Director concerned about security

Director concerned about security

By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS

John DeWilde asked board members to meet with the police chief in light of a shooting at a school board meeting in Florida.

Morrisville School Director John DeWilde wants to make sure that while he's discussing business at school board meetings, the board and the public are safe.

At Wednesday's board meeting, DeWilde asked for the board members to meet with Morrisville Police Chief Jack Jones to discuss safety measures and protocol in case of an emergency, such as someone pulling out a gun and shooting.

School board President Bill Hellmann assured DeWilde that the issue would be discussed soon.

DeWilde's safety concerns stems from a Tuesday incident in Panama City, Fla., when gunman Clay Duke shot at school district officials multiple times during a school board meeting before turning the gun on himself. Luckily, none of the shots fired hit anyone.

Duke was upset at the district for terminating his wife, Rebecca Duke, in February. The district hired her in September 2009, as a primary school teacher for students with special needs, but terminated her after a 97-day probationary period, according to the Associated Press.

DeWilde told the board, "We don't need that to happen here,'' and "we aren't prepared for that.''

DeWilde would like Jones and the board to have an action plan, just in case.

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

December 16, 2010 02:06 AM

New principal in, board member out

When was the last meeting Brenda Worob attendend? Morrisville= Land of the Double Standard

From the BCCT:

New principal in, board member out
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS

The school board also set the salary for the acting superintendent.

The Morrisville school board gave the acting superintendent a $120,000 salary, hired a new high school principal and gave the boot to school board member Robin Reithmeyer because she had not attended a meeting in a year.

The board hired Donald Harm, a retired employee of Pennsbury School District, to take over the responsibilities as the Morrisville High School principal, the position formerly held by acting Superintendent William Ferrara.

Harm's salary was set Wednesday night at $60,000, which will cover the reminder of the school year ending June 30. Ferrara's $120,000 salary is for one year and is retroactive to Sept. 22, when he was appointed to the position, after Elizabeth Yonson resigned also in September.

Details of Yonson's resignation haven't been disclosed because board President Bill Hellmann has cited that her abrupt leave is a personnel matter.


The salaries of Ferrara and the hiring of Harm came after more than a 30-minute long executive session, at which time personnel matters were discussed.

It's unknown whether making Reithmeyer's seat vacant was part of those discussions. The issue wasn't on the agenda, but Hellmann brought up the vacancy suggestion at the last issue for discussion.

During a brief discussion, board member Marlys Mihok said Reithmeyer last attended a meeting in October 2009. Mihok added that there were a few times the board received indications that Reithmeyer would attend some meetings, but didn't show up.

School board member John DeWilde said that he hopes for her speedy recovery.

"From what?" Mihok asked.

DeWilde didn't respond.

School Board Director Marlys Mihok's latest e-mail

We have received the email that Marlys Mihok sent to John DeWilde and cc'd numerous others. Why? Only Marlys can answer that question. Like Jon stated earlier, Marly's personal email address has been out in public at least since April '09. And Marlys...don't flatter yourself thinking that the Morrisville's Future Blog is obsessed with you. Nothing can be farther from the truth. We simply are a service to the citizens of Morrisville. It just so happens that we are able to bring to light your actions to the public. Funny how the CAC meeting in Oct has been postponed all of a sudden. Below is the email from Marlys Mihok to John Dewilde. Unlike Marlys, we have left out the dozens of others who were cc'd on this email.We will not compromise their privacy like Marlys has done by posting private e-mail addresses. But included were school administrators and employees, active community members(both SOT supporters and non SOT supporters), the communications director, select School Board Directors, one former boro councilman, and one former School Board Director's

John DeWilde,
Why did you violate my privacy by distributing my personal e-mail address to
everyone on your Community Advisory Panel? You know that you can reach me by
e-mail through the School District Server at mmihok@mv.org. I am at a loss
as to why you would give the blogger, who is obsessed with me, direct access
to send me his pervasive filth. Nice going, John.

Marlys Mihok

School Board meeting recap

We kind of find it hard to believe that this is all that the reporter from the bcct chooses to report. Unless it is reported elsewhere, and we missed it, why is there no mention of the shady activity by Marlys Mihok. Ms. Mihok as board secretary(a paid position), changed Donna Wilson's stipend as the color guard coach from $1,000 on the board agenda minutes, to $250 on the meeting packet that is handed out to the public. Once again Marlys avoids following the law to get her way. In addition, not every board member knew of this change. Again, this is not a way to build trust, Marlys and her cronies once again let all of Morrisville down with their despicable behavior and disregard for the law. We would like to thank board member John Dewilde who did stick up for Donna Wilson and her color guard team. We wish more Board members would do the same.

