Welcome to our new Superintendant

Dr. Allan Fegley, 484-927-5010, fegleya@pasd.k12.pa.us

Education Sunday

August 28 @ 11am, Andre Thornton Park (Northside) honoring E. Pikeland and Schuylkill Elementary Schools

Congratulations

To Debbie Dawson, the Building & Grounds Committee, faculty and all those involved in breaking ground for the new middle school.

One Step Forward. Two Steps Backwards

In a failed attempt to manipulate the taxpayer, Dr. Stevenson took back a small percentage of the admin's merit raises. No merit raises were ever deserved since they did not improve the overall program when they killed Spanish.

Her admin is still happily taking a 3% cost of living increase in spite of the fact that the Social Security increase this year was 0%. The first 0% increase since 1975.

There are over 300 houses in bankruptcy in Phoenixville. By taking a 3% cost of living increase when they've gotten zero, you've just insulted the taxpayer yet again. Have you spoken to one senior citizen about this? I can't imagine you have.

When will this lunacy end? When you hand out zero raises, be a hero and rescue Spanish with that $200,000. Why do you think we're so stupid? You're raising taxes to kill Spanish and fund your raises.

In addition to a selfish superintendant, blame can be shared equally by all. While this blog helped pressure Dr. Stevenson into giving back 50k, why didn't any taxpayers or board members step up and stop this nonsense before they killed Spanish to finance their raises? We're all to blame!

Call Dr. Stevenson @ 484-927-5010 and ask when will the insults end? How many senior citizens will lose their houses because she had to give out raises again? 15 years of raises is not enough for her admin. We can't take it anymore.

The devil carries a Louis Vitton handbag

What a slap in the face by the pasd admin delivered to the taxpayer at the Workshop Meeting.

Not one board member or taxpayer questioned what Dr. Stevenson plans on doing with the planned $200k in raises for her admin while she was busy killing our Spanish programs.

That $200k is more than enough to keep World Languages alive for another year.

Dr. Stevenson previously mentioned insurance costs are up 30%. She failed to mention her admin said at a budget meeting they didn't feel like getting new quotes. I'm sure they could've attempted to get new insurance quotes and saved money to keep Spanish. But they didn't even bother trying so we lose.

Too bad for the taxpayer. Too bad for anyone who enjoys Spanish. How insulting.

Anonymous said
Mr. Slaninka. 2 years ago, you stepped up and shot down Noyse's Kimberton Elementary School on a dump. We were very proud of you for doing so.

At yesterday's meeting, you kept saying "this is the admin's recommendation." Why the change? When did you start rubber stamping bad ideas? Why couldn't you question the admin's raise?

Anonymous said
Public Education at its very, very worst.

Anonymous said
I cannot even begin to report how disgusted I am in the school board at this moment.

In a 5-4 vote to kill world language, world language was killed.
In a 7-2 vote to kill Spanish Immersion, Spanish Immersion was killed.

The school board members said things like - we have to go with what the administration recommends (because apparently we vote them into office to sit and rubber stamp the administrations decisions?) It was horrible! Person after person got up and told them not to cut either program.

Only one person spoke in favor of the cuts and that was only because his second grader that moved into the district could not join the Spanish Immersion program and because the program is limited so not everyone who wants it can get it.

The decision was made before we even got there.

To comment, click here.

Adios Spanish

With the exception of Josh Gould, the curriculum committe made some of the stupidest decisions we've seen or heard in a long time.

Why does the committee confuse cutting student programs with cutting costs of bloated admin?

They voted to cut World Languages to save $150k. Nobody mentioned the administration is expecting raises totalling $200k.

Dr. Stevenson mentioned insurance costs are up 30%. She failed to mention her admin said at a budget meeting they didn't feel like getting new quotes. Too bad for the taxpayer. How insulting.

Why is this such a drawn-out affair? We've been asking the Superintendant for weeks to forego their raises and rescue Spanish.

I'm told the Superintendant will address the raises at the Board meeting, but to listen to what and how she says it. This implies she'll be spinning and won't be telling the truth. If they kill Spanish tomorrow then the admin gets a 5% raise, the damage is done.

To comment, click here.

Non Compos mentis: Latin for can not grasp the meaning or the context of life as it is in 2010

Congress Takes Zero Percent Raise

Will PASD admin? No. 15 years in a row and counting, the admin gets a raise.

