Teacher to be laid off at the Tech School

Tech School teacher to be laid off
Posted: Monday, March 28, 2011 10:10 pm | Updated: 10:17 pm, Mon Mar 28, 2011.
By: Chris English Staff Writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

The Bucks County Technical High School joint school board committee Monday night voted to lay off a teacher in the automotive technology program because of declining enrollment.

The action, effective at the end of the school year, will reduce the number of teachers in the program from three to two. Total enrollment has fallen from 98 students in 2006-2007 to 75 this year, a 23 percent drop, said BCTHS Administrative Director Leon Poeske.

The move will save about $100,000 a year in salary and benefits, he said.

Thank you Ted!

from the bcct:

Resident honored for volunteer efforts

Posted: Sunday, March 27, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 9:26 am, Sun Mar 27, 2011.

Resident honored for volunteer efforts By GEMA MARIA DUARTE, staff writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

Morrisville - Edgar C. "Ted" Fletcher has invested considerable personal time and energy in Morrisville.

And it hasn't gone unnoticed.

"Ted's focus is and always has been the betterment of Morrisville and its residents. He works tirelessly for many facets of Morrisville," wrote the Morrisville Landmark Towns Committee, which nominated Fletcher for the third annual Community Achievement Awards being hosted by Landmark Towns of Bucks County this week.

In addition to being a member of the Morrisville Business Association for eight years and a member of the Rotary Club for 10 years, Fletcher has been a volunteer and carpenter for the ActorsNET of Bucks County for 10 years, just to name a few of his volunteer efforts.

"Ted Fletcher is always full of energy and enthusiasm for any project he is involved with," the committee wrote. "Ted continues to serve others by volunteering on a daily basis and he constantly works towards the success of Morrisville."

With help from PECO, Landmark Towns will honor Fletcher and other nominees during the 2011 Community Achievement Awards starting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Occasions, 560 Union Square Drive in New Hope.

The awards recognize outstanding contributions by individuals, businesses and organizations volunteering or operating within the Landmark Towns - Bristol, Morrisville, New Hope and Yardley.

The reception will start with the display of artwork by Bucks County artists and a silent auction; a buffet dinner and the awards ceremony will follow.

This year, a portion of the night will be dedicated to Bill Winslade, who died suddenly on March 21. The 55-year-old Yardley manager was chairman of the event the last two years and also this year. His participation with Landmark Towns was one of many volunteer efforts Winslade was involved with in the area.

"As far as being a supporter of Landmark Towns, he really got it - the idea of the four towns working together for the greater good of the region. He was a huge supporter of me and a tremendous help. I will miss him dearly - already do," said Donna Boone, regional Main Street coordinator for Landmark Towns.

Each borough has a Volunteer of the Year. The other awards include Outstanding Retail Event, Outstanding Preservation Success Story and Small Business Excellence Award.

Bill Gehrman, owner of En-route Marketing and former marketing director of Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, will be the keynote speaker. Gehrman will share his marketing expertise in the tourism industry.

The event is $55 per person and is open to the public. For tickets or event information, log on to www.LandmarkTowns.com or call 215-781-2605.

Landmark Towns, a project of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, is a regional revitalization initiative of the four boroughs along the Delaware Canal. The boroughs have traditional downtown business districts, into which the Landmark Towns project is designed to breathe renewed economic life, while preserving and enhancing industrial and cultural heritage.

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor fosters stewardship of historical, cultural and natural resources along the early canal and railroad systems that carried anthracite coal from mine to market in eastern Pennsylvania.

The contract, which all four towns signed, called for each to make five installment payments over five years. The payment increments were: $1,250 for the first year; $6,250 the second year; $7,500 the third year; $8,750 the fourth year; and $10,000 the fifth year.

This year, all but Morrisville will make the $10,000 contribution. Though Landmark Towns will complete several projects under way, the organization won't initiate new projects if sufficient funding support is not made available, Boone has said.

Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyBurbs.com Follow Gema on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte

Canal cleanup is April 9

from the bcct:

Volunteers sought to help clear canal

By GEMA MARIA DUARTE, staff writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

Spring cleaning along the Delaware Canal is about to be sprung.

The Friends of the Delaware Canal is sponsoring the annual cleanup on April 9. Volunteers are needed to help clear trash, debris and brush from the historic waterway and towpath that runs from Easton to Bristol.

This year's Clean-Up Day efforts will target the Morrisville to Bristol stretch of the canal. The 9-mile-long area still is awaiting adoption by Canal Tenders, who can be individuals, families, or groups that volunteer to care for specific sections of the waterway throughout the year, said Susan Taylor, director of the group.

The cleanup will begin at 9 a.m. and volunteers are encouraged to bring gloves, long-handled rakes, boots and branch snipers. Trash bags will be provided.

Volunteers should choose a location to clean up and then contact the area coordinator, who will provide details of the day's activities. (See related list.)

Although the canal suffered some damage from the floods earlier this month, those areas will not be targeted during the cleanup.

There is no damage south of Bowman's Hill, Taylor said.

