from $5,431 for a part-time administrative clerk to $45,000 for borough manager.
The budget states that 50 percent of many administrative salaries come from the general fund and the remainder is distributed in other funds.
The police force has 10 full-time officers, four part-timers and one police chief. Their current salaries and wages are:
  • Chief of police: $82,103
  • 10 full-time officers: $63,381 each
  • Four part-time officers: $19.76 per hour
The borough expects to spend nearly 10 percent of its budget, $538,204, on administrative costs while $223,835 will go toward recreational programs.
Other funds include library at $209,835, street lighting at $165,397, emergency services at $122,535 and pensions at $29,532.
The budget also calls for a transfer of $51,759 from the general fund to the capital reserve fund for the purchase of a new police radio system.
As required by contract, the non-uniformed administrative employees will receive a 3 percent raise. Increases for police officers between 4 and 6 percent were also included in the plan.
The council voted 5-3 to approve the proposed budget during Monday night’s meeting. Council members Eileen Dreisbach, Todd Sanford and Debbie Smith voted against the official spending plan.
Smith said she voted against the budget because the document wasn’t clear. Expenses such as recreation are broken down into various accounts making it difficult to track spending, she said.
“This budget was carefully prepared by our entire staff,” said Council President Nancy Sherlock. “We anticipate zero tax increase while still providing the current service level.”
Officials will vote on whether to adopt the 2013 final budget during their Dec. 10 meeting. It begins at 7:30 p.m. in borough hall off Union Street.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Morrisville President Steps Aside

Morrisville president steps aside

Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2012 3:13 pm | Updated: 6:56 pm, Thu Nov 15, 2012.
Morrisville school board President John DeWilde announced during Wednesday’s agenda meeting that he will not be seeking re-nomination.DeWilde cited personal reasons as a decisive factor in his decision to step aside. He will stay on as a member of the board, though.
The annual reorganization meeting -- during which board members vote on president, vice president and secretary -- is scheduled for 7:30 Dec. 3 at the Morrisville High School LGI room.
DeWilde has served as the president since December.
All school boards in the state are required to reorganize on the first Monday of December each year.

Potluck #65

Your place for no answers, or plenty of answers, depending on your point ot view.

Chester Upland Plan: Close 3 Schools, Sell Buildings


Article in yesterday's Phila. Inquirer.
Chester Upland plan: Close 3 schools, sell buildings

November 14, 2012|By Rita Giordano, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

To win back students who have fled its schools and escape its deep financial crisis, the troubled Chester Upland district will have to embrace a "radical and bold plan" that includes closing three schools, selling several buildings, and overhauling its approach to academics, according to a state report issued Tuesday.

"The choice is stark: reform or become irrelevant and go out of business as a direct education provider," said the report, released by Joseph P. Watkins, the state-appointed Chester Upland School District recovery officer.

If the district fails to meet certain scholastic performance goals, such as federal annual progress targets, by the end for the 2014-15 school year, the plan calls for the schools to be run by external management operations such as charter schools, cyber charters, and education management companies.

"Our children can wait no longer for the chance to learn, to graduate, and to go on to college or a trade," Watkins said in a statement released with the report. "They deserve the opportunity to succeed."

Watkins, who previously ran a pro-voucher and -charter political action committee, was appointed last summer and given broad powers under recently enacted distressed-school legislation to try to turn around the struggling district.

His report highlighted many of the district's problems - over 50 percent of the students score below proficiency on state standardized tests; a $3 million deficit projected to balloon to over $180 million by 2017-18 if no action is taken; and a 5 percent loss of students a year to charter and cyber schools, resulting in lost revenue.

In an interview Friday, Watkins said he did not want to turn the schools into charters or have them managed privately, and Tuesday he said he would like to see local school-board involvement "in the short term and the long term."

But he also said, "We're making students the top priority. This is all about the kids."

