Swim Team 2007-08

It occurred to me as some lingering comments were being made on some older posts in regard to the pool that the NASD would still seem to need to determine where the swim team will practice and compete next year.

The cost for the two facilities rent (Wilson and the YMCA) will be the same, but the transportation and time to Wilson would presumably cost more.

With a 5% cut across the board in the Athletic Budget, it would seem a decision to save money in this regard may be worth examining.

Further, the time factor means students are either released from school early to get to competition or events or they start practice that much later, meaning less time when they get home to complete school related responsibilities.

Finally, with two facilities available, maybe the NASD would be able to negotiate better rates for the contract for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons (presuming the school opens on time fall 2009).

As a contract item, I would assume this will be reviewed and voted on by the Board based on a recommendation from the AD and/or the Athletic Committee.

New Building with Pool Approved

The NASD Board of Directors approved to move forward with the new MS building and decided against the decision by the committee to put the pool before the voters in a non-binding referendum. Instead they voted to make the pool a part of the plans and not as a separate option. (Read Arelene Martinez's report in the Morning Call here).

Director Tom Maher was the lone dissenting vote to all options regarding the MS.

The Board also voted to rescind the use of eminent domain to acquire the Calandra property. Director Chris Audenreid was the lone vote supporting it.

The Board voted unanimously to approve the elementary redistricting plan.

The Board voted to approve the Act I referendum question regarding some shift from property to an Earned Income Tax.

The Board voted to approve the preliminary budget with a 4.26% tax increase.

To say that these were big decisions would be an understatement. Over 150 people filled the Board Room and public comment was presented for at least two hours before and after the meeting that ended just before 11:00 p.m.

From the Public Comment part of the meeting there was much said and I'll do my best to recap:

• I actually got the first question in, which may have been the briefest asking if there would be a motion tonight to vote to rescind the decision to use eminent domain to acquire the Calandra property to which Board President Keller replied Maybe.
• Questions to better betermine why the Board had decided to pursue a 7th & 8th grade building instead of a 4, 5, & 6 building were asked.
• An individual noted that having the pool single out as an option was discrimination and that he had contacted the ACLU. He also contacted the Attorney General to help ensure that checks were made on every member of the YMCA to ensure there were no sexual predators who could be at the YMCA when the swim team was if they were forced to compete or practice there. He also noted that security would need to be hired because adults and children would be mixed in the lockerroom.
• A petition with 1350 names was submitted asking the Board to reconsider the MS because of cost and to put it to a binding referendum.
• Pool advocates noted life saving skills, healthier children, dangers of swimming at the YMCA, and added cost of going to a referendum.
• Noted that the tax increase index for Nazareth is 4.2% and less than 1/5 of tax increase referendums pass, which means cuts will be made and they will be increasingly painful. You may not be able to cut special education, but student activities, services, staff, and other mission critical pieces will be.
• This year's $56M budget doesn't include the MS Building cost, over-runs, change orders, etc. People have rightly claimed that the path we are on is unsustainable. We will get to the point where we have to cut core services. They will start with extracurricular, then core programs.
  
• Take a look at what is necessary, what is nice, and we need to be careful to get a competitive price.
  
• A student noted the logistical issues of being at vo-tech, and a program at south bethlehem, then back to Nazareth to take a bus to wilson for swim practice. Discussed need for a pool and provided drowning issues statistics and information.
• Call for the school to host events for the community through the pool and facilities of the new building.
• Why are kids still in trailers at LNES for school? I read an article about Microsoft teaming with City of Philadelphia to build a school of the future at a cost of $63million, why does our building cost so much?
• Spoke of an organization in CT that runs a pool for a school at a profit on an annual basis and guarantees break-even for the school.
• When did it become the responsibility of the school to teach swimming?
• Was told that the K-3 targets were 20 by Director Heller and 22 by Dr. Lesky. Early elementary class size is critical to life long learning ability. If we can't keep class size down we fail our students. The state says 15 is ideal, and we know that is a pipedream, but with hiring freeze, cuts, and redistricting, what is going to happen at Shafer? Dr. Lesky noted that k-3 has a target of 22 and 4 & 5 a target of 25. Shafer will get more teachers with new students. They are replacing the eight teachers with new teachers and the savings is the difference between top and bottom of the pay scale.
• Do you ever consider seniors? Most of us haven't had kids in schools for 20 years. Rent a pool for 10,000 or build one for 625,000 - how much revenue will you earn? Why would this make sense? It was noted that the pool would be ours for $625,000 and we have a one year lease otherwise.
• Fortunate to have the YMCA and the Borough Park where children can learn to swim. It does appear that 7th & 8th grade are strongly supported by Dr. Lesