Sorry, I couldn't make the Board meeting last night. I'm curious how the vote went on releasing the remaining Tech School funds that the Hellmann Board put in escrow.
Like this and other occasions of the Hellmann Board's "Operation No Pay", I thought it was a embarrassing and ridiculous exercise based on false pretense. I hope this brings yet another sad chapter of Hellmann Board excess and recklessness to a close.
you can't change the minds of some who think it's just fine to withhold payment for services rendered two years before. But then again they would have to admit the made a bone head move in the first place.
the dark times of the Empire are coming to an end the light of day shines on their destruction and their plans for the future. There is much to do to rebuild and it will not be without pain, but it will take that to return balance to the Force.
With new rules, Pa. charter school performance plummets
Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: Friday, January 25, 2013, 3:01 AM
The percentage of Pennsylvania charter schools that met academic benchmarks plummeted after the state Department of Education was forced to recalculate the performance rates.
Under a new and controversial method the department used last fall, 49 percent of 156 charter schools met benchmarks based on student tests scores in 2011-12.
The rate dropped to 28 percent after the department released a recalculation this week. In Philadelphia, the percentage of the 80 charter schools that met the standards declined from 54 percent to 29 percent.
None of the 12 cyber charter schools that provide online in-home instruction to students statewide met the benchmarks. Previously, one met the standard.
The state sets the benchmarks to determine if a school has made "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Fifty percent of district-run schools across the state met the criteria.
The academic performance of charter schools is a central component in the debate over education funding, which pits school districts against publicly funded charters.
After the Education Department released its first results last September, the Pennsylvania Association of School Boards said it was concerned that the new calculation was an "attempt to artificially inflate the number of charter schools regarded as making AYP."
The association, which represents districts across the state, said the results "served to mask deficiencies in charter schools and deny families the information necessary to make informed choices, misleading them about the charter schools they are considering choosing or that they already attend."
Steve Robinson, a spokesman for the association, said Thursday that recalculated numbers indicate that overall, school districts outperform charters - something the association believes legislators should take into account when looking at school funding.
Lawrence Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, pointed out that even though the recalculation meant that fewer Philadelphia charters met AYP, 29 percent was still better than the 13 percent for Philadelphia's district-run schools.
"We are sad to see the reduction in the number of charter schools" meeting the state standards, he said, "but in Philadelphia, especially, it shows we are viable education reform."
In September, the state calculated the academic performances of individual charter schools on the basis that they were local education agencies - the same measurement it applies to school districts.
The state had asked the U.S. Department of Education for permission to use the local agency method - which has broader, less-stringent criteria - for charter schools.
Even though the federal government had not authorized the change, the state went ahead. The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools trumpeted the success and said charters were outperforming district-run schools, especially in cities.
Noting that the federal government had not authorized the change, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association complained to the U.S. department in October.
The U.S. department agreed with the school boards' objection and ordered the state to recalculate charters' performance as individual schools, which are required to meet specific academic targets.
Timothy Eller, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said Thursday that the federal government had said that if the state wanted to assess charters as local agencies, it also had to assess them as individual schools.
"So now, like traditional public schools and districts, charter schools will receive an AYP status as a district and as a school," Eller said.
Jones, of the charter coalition, said showing results from both methods gives families more information about charter schools' performance.
"We understand that having both views may cause some confusion, but we do think it is a more equitable way of looking at things," said Jones, who is also the chief executive of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Southwest Philadelphia.
He said the numbers also indicate that charter schools and district-run schools "all have a lot of work to do."
Nice try, Corbett & Tomalis admin to help charters look better than they are. Keep working hard on those vouchers and privatizing everything you can, even if it means overseas outsourcing.
Tom C. has got to go. He is cutting funding to our schools (which is forcing cuts or higher taxes) and then making exceptions for the Charter schools which are taking funds from our schools.
Litigation is not discussed in public, but whenever we do have to pay for this mistake of Hellman, Mihok, Radosti and whoever else went along with it, rest assured it'll do wonders for education. NOT!
The 1st 3 already got booted off the board, the bottom 3 are up for reelection this year. What is their campaign slogan going to be: I'm sorry baby I swear I won't do you like that again lemme have just one more chance oh come on baby please....????????
Thank you to the Bucks County Technical School for showing mercy on us as a district and a community and not demanding interest, punitive damages, and legal costs to boot.
Tech's leadership must have realized this lunacy was the boneheaded action of a small cabal of misguided Morrisville School Board members, several of whom have already been shown the door by the electorate.
Make the people they put in place to run the district pay for their Stupidity. Wave good bye to Ferrara, DeAngelo, Harm, Wandling, and the Queen B (Mrs.B) your services are no longer required. It about education not personal gain and political asperations.
Make the people they put in place to run the district pay for their Stupidity. Wave good bye to Ferrara, DeAngelo, Harm, Wandling, and the Queen B (Mrs.B) your services are no longer required. It about education not personal gain and political asperations.
Mihok, Worob, Stout, and Buckman are seeing people who are smarter, more capable, and can get along with other people accomplish things without lying, grandstanding, and denigrating those who disagree with them. They look smaller and smaller every day.
PDE Denies Eight Cyber Charter Applications More Info
January 29, 2013
Yesterday Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis denied all eight cyber charter school applications for the 2013-14 school year, citing significant deficiencies in curriculum, finance and overall operations.
“The proposals submitted by the applicants lack adequate evidence and sufficient information of how prospective students would be offered quality academic programs,” Tomalis said in a news statement. “In addition, the financial plans presented call into question each applicant’s ability to maintain a long-term, viable educational program for the benefit of Pennsylvania students.”
As required by the Charter School Law, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is responsible for oversight of cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania, including the granting and revocation of a charter. Last fall, PDE began the formal consideration process of the eight applications.
In a letter to the department dated November 2012, PSBA urged PDE to apply rigorous standards in the review of the cyber charter school applications, especially in light of the historically poor academic performance of the 12 existing cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania. PSBA objected to the approval of the eight new applications, and emphasized the importance of the need for PDE to conduct the proper due diligence as the sole cyber charter authorizer when reviewing applications. The association supports quality schools, and believes that parents, students and local property taxpayers deserve a high level of scrutiny as PDE considers approving cyber charter schools or the renewing of their charter agreements.
Based on a thorough review of the applications and the information obtained during the hearings, Tomalis denied the applications and noted the following deficiencies in each proposal:
Akoben Cyber Charter School, Philadelphia County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, special education, technology, and comprehensive planning and school improvement.
Insight PA Cyber Charter School, Delaware County: sustainable support, governance, application requirements, use of physical school facilities, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher development, finance, special education, technology, individualized learning plan, and comprehensive planning and adequate yearly progress.
MB Resiliency Cyber Charter School, Philadelphia County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development, teacher induction, special education, technology and comprehensive planning.
Mercury Online Cyber Charter School, Dauphin County: application requirements, sustainable support, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, special education, technology, and comprehensive planning and school improvement.
Pennsylvania Career Path Cyber Charter School, Lehigh County: application requirements, governance, sustainable support, use of physical facilities, Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, finance, special education, technology, assessment, and planning and school improvement.
