[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

Yesterday Cassandra Walwendah and I plus about 36 other residents attended the Norristown Area School board meeting to learn more about how our property taxes were being spent on education. The board passed a 124 million dollar school budget for approximately 6 thousand students in the district. The budget includes the salaries for 1200 employees. Depending on how much Federal and State Aid the district receives , property taxes could increase somewhere from 3 to 6 percent. The current budget is preliminary and there are still many unknown factors. Ed Ward and Michael Howell presented a $118 million budget but it was voted down by the other members of the board . To keep track of the school budget debate check out the East Norriton web site at http://www.eastnorritonresidents.org/14.html or the school district web site at http://www.nasd.k12.pa.us/ and click on “Board Docs” for future board meetings. Since four of the school board members are up for election May 19th, you may find these documents help you to make an informed choice.

Like many my retirement savings have been severely impacted by the recession so I am looking closely at all my expenses including property taxes. Even if East Norrtion retirees could sell their houses in this housing market, when young families with children move in (no single older person is going buy a house with so little public transportation and horrible traffic) the costs to the school district would go up considerably.

One citizen remarked that at $19,000 per student our school district is spending more for inferior student performance than other districts in the area are for better performance. The board said that the cost per student varies depending on the needs of the child for special education. It was unclear to me how much more charter school and vocational students cost the district. I think companies that hire vocational students should subsidize their education, if they are not already. It was also unclear to me how much of the increase in teacher’s salaries was a COLA increase or a merit increase. With the decrease in oil and housing expenses I would not expect a big COLA increase. I don’t yet know how they determine merit pay.

Times Herald Staff reporter Carl Rotenberg published an excellent and more objective report of the school board meeting today at http://www.timesherald.com/articles/200 ... 858346.txt

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

When so many Newspapers across the country are struggling, we are again fortunate that the Times Herald could send Staff Reporter Carl Rotenberg to give the school board budget meeting extensive coverage. : http://www.timesherald.com/articles/200 ... 695234.prt . His reports are less biased than mine. However, I will label some of my biases.

On a positive note, many of us appreciated the school boards review of their funding sources. They showed that their primary source of income comes from private property tax, since East and West Norriton are basically “bedroom” communities. Because the interest earned on their investments are lower this year, they claimed that is one reason our taxes will need to be increased. They forget that those living off retirement savings are faced with the same problem.

There was much discussion and many questions about the relative cost of repairing the Athletic field at Roosevelt High School versus building a brand new field at NHS.
As yet the board has not presented firm cost estimates for these two alternatives.

School Board President Janice Pearce claims. “It is our goal not to use taxpayer money for the new high school field. " However, the board makes no promises that tax payer money will not be used if funding from other proposed sources is less than expected or the costs are more than budgeted. So many in the audience were skeptical. The board was reminded that floating a bond is also Taxpayer money.


MY BIAS:

While I think physical fitness is very important for all ages and feel it should be a part of a school curriculum. (My school had PE every day), providing Football teams to entertain the community is not a high priority for my tax dollar. I would rather money ( probably much less than would be needed for a field and stadium) be spent on a stream buffer along Stony Creek. Native vegetation in the buffer would alleviate flooding, reduce pollution from storm water runoff, provide habitat for birds and teach kids about the environment. Local water departments see the NHS school grounds as a big negative for our source water. NHS was built on landfill over a flood plan. I don’t believe that a new big sports complex will leave sufficient room for adequate flood plane management. As you can see on my old website (www.stonycreekwatershed.info) I have been concerned about the severe flooding and erosion along Stony Creek for almost a decade. Silt from runoff also increases Tax Payer expenses in the form of higher water costs for filtration.

Lastly I know quite a few mothers that are discouraged by the lack of academic achievement at NHS. Having been married to a teacher for 2 decades, I wonder (but don’t know) if NASD has some of the same problems as his school. Tenure prevented the administration from firing ineffective teachers. There was insufficient merit pay for the better teachers? Is the school allowed to dismiss students who disrupt class or bully other kids? Taxpayers are required to pay for public education, but we have a right to expect that kids are properly parented and the schools are not being used as a babysitting facility.

Most of us can’t afford everything we fancy or feel we need. Likewise our school district must set priorities.

