Thanks again to Brad Moulton for forwarding to me his notes from last night's meeting:
Board meeting last night was very LONG…it didn’t get over until 10:45 PM.
Resident (Mr. Iaccone) wanted to commend (and have a letter put in their files commending) the people involved with the Veteran’s Day parade.
The Nazareth YMCA had an issue with the recent advertisements in the Key and US about the pool from the Nazareth Swim Booster Club.
The student representative was there to present some ideas that they would like to see implemented. Among those ideas presented was a Student Forum (presumably to address issues), a Toys for Tots campaign and the a “School Swap” where NAHS student reps would spend a day at other area schools (Easton & Wilson were mentioned) following around their student reps. The next day, they would switch and go to NAHS.
The Act 1 Committee task force was recognized for the community service as were the tax collectors who came to every meeting and the public that showed up. At the next Board Meeting (11/27) the Board will decide to accept or reject the recommendation to raise the EIT 0.9% for a $694 property tax “shift”.
The architect (Robert Furst) for the new middle school was there to make a presentation. The renderings looked very nice. The design utilized some distinct “Nazareth” styles, specifically the Whitefield House look (the end shape of the Whitefield House as well as the brick look was very prominent. The resolution pursuant to Act 34 requires a public hearing prior to building a public school project. The hearing is scheduled for Jan 9, 2007. The minimum cost of the new Middle School Project is determined to be $43,189,536. The maximum project cost is determined to be $57,895,451. The description of the projects will be available at the Admin Bldg on weekdays
between 8-3:30PM after Dec 18. Hearing will be open to all residents who MAY GAIN AGENDA TIME by submitting their names to the school district’s board secretary. Questions will be received from the floor as time permits. (it looks like if you want your say, you better reserve some time).
A couple sides notes here. The architect stated that they had just conducted a sub-surface geologic study of the proposed middle school site and that it came back “very clean”, which is good news to those worried about sinkholes. Also, the new middle school enrollment is projected at around 875-900 students when it opens in 2009-10. It will be built for 1000
students.
The discussion on the Act 34 resolution got a little heated at times. The motion was made and seconded to accept the resolution as written in the agenda. Mr. Maher proposed an amendment to the resolution that would state (I’m paraphrasing here) that the Admin fund the pool only with electoral approved debt (ie, through a referendum). The motion to amend the resolution was defeated. Mr. Maher was worried that this (the pool) would (or had become) a fait accompli. The motion to approve the resolution as written was passed. Mr. Keller stated that should the price tag of the new pool come back too high, the board could always remove it.
However, that was questioned somewhat by the architect. The problem(s) are that the bids for the construction is not anticipated until May 21, 2007. A referendum would have to be held in early May. There was also some concern about how the state has to approve of the project costs and if they go forward with the pool and the remove it later, that budgeted amount (even
though lower than initially approved) would have to be resubmitted and approved by the state. The architect would try to account for that by preparing two proposals (one with the pool and one w/o). In any event, the schedule is tight no matter how you look at it….. Construction time was given as 24 mos. If the bids are received in May, construction would begin July 2007. Twenty-four months later is July 2009 (and they want to have classes the end of Aug.). That is pretty tight. So any hiccups in the schedule need to be avoided.
The middle school Continuous Improvement Plan team was there to address what was being done at NMS to address not making AYP (in 2006 it was School Improvement 1).
Ms. Dautrich presented the education report where she highlighted the PSSA scores. They even looked at class progression (2003 5th graders to 2006 8th graders, etc) to compare “apples” to “apples” (similar to what was reported here previously). They also came to the conclusion that math scores need improvement as there is a drop off from middle school to high school. Dr. Lesky stated that this is seen all over the state, but nonetheless is something they are looking at. Dr. Lesky and Ms. Dautrich remarked that they are looking at Math and Reading for 45 minutes (all year) as opposed to 85 minutes (one semester) for at risk kids. Dr. Lesky stated that the advanced kids do well with the 85 minutes but that for some lower achieving students, 85 minutes was too long. So they’re looking at this.
Final community corner ended with a couple comments from myself and another set of parents. My comments were (1) on the middle school plans and whether those could be made available on the web since it can be tough to get into the Admin offices between 8-3:30 (it’s a big file, they would look at that) and (2) my comments regarding the PSSA scores, math in particular. A couple of parents were concerned with the “cottages” at LNES. They were specifically concerned with security (they wanted cameras) and access (they wanted a fence around the entire area). Also, they mentioned that gym was being held in the parking lot out front and were worried about kids & cars.
Dr. Lesky said that the cottages were addressed last year (these parents are new to the district and weren’t here) and that these are the first complaints he’s heard about the cottages.
Some of the items were put off until next meeting in respect of the late hour.
Again - thanks to Brad for taking the time to share his notes with everyone regarding the meeting.
11 comments:
I am 100% for the all year math and even Eng for all students!
It's time we start giving much serious thought to the educational needs of our students. Millions are going to be spent on "appearances" .
Building "styles", astroturf, chandeliers, etc. are NOT the essentials that make and mold our children
An 11:22 is right. All the extra garnish on the building is nice but selfish to try to impose all that on citizens who will be sacrifising to get the extra tax money together to pay for it. Why do schools have to be so expensive? The main issue should be education. Can't we have that without the frills and still have an atttractive building that isin't gloomy and is condusive to learning and is a nice atmosphere to be in all day? I think so if you hire the right planners and let them know ahead of time what you are specifically looking for.
It's time we began expressing ourselves much more assertively to schoolboard members and administrators . LET THEM KNOW----by letter or email that we are NOT happy with their grandiose plans and expenditures.
I did email the admin and board yesterday afternoon asking some questions about the new intermediate school. Specifically if it will be a secondary school (longer school day), if students will be transported with other secondary students (mean 5-12th grade on same buses), if borough students will be bused (since the buildings MS and IS are both outside the borough), what additional staff will need to be hired, what additional annual costs will be incurred, and what research is available that identifies the planned building set up (k-4, 5/6, 7/8, 9-12) as being better educationally than what we have or the more traditional (k-6, 7-9, 10-12).
A lot of questions, but it seems we not only need to be concerned with the cost of building the building, but of maintaining and operating it once it is built. These questions ought to be known if the proper planning has been done.
Ross:
They will probabl;y do what they currently do with regards to borough students. Walk to Shafer and shuttle to the new building. Just my guess.
I'm thinking the same thing, which is why I want it declared early enough so something can be done to change it. Doesn't seem to be fair and equitable, does it?
We walk to school almost everyday. But if the school is a bus stop, the bus stops for students living in the borough ought to be the same as those in the townships, tatamy and stockertown.
You don't see one bus stop for all of stockertown or tatamy in one place,but you do for the borough.
The NASD selected a location for the building that was outside the borough and it doesn't appear they considered the impact on the transportation. Now they may be doing it again.
If the MS is on mitchell avenue, do you think they'll put crossing guards on East Lawn Road have upper nazareth pay half the bill and then ask everyone in the developments to walk if the home is within 1.5 miles? I doubt it.
The bus stop for children in the borough should be no different from those living elsewhere.
The fact that 40,000 of borough taxes are spent so some of the children can walk a mile to a bus stop is even more appalling when you consider how many in the townships are picked up in front of their homes at no additional cost.
I was concerned about the traffic backing up on Friedenstahl at 5th St. Drivers fly up the hill and you cannot see how far traffic back up until you are over the knoll. Then it may be a chain reaction because many autos had to lock up to avoid hitting those in front of them while waiting at the stop sign. I was told there will be a traffic light at 191 and probably on installed at Walnut and Friedenstahl(mentioned at school board meeting). I can see the roads reall ybacking up at the red lights, not sure if that will help congestion. Anything else I was told would need to be taken up with the upper Naz twsp. I also asked if all schools will start and stop same time. Reply by Dr Lesky was probably not and this will be one way to avoid crowded unsafe roads, we will see. This was something that would be looked into as far as start and finish times. A long day for elem students was what many parents wanted to see. This is when a bridge( over creek by the football field) connecting the 2 schools was mention and would help to keep traffic between the new 7-8and hs 'in house" and off the other roads. Extra expense not included in the new building project costs. Could be very expensive to construct.
I was thinking about contacting Rep. Grucela's office about Friendenstahl and Tatamy Road as my undestanding is that it is a state road. This means have to work with both Twp. and state to get it in. Twp would have to pay for it.
The light at East Lawn and Schoeneck/Friedenstahl would be paid in part or full by a developer as I recall.
I actually hadn't realized when they mentioned a bridge it was anything other than a new pedestrian bridge. To connect Mitchell Avenue and current HS by way of a road would mean leveling the trees along the creek and building a bridge for vehicles. A pretty major paving project, which of course means big money.
If the school times are different, then I guess we can expect the intermediate school to be on the elementary schedule. 8:05 to 2:05.
The problem then will be how do you get from the intermediate school to Lower Nazareth or Bushkill, not to mention Shafer or vice-versa.
Imagine the bus run - bus leaves Jennings (6:45 am), goes on secondary run, arrives at HS/MS (7:35am), goes on elementary run arrives at Intermediate school (8:05) then drives to Bushkill/Shafer/Lower (8:10-8:25)
The reverse route is run in the afternoon.
It would seem either the entire day is extended (which I think gets us into a teacher contract issue) or a new set of buses are going to have to be used.
Would like to see what the plan is. You would definitely alleviate some traffic if they bused borough students.
Thanks for the notes and comments - have a great holiday!
Not to change the focus-----BUT
This could impact Tatamy Road and present middleschool which may become elementary . WHAT are our state legislatures doing????? FREE, UNLIMITED aclcoholic drinks to gamblers at our soon -to-be casinos and racetracks. (see Morning Call, Wed. 11/23.) How insane is this? We are asking for BIG TROUBLE.
Somebody should also contact Waste Management about changing their routes. They should be nowhere near the schools between 7:15 - 8:15 and then again from 2-3. When they are it creates a hazardous, congested situation.
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