PHASE 4 America Cyber Charter School, Allegheny County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional Development, teacher induction, special education, technology and comprehensive planning.
Urban Cyber Charter School, York County: application requirements, governance, use of physical school facilities, Family Educational Rights and Privacy, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, finance, special education, technology, and planning and school improvement.
V3 Cyber Charter School, Dauphin County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, model for other public school, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, special education, technology, student assessment, and comprehensive planning and school improvement.
An additional factor in the denials is that many of the applicants proposed to use learning centers in a way that blurred the line between a brick-and-mortar and cyber charter school. Tomalis noted that a fundamental difference exists between brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools and learning centers are not to be used as an alternative to the brick-and-mortar model.
Each applicant has the option to address the deficiencies and resubmit the application to the department for reconsideration or appeal the decision to the State Charter Appeal Board. Each denial letter can be accessed by visiting www.education.state.pa.us and clicking on the “2013-14 Cyber Charter School Decisions” graphic
I am going to enroll my kids in the Bill Hellman Cyber School. Its main office is M.R. Reiter, with its Annex at Manor Park. Don Harm will be the director, a new title for this versitile man. He may even show up once and a while if he gets a salary increase.
Only a card carrying union supported employee of the Morrisville School District could possibly know about these buildings and people? They spelled the word versatile wrong to throw everybody off the trail? Clever. Obviously an English Teacher.
At the Hellman Cyber School we will have spell check on our computers and never spell any words incorrectly. Education at its best. I also hear we will have Madden 13 and Wei for our sports programs. And downloaded music for our band and chorus instead of real bodies playing real music. Sounds like a good plan to me.
Someone is convinced that at least one anonymous commenter on here is a teacher represented by the Morrisville Education Association (MEA), the name of the district's teacher's union.
They're convinced that this person or persons is hell-bent on seeing certain school officials get the boot.
They're convinced this person or persons has one sole motivation: to protect teacher jobs by stirring up trouble and rumors.
They're convinced that only a teacher represented by the MEA could possibly know inside intimate details about certain school officials and actions.
They have been expressing this belief on this blog by sprinking in posts like "hi MEA hack" on several threads.
Did I get that right, person who believes this?
By the way, this is really exciting, and reminds me of the 1953 film Stalag 17, the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor.
But where is the hollow chess piece? and I don't see any knots in the light bulb wire. How can I know when there's a message drop?
I'm sure there are plenty of MEA folks who visit. I'm sure plenty of SOCers visit too. Why is this any kind of intrigue? This is an open forum, correct? and this forum really has no genuine impact on what happens. If it did, the SOC folks would have been tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail long ago, and all of the town's problems would have been solved. There's be puppies and rainbows for everyone!
I think some perspective is in order for the paranoid poster and any others currently donning their tin-foil headgear.
Whasn't that made into a TV show called Hellman's Heroes, I mean Hogans Heroes.
Hogan Played by Bill Hellman Colonel Klink Played by Bill Ferrara Leabeau Played by Paul DeAngelo Kinch Played by Don Harm Frauelin Helga played by Ms. B
Seargent Shultz played by The Morrisville Community (I hear Nothing, I see Nothing)
This is not the MEA hack, but if you think it might be bring in Major Hockstetter to investigate !
Groundhog Day 2013: 'Punxsutawney Phil' Predicts Early Spring Feb. 2, 2013
An early spring is on the way, according to groundhog "Punxsutawney Phil."
When the Pennsylvania groundhog emerged from his dwelling at Gobbler's Knob Saturday morning, he did not see his shadow.
"And so ye faithful, there is no shadow to see, an early Spring for you and me," proclaimed Bob Roberts, one of Phil's handlers.
According to folklore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow and see its shadow, then six more weeks of winter weather is on the way.
But if it comes out and sees no shadow, spring is expected to come early.
Punxsutawney, the Pennsylvania town that is home to one of the most famous weather-predicting groundhogs, Punxsutawney Phil, has been carrying on the tradition of Groundhog Day since the 1800s, according to The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.
Ever since the tradition began in 1887, Phil (and his ancestors) saw their shadows 99 times, while predicting an early spring only 16 times. There was no record for nine of the years.
Other groundhogs like New York's "Staten Island Chuck," and Atlanta's "General Beauregard Lee" are also expected to make a prediction.
It's pretty clear who the real deadbeats, liars and hacks are. The new school board members are doing a great job under the circumstances. I'm a parent who's proud of them and glad they are there. The Hellman board was a nightmare. They thought they knew best, didn't listen and treated people like dirt. Their dirty tricks and short sighted penny foolish reign took us to a bad place. Good riddance to them. If you've got Mihok and Worob as key spokespeople, you're in a world of shite.
On a local and national level I hope what we are watching is the slide into obsolesence of the angry demographic that thinks they own the country and can't comprehend that they don't anymore and don't understand why their asinine policies and rhetoric turn people off. Enjoy marginalization in the wilderness, you've earned and deserve it, but I emplore you to refrain from your natural tendency to get even angrier and escalate to more desperate antics.
Cops: Bristol man threatened school employee who asked for ID
Edwin Landman, 35, of Garfield Street, was arraigned by Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau Sr. on misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
Posted: Saturday, February 2, 2013 5:30 am | Updated: 6:14 am, Sat Feb 2, 2013.
By Jo Ciavaglia and Danny Adler Staff writers
Posted on February 2, 2013
by Jo Ciavaglia
A Bristol man was sent to Bucks County prison Friday morning after allegedly threatening to “blow away” an employee at his daughter’s elementary school when he was asked to show identification earlier in the week, police said.
Edwin Landman, 35, of Garfield Street, was arraigned by Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau Sr. on misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct. Landman was sent to county prison in lieu of 10 percent of $40,000 bail.
Police say that Landman went to Warren Snyder-John Girotti Elementary School on Beaver Street shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday to pick up his daughter. He became irate when a school employee asked him for his identification before allowing him in the building, according to a probable cause affidavit.
After he produced his driver’s license, Landman was allowed inside the school.
“Now that I am in, I can blow you away,” he told the employee who demanded his ID, police said.
Landman then became angry and began cursing again after the employee asked him to sign the student sign-out sheet, according to the affidavit.
“We’re not going to allow parents to dictate policy,” Bristol police Acting Sgt. Peter Faight said following the arraignment. “The school policy is there to protect the kids.”
As a condition of bail, Landman can have no contact with the employee and must stay 100 yards away from the school.
Charges were not filed until Friday because the arresting officer was off, authorities said.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Bristol Borough School District’s top administrator for comment.
A West Philadelphia school made national headlines last month when a woman was able to kidnap a 5-year-old girl by posing as her mother on Jan. 14. A passerby found the girl early the next morning shivering on a playground about a mile away. Police are still investigating that case and have no suspects in custody.
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer | Posted: Sunday, February 3, 2013 12:00 am
The Authority of Morrisville is fighting allegations that it wrongfully increased wastewater rates on two mobile home communities.