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

On Monday, June 6th about 28 people attended a meeting at the NASD administration building to discuss the proposed cuts in PA State funding for schools that would occur if Senate Bill SB850 were passed. Those in attendance included members of the School Board, Officials from Norristown, East Norriton, West Norriton and residents from the Norristown area. As reported by Carl Rotenberg in the Times Herald click here the school board had made cuts in the budget hoping to keep property tax millage rate at 28.417 . Since the proposed NHS Budget assumed Governor Rendall’s budget funding levels, passage of SB850 would force the NASD School board to cut programs and increase property taxes. As posted on the PA Dept. of Education Web site, funding cuts set forth by SB850 would be:

"--------------------------Accountability Block Grant-------------------------- Charter School Reimbursement
__________________Rendall's Budget____ Senate Bill 850_________ Rendall's Budget___Senate Bill 850

Methacton SD_______ $259,425___________$254,237_______________ $110,583_________$87,105

Norristown SD_______$756,780___________$741,646_______________ $1,427,505________$1,124,436


-------------------------- Classrooms for the Future---------- Science: It's Elementary---------- Dual Enrollment
_______________Rendall's Budge___SB850________Rendall's Budget___SB 850_____Rendall's Budget___SB850

Methacton SD____$0________________$0___________________________$0________________________$0

Norristown SD____$90,826____________$0__________$97,889__________$0_________$18,689________$0



Must confess I don’t know what “Accountability” refers to, but it sounds like a good idea. These cuts must also pass the State House , so there is still time to act.

I included the above data for Methacton as well as the Norristown school district to illustrate the differences in State funding based on the size of the district, needs for special education, English as a second language and poverty levels (i.e. % students in free lunch program) . These needs greatly increase the cost of education and NHS has a much higher amount in each of these categories than Methacton. I knew that Norristown was struggling, but still I was sad to learn that the poverty rate was as high as 51%. The high tax rate and poor academic performance leads to middle class flight which only sends the problem into a deadly downward spiral. Statewide funding could mitigate this trend, but the middle class in the rest of the State is reluctant to assume the burden of urban decay. In addition to State funding - I have thought there needs to be drastic changes in our country’s educational philosophy ever since I was in High School and later as a professor’s wife, camp counselor, graduate student, Girl Scout leader, Math and music tutor, guest teacher, Delaware Valley Science Fair judge and a PTA activist. My ideas are radical, so I will save that topic until later – after I have had more time to think about the side affects. Hint, I was encouraged to find the New York City Teacher of the year for 1989 to 1991 and State teacher of the year for 1991 has similar ideas which can be found at: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/index.htm . Actually my ideas are not as radical as his, but in the same direction. Also some of my neighbors are helping me examine my ideas. I think the common wisdom about education in our country is holding us back and ruining the transition from children to adults.

How you can help stop state Funding Cuts

1. Attend a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 18 at the East Norriton Township Building, 2501 Stanbridge St. in East Norriton to be held by State Rep Matt Bradford. This public event will give members of our community an opportunity to ask questions and discuss concerns about issues such as the state budget. No registration or R.S.V.P. is necessary for this public event. Please contact my office for more details on this or any state-related issue.


2. Contact your state legislators to remind them that their on-going support for Pennsylvania’s new school funding formula is vital for students, schools and communities.

State Representative Matt Bradford, (610) 270-1150

State Representative Mike Vereb, (610) 409-2615

Senator Daylin Leach, (610) 768-4200

Senator John Rafferty, (610) 831-8830

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

Last June the current NASD School Board bragged about keeping the school budget at a level that would not raise property taxes. The subsequent defeat of SB850 does not assure us that the NASD budget is final for two main reasons. First the NASD budget assumed a certain level of funding from the State comparable to last year which is not certain. Revenues for the State of PA have fallen from 28.3 billion to 26.4 billion dollars. The 9.9 billion dollars for K-12 education is the largest item in the State budget. Because of the Fall in Revenues the State government has proposed a 5 million dollar cut in funding from what Govenor Rendell originially proposed for education in the State Budget. The NASD school board is waiting to find out how that will affect State support for their district. ( For more detail on the State Budgets go to
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/se ... dgets/4566 )

The second unsettled factor affecting the school budget (and our property taxes) is the settlements with union representatives of both the support Staff and the teachers. The staff union i.e. the "Norristown Educational Support Personnel Association (NESPA) asked for the following wage increases over the next three years.