"The Friends will probably have one or two clear-off-the-towpath sessions in the flood-washed areas, which will be fairly impromptu and announced by email," she said.

The Friends of the Delaware Canal is an independent, not-for-profit organization working to restore, preserve and improve the canal and its surroundings. Its primary goals are to ensure that the canal is fully watered from Easton to Bristol and that the towpath trail is useable for recreational purposes over its entire length.

For more information on Clean-Up Day, a full report on damages or other Friends activities, call 215-862-2021, email friends@fodc.org, or visit www.fodc.org.

Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyBurbs.com

Follow Gema on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte

Potpourri for 3/27-4/2

Morrisville district officials seek mediation in tech school dispute

from the bcct


Morrisville district officials seek mediation in tech school dispute

Posted: Friday, March 25, 2011 12:00 am

Morrisville district officials seek mediation in tech school dispute By GEMA MARIA DUARTE STAFF WRITER Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

Morrisville officials say the school is overcharging the district for educating 52 borough students who attend the occupational school full time.

Morrisville School District officials want to mediate the payment battle they have going with Buck County Technical High School. They also plan to attend an April meeting to discuss potential funding formula changes.

The board voted Wednesday to request that the Pennsylvania Department of Education appoint a mediator to help solve the conflict, which has Morrisville putting its share of tech school funding into an escrow account.

The tech school joint board committee is expected to take similar action at its meeting on Monday.

Morrisville officials say the tech school is overcharging the district for educating 52 borough students who attend the occupational school full time.

Bucks County Technical High School serves students in the Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Pennsbury, Neshaminy and Morrisville school districts. Students sent there attend both academic and vocational classes.

Each district's share is based on a somewhat complicated formula, which takes into account fixed and variable costs at BCTHS and the number of students each district sends there.

That formula will be discussed at 6:30 p.m. April 5 at the tech school, 610 Wistar Road, Bristol Township. The meeting is open to the public. Business managers, superintendents and school board presidents from each district will attend. For the formula to change, all six districts have to agree.

The articles of agreement among the technical school and its six sending districts require each district to contribute its share as long as the BCTHS budget is approved by the joint school board committee and four of the six school boards at sending districts.

In February, Morrisville stopped a scheduled $151,914 tech school payment and instead put it in escrow. The same was done with payments due in October and December, and is expected to be done with this year's last payment - about $200,000 due in April, board directors have said. Only the first payment was released to the tech school in August.

Morrisville is being charged about $740,000 this school year for borough students attending the academic vocational school, much more than officials have said the district should be paying. Until the school adjusts its charge downward, Morrisville plans to withhold payments.

Dividing the share of the total operating budget of the technical school by the number of students it sends to the tech school, Morrisville pays $14,765 per student; Bristol, $16,044; Pennsbury, $13,937; Bensalem, $12,473; Bristol Township, $13,350; and Neshaminy, $15,176.

The Morrisville school board last year voted against funding its share of the tech school's $21.54 million budget for this school year.

The mediator idea came about earlier this month after a conference call that included representatives from the tech school, Morrisville School District and its solicitor, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The call was held after BCTHS solicitor Ellis Katz filed a petition with the education department seeking payment of funds owed by Morrisville.

Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyBurbs.com Follow Gema on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte

Bargain rate: Morrisville getting plenty for its money

A readers voice from the bcct:
Bargain rate: Morrisville getting plenty for its money

By CURT MCCAY Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

I graduated from Bucks County Technical High School many years ago, and I have always credited "tech school" with being the solid foundation of everything I ever accomplished in my working life. My teacher at tech school was the best I ever had and that includes high school, college and the military. Recently, I volunteered as a judge for the Skills USA competition at the school and NOCTI testing. I also agreed to serve on a course curriculum advisory committee. It is with this view that I have been following the financial dispute between the Morrisville School District and the technical high school.

As I read a recent editorial in the Courier Times about the conflict, several things jumped out at me.

First, Morrisville's "total yearly bill" is $767,000; if you divide that by 51 students, the cost per student is approximately $15,000, the figure quoted. Therefore, if it costs $17,000 for Morrisville to educate a student, then the district actually saved $102,000 by sending these 51 students to the technical school.

Second, as far as the technical high school meeting its academic requirements, it should be apparent to anyone reading the editorial that if the technical high school has to have a "freshman academy" to provide intensive instruction in math and reading to incoming students who do not score at the state proficient level - the bigger problem is at the home district, not at the tech school. This reminds me of colleges that have to require remedial courses for incoming college freshman; who gets the blame for that? The technical high school has much less time to fix proficiency problems than the home school did to create them. Morrisville complaining about academic requirements is rather disingenuous.

The last thing that bothered me was the editorial using the term "morphed" when describing the change of the school from a part-time to a comprehensive school. Reading that you might think that one day all of these home districts woke up and presto-change-o they had a full-time school on their hands.