Borough solicitor James Downey III submitted the authority’s response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Pennwood Management lawyer Daniel Schranghamer against the authority and its head administrator, John Warenda.
The authority states that because of Pennwood Management's carelessness and negligence of its waste water system, the utility has had to spend $693,382 to fix damage caused by toxic chemicals getting into the authority's pipes leading to its treatment plant.
Pennwood Management operates Pennwood Crossing and Penn Place mobile home parks, both located on Old Bristol Pike in Falls, and the lawsuit involves both communities.
Pennwood contends that the local waste water treatment agency is abusing its discretion of its rate structure by charging Pennwood Crossing and Penn Place mobile home parks surcharges that are not charged to other customers.
The borough’s reply states that some of Pennwood Management's claims are “silly” and “nonsensical.”
The authority argues that rate increases had to deal with the removal of “extraordinarily high levels of destructive” hydrogen sulphide, a colorless gas that is toxic and highly flammable.
H2S is a product of the bacterial breakdown of organic matter. The gas, distinctively known for a smell similar to rotten eggs, is commonly found in swamps and sewers.
“The purpose of the surcharge was, and is, intended to impose the additional costs associated with the destructive and costly effects of H2S on any customer that refuses to ameliorate the discharge of same into the system operated by the authority,” according to the authority's response.
The response explains that the surcharge is “customer-neutral” and only the properties managed by Pennwood Management “were dumping excessive concentrations” of the H2S into the Morrisville waste water collection system.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Schranghamer, Pennwood's attorney, for comment Friday.
The borough’s counterclaim includes a series of communications from emails and official letters informing Pennwood Management of the increase.
“Establishment of a surcharge -- as in this case -- is a common and appropriate method for addressing the effects and additional cost of treating destructive and toxic chemical constituents being discharged into wastewater destined for treatment as sanitary sewage,” the response states.
It continues to explain that the surcharge was established by the board of directors of the municipal authority on the recommendation of its management and professional staff, “with advice from its independent solicitor and independent engineers, all of whom participated in a careful analysis and evaluation of months of physical sampling and testing of the waste material and constituents being dumped into the wastewater collection system of the authority by Pennwood Crossing and Penn Place.”
It’s stated in the counterclaim that Pennwood Management “failed and refused to upgrade its wastewater system and process in its wastewater system” and the agency repeatedly made the request for the management company to do so.
The requested upgrades were “related to the factual and scientific information that (Pennwood Management’s) wastewater system allowed the wastewater to accumulate and remain stagnant in the transmission pipe; thus, causing the wastewater to become stagnant and destructive to the piping of the system, which system was part and parcel of the Morrisville Municipal Authority.”
The pipes were found to be so corroded that it was necessary to replace them. To date, the authority said it has spent $692,382.
Saw this online earlier this morning. Marlys just can't help herself.
"In case you didn't know ...
Posted: Sunday, February 3, 2013 6:00 am
Disguised as the "Educational Committee Meeting," the Morrisville Matters school board majority has been discussing the future of education in the Morrisville Borough School District. Less than a handful of parents attended the January committee meeting to learn that most likely in school year 2014/2015 the Morrisville School District will operate a half-day kindergarten through 8th grade school system only and "tuition out" our 9th through 12th grade students to surrounding school districts.
In early 2014, parents will probably be asked to select which school district they prefer their student attend. Your choice will all be at a significant savings to our taxpayers. The following prices all include transportation costs. Bensalem School District $12,419, Bristol Township School District $14,429, Neshaminy School District $14,494, Pennsbury School District $13,210, Council Rock School District $12,465.
The cost to send a student to the Bucks County Technical High School without transportation, which has not met the Pennsylvania Department of Education annual yearly progress standards in five or more years, is generally more than the other sending districts for Morrisville.
The cost of educating just one student in the Morrisville School District without any transportation cost is currently $18,902. Just thought you might like to know."
How does she know that these things will 'most likely' or 'probably' happen? Answer: she doesn't. With her track record, I think the burden of proof should be on her to prove that she isn't lying.
FairAndBalanced posted at 8:33 am on Sun, Feb 3, 2013.
Posts: 101
Marlys, thanks for letting us all know about... your fantasy.
I saw this and called school board members in 2 of the districts, Council Rock and Neshaminy. It is just not true! Neither school district has made any such arrangements.
I'll go even further. No such arrangements have been made with any of the school districts she mentions, or any other school districts she doesn't mention.
Normal reasonable people understand that these per pupil costs can fluctuate quite a bit in a small district when the number of pupils fluctuates. Secondary enrollment also declined from the high 400's when these folks took office to the high 300's by the time they were defeated for re-election. Dividing a relatively flat amount of dollars into a lower number of pupils yields a higher $/pupil figure.
Elementary per pupil costs went down from $15,021 in 2008-09 to $10,034 for 2011-12 because elementary enrollment has significantly increased during the same time period.
Hey be charitable those aren't lies. The first one is a terribly wrong prediction. The second one is a phony broken promise. The third one is the God's Honest Truth. Marlys I am truly sorry you're a broken person who I imagine somebody that should have loved you didn't, but get some freakin help for yourself and stop taking your bitterness and evil misery out on the rest of the world. Grow up, your act wore thin about 4 to 6 decades ago.
MM mAjority on the education committee...let's see Dingle came in as independent, miller was a previous MM candidate who won an election, she lost, and unless she scared away Buckman im pretty sure he is part of SOT/SOC. There have been so many sickening things coming from her lately I'm thinking she needs to be banned from school ground. sheis the next six o'clock news exclusive report.
she is sickening and deserves much more scorn than she gets. Many decent, peaceful people who revile her go out of their way to avoid her than suffer the God awful feeling of her presence, even before she opens her foul mouth and starts lying. Others appease her in a futile attempt for damage control. This is her fuel for taxpayer subsidized living.
Focus people. We really need to worry more about a fictitious MEA Hack with no inside information on a blog than a 30+ year campaign of depravity right in front of our eyes.
Question to the handful of parents who attended the January committee meeting:
Is this statement taken from letter a few posts above accurate? "Less than a handful of parents attended the January committee meeting to learn that most likely in school year 2014/2015 the Morrisville School District will operate a half-day kindergarten through 8th grade school system only and "tuition out" our 9th through 12th grade students to surrounding school districts."
Just wondering what "most likely" means.
Many of us have children who will be directly impacted by such changes and really need to know what is going on and not everyone can attend meetings. Perhaps Education Committee could provide some accurate info as to what is being discussed on SB website.
Letter writer appears to be getting info from someone/somewhere and we all know education is not her concern just the bottom dollar. Based on numbers in letter, if accurate, tutioning out does appear to best (cheapest) solution short term, but Morrisville needs to plan long term maybe more students going to tech, AP, raising taxes, etc.
In the meantime, can someone on the Education Committee let us know what high school our children "most likely" will be attending in 2014?
I'll give it a shot, but the bottom line is "most likely" is a dishonest concoction of Mihok's mind. She has an extremely loose affiliation with honesty and truth.
Many options are on the table. Tuitoning out is just one of them. It's in the very early stages of evaluation. There is a large amount of research that needs to be done. No arrangements have been made with any districts. As far as I know, no other districts have even been contacted about this.
The devil is in the details. What will a tuition out contract look like? How can it provide assurances that students and parents won't be left holding the bag if another bunch of Mihoks get on the school board and renege on yet another contract if they decide they don't like it?
This is far from being decided.
Superintendent Ferrara says PDE Secretary Ron Tomalis and our state Senator Chuck McIlhenney (R-10), called tuitioning out a "no brainer". Yet I don't see them sticking their necks out for it. By the way, as an aside, Chuck McIlhenney, whose yard signs Steve Worob plants on his lawn every time McIlhenney is up for re-election, is the last of our local legislators still in office who voted for the abominable PSERS pension regulations that's pinching the hell out of taxpayers.
The only example of tuitioning out cited by Superintendent Ferrara (probably because Tomalis and McIlhenney cited it to him) is the Duquesne School District outside Pittsburgh. Duquesne is a financially distressed district (like Chester-Upland in our area) that is already under a State PDE appointed Board of Control (i.e. local School Board either liquidated or essentially relegated to bystander status), and that there is already legislation in place that allows the PDE to designate (i.e. force) other districts to accept their students on a tuition basis. Dusquesne tuitions out not only its High School students, but also its 7th and 8th graders.
Check out this earlier thread for more info. Does all this sound like it's "most likely" to happen?
I do believe Board President Miller gave a recap of what the education committee was doing at one of the Board meeting and how everything is the first look stage or something like I'm sure you can find it online at the district website.
Good point. Yes he did. In fact, I recommend that anyone who has questions about this committee to contact him. Come to a committee meeting too. Then you and Marlys can sit through the same meeting, and you can decide for yourself how truthful she is when she makes allegations in the newspapers. I can only tell you what I know from attending many meetings, and that is that there have been many occasions where she has been less than truthful. This is just one of them.
Centennial School District solicitor sued by alternative school
By Manasee Wagh Staff writer February 4, 2013 by Manasee Wagh
Delaware Valley High School in Warminster has filed a pair of lawsuits, accusing the Centennial School District of breach of contract and Centennial's solicitor of conflict of interest.
The suit against Centennial claims the district breached its contract by failing to pay DVHS more than $1 million in tuition for district students who attended the alternative high school for at-risk students.
The suit against attorney Michael Levin claims the attorney helped create the tuition contract for DVHS and now is the attorney for the Centennial School District. In addition to conflict of interest, the suit against Levin makes claims of professional negligence, interfering with contractual relations and breach of contract.
"(Levin) has a very serious conflict of interest, since he helped DVHS write the very contract that he is now attacking on behalf of Centennial," said David Shulick, president of and lawyer for the DVHS Management Corp., the school's parent company.
Levin said he wasn't involved in drawing up the contract between DVHS and Centennial.
"His (Shulick's) statements that I did are false and, in my opinion, defamatory and for purposes of (interfering) with my contractual relations with my clients," Levin said.
When asked about the allegation, Centennial Superintendent Jennifer Cressman deferred to Levin's statement that he wasn't involved. She also said the district doesn't discuss pending litigation.
DVHS wants Levin to withdraw from his Centennial job or be disqualified by the court as Centennial's attorney in the tuition lawsuit, according to paperwork the school filed in August. Both suits were filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in June 2011, but the Centennial case has since been moved to Bucks County Court.
Levin was an attorney for Centennial prior to the DVHS lawsuit against the district, according to Centennial officials. He has handled special-education cases for the past several years, and became involved with the DVHS contract in summer 2011, Centennial school board President Andrew Pollock said.
"As far as I can tell, I don't believe there was a conflict of interest. Mike’s a very good attorney, and they don’t want to deal with him because he’s too good and he knows school law too well," Pollock said.
Shulick countered by saying Levin has been obstructing resolution of the tuition dispute between the district and the alternative school. Then-solicitor Jeffrey Garton and DVHS were poised to resolve their dispute in May 2010, according to Shulick, who said Levin has blocked any resolution since taking over for Garton.
"Before I left, we were having discussions," Garton said. "Shulick made an offer to settle on the issues, but the school board did not accept it."
The lawsuit against the school district seeks $1.2 million in back tuition payments, plus interest and other damages.
Centennial's five-year contract, which was approved by the Centennial school board in 2008, stipulates that the district pay DVHS for 40 student seats per year. The district terminated its contract with the alternative school after school year 2010-11, but DVHS says it is still owed money.
Pollock has said the DVHS contract language allows the district to send a maximum of 40 students to the school, but doesn't require that it pay for 40 students if it sends fewer.
The per-seat charge for 2008-09 was $8,750, with an additional $1,680 fee for a special education student, the lawsuit states.
In the first two years of the contract, Centennial paid for 40 seats, even though it sent fewer students, according to both the district and the alternative school. Thirty-four attended in 2008-09 and 26 went in 2009-10.
68 comments:
Sorry, I couldn't make the Board meeting last night. I'm curious how the vote went on releasing the remaining Tech School funds that the Hellmann Board put in escrow.
Like this and other occasions of the Hellmann Board's "Operation No Pay", I thought it was a embarrassing and ridiculous exercise based on false pretense. I hope this brings yet another sad chapter of Hellmann Board excess and recklessness to a close.
payment ok'd
added to bills paid
I hold this truth to be self-evident (to some people, but apparently not others):
Don't do something like not honoring legal contracts and agreements when you don't have the facts or the law to back it up.
you can't change the minds of some who think it's just fine to withhold payment for services rendered two years before. But then again they would have to admit the made a bone head move in the first place.
the dark times of the Empire are coming to an end the light of day shines on their destruction and their plans for the future. There is much to do to rebuild and it will not be without pain, but it will take that to return balance to the Force.
Look for the Jedi
they are among us
...
With new rules, Pa. charter school performance plummets
Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: Friday, January 25, 2013, 3:01 AM
The percentage of Pennsylvania charter schools that met academic benchmarks plummeted after the state Department of Education was forced to recalculate the performance rates.
Under a new and controversial method the department used last fall, 49 percent of 156 charter schools met benchmarks based on student tests scores in 2011-12.
The rate dropped to 28 percent after the department released a recalculation this week. In Philadelphia, the percentage of the 80 charter schools that met the standards declined from 54 percent to 29 percent.
None of the 12 cyber charter schools that provide online in-home instruction to students statewide met the benchmarks. Previously, one met the standard.
The state sets the benchmarks to determine if a school has made "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Fifty percent of district-run schools across the state met the criteria.
The academic performance of charter schools is a central component in the debate over education funding, which pits school districts against publicly funded charters.
After the Education Department released its first results last September, the Pennsylvania Association of School Boards said it was concerned that the new calculation was an "attempt to artificially inflate the number of charter schools regarded as making AYP."
The association, which represents districts across the state, said the results "served to mask deficiencies in charter schools and deny families the information necessary to make informed choices, misleading them about the charter schools they are considering choosing or that they already attend."