Para-Educators: 6%, 6%, 6%, plus step increases
Secretaries: 5%, 5%, 5%, plus step increases
All other classifications: 5%, 5%, 5%

Because the Board and the staff Union could not agree on wages and benefits their negotiations were submitted to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board for arbitration. The Fact Finder for the labor board, Laurence Coburn, found:

Having carefully considered the comprehensive data provided by the parties at the hearing, I find that bargaining unit members should receive modest pay increases, somewhat higher than proposed by the District and somewhat lower than proposed by the Association. Such increases are affordable to the District, and merited by bargaining unit members who are highly valued and appreciated by the District. The Association’s proposal, although technically affordable, does not make sense in the current economic climate, where the District’s revenues are trending down, taxpayers have been pushed to the limit, and a spike in pension contributions looms in a couple of years. Also, the aging infrastructure of the District will need regular maintenance if not renovation.

Moreover, the salary/wage rates of bargaining unit members compare favorably to those in similar jobs elsewhere in Montgomery and Bucks Counties (the “Two Counties”) and in comparable school districts elsewhere.

The District’s reason for proposing the change in health insurance plans is that the proposed plan, along with the proposed change in prescription plan, would save it more than $1,000,000.00 in premium costs per year, while at the same time providing first-rate health insurance and prescription plans.

The NASD school board accepted the arbitration with a 7-1 vote. However the Union -NESPA - rejected Attorney Coburn's report and proposed settlement. Besides the suggested wage increases, they also turned down the health insurance proposal. The settlement with the NESPA will likely influence the negotiations with the teachers union next Fall.

If the teacher's are successful in negotiating 5 & 6 percent raises, that also will likely increase property taxes. I wonder how many taxpayers have had a 5% increase in their income and property values last year? I realize that most workers expect a COLA increase, but I object to raises (step increases) based, as they are now, on length of service and the number of education courses taken. I think they should be based on how effective a teacher is and how many students elect to take their courses. The two are highly correlated, because compulsory education is an oxymoron - nobody learns unless they want to and are interested - duh.

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

August 7th I recieved the following email from the NASD business manager, Anne Rohricht, presenting another reason the School Board may want to raise property taxes. Mz Rohricht actually did say "District problems" in the bolded sentence below when she most probably meant to say "programs"- a fruedian slip? From what I have heard in past Board meetings it would probably be their pre-kindergarden program, which is actually welfare in disguise, which local tax payers get to pay for also.

Just wanted to remind you that the budget crisis in PA is not over; and again ask for your help in reminding our legislators to equitably fund public education! Our grass roots efforts must continue!

Subsidy payments to our District were halted; meaning that we did not receive $1.3 million in state subsidies due to NASD in the month of July, and may not receive our scheduled $1.6 million due later in August. From a cash flow perspective (to a District that does not carry much of a reserve balance), this may become very problematic if the budget crisis continues. We may need to look at doing some short-term borrowing, or may simply be forced to stop paying vendors in a timely manner. NEITHER OF WHICH IS ACCEPTABLE FOR OUR COMMUNITY!

“The consequences of failing to see that school districts have the funds they need and depend on to operate during these weeks of preparation for the next school year is an enormous failure on the part of the General Assembly to meet its responsibility to Pennsylvania's children,” said Joe Bard, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools.

The Senate Republican proposals currently being pushed do not provide enough money for education; a local property tax increase or loss of essential District problems may result if the GOP proposals are adopted.

Please call Senator John Rafferty, 610-831-8830, or email jrafferty@pasen.gov today! Remind him that the Norristown Area School District community needs his support; we need him to FUND THE FAIR AND PREDICTABLE FUNDING FORMULA that was adopted last year. He needs to hear from us!

We thank State Representatives Mike Vereb (Rep) and Matt Bradford (Dem), as well as Senator Daylin Leach (Dem) for their support on this issue.

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

Before the last NASD school board meeting last Monday, Aug 17th, School Board President Janice Pearce told me that there was no fair and impartial way to administer merit pay. Therefore she claimed merit pay is not possible. Instead of Merit pay, teachers receive step increases in addition to COLA increases based on length of service and education course credits. Neither length of service nor Ed courses have shown to improve the quality of education. Indeed college professors usually don't take Ed. Courses and they are no less effective than High School teachers in conveying their ideas to students.

I suggested to Ms. Pearce that measuring improvement in a student’s scores may be a better way to measure teacher effectiveness than just giving one test at the end of the year as was the practice with NCLB. The guest speaker for the evening was the director of Office Policy for the PA Dept of Education - Beth Olanoff . After listening to my remarks to Ms. Pearce , Ms. Olanoff said that starting this year the Feds will allow the State to use a “Growth Model” (a.k.a improvement in Student Scores) to determine Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for each School district. Granted we may still need absolute scores at the end of the year to see if a student is ready for promotion or graduation.