Here's a link to 5,230 nationwide school districts where the admin are taking cuts in pay and benefits. We're not even asking for cuts, just don't take a raise for the first time ever.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=
en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS361&q=school%20admin
%20taking%20cuts&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=
nws:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=wn

Can this be verified? If so, sounds like time for a change

It is my understanding that the current cafeteria vendors contract is about to expire.

The Board should look into hiring a different company to provide these services. The current vendors prices are to high. At $2.60 a day for lunch a family with two kids pays $104 a month. The food is not that good and a lot of kids end up eating junk like cookies and pretzels.

The staff in at PAMS room has a soda machine that costs .65 The vendors machine charges 1.25

The company also practices questionable business practices. There have been times when the district has purchased food and leftovers have been resold to students.

They take advantage of the district by using district supplied manpower. This is not the type of partner the taxpayers of Phoenixville deserve.

To comment, click here.

Overheard at a recent PASD Budget Meeting

Taxpayer: Wow. According to pending budget, benefit costs are increasing 27%. Most people get new quotes when their insurance goes up. Won't PASD get new quotes?

Business Manager: That would require Request for Proposals. The answer is no.

Why get new quotes when the cost can get passed on to the taxpayer in higher taxes?

To comment, click here.

The Results Are In!

After 3 right-to-know requests, dozens of emails & phone calls and 2 trips to pasd admin building over a span of 5 weeks, pasd has finally and reluctantly coughed up the Act 93 Admin Salaries Contract. This doc confirms that pasd administration plans on receiving 3 - 6% raises this year.

View and download the doc by clicking here.

A Request to the Superintendant

We respectfully request that your administration forego the 3 - 6% raises that they receive EVERY year and use these savings (~$200,000) to rescue our World Languages Program.

Everyone in this down economy is cutting back, taking zero raises, etc. We want our PASD administration to do the same. It's especially appalling that the school board asked you to take a zero percent raise earlier this year as a courtesy to the taxpayer and you refused.

I'm not referring to the immersion program. I'm under the impression that Spanish Immersion may not survive the cuts due to monetary and logistical concerns. Perhaps it can be revisited in a year or 2 when there are new buildings to house the program.

But World Languages is extremely important, especially in our global economy. I work in ecommerce on major brand sites and use French & Spanish every day. One can't overstate how important language skills are in today's job market.

Please contact superintendant Dr. Barbara Burke-Stevenson. She told everyone on television that she's happy to field your calls.

PASD Support Staff has been offered a raise of 20 cents per hour. Maintenance staff, nurses & other support staff work hard and I believe they deserve their small raises. Please exclude them from the above administrators, many of whom earn 6 figure salaries and can afford to forego their raises for one year to help rescue World Languages.

484-927-5010

And please do everyone a favor. DO NOT blame the school board for this mess. They asked the admin to take a zero percent raise and the admin refused.

To comment, click here.

Related Stories Around the Country

School Administrators’ pay reduced by 5 percent

School Administrators's Pay Frozen

School Administrators’ to pay 20% of insurance premiums

Many, many more related stories. Click here.

Cyber Bullying

Should you ever see examples of cyber bullying on this or any local blog, please call the Phoenixville Police Department.

If you think there are false charges of cyber bullying to intimidate this blogger into withholding public information from the public, then call your superintendant @ 484-927-5010 and ask her to explain herself.

What is she afraid of except not getting big raises for her staff and killing Spanish programs to finance it? I'd be ashamed of myself to take so much from the students she claims to support.

A google search for "getting buried in the media" shows 13,300,000 results. Surely, millions of instances such as these prove there is no bullying? It's a figure of speech.

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=
en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS361&q=buried+by+the+
media&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Congratulations!!!!

Kudos to Debbie Dawson and the Building and Grounds Committee and all parties involved in closing out the Middle School Construction.

As a result of their efforts and teamwork, PASD has saved millions of dollars in the new Middle School.

Contacting your school board

Here are the names and emails of the PASD administration and school board members

Dr. Alan Fegley, Superintendent
Email Dr. Fegley, click here

Leonard Kresefski, Business Manager
Email Leonard Kresefski, click here

Paul Slaninka, President
Email Paul Slaninka, click here

Debbie Dawson, Vice President
Email Debbie Dawson, click here

Mary Croke-Parris, Board Secretary
Email Mary Croke-Parris, click here

Joshua D. Gould, Board Treasurer
Email Josh Gould, click here

Jan N. Potts
Email Jan Potts, click here

Jill Slawecki
Email Jill Slawecki, click here

Dan Cushing
Email Dan Cushing, click here

Betsy Ruch
Email Betsy Ruch, click here

David Ziev
Email David Ziev, click here

9th Grade Biology

For the past few years, Phoenixville was the only local school district that did not have 9th grade biology. Thanks to Jan Potts, we now have 9th grade biology.

The school board decision to put a Biology section into 9th grade was 8-1.

The audit DID NOT suggest Honors Bio for 10th grade - it will stay in 11th grade.

Our issue was a track for students to be able NOT to take Investigating Earth and the Environment Honors in 9th grade so that they could take a more foundational science and WE ARE THE only school in this region that didn't allow that.

The audit committee finally suggested a solution that would involve having the highest science kids (maybe as many as 50 students) take IEE Honors in 8th grade over at the high school as an accelerated track. This would open up their schedule for a a foundational science in 9th grade.

We felt that this was a neat idea and represented some creative thinking and we applauded them for that and for their effort to solve the issue.

USA Today Article

USA Today recently published an article about air pollition in local schools. Review your school's scores here.

But wait. USA Today didn't even use accurate numbers as they described our kindergarten as having the worst air in the country among kindergartens.

Their supposed journalism is hurting our community by falsely informing people that the air at the kindergarten is bad. A recent letter to pasd superintendant shows the air is fine.

Kimberton Elementary
Here are the fees that PASD has paid to develop a proposed school on polluted property (Obtained via right to know letter to pasd)

PASD has a lawsuit filed against a former pasd administrator regarding this purchase to recover costs via his administrative insurance.

• The decision to abandon KES was 7-2 (Mea & Wickstrom voted yes. God only knows why)
• The decision to make the KES statement publicly was 9-0.
• The decision to bring the insurance claim against Noyes was 9-0.
• The decision to dismiss Diekow was 9-0.
• The decision to accept Maria Schwab's resignation was 9-0.

Noyse has been fighting this lawsuit via 3 different lawyers and numerous delays and extensions. Does he care that he's running up pasd tax bills that you'll have to pay?

Noyse settled one insurance policy for the full amount of $250K in June. PASD is suing Noyse for the entire $4.8 million spelled out above. June trial date approaches.

PASD is also suing the seller of the property for illegal dumping.

Some folks feel a few individuals have been scapegoated by the school board's investigation. I think everyone would like to hear from the individuals who feel they were wronged.

Hearing from third parties who vouch for them is admirable, but it's not the same as hearing from them firsthand. Email comments here.

If you desire information that your teacher or principal can't furnish, call the school district to request information that you feel should be furnished to a district taxpayer 484-927-5000.

If the school adminstrator can't answer the question, you can send a right to know letter to pasd's Right to Know officer. Use the template below. Kindly allow them 5 - 10 days to process your request.

[Date]
Leonard Kresefski, Business Manager, PASD

Dear Mr. Kresefski:
Please consider this an official written request for information from the [name of agency]. I would like to examine and inspect [and/or obtain copies or extracts of ] the following documents: [List individually the documents you wish to examine, inspect or copy. Be as specific as possible.]

I believe the above documents constitute public records pursuant to Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law, 65 P.S. §§ 66.1 et seq. You may contact me at [address and telephone number] regarding arrangements for the disclosure of the information.

If you decide to refuse this request, please provide me with a written statement of the reasons for denial. If your denial is based upon a statute, regulation or court decision, please cite that law or case, including the specific section or sections you rely upon, in your written response.

I look forward to the [name of agency] making this information available to me within (5 business days for local agencies; 10 business days for Commonwealth agencies). Sincerely, [Name] [Address]

Nepotism and Sunshine Law Violations

A board member can legally hire a family member IF they're qualified. It is not nepotism. Get over it. Call a lawyer.

2 members of a School Board Committee may meet in private with a school administrator without violating the Sunshine Laws.

5 members of the school board may NOT meet in private with an administrator. That WOULD be a Sunshine Law violation.

Section 13. Committee Meetings
65 Pa. C.S.A.
Sec. 703, 709
Pol. 006
Committee meetings may be called at any time by the committee chairperson with proper public notice or when requested to do so.A majority of the total membership of a committee shall constitute a quorum.

65 Pa. C.S.A.
Sec. 701 et seq
Unless held as an executive session, committee meetings shall be open to the public, other Board members, and the Superintendent.

To comment, click here.

Library Expansion Plan
According to a PottsMerc article on 10/27, the Phoenixville library has withdrawn its expansion proposal for 2nd Avenue. Hooray. Now we can all help find a place for an awesome library with parking that will make everybody happy.

Plus the borough undid the sale of 2nd Avenue to PASD for a buck. So hopefully, it is the end of the library mess.

CONGRATULATIONS
To the students, faculty, administration, school board and everyone at Phoenixville High School for achieving a Top 50 Ranking at Philadelphia Magazine. Congratulations also to Latin teacher Nicole Curry for achieving a top rank as teacher from Philadelphia Magazine too.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/best_schools_2009/

CONGRATULATIONS
To Debbie Dawson for her appointment to Vice President of the School board and to Josh Gould for his appointment to Treasurer. Congratulations also to David Ziev for his appointment to the School Board to replace Lisa Star's seat.

Good luck Lisa Star
Thank you for all your time and help on the school board. May everybody be as honest & smart as you.

To comment, click here.

CONGRATULATIONS
To newly-sworn in school board directors Betsy Ruch and Dan Cushing and incumbents Jan Potts and Josh Gould.

Goodbye
To Barkley principal Stephanie Zdrazil who has accepted a new job as principal of North Coventry Elementary School. An awesome lady who will be missed.

Watch Your Kids!
A student was hit by a car on Hares Hill near East Pikeland on Thursday, November 12. Not sure of the details, but sounds like an impatient driver who may have been distracted by their cell phone.

If they were on their cell and at fault, they deserve charges pressed. Assume the worst and watch your babies.

Anonymous said
If you're waiting in line behind a bus and you see some idiot go thru the bus lights, try to take a cell phone photo of their license plate. That evidence along with the bus drivers testimony may get them prosecuted. Take back your streets. Just a thought...

CONGRATULATIONS
A belated congratulations to the 4 school board members who won the election. Betsy Ruch. Jan Potts. Josh Gould and Dan Cushing. Wendy Kelly and Kevin Patinson should also be commended for their efforts.

Old Schuylkill School
Once upon a time, there was a nice, old, stone building that was called Schuylkill Elementary. Then it got infested with mold so they built a new one.

The old school was left standing, totally enclosed and 4 years later, it's still there with mold growing inside it, stinking up the parking lot.

PASD owns this building and has wanted to get rid of it since the new building was finished a few years ago. Schuylkill township feels the building is a local treasure and won't give pasd a permit to tear it down. So there it sits.

Estimates of $10 million abound to have it rehabbed. Schuylkill township wants to lease the building for 2 years so the funds can be raised privately saving the taxpayer.

Good idea, but they've been trying for 4 years to raise private funding and only have about 20K to show via Friends of Schuylkill School. With the current economy, it's doubtful they'll come up with the money.

So once again, where there's pollution, there are consultants with their hands out ready to make money just like at Kimberton Elementary. Whether it's at pasd's expense or Schuylkill township's, it's the taxpayer taking a hit. Any ideas out there???????

Email Schuylkill Township Board, click here

To post your comments on this blog, click here.

Phoenixville Area Middle School

The school board was bouncing around figures of 60 - 80 million dollars at the January school board meeting last week. What will this do to your taxes? It won't lower them, that's for sure.

But hey they started at $100 million and quickly and graciously came down to $75 million. Now I hear they're down to $50 million. That was quick!

After some digging, I found out the proposed new middle school would be over 200,000 square feet and the new administrative building would be 17,000 square feet. Plus an awesome 2-story parking garage.

A quick google search shows you most schools are about 100,000 square feet. Why are they building this monster? I thought I heard this school will cost every taxpayer $50/month for a long time.

Shouldn't this building be for the HIGH SCHOOL? That is really the centerpiece of the educational efforts of a community. I went to Conestoga, one of the top 50 high schools in the country and nobody ever asks where I went to junior/middle school. Has this point been raised?

There also was no mention of geothermal heating for the building. This heating method uses the warmth and coolness of the earth to save 30% on your heating bills once it's payed for itself over the first 3 years.

Multiply these savings over the next 50 years, this is a LOT of money. Has THIS point been raised?

Email comments here.

9th Grade Academy

The 9th grade Academy was created in 08 to ease the transition of middle school into high school - academically, socially, and emotionally.

For some reason, from Fall 08 to Winter 09, communication between the school board and the administrators was just about nonexistent. Don't any of them have phones, email or text messaging?

Now that goals have not been met, we've had an apology from the admin and finger pointing by the school board.

Please work together to make this program succeed

The Task Force is now done with its work and the meetings were wonderful - we got an incredible amount of work done in a short period of time because we worked collaboratively with ALL students' best interests in mind.

Relay for Life volunteers accused of embezzling

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5575407

French Creek Learning Center
Mentioned at a recent pasd board meeting was the fact that there are 20 students at French Creek Learning Center, but the third party institution that is running that school is billing pasd for 50 students.

Given the average cost per student in pasd is approximately $20,000 per student per year , have we been overbilled by $600,000 per year times 7 years equals $4.2 million?

Email comments here.

Who wouldn't like lower school taxes?
I just found out that OJR has a program for senior citizens to help them lower their school taxes. The seniors "work" for the school district as teacher assistants, tutors, all types of help and instead of receiving pay, their school taxes are reduced based on how many hours they work.

I think this is an awesome idea. It keeps the seniors busy when their schedule is light, it helps their taxes and it helps overworked teachers and administration.

Who could have a problem with this? I'm not going to go there, but there's always someone against a great idea.

Here's the link to OJR's program. If they can do this, why can't we?

http://www.ojrsd.com/community/tax.aspx?page=3320

Call PASD administration to see when we can start this program, 484-927-5000. If the taxpayer isn't heard, nothing will happen.

I'd also think this program could be expanded to all ages and all government agencies with a goal of getting tax help for everybody. It won't happen without people getting involved, making phone calls, following up & making some noise. What are you waiting for?

To comment, click here.

Forensic Audit Results
The results of a state forensic audit show that PASD employees misappropriated tens of thousands of dollars over the past 5 years.

Read the details in the Pottstown Mercury
http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2009/08/23/
news/srv0000006186131.txt

Note that neither the school board nor their council was involved in the investigation. Please don't blame them because many of the former employees no longer work for the school district.

According to a right to know letter to pasd, the cost of the forensic audit was $45,499.57. I think this was well spent. We need to clean up the mess and move forward.

East Pikeland Mobile Park Home
A developer has plans to build a 400-unit mobile home park in East Pikeland. If you don't want higher taxes, get involved and help stop this. Everyone in PASD will be affected thru higher school taxes, utility bills, more cops, more crime. The list goes on and on.

If you don't get involved, they'll build this monster and we'll all pay the price for a long time.

Anonymous said
So let's say there's a thousand kids there for our already crowded schools. They cost $20,000 per kid to send to pasd so that's $20 million added to our $80 million pasd budget.

People in mobile parks don't pay any taxes on their little plots and mobile homes so I guess our school taxes will go up 25% to support this?

To comment, click here.

Public Meeting Behavior
There are no state laws requiring PASD to host public Q&A during their school board meetings. A few more outbursts like on Thursday night, September 17 could end our public forums. This would be a loss for everyone as communication is #1 when it comes to working together as a community.

I really couldn't blame the school board if they omitted public forums because board members are unfairly & publicly accused of nepotism, kickbacks and violating sunshine laws.

To comment, click here.

PEEKABOO
Did Lower Merion School District spy on students via the webcam on their school-issued apple laptops? All the facts aren't in, but it looks shaky.

A student claims a principal approached him about inappropriate activities in his house. The administrator claims they saw the student with drugs via a webcam screenshot taken of the student in his own house. The student says they were Mike & Ike candies. The students family filed a federal lawsuit last week.

Today, 2/24, the administrator vehemently denies the student was monitored calling the accusations "offensive, abhorrent and outrageous." So is the student lying and the whole lawsuit frivolous? Very strange the family owes the IRS and PECO and has been involved in many, many lawsuits...

The school district claims the webcams were remotely accessed only to find lost or stolen laptops.

The FBI and Attourney General are conducting investigations. Glad it's not happening here and hopefully all administrations have learned from this.

We'll hear more facts and they'll be posted here as they happen. More info:

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=
dHj_7RWlmdlP6zMY1W2hk7wp1o8-M

To comment, click here.

If you can't come to PASD School Board meetings and workshops, email here to make your voice heard on this blog.

School taxes are going up across the country while property values are flat or going down in many areas. Only if you participate in the process can you hope to make a difference.

Thank you for reading. Get involved!