All of the sending districts have representation on the board that oversees the technical high school and they would have had to vote on the change. At the time, they must have seen a need; otherwise, why expend millions of dollars to implement a large undertaking like that? Could it have been they saw an opportunity to obtain more funding by moving some of their problems somewhere else, and now the calculus has changed because of federal and state cutbacks?

The actual question here is who really is the end customer? Is it the Morrisville School District, or the students and parents who are sending their children to the technical school? I've never read where they are complaining. Based on enrollment figures (2009) these 51 students represent approximately 17 percent of Morrisville's total high school population, ninth to 12th grade. It would seem the 51 customers voted and did what customers do when they are dissatisfied; they voted with their feet.

I am tired of officials who know the "price" of everything and the "value" of nothing. We must develop a manufacturing base in this country again if we are ever to move forward and grow the economy. We need more engineers, technicians, and trades people; we have enough CPAs and lawyers.

The technical high school is educating/training the types of people this country needs. I'm only sorry the school is not twice the size with twice as many students.

Curt McCay, Middletown, worked in the technical field for 40 years and was employed by U.S. Steel and Westinghouse. He retired as a manager of electronics and ride controls for Six Flags Great Adventure.

Funding cuts stuns school districts

from the bcct:
Funding cut stuns school districts
By GARY WECKSELBLATT, staff writer Calkins Media, Inc.

Gov. Corbett's new Social Security reimbursement formula means even more money must be made up by local taxpayers.

Gov. Tom Corbett is looking to change the way school districts are reimbursed for Social Security expenses, deepening the financial challenges faced by educators already dealing with the new governor's plans to slice $550 million in basic education funding.

Corbett's plan would cost local taxpayers the most as North Penn ($2.3 million), Central Bucks ($1.9 million) and Council Rock ($1.5 million) would have to pony up more than any of the state's 500 districts.

Of the $40 million in increased costs to schools statewide, $17 million would come from districts in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

"We are disproportionately affected by this change," said state Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151, whose five areas districts would receive nearly $5 million less in state funding. "I spoke with the governor this morning on this issue. I plan to discuss this with my leadership. I will try to remedy this situation for my districts."

Robert Reichert, director of business affairs for Hatboro-Horsham, which will lose $453,000, said the funding shortage "hits us right between the eyes."

Currently, districts are reimbursed for half of their Social Security payments. Corbett wants to lower that to a formula based on something called Market Value/Personal Income Aid Ratio.

It includes things like the taxable real estate of a district and its student enrollment compared to the state's taxable real estate and student enrollment. A similar calculation is done for personal income per student in a district and statewide.

Places like Council Rock, New Hope-Solebury and Palisades have the lowest ratio - 0.1500, meaning the state will pick up 15 percent of their Social Security reimbursements, rather than 50 percent.

Less affluent areas, such as Bristol (0.5775) and Bristol Twp. (0.5075) won't be impacted because of their higher ratios. Any district above 0.5 will be reimbursed at the higher number.

Dave Matyas, business administrator for Central Bucks, said "Southeast Pennsylvania is getting hammered because relative to the rest of the state we're wealthy."

Of his district's $1.9 million revenue setback, he said, "We had no idea that was happening."

That was a common refrain among the people that put together school budgets.

Robert Reinhart, director of business administration for Council Rock, said he didn't learn of the change until the day after Corbett's March 8 budget address to the General Assembly.

The item was "in the weeds of the document, so it was a surprise to me," he said.

Reinhart was informed of Corbett's plan in an e-mail from Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.

Himes' group is calling on members to call their lawmakers and oppose "any amendments to the Retirement Code that would change how Social Security reimbursements have been made since 1995."

State Rep. Steve Santarsiero, D-31, is against Corbett's Social Security proposal, claiming it "further penalizes districts in the suburbs."

Santarsiero again called for a tax on Marcellus Shale and the closing of the "Delaware Loophole," saying the combination would bring $800 million into state coffers in the first year.

"We can't ignore the revenue side when a free pass is given to gas companies and multinational corporations," he said.

State Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, said: "It's going to put more pressure on the school districts I represent. My desire is to report back to school officials that we could remediate some of these cuts."

Clymer calls Corbett's budget, a $27.3 billion plan that cuts spending 3 percent, "the first shot across the bow. The seas are rough. The ship of state is going to be blown about but we haven't gone under. It's not going to be an easy voyage."

A spokeswoman with the governor's press office and a spokesman with the state Department of Education took a reporter's questions but neither responded with any answers.

Reichert, Hatboro-Horsham's business director, said his district could raise $800,000 by raising taxes the maximum 1.4 percent under the state's Act 1 initiative. But with the state cutting revenues by $1.2 million "it just doesn't add up + even after reducing a lot of expenses in other areas of the budget."

Stephens, the freshman Montgomery County lawmaker, said he met with four of the five school superintendents he represents days after Corbett's budget unveiling.

"They had no indication this was going to occur," he said. "This drop in revenues just dropped in their lap. I'm hopeful we can restore this funding."

Gary Weckselblatt can be reached at 215-345-3169, gweckselblatt@phillyBurbs.com and at twitter.com/gweckselblatt