Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
$2M shortfall in early budget
Wow, a $2 million shortfall! Remember Bill and Marlys, you guys were the ones who gave your pals some of these "generous salaries and benefits" That is pretty disturbing considering that the SB calls for more voulenteers all the time, and during these "tough economic times", you the Morrisville SB were giving some pretty fat salary increases to some administration. Over 2 years of Hellman and CO. running things, and we have a $2 million shortfall. Not good guys, not good at all!!
from the bcct:
$2M shortfall in early budget
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
Increases in salary and benefits are responsible for the shortfall. One board member vowed there would be no tax hike.
The preliminary 2011-12 budget for the Morrisville School District has a shortfall of more than $2 million, though officials said that doesn't mean there will be a tax increase.
School director Marlys Mihok said Wednesday night she wasn't alarmed at the task of trimming the $19.7 million proposal.
"I guarantee you there won't be a tax increase," Mihok said after Wednesday's school board meeting. "Not on my watch."
Increases in salary and benefits are responsible for the shortfall, officials said.
"Our expenses are constantly increasing due mainly to generous salaries and benefits but our revenues are shrinking from the state - primarily because they also have a huge deficit - and other sources such as interest income, real estate transfer taxes, etc. due primarily to our national recession," school board President Bill Hellmann said Thursday.
"I also expect revenues from our federal government will shrink due to their unsustainable deficit. This deficit is preliminary only and our school board will work with the administration to narrow the cap in the upcoming months."
Because of the state's Act 1 law, the Morrisville school board isn't permitted to raise taxes by more than 1.4 percent without a voter referendum.
When the final budget is approved, Mihok predicted that it will be pared to $17.9 million so there will be no deficit.
The school director wouldn't disclose how she proposes to trim the budget, but she stuck to her vow to not increase taxes.
The only other business discussed Wednesday was a permanent superintendent.
Board members were expected to give the job to William Ferrara at Wednesday's meeting.
Ferrara has been the acting superintendent for the district since September. But state law requires that the district open up the position to other applicants before filling the job.
Ferrara's contract requires him to go through a performance evaluation in May.
Ferrara said after the meeting that he would rather go through with the evaluation process than just be given the job.
The school board moved the rest of Wednesday's meeting agenda to Feb. 16 due to the storm.
Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyburbs.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/deadlineduarte.
January 28, 2011 02:07 AM
from the bcct:
$2M shortfall in early budget
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
Increases in salary and benefits are responsible for the shortfall. One board member vowed there would be no tax hike.
The preliminary 2011-12 budget for the Morrisville School District has a shortfall of more than $2 million, though officials said that doesn't mean there will be a tax increase.
School director Marlys Mihok said Wednesday night she wasn't alarmed at the task of trimming the $19.7 million proposal.
"I guarantee you there won't be a tax increase," Mihok said after Wednesday's school board meeting. "Not on my watch."
Increases in salary and benefits are responsible for the shortfall, officials said.
"Our expenses are constantly increasing due mainly to generous salaries and benefits but our revenues are shrinking from the state - primarily because they also have a huge deficit - and other sources such as interest income, real estate transfer taxes, etc. due primarily to our national recession," school board President Bill Hellmann said Thursday.
"I also expect revenues from our federal government will shrink due to their unsustainable deficit. This deficit is preliminary only and our school board will work with the administration to narrow the cap in the upcoming months."
Because of the state's Act 1 law, the Morrisville school board isn't permitted to raise taxes by more than 1.4 percent without a voter referendum.
When the final budget is approved, Mihok predicted that it will be pared to $17.9 million so there will be no deficit.
The school director wouldn't disclose how she proposes to trim the budget, but she stuck to her vow to not increase taxes.
The only other business discussed Wednesday was a permanent superintendent.
Board members were expected to give the job to William Ferrara at Wednesday's meeting.
Ferrara has been the acting superintendent for the district since September. But state law requires that the district open up the position to other applicants before filling the job.
Ferrara's contract requires him to go through a performance evaluation in May.
Ferrara said after the meeting that he would rather go through with the evaluation process than just be given the job.
The school board moved the rest of Wednesday's meeting agenda to Feb. 16 due to the storm.
Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyburbs.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/deadlineduarte.
January 28, 2011 02:07 AM
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sad news, Brenda Worob passes
Our deepest sympathies are with Brenda's family and friends at this difficult time.
School board director dies
School board director dies
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
Brenda Worob, 50, served on the board since 2005.
Brenda Worob loved to watch the sunset.
It became one of her favorite pastimes after she was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, when doctors told her she had three to six months to live.