Steve Robinson, a spokesman for the association, said Thursday that recalculated numbers indicate that overall, school districts outperform charters - something the association believes legislators should take into account when looking at school funding.
Lawrence Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, pointed out that even though the recalculation meant that fewer Philadelphia charters met AYP, 29 percent was still better than the 13 percent for Philadelphia's district-run schools.
"We are sad to see the reduction in the number of charter schools" meeting the state standards, he said, "but in Philadelphia, especially, it shows we are viable education reform."
In September, the state calculated the academic performances of individual charter schools on the basis that they were local education agencies - the same measurement it applies to school districts.
The state had asked the U.S. Department of Education for permission to use the local agency method - which has broader, less-stringent criteria - for charter schools.
Even though the federal government had not authorized the change, the state went ahead. The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools trumpeted the success and said charters were outperforming district-run schools, especially in cities.
Noting that the federal government had not authorized the change, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association complained to the U.S. department in October.
The U.S. department agreed with the school boards' objection and ordered the state to recalculate charters' performance as individual schools, which are required to meet specific academic targets.
PART 2 of 2
Timothy Eller, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said Thursday that the federal government had said that if the state wanted to assess charters as local agencies, it also had to assess them as individual schools.
"So now, like traditional public schools and districts, charter schools will receive an AYP status as a district and as a school," Eller said.
Jones, of the charter coalition, said showing results from both methods gives families more information about charter schools' performance.
"We understand that having both views may cause some confusion, but we do think it is a more equitable way of looking at things," said Jones, who is also the chief executive of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Southwest Philadelphia.
He said the numbers also indicate that charter schools and district-run schools "all have a lot of work to do."
Nice try, Corbett & Tomalis admin to help charters look better than they are. Keep working hard on those vouchers and privatizing everything you can, even if it means overseas outsourcing.
Tom C. has got to go. He is cutting funding to our schools (which is forcing cuts or higher taxes) and then making exceptions for the Charter schools which are taking funds from our schools.
Corbett, Fitz, Hellman, DeWilde, DeAngelo, Ferrara...
Education not a priority.
Education = An entitlement that needs to be cut.
"Don't do something like not honoring legal contracts and agreements when you don't have the facts or the law to back it up."
When are we going to have to flush the money for the Bucks Co Head Start Manor Park fiasco, perpetrated by Hellman, Mihok and cohorts?
Litigation is not discussed in public, but whenever we do have to pay for this mistake of Hellman, Mihok, Radosti and whoever else went along with it, rest assured it'll do wonders for education. NOT!
F.Y.I. in case readers don't know the background.
http://mvbulldogbanter.blogspot.com/2012/03/bucks-county-head-starts-sues.html
Yep. Unfortunately, some excrement and a fan seem to be headed for a meeting. Below is a link to more background.
Suppliers of the yes votes to terminate the Manor Park lease:
Bill Hellmann (C.P.A.)
Marlys Mihok
Al Radosti
Jack Buckman
Ron Stout
John DeWilde
http://mvbulldogbanter.blogspot.com/2012/08/whine-and-cheese-you-brought-this-on.html
The 1st 3 already got booted off the board, the bottom 3 are up for reelection this year.
What is their campaign slogan going to be: I'm sorry baby I swear I won't do you like that again lemme have just one more chance oh come on baby please....????????
Thank you to the Bucks County Technical School for showing mercy on us as a district and a community and not demanding interest, punitive damages, and legal costs to boot.
Tech's leadership must have realized this lunacy was the boneheaded action of a small cabal of misguided Morrisville School Board members, several of whom have already been shown the door by the electorate.
Make the people they put in place to run the district pay for their Stupidity. Wave good bye to Ferrara, DeAngelo, Harm, Wandling, and the Queen B (Mrs.B) your services are no longer required. It about education not personal gain and political asperations.
Make the people they put in place to run the district pay for their Stupidity. Wave good bye to Ferrara, DeAngelo, Harm, Wandling, and the Queen B (Mrs.B) your services are no longer required. It about education not personal gain and political asperations.
You can say that again!
Ballpark estimate of how much we paid Profy's firm defending this Tech School lawsuit?
Mihok, Worob, Stout, and Buckman are seeing people who are smarter, more capable, and can get along with other people accomplish things without lying, grandstanding, and denigrating those who disagree with them. They look smaller and smaller every day.
PDE Denies Eight Cyber Charter Applications More Info
January 29, 2013
Yesterday Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis denied all eight cyber charter school applications for the 2013-14 school year, citing significant deficiencies in curriculum, finance and overall operations.
“The proposals submitted by the applicants lack adequate evidence and sufficient information of how prospective students would be offered quality academic programs,” Tomalis said in a news statement. “In addition, the financial plans presented call into question each applicant’s ability to maintain a long-term, viable educational program for the benefit of Pennsylvania students.”
As required by the Charter School Law, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is responsible for oversight of cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania, including the granting and revocation of a charter. Last fall, PDE began the formal consideration process of the eight applications.
In a letter to the department dated November 2012, PSBA urged PDE to apply rigorous standards in the review of the cyber charter school applications, especially in light of the historically poor academic performance of the 12 existing cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania. PSBA objected to the approval of the eight new applications, and emphasized the importance of the need for PDE to conduct the proper due diligence as the sole cyber charter authorizer when reviewing applications. The association supports quality schools, and believes that parents, students and local property taxpayers deserve a high level of scrutiny as PDE considers approving cyber charter schools or the renewing of their charter agreements.
.Continued
Page two
Based on a thorough review of the applications and the information obtained during the hearings, Tomalis denied the applications and noted the following deficiencies in each proposal:
Akoben Cyber Charter School, Philadelphia County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, special education, technology, and comprehensive planning and school improvement.
Insight PA Cyber Charter School, Delaware County: sustainable support, governance, application requirements, use of physical school facilities, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher development, finance, special education, technology, individualized learning plan, and comprehensive planning and adequate yearly progress.
MB Resiliency Cyber Charter School, Philadelphia County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development, teacher induction, special education, technology and comprehensive planning.
Mercury Online Cyber Charter School, Dauphin County: application requirements, sustainable support, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, special education, technology, and comprehensive planning and school improvement.
Pennsylvania Career Path Cyber Charter School, Lehigh County: application requirements, governance, sustainable support, use of physical facilities, Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, finance, special education, technology, assessment, and planning and school improvement.
PHASE 4 America Cyber Charter School, Allegheny County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional Development, teacher induction, special education, technology and comprehensive planning.
Urban Cyber Charter School, York County: application requirements, governance, use of physical school facilities, Family Educational Rights and Privacy, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, finance, special education, technology, and planning and school improvement.
V3 Cyber Charter School, Dauphin County: application requirements, sustainable support, use of physical school facilities, governance, model for other public school, finance, curriculum, English as a Second Language, professional development and teacher induction, special education, technology, student assessment, and comprehensive planning and school improvement.
An additional factor in the denials is that many of the applicants proposed to use learning centers in a way that blurred the line between a brick-and-mortar and cyber charter school. Tomalis noted that a fundamental difference exists between brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools and learning centers are not to be used as an alternative to the brick-and-mortar model.
Each applicant has the option to address the deficiencies and resubmit the application to the department for reconsideration or appeal the decision to the State Charter Appeal Board.
Each denial letter can be accessed by visiting www.education.state.pa.us and clicking on the “2013-14 Cyber Charter School Decisions” graphic
I am going to enroll my kids in the Bill Hellman Cyber School. Its main office is M.R. Reiter, with its Annex at Manor Park. Don Harm will be the director, a new title for this versitile man. He may even show up once and a while if he gets a salary increase.
hi MEA hack
Only a card carrying union supported employee of the Morrisville School District could possibly know about these buildings and people? They spelled the word versatile wrong to throw everybody off the trail? Clever. Obviously an English Teacher.
At the Hellman Cyber School we will have spell check on our computers and never spell any words incorrectly. Education at its best. I also hear we will have Madden 13 and Wei for our sports programs. And downloaded music for our band and chorus instead of real bodies playing real music. Sounds like a good plan to me.
Sounds like a 6 Point Plan that doesn't exist. In other words, great!
Make the School Board meetings 100% cyber too, just please make sure cups of chilled water are provided to all prevaricating gadflies who desire it.
I don't get hi mea hack?
Someone is convinced that at least one anonymous commenter on here is a teacher represented by the Morrisville Education Association (MEA), the name of the district's teacher's union.
They're convinced that this person or persons is hell-bent on seeing certain school officials get the boot.
They're convinced this person or persons has one sole motivation: to protect teacher jobs by stirring up trouble and rumors.
They're convinced that only a teacher represented by the MEA could possibly know inside intimate details about certain school officials and actions.
They have been expressing this belief on this blog by sprinking in posts like "hi MEA hack" on several threads.
Did I get that right, person who believes this?
By the way, this is really exciting, and reminds me of the 1953 film Stalag 17, the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor.
Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941 at dinnertime
... in Berlin!
But where is the hollow chess piece? and I don't see any knots in the light bulb wire. How can I know when there's a message drop?
I'm sure there are plenty of MEA folks who visit. I'm sure plenty of SOCers visit too. Why is this any kind of intrigue? This is an open forum, correct? and this forum really has no genuine impact on what happens. If it did, the SOC folks would have been tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail long ago, and all of the town's problems would have been solved. There's be puppies and rainbows for everyone!
I think some perspective is in order for the paranoid poster and any others currently donning their tin-foil headgear.
Whasn't that made into a TV show called Hellman's Heroes, I mean Hogans Heroes.
Hogan Played by Bill Hellman
Colonel Klink Played by Bill Ferrara
Leabeau Played by Paul DeAngelo
Kinch Played by Don Harm
Frauelin Helga played by Ms. B
Seargent Shultz played by The Morrisville Community (I hear Nothing, I see Nothing)
This is not the MEA hack, but if you think it might be bring in Major Hockstetter to investigate !
Hilarious! I love it!
SOC has some of the biggest hacks and hack hires of all time. It takes one clueless SOC hypocrite to not know their arse from a hole in the ground.
Groundhog Day 2013: 'Punxsutawney Phil' Predicts Early Spring
Feb. 2, 2013
An early spring is on the way, according to groundhog "Punxsutawney Phil."
When the Pennsylvania groundhog emerged from his dwelling at Gobbler's Knob Saturday morning, he did not see his shadow.
"And so ye faithful, there is no shadow to see, an early Spring for you and me," proclaimed Bob Roberts, one of Phil's handlers.
According to folklore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow and see its shadow, then six more weeks of winter weather is on the way.
But if it comes out and sees no shadow, spring is expected to come early.
Punxsutawney, the Pennsylvania town that is home to one of the most famous weather-predicting groundhogs, Punxsutawney Phil, has been carrying on the tradition of Groundhog Day since the 1800s, according to The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.
Ever since the tradition began in 1887, Phil (and his ancestors) saw their shadows 99 times, while predicting an early spring only 16 times. There was no record for nine of the years.
Other groundhogs like New York's "Staten Island Chuck," and Atlanta's "General Beauregard Lee" are also expected to make a prediction.
It's pretty clear who the real deadbeats, liars and hacks are. The new school board members are doing a great job under the circumstances. I'm a parent who's proud of them and glad they are there. The Hellman board was a nightmare. They thought they knew best, didn't listen and treated people like dirt. Their dirty tricks and short sighted penny foolish reign took us to a bad place. Good riddance to them. If you've got Mihok and Worob as key spokespeople, you're in a world of shite.
On a local and national level I hope what we are watching is the slide into obsolesence of the angry demographic that thinks they own the country and can't comprehend that they don't anymore and don't understand why their asinine policies and rhetoric turn people off. Enjoy marginalization in the wilderness, you've earned and deserve it, but I emplore you to refrain from your natural tendency to get even angrier and escalate to more desperate antics.
Cops: Bristol man threatened school employee who asked for ID
Edwin Landman, 35, of Garfield Street, was arraigned by Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau Sr. on misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
Posted: Saturday, February 2, 2013 5:30 am | Updated: 6:14 am, Sat Feb 2, 2013.
By Jo Ciavaglia and Danny Adler Staff writers
Posted on February 2, 2013
by Jo Ciavaglia
A Bristol man was sent to Bucks County prison Friday morning after allegedly threatening to “blow away” an employee at his daughter’s elementary school when he was asked to show identification earlier in the week, police said.
Edwin Landman, 35, of Garfield Street, was arraigned by Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau Sr. on misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct. Landman was sent to county prison in lieu of 10 percent of $40,000 bail.
Police say that Landman went to Warren Snyder-John Girotti Elementary School on Beaver Street shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday to pick up his daughter. He became irate when a school employee asked him for his identification before allowing him in the building, according to a probable cause affidavit.
After he produced his driver’s license, Landman was allowed inside the school.
“Now that I am in, I can blow you away,” he told the employee who demanded his ID, police said.
Landman then became angry and began cursing again after the employee asked him to sign the student sign-out sheet, according to the affidavit.
“We’re not going to allow parents to dictate policy,” Bristol police Acting Sgt. Peter Faight said following the arraignment. “The school policy is there to protect the kids.”
As a condition of bail, Landman can have no contact with the employee and must stay 100 yards away from the school.
Charges were not filed until Friday because the arresting officer was off, authorities said.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Bristol Borough School District’s top administrator for comment.
A West Philadelphia school made national headlines last month when a woman was able to kidnap a 5-year-old girl by posing as her mother on Jan. 14. A passerby found the girl early the next morning shivering on a playground about a mile away. Police are still investigating that case and have no suspects in custody.
Morrisville fights back
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer | Posted: Sunday, February 3, 2013 12:00 am
The Authority of Morrisville is fighting allegations that it wrongfully increased wastewater rates on two mobile home communities.
Borough solicitor James Downey III submitted the authority’s response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Pennwood Management lawyer Daniel Schranghamer against the authority and its head administrator, John Warenda.
The authority states that because of Pennwood Management's carelessness and negligence of its waste water system, the utility has had to spend $693,382 to fix damage caused by toxic chemicals getting into the authority's pipes leading to its treatment plant.