"I am very angry and very disappointed," said Chester Upland school board member Charlie Warren. "The state isn't serving this part of the commonwealth with truth and honesty."

Warren accused state officials of trying to remake the district according to its wishes.

"I believe had they given the board - this board coming in - the opportunity, we could have fixed our schools without all this nonsense coming down from the state," he said.

"My biggest fear is, we will lose our public school system and our kids will get pushed out of the charters and they will have no place to go," said State Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland (D., Delaware).

The school board doesn't have much choice. It has 10 days to act on the plan. If approved, the plan will go to state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis for approval or a call for revision.

If the board doesn't approve the plan, the state will seek to have the district put into receivership.

Other low-performing school districts have turned to charter or school management firms to try to improve some of their schools, including Philadelphia's.

In the last five years, according to Robin Lake of the Washington-based Center for Reinventing Public Education, the number of challenged districts using a combination of operators, including charters, has increased.

Watkins' plan calls for closing three school buildings he said are underutilized, as well as the district's administration building.

The Columbus and Stetser Schools will close as soon as December. The Smedley STEM High School building will be closed and its students and programs will be housed in their own space at Chester High School, as will district administrative staff. Some classes will grow.

Watkins said the district will "rightsize" staff, shedding about 70 positions during this and the next school year. However, he said staff could be called back if the student body grows with new and returning students lured by improved academic programs.

The plan also calls for teachers to contribute to their health-care costs and placing a limit on district contributions. The teachers will also be subject to the state's new evaluation process.

Watkins said his proposal calls for seeking private funding to add programs, including day care for students' children, expanded after-school and summer programs, and staff development.

He wants the district to sell some buildings for a projected $2 million and is calling for retaining a recruiting firm to help hire a superintendent and a chief financial officer who will each commit to serving at least three years.

He recommended increasing property taxes and seeking state funds to help pay for initiatives such as capital improvements at the high school, marketing, administrative recruiting, and school board training.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Morrisville Schools Releases Glimpse of Potential Future

MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
Morrisville Schools releases glimpse of potential future

Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 10:25 pm | Updated: 1:48 am, Wed Nov 14, 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:
  • 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)
This list comes days after officials disclosed that Morrisville and Bristol schools have met with members of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and other branches of state government. Bristol is planning similar public sessions in the near future, officials have said.
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.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Morrisville Schools Meets to Discuss Future

They meets tonight.  Tonight they meets.

MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS

Morrisville schools meets to discuss future


Posted: Monday, November 12, 2012 6:41 pm | Updated: 1:30 am, Tue Nov 13, 2012.



The Morrisville community will have the chance to give its input and/or learn about the future of the school district Tuesday.The school district’s Education Committee will meet at 7 p.m. at the Morrisville High School LGI room.
The district’s future is up for discussion since officials are studying options to potentially save money and provide students more educational opportunities.
Last week, Superintendent Bill Ferrara told parents at his advisory meeting that the district is figuring out options to save the town’s public schools because maintaining the status quo or merging with another district aren’t options.
During that meeting, the top administrator threw out a couple of options such as the cyber school route and/or going to a five-period day may be options.
In addition, Ferrara said he has met with state officials twice in the past two years to discuss finances and potential changes to the district.
Most recently, Ferrara sat in a meeting in Harrisburg a few weeks ago, along with state Secretary of Education Ron Tomalis, members of the governor’s office, state Sens. Tommy Tomlinson, R-6, Chuck McIlhinney, R-10, John Galloway, D-140, and members of the Department of Labor and Industry. Also at the meeting were Bristol Borough School District officials.

Big Changes for Small Schools?

Missed this one from last Friday's BCCT. 

Big changes for small schools?

Posted: Friday, November 9, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 8:24 pm, Thu Nov 8, 2012.
We can’t think of a more controversial local issue than closing a school or merging with another school district. Mess with people’s schools and you’re asking for trouble.So you’d think local officials would know better than to broach the issue without including the public — from the very beginning.
But that’s just what school officials in Bristol and Morrisville boroughs have been doing; boning up on options to the increasingly unaffordable status quo, including the possibility of closing schools and/or merging with another district.
Not that officials want to do either. It’s just that the modern-day economics of public education make it increasingly difficult for small districts to function without scalding taxpayers or cheating students — or both. It’s why the state is pressuring districts to join forces and take advantage of the economies of scale.
At one time, Pennsylvania had more than 1,500 school districts. Currently, there are 501. And the state Department of Education would like to see that number cut in half.
That’s what state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis told officials from Bristol and Morrisville who traveled to Harrisburg recently, according to Bristol School Board President Ralph DiGuiseppe III. “The topic of conversation was finance and the potential high school closure if that’s something we had to do in terms of budget,” DiGuiseppe said, adding: “All I can say is that we’re not going to get (additional) money. The message was clear that things are going to get worse.”
That’s not new information. All across the state, school districts are facing financial crises thanks to reduced state funding, catapulting health insurance costs and the ticking pension time bomb. Meanwhile, special education costs continue to climb; so does the number of charter schools, which are siphoning more students each year followed by state subsidy money that otherwise would land in district treasuries.
It’s an irreversible course that only the strong can survive. (Read big districts with lots of taxpayers.)
The handwriting is on the chalkboard and so it’s not unusual that officials at small districts might start talking about the unpopular notion of closing schools or merging with other districts.
What’s unusual, in our view, is engaging in that discussion without actively engaging taxpayers. They are their schools after all. They pay for the buildings, the supplies and the salaries of everybody affiliated with the schools. They have a right to be informed and also to be part of the discussion.
Bristol officials at least mentioned the need to consider options in the spring as they struggled to agree on this year’s budget. Not a word to the public since then even though DiGuiseppe recently met with the state education secretary to explore funding realities and also options for educating students on less state money every year. And not a word out of Morrisville — not publicly — though the superintendent fessed up to attending the recent Harrisburg meeting.
Now that the word’s out, we’re glad to hear officials in both districts plan to let citizens know what’s going on while also inviting public input.
We’re not saying that school officials shouldn’t be educating themselves. The economic realities of public education are such that change is inevitable. Problem is, people don’t like change. They need to be eased into it and keeping folks informed is part of the process. Or should be.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Voter ID Causes Confusion to Election Day