She surprisingly exceeded doctors' expectations, but at 3 a.m. Friday she lost her battle to the disease. The last eight months of her life, the Morrisville school board director was homebound, mostly on bed rest, Penny Johnson, her sister-in-law, said Friday afternoon.
Worob, 50, leaves behind her husband and high school sweetheart, Stephen, and their two children, Jenny, 29, and Stephen, 26.
The year Worob was diagnosed with the disease, she and her husband, a former borough councilman, rented a beach house at the Jersey Shore. They continued the tradition the next 10 years.
"I say thank you to her because she taught my brother to relax by watching the sunset," Johnson said. "She lived life by the moment. She refused to believe doctors (about her limited time to live). She really thought she was going to beat this."
Worob moved from Langhorne to Morrisville when she was 16. At 21, she became a Republican committeewoman, a position she kept through her sickness.
In 2005, Worob was elected to the school board and re-elected in 2009. In addition to being board treasurer up until the time of her death, she was an outspoken member of the board on many contentious issues.
"Brenda faced the challenges confronting the Morrisville School District with great insight. She did what was best for the community and the education of our students," said the district in a written statement.
School director Marlys Mihok described Worob as a "gem of a woman."
"I lost my best friend," Mihok said. "I'll miss everything about her - her spirit, her courage, her optimism about life. She did so much for the community."
In 2004, she worked as legislative assistant for former state Sen. Joe Conti. She continued that position with Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-10, through 2009, when her illness worsened.
"It's a loss for Morrisville," Mihok said of her friend's death.
Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyBurbs.com. Follow Gema on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte.
January 23, 2011 02:41 AM
School board director dies
School board director dies
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
Brenda Worob, 50, served on the board since 2005.
Brenda Worob loved to watch the sunset.
It became one of her favorite pastimes after she was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, when doctors told her she had three to six months to live.
She surprisingly exceeded doctors' expectations, but at 3 a.m. Friday she lost her battle to the disease. The last eight months of her life, the Morrisville school board director was homebound, mostly on bed rest, Penny Johnson, her sister-in-law, said Friday afternoon.
Worob, 50, leaves behind her husband and high school sweetheart, Stephen, and their two children, Jenny, 29, and Stephen, 26.
The year Worob was diagnosed with the disease, she and her husband, a former borough councilman, rented a beach house at the Jersey Shore. They continued the tradition the next 10 years.
"I say thank you to her because she taught my brother to relax by watching the sunset," Johnson said. "She lived life by the moment. She refused to believe doctors (about her limited time to live). She really thought she was going to beat this."
Worob moved from Langhorne to Morrisville when she was 16. At 21, she became a Republican committeewoman, a position she kept through her sickness.
In 2005, Worob was elected to the school board and re-elected in 2009. In addition to being board treasurer up until the time of her death, she was an outspoken member of the board on many contentious issues.
"Brenda faced the challenges confronting the Morrisville School District with great insight. She did what was best for the community and the education of our students," said the district in a written statement.
School director Marlys Mihok described Worob as a "gem of a woman."
"I lost my best friend," Mihok said. "I'll miss everything about her - her spirit, her courage, her optimism about life. She did so much for the community."
In 2004, she worked as legislative assistant for former state Sen. Joe Conti. She continued that position with Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-10, through 2009, when her illness worsened.
"It's a loss for Morrisville," Mihok said of her friend's death.
Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyBurbs.com. Follow Gema on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte.
January 23, 2011 02:41 AM
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Superintendent's meeting
We just got word that the next Superintendent's meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 25 at 7pm in the LGI room of the Morrisville IS/HS. This meeting is open to parents/guardians of children in grades K-12. It is a great forum if you have any questions or concerns. Issues such as traffic at either school, school policies, course selection have all been topics of discussion at past meetings.
Board to vote on hiring Ferrara
Nothing really new here that we didn't already know. Check out the sentence that we have in bold type. Either the reporter is on the take, the reporter doesn't check her sources claims before putting them in the paper, and/or this is typical Stay on Track misinformation being spewed by the "up to 25k" per year" communications director. By the way does PW know where the LGI room is yet or is she asking others on the way in?
from the bcct:
Board to vote on hiring Ferrara
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
The Morrisville school board is looking into permanently hiring William Ferrara as the district's superintendent.
School directors are expected to vote on it at the Jan. 26 school board meeting.
After Wednesday's school board work session, Ferrara said the school directors have 150 days before June 30 to decide who will fill the position. His contract as acting superintendent runs until the end of the school year in June.
Ferrara has been acting superintendent since October. The board voted for him to look after the district following the abrupt departure of then-superintendent Elizabeth Yonson, who officially resigned in September, but had not attended district meetings since the start of the school year.