Pennwood Management operates Pennwood Crossing and Penn Place mobile home parks, both located on Old Bristol Pike in Falls, and the lawsuit involves both communities.
Pennwood contends that the local waste water treatment agency is abusing its discretion of its rate structure by charging Pennwood Crossing and Penn Place mobile home parks surcharges that are not charged to other customers.
The borough’s reply states that some of Pennwood Management's claims are “silly” and “nonsensical.”
The authority argues that rate increases had to deal with the removal of “extraordinarily high levels of destructive” hydrogen sulphide, a colorless gas that is toxic and highly flammable.
H2S is a product of the bacterial breakdown of organic matter. The gas, distinctively known for a smell similar to rotten eggs, is commonly found in swamps and sewers.
“The purpose of the surcharge was, and is, intended to impose the additional costs associated with the destructive and costly effects of H2S on any customer that refuses to ameliorate the discharge of same into the system operated by the authority,” according to the authority's response.
The response explains that the surcharge is “customer-neutral” and only the properties managed by Pennwood Management “were dumping excessive concentrations” of the H2S into the Morrisville waste water collection system.
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Schranghamer, Pennwood's attorney, for comment Friday.
The borough’s counterclaim includes a series of communications from emails and official letters informing Pennwood Management of the increase.
“Establishment of a surcharge -- as in this case -- is a common and appropriate method for addressing the effects and additional cost of treating destructive and toxic chemical constituents being discharged into wastewater destined for treatment as sanitary sewage,” the response states.
It continues to explain that the surcharge was established by the board of directors of the municipal authority on the recommendation of its management and professional staff, “with advice from its independent solicitor and independent engineers, all of whom participated in a careful analysis and evaluation of months of physical sampling and testing of the waste material and constituents being dumped into the wastewater collection system of the authority by Pennwood Crossing and Penn Place.”
It’s stated in the counterclaim that Pennwood Management “failed and refused to upgrade its wastewater system and process in its wastewater system” and the agency repeatedly made the request for the management company to do so.
The requested upgrades were “related to the factual and scientific information that (Pennwood Management’s) wastewater system allowed the wastewater to accumulate and remain stagnant in the transmission pipe; thus, causing the wastewater to become stagnant and destructive to the piping of the system, which system was part and parcel of the Morrisville Municipal Authority.”
The pipes were found to be so corroded that it was necessary to replace them. To date, the authority said it has spent $692,382.
Saw this online earlier this morning. Marlys just can't help herself.
"In case you didn't know ...
Posted: Sunday, February 3, 2013 6:00 am
Disguised as the "Educational Committee Meeting," the Morrisville Matters school board majority has been discussing the future of education in the Morrisville Borough School District. Less than a handful of parents attended the January committee meeting to learn that most likely in school year 2014/2015 the Morrisville School District will operate a half-day kindergarten through 8th grade school system only and "tuition out" our 9th through 12th grade students to surrounding school districts.
In early 2014, parents will probably be asked to select which school district they prefer their student attend. Your choice will all be at a significant savings to our taxpayers. The following prices all include transportation costs. Bensalem School District $12,419, Bristol Township School District $14,429, Neshaminy School District $14,494, Pennsbury School District $13,210, Council Rock School District $12,465.
The cost to send a student to the Bucks County Technical High School without transportation, which has not met the Pennsylvania Department of Education annual yearly progress standards in five or more years, is generally more than the other sending districts for Morrisville.
The cost of educating just one student in the Morrisville School District without any transportation cost is currently $18,902. Just thought you might like to know."
Marlys Mihok
Morrisville Borough
Disguised as the "Educational Committee Meeting," - oh geez (rolling eyes)
So tired of the negativity by these old destroyers of Morrisville Borough.
The Town Liar strikes again!
Is she lying?
How does she know that these things will 'most likely' or 'probably' happen? Answer: she doesn't. With her track record, I think the burden of proof should be on her to prove that she isn't lying.
1 comment:
FairAndBalanced posted at 8:33 am on Sun, Feb 3, 2013.
Posts: 101
Marlys, thanks for letting us all know about... your fantasy.
I saw this and called school board members in 2 of the districts, Council Rock and Neshaminy. It is just not true! Neither school district has made any such arrangements.
I'll go even further. No such arrangements have been made with any of the school districts she mentions, or any other school districts she doesn't mention.
In case you didn't know ...
Morrisville's starting and ending secondary costs per pupil after 4 years of Marlys, Hellmann, & their buddies having full budgetary control:
START (2008-2009) = $15,231
FINISH (2011-2012) = $18,902
INCREASE = $3,671
PERCENT INCREASE = 24.1%
Normal reasonable people understand that these per pupil costs can fluctuate quite a bit in a small district when the number of pupils fluctuates. Secondary enrollment also declined from the high 400's when these folks took office to the high 300's by the time they were defeated for re-election. Dividing a relatively flat amount of dollars into a lower number of pupils yields a higher $/pupil figure.
Elementary per pupil costs went down from $15,021 in 2008-09 to $10,034 for 2011-12 because elementary enrollment has significantly increased during the same time period.
"I predict construction will begin to expand Grandview Elementary School this summer."
Marlys Mihok
May 30, 2012 Letter to BCCT
“We are going to give you back the money that you spent for the school that didn’t get built."
Marlys Mihok
May 28, 2008 School Board Meeting
"I will never, never, ever be responsible for any child because I am a school board member."
Marlys Mihok
Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 9:27 a.m.
Hey be charitable those aren't lies. The first one is a terribly wrong prediction. The second one is a phony broken promise. The third one is the God's Honest Truth. Marlys I am truly sorry you're a broken person who I imagine somebody that should have loved you didn't, but get some freakin help for yourself and stop taking your bitterness and evil misery out on the rest of the world. Grow up, your act wore thin about 4 to 6 decades ago.
MM mAjority on the education committee...let's see Dingle came in as independent, miller was a previous MM candidate who won an election, she lost, and unless she scared away Buckman im pretty sure he is part of SOT/SOC. There have been so many sickening things coming from her lately I'm thinking she needs to be banned from school ground. sheis the next six o'clock news exclusive report.
In my humble opinion.......
she is sickening and deserves much more scorn than she gets. Many decent, peaceful people who revile her go out of their way to avoid her than suffer the God awful feeling of her presence, even before she opens her foul mouth and starts lying. Others appease her in a futile attempt for damage control. This is her fuel for taxpayer subsidized living.
Quoth the Raven, Nevermore, should we let this destroyer hold elective office. Go 49ers!
Resident Evil
Focus people. We really need to worry more about a fictitious MEA Hack with no inside information on a blog than a 30+ year campaign of depravity right in front of our eyes.
Question to the handful of parents who attended the January committee meeting:
Is this statement taken from letter a few posts above accurate?
"Less than a handful of parents attended the January committee meeting to learn that most likely in school year 2014/2015 the Morrisville School District will operate a half-day kindergarten through 8th grade school system only and "tuition out" our 9th through 12th grade students to surrounding school districts."
Just wondering what "most likely" means.
Many of us have children who will be directly impacted by such changes and really need to know what is going on and not everyone can attend meetings. Perhaps Education Committee could provide some accurate info as to what is being discussed on SB website.
Letter writer appears to be getting info from someone/somewhere and we all know education is not her concern just the bottom dollar. Based on numbers in letter, if accurate, tutioning out does appear to best (cheapest) solution short term, but Morrisville needs to plan long term maybe more students going to tech, AP, raising taxes, etc.
In the meantime, can someone on the Education Committee let us know what high school our children "most likely" will be attending in 2014?
I'll give it a shot, but the bottom line is "most likely" is a dishonest concoction of Mihok's mind. She has an extremely loose affiliation with honesty and truth.
Many options are on the table. Tuitoning out is just one of them. It's in the very early stages of evaluation. There is a large amount of research that needs to be done. No arrangements have been made with any districts. As far as I know, no other districts have even been contacted about this.
The devil is in the details. What will a tuition out contract look like? How can it provide assurances that students and parents won't be left holding the bag if another bunch of Mihoks get on the school board and renege on yet another contract if they decide they don't like it?
This is far from being decided.
Superintendent Ferrara says PDE Secretary Ron Tomalis and our state Senator Chuck McIlhenney (R-10), called tuitioning out a "no brainer". Yet I don't see them sticking their necks out for it. By the way, as an aside, Chuck McIlhenney, whose yard signs Steve Worob plants on his lawn every time McIlhenney is up for re-election, is the last of our local legislators still in office who voted for the abominable PSERS pension regulations that's pinching the hell out of taxpayers.
The only example of tuitioning out cited by Superintendent Ferrara (probably because Tomalis and McIlhenney cited it to him) is the Duquesne School District outside Pittsburgh. Duquesne is a financially distressed district (like Chester-Upland in our area) that is already under a State PDE appointed Board of Control (i.e. local School Board either liquidated or essentially relegated to bystander status), and that there is already legislation in place that allows the PDE to designate (i.e. force) other districts to accept their students on a tuition basis. Dusquesne tuitions out not only its High School students, but also its 7th and 8th graders.
Check out this earlier thread for more info. Does all this sound like it's "most likely" to happen?
http://mvbulldogbanter.blogspot.com/2013/01/morrisville-school-board-talks-about.html?showComment=1359840511699#c6522529842110126165
I do believe Board President Miller gave a recap of what the education committee was doing at one of the Board meeting and how everything is the first look stage or something like I'm sure you can find it online at the district website.
Good point. Yes he did. In fact, I recommend that anyone who has questions about this committee to contact him. Come to a committee meeting too. Then you and Marlys can sit through the same meeting, and you can decide for yourself how truthful she is when she makes allegations in the newspapers. I can only tell you what I know from attending many meetings, and that is that there have been many occasions where she has been less than truthful. This is just one of them.
1/16/2013 Agenda meeting
http://www.mv.org/videos.cfm
Damon Miller's recap of various options starts at about the 11 mins 15 secs mark and continues until almost the 20 minute mark.
Centennial School District solicitor sued by alternative school
By Manasee Wagh Staff writer
February 4, 2013
by Manasee Wagh
Delaware Valley High School in Warminster has filed a pair of lawsuits, accusing the Centennial School District of breach of contract and Centennial's solicitor of conflict of interest.
The suit against Centennial claims the district breached its contract by failing to pay DVHS more than $1 million in tuition for district students who attended the alternative high school for at-risk students.
The suit against attorney Michael Levin claims the attorney helped create the tuition contract for DVHS and now is the attorney for the Centennial School District. In addition to conflict of interest, the suit against Levin makes claims of professional negligence, interfering with contractual relations and breach of contract.
"(Levin) has a very serious conflict of interest, since he helped DVHS write the very contract that he is now attacking on behalf of Centennial," said David Shulick, president of and lawyer for the DVHS Management Corp., the school's parent company.
Levin said he wasn't involved in drawing up the contract between DVHS and Centennial.
"His (Shulick's) statements that I did are false and, in my opinion, defamatory and for purposes of (interfering) with my contractual relations with my clients," Levin said.
When asked about the allegation, Centennial Superintendent Jennifer Cressman deferred to Levin's statement that he wasn't involved. She also said the district doesn't discuss pending litigation.
DVHS wants Levin to withdraw from his Centennial job or be disqualified by the court as Centennial's attorney in the tuition lawsuit, according to paperwork the school filed in August. Both suits were filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in June 2011, but the Centennial case has since been moved to Bucks County Court.
Levin was an attorney for Centennial prior to the DVHS lawsuit against the district, according to Centennial officials. He has handled special-education cases for the past several years, and became involved with the DVHS contract in summer 2011, Centennial school board President Andrew Pollock said.
"As far as I can tell, I don't believe there was a conflict of interest. Mike’s a very good attorney, and they don’t want to deal with him because he’s too good and he knows school law too well," Pollock said.
Shulick countered by saying Levin has been obstructing resolution of the tuition dispute between the district and the alternative school. Then-solicitor Jeffrey Garton and DVHS were poised to resolve their dispute in May 2010, according to Shulick, who said Levin has blocked any resolution since taking over for Garton.
"Before I left, we were having discussions," Garton said. "Shulick made an offer to settle on the issues, but the school board did not accept it."
The lawsuit against the school district seeks $1.2 million in back tuition payments, plus interest and other damages.
Centennial's five-year contract, which was approved by the Centennial school board in 2008, stipulates that the district pay DVHS for 40 student seats per year. The district terminated its contract with the alternative school after school year 2010-11, but DVHS says it is still owed money.
Pollock has said the DVHS contract language allows the district to send a maximum of 40 students to the school, but doesn't require that it pay for 40 students if it sends fewer.
The per-seat charge for 2008-09 was $8,750, with an additional $1,680 fee for a special education student, the lawsuit states.
In the first two years of the contract, Centennial paid for 40 seats, even though it sent fewer students, according to both the district and the alternative school. Thirty-four attended in 2008-09 and 26 went in 2009-10.
PART 2 Of 2
"It was a mistake on somebody's part. They should not have paid for 40 seats," Pollock said.
The school district has paid $25,000 in legal fees to fight the lawsuit by DVHS, and its insurance company has paid $55,004.73.
This highlights the legal quicksand that can quagmire a tuition out arrangement.
This David Shulick guy is something else. Arrogant, litigious, with a tendency to lose the lawsuits he gets embroiled in - what's not to love?
http://www.airlinesflightsfares.com/tickets/his-lawsuit-didn%E2%80%99t-fly-with-judge/
Enough is ENOUGH! I have had it with these ************** snakes on this ************* plane!
Notice:
Due to scheduling conflicts, the Joint Board/Council meeting scheduled for Feb 6 will be postponed until March 6, 7pm in the LGI at the High School.
the Facilities meeting will be taking place this Thursday, Feb 7, 7:30pm in the LGI.
The Band will be performing at the Trenton Titans hockey game on Friday, Feb 8, 6:55 pm start with National Anthem. $12pp at door.
Thank you
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