We are hearing that Bill Farrell was up on his soapbox once again speaking how we all need to work together and put our differences behind us. We have two words for you Mr. Farrell......ENOUGH ALREADY!! Are you not watching what takes place at these meetings. How can the parents of this district trust anything your friends on the board do? Shame on you and your ignorance!

from the bcct:
Board OKs budget with no tax increase

By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS

Morrisville School District residents will pay no tax increase next year.

Voting 6-0, the school board approved an $18.3 million budget Wednesday night that balances the budget using $250,000 from the fund balance. That fund, which totals about $3 million, includes money left in savings from the previous year.

Board members Robin Reithmeyer, Brenda Worob and Gloria Heater were absent.

Business administrator Paul DeAngelo said he has earmarked another $250,000 from the fund balance to help pay for the Public School Employees' Retirement System. Retirement rates are expected to increase dramatically over the next five years.

The same millage rate of 177.3 will apply once again, and the average resident will pay about $3,191 in taxes. It's the third year in a row without a tax increase. In fact, taxes decreased in the previous two years.

The administration has said that no educational programs or services will be adversely affected by the $84,500 decrease in the spending plan.


About 60 percent of district expenses for 2010-11 will go toward salaries and benefits, which are contractual obligations. Other uncontrollable factors include special education and transportation services.

The bulk of the revenue is coming from local sources. State and federal funding, teacher retirements and efficiencies in energy and other areas are contributing to the savings in expenditures.

"We are not unusual in wanting to provide quality education and still keep taxes low. As always, this board directs its efforts toward making our small school district run as efficiently as possible," said board President William Hellmann.

Details of the budget are available at www.mv.org. Click on "Business Office" in the "District" pull-down menu.

Community Advisory Meeting tonight

The first meeting of the Community Advisory Committee will meet tonight at 7pm in classroom H-8. The meeting will be moderated by School Board Member John DeWilde and all parents, students, and members of the community are welcome. Use this forum to share your thoughts, concerns and issues pertaining to safety, education and the overall well being of the children in the Morrisville School district.

Attend with an open mind, without the thought of politics and just see what happens.

Question for the masses...

Is it legal, or at the very least unethical for a judge of elections, who also happens to be on the school board to be distributing flyers(on school grounds) for candidates they support? And don't all political flyers have to have the "paid for" notice on them?

What is the big deal about someone not owning a home, and running for school board? Does this make them any less qualified? For some reason the stay on trackers have an issue with people that rent their homes/apartments. These folks do pay their taxes...it's called rent, and the taxes are built into the rent. Many of the stay on trackers have rental properties(funny thing is many of the stay on track signs are on rental properties) they should know this!

We mentioned in a post awhile back about how can Mr. Hellmann say the districts payroll is too high and he wants to put $$ into the buildings, but a back in June the board majority hired Pat Wandling as a "communications director"(political operative), and raised the payroll in a pathetic attempt to make himself and other stay on trackers look like they are doing a good job. Then come Sept. Mr. Hellman was vehemently opposed to the hiring of a teachers aide for the same amount of $25K. Mr Hellmann your credibility is currently zero, along with the rest of your cohorts.
Here is the link:Mr. Hellmann help us understand

It is imperative that everyone that is registered to vote does so on November 3. Morrisville can do better than the position the stay on trackers have left us with. Say no the ways of Mr. Hellman and his cronys that are up for election(Worob,Buckman,Stout,Dewilde), for they are just puppets of Mr. Hellmann. And say yes to a new Morrisville. A Morrisville that has pride, and a Morrisville that is known for the right reasons, and a Morrisville that has a future!


Added 10/29---Could someone confirm or deny if Ron Stout and Marlys Mihok made a rent payment to a landlord within the last month. We are not saying they are not paying their rent, we just would like confirmation if they are renters. If they are renters, using stay on track thinking, Marlys should step down from the board, and Ron Stout should drop out of the race since this renter thing is such a hot button for them. We could care less if you own a home, rent an apartment/house. We know your pay your taxes. And the landlords on the board should know this also. Enough with the double standards guys. It's getting old