Voter ID causes confusion to Election Day

A handful of Bucks County voters claimed they experienced confusion at the polls when they — or others — refused to show photo identification. Some alleged it was a form of subtle voter intimidation.Pennsylvania voters were not required to show valid photo identification Tuesday. However, election workers were told to ask for identification at the polls, according to the state secretary of the commonwealth. To spot-check how workers were asking for ID, Carol Aichele visited polling places in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including districts in Doylestown and Blue Bell.
Bucks County Democratic Party Chairman John Cordisco confirmed his office received many complaints early Tuesday involving the voter ID law, but they had subsided by late morning.
“I think most, most of that has been resolved, but early on it was problematic,” Cordisco added. “You want to believe this wasn’t done intentionally.”
Philadelphia’s Committee of Seventy had a team leader following up on complaints in Bucks County, but that person was not immediately available for comment.
Bucks County spokesman Chris Edwards confirmed the county was aware of a complaint involving a Yardley constable who greeted morning voters at a polling place wearing his uniform and badge and displaying a flier with voter ID information that some said made it appear as if ID was required.
A voter protection attorney was summoned and the constable was told it was illegal in Pennsylvania for him to be in uniform inside the polls.
Throughout the day, election protection attorneys investigated complaints of alleged voter intimidation involving identification requests, according to multiple sources. One of the attorneys in Bristol Township said she worked for the Obama campaign.
Both parties also had poll watchers monitoring precincts and reporting problems.
Some Bucks County residents, though, contended that some election workers were misinforming voters about the law.
While waiting in line to vote at his polling place on Second Street Pike shortly after 7 a.m., Northampton resident Howard Katz said that a GOP poll worker announced to the waiting crowd that they should get out their photo identification.
Katz said that he told the worker he was not going to show his identification since it was not required for this election. In the end, Katz said no one asked him for identification before he voted, though he did report the exchange to an Obama poll watcher.
“I’d call this borderline intimidation,” Katz added. “It was very, very wrong.”
In other places voters were confused by the request for identification. Complicating matters, photo identification is required under federal law for some voters, including first-time voters at a particular district, officials said.
“We’ve had a lot of people come in and say they don’t want to show ID or they refused to show ID,” said Hannie Banister, Judge of Elections in Tinicum. “So we’ve simply done what we’re supposed to do and give them the literature that shows them that it may become a requirement for the next election. But there are people who have very strong feelings about it,” Banister added.
In Montgomery Township, officials said the only hold-up resulted from those who refused to show ID and wanted to discuss the matter.
“It is people who are standing on principle that are slowing down the process significantly today when we already have lines.” said Richard Bense, election judge in Montgomery Township.
“We have had some voters with very strong opinions on the issue who have delivered that opinion in a confrontational tone,” said Bense. “They tell us, ‘I don’t have to show it and I won’t.’ “
“We had a couple people grumble but only one person gave us any real flak,” according to Horsham Judge of Elections T. Wayne Lankford.
Ironically, when the clerk checked his name in the registration book, there was a direction to ask the voter for identification because he had not voted in some time, said Lankford.
The man subsequently produced photo identification, Lankford added.
Signs were posted on doors to polls in various North Penn communities that read, “ID Not Required to Vote Today.” These signs included a disclaimer that they were paid for by the Lansdale Democratic Committee.
Bucks Elections Director Deena Dean said the long lines reported at many polling places were common for most presidential elections and not the result of voter ID.
“I don’t agree with the suggestion that the lines are longer because of the voter ID,” said Dean. “Every presidential election there’s a line. There’s always a bottleneck at the table. There are a number of steps that must take place and voter ID is just one of them.”
Greg Marchand of Doylestown disagreed. Marchand said he was allowed to vote at his borough hall Tuesday only after “pleading” with a poll worker there.
The 23-year-old college student said the election worker began to question him after he voluntarily showed his driver’s license, which included a Philadelphia address.
Marchand said he briefly lived in Philadelphia while attending college there but has since moved back to Doylestown.
“It really felt like they were accusing me of voter fraud,” he said. “After essentially pleading with this woman, she let me vote, and the whole time the line behind me was getting longer.”
After she and her husband refused to show their identification at their polling place at the Lower Makefield Township Building, Susan Fiordeliso said that an election official wrote down their names on a separate piece of paper.
The woman said that no voters before – or after them — who showed their identification had their names written down.
At the entrance to the Anchor Run Church polling place in Wrightstown, someone set up two large signs that read, “Please have your Photo ID Ready.” The signs were discovered when the polls opened. Neither party took responsibility for the signs; Cordisco said that he ordered them removed.
At the Morrisville library, resident Dorothy Murphy claimed that an election worker was demanding people show identification when she was in line to vote around 7:30 a.m.
Murphy said she witnessed the election worker tell a black woman that she had to show her identification. She said the woman produced ID, though she told the election worker it was her understanding it was not required.
The election worker then told the woman that her identification was “expired,” Murphy said, adding the woman insisted that the ID was not required and she was allowed to vote.
When it was her turn to vote, Murphy said the same election worker demanded that she produce identification, telling her it’s the law. Murphy said she told the woman the law doesn’t take effect until next year.
Murphy also was allowed to vote, she said, adding she reported the incident to the election protection hotline and to Democratic headquarters.
“It’s how they’re presenting it,” she said. “It’s very slick what they’re doing.”