Before taking the $120,000 post, Ferrara was the principal at Morrisville High School. Donald Harm of Pennsbury School District replaced Ferrara in October for the remainder of the school year.
In other Morrisville school news, officials will look into the possibility of installing additional security cameras at Grandview Elementary. Cost details still need to be researched, officials said.
Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyburbs.com. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte.
January 20, 2011 02:06 AM
from the bcct:
Board to vote on hiring Ferrara
By: GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times
MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
The Morrisville school board is looking into permanently hiring William Ferrara as the district's superintendent.
School directors are expected to vote on it at the Jan. 26 school board meeting.
After Wednesday's school board work session, Ferrara said the school directors have 150 days before June 30 to decide who will fill the position. His contract as acting superintendent runs until the end of the school year in June.
Ferrara has been acting superintendent since October. The board voted for him to look after the district following the abrupt departure of then-superintendent Elizabeth Yonson, who officially resigned in September, but had not attended district meetings since the start of the school year.
Before taking the $120,000 post, Ferrara was the principal at Morrisville High School. Donald Harm of Pennsbury School District replaced Ferrara in October for the remainder of the school year.
In other Morrisville school news, officials will look into the possibility of installing additional security cameras at Grandview Elementary. Cost details still need to be researched, officials said.
Gema Maria Duarte can be reached at 215-949-4195 or gduarte@phillyburbs.com. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/deadlineduarte.
January 20, 2011 02:06 AM
Little bang for local school district bucks
From the bcct:
Little bang for local school district bucks
axpayers in the Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts are getting the most bang for their buck in Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties, according to a recent report from The Center for American Progress.
The think tank released a report Wednesday that shows Central Bucks and Pennridge spent the least amount of money per student in 2008 (the most recent data the center had), but the students got some of the highest scores on standardized tests. Only 13 other school districts in the state earned the center's highest rating.
On the other end of the "educational efficiency" scale are Bensalem Township, Bristol Township and Morrisville school districts, which spend more money per student and have students who earn lower test scores. Ulrich Boser, the senior fellow at the center who did the study, said 20 other school districts in Pennsylvania were also ranked in the bottom tier. Bristol Township school district officials said in a statement Wednesday that they don't believe the center's report is credible.
"Its propagators, who by their own admission have an axe to grind, appear to have mindlessly crunched a bunch of numbers that reward school districts with the highest populations," district spokeswoman Eileen Kelliher said in the statement.
Kelliher added later in an interview: "I don't know what their axe is to grind, but there's an axe to grind. + They're going somewhere with this. It's unfair to smaller school districts."
Several school districts that have smaller student populations than Bristol Township school district ranked higher on the center's efficiency scale: Centennial, Upper Moreland, Quakertown, Hatboro-Horsham, Palisades, New Hope-Solebury and Bristol Borough.
And Central Bucks Superintendent N. Robert Laws said he thinks his district's efficiency rating has little to do with its significant size.
"I know why we're efficient," he said."Our board has made some very tough decisions that have improved efficiency - one being the number of times we have redistricted. The bus routing. The expanded walking. The challenge to the assessments. We never overbuilt. We still have modular classrooms in some places, and that was all by design - to keep the building down and make sure the debt didn't get too high. Our use of technology is phenomenal."
Laws and Pennridge Superintendent Robert Kish said their districts are also very efficient because they're careful about the number of teachers they have per student, where they're teaching and what they're teaching. Careful examination of and investment in curriculum helps the students learn more and get higher test scores, Kish said.
The Center for American Progress looked at 9,000 school districts across the country, 495 of which were in Pennsylvania. The goal of the study, Boser said, was to see how educational funding relates to student achievement.
"What we're looking at now and what's been the sea change in education is moving school districts to look at outcomes," Boser said. "We just need to think more broadly about how our education systems function."
The center gathered demographic and spending data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics. It looked at the total student enrollment in 2008, the number of students who participate in the school lunch program (who are considered low income), the number of students in special education programs and per-pupil spending. It made adjustments for cost of living.
The center also gathered standardized test results from the New America Foundation's Federal Education Budget Project. It looked at scores in fourth grade math and reading, eighth grade math and reading, and high school math and reading tests, and how students in each district compared to their peers.
Boser said they found large differences in efficiency and productivity between states and within states. School districts need to look differently at how they measure educational success, Boser said in a press release. "The goal must be nothing short of a breakthrough in performance that guarantees that every dollar is directed at producing high achievement for all students."
Christina Kristofic can be reached at 215-345-3079 or ckristofic@phillyBurbs.com. Follow Christina on Twitter at twitter.com/ckristofic.
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