However, a simple, effective way to determine a Teacher’s ability to reach students is to see how many students elect to take his/her course. It is odd how students and parents know who the good teachers are, but the administration and faculty haven’t a clue. I was a professor’s wife for 20 years and I know for a fact that it is common to put your least competent faculty members in charge of teaching the required courses. Otherwise no one would take their courses leaving a heavier burden on the rest of the faculty. That practice is not fair to tax payers, nor is it fair to the parents who pay tuition. Some teachers will give easy As to attract students. That can be negated by having the tests of record given by an impartial third party. Third party tests would also mitigates the teacher’s pet or pest syndrome The teacher can and should administer frequent small tests purely as a source of feed back to the student. People will cough up good money for a good teacher and run for the hills from a bad one. I have witnessed both kinds at NHS.

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

While the NASD may be forced to raise property taxes due to proposed cuts in State Spending for K-12, some of our legislature may be giving away Pennsylvania's natural resources due to heavy lobbying by the natural gas industry. I am trying to find out what are State Reps Matt Bradford and Mike Vereb are doing about this. I emailed and called Bradford's office about this months ago, they said they would get back to me. I am still waiting, but it looks like I should call again.

According to Penn Futures ( www.pennfuture.org ) Pennsylvania remains the only major natural gas drilling state without a severance tax--in spite of the fact that significant revenues from the tax could help address our budget woes this year and especially in future years. A severance tax could also provide important revenues for the local governments, K-12 EDUCATION and wildlife management agencies that must deal with the impacts of the drilling. Multi-national oil and gas drillers are hot on the scent of the rich and cheap-to-exploit Marcellus Shale deposit and are snatching up additional drilling acreage. Pennsylvania's proximity to key northeastern markets makes Marcellus Shale gas a bargain, and a severance tax would not keep them away from a great business opportunity.

The natural gas lobby has fed and cared for members of the General Assembly, with the best groomers money can retain. PennFuture has tracked over $1 million (an extraordinary figure) in state lobbying expenses by the natural gas industry in just the first six months of 2009, with Texas-based Range Resources the big dog with $407,365. Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy was not so shaggy either, coming in second with $127,065. Next we're going to take a look at campaign contributions from the gas industry. Something tells us there will be lots of bones and treats to count!

For More Info Penn Futures

[Virginia Fitzpatrick]

This just arrived in my email from "Good Schools Pennsylvania"

The state's education budget came a step closer to resolution today, when legislative leaders announced that a tentative agreement was reached in Pennsylvania's nearly three-month budget impasse. Very few details were made public, but leaders from three caucuses - Senate Republicans and Democrats, and House Democrats - announced an agreed-upon framework for a $27.945 billion budget for fiscal year 2009-10.

While education was widely reported to be a point of contention in finalizing the state budget over the past few months, legislative leaders made it clear in today's press conference that education is a priority for helping the commonwealth to rise above the recession - and that they will use $300 million in federal stabilization funds to increase funding for public education in the coming year.

What was not discussed, however, is to what degree federal stabilization funds will be used to make up for a roll back in the state share of basic education funding. Given the education budgets that have been floated over the past several months, it appears that the roll back will likely be in the range of $118 million, which is far less damaging than the Senate Republican's initial proposal of $700 million. At this point, no additional information is available as to whether cuts have been made in other areas of the education budget.

Nor did today's announcement include details on how the federal stabilization dollars will be distributed. We are optimistic that Pennsylvania's 2008 school funding formula will be used as the distribution mechanism. This formula, which is still in effect and remains in state law, distributes education funding by setting an adequacy target for each school district based on the number of students enrolled and the costs of preparing them to meet the state's academic standards. The formula then strives to close the district's "adequacy gap" by distributing basic education funding by factoring in the relative wealth and tax effort of each district.

The budget agreement was reached through compromise on both sides of the aisle with spending cuts and revenue enhancements, such as a delay in the phase-out of the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax, an increase on the cigarette tax, and an increase in revenue from table games. Speaker of the House Keith McCall (D-Carbon) and House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) expressed apologies to the citizens of the commonwealth for the delay in passing a state budget, for the hardships that were endured as a result, and for the tough decisions that were made in order to reach an agreement.

Conspicuously absent from the press conference was the House Republican caucus, which said in a prepared statement that they did not support the agreement because they were maintaining their commitment to prevent any new taxes in the final state budget.

Legislative leaders attending the press conference committed to resuming the budget conference committee on Monday morning to iron out final details so that a budget bill could come to a full vote in the General Assembly by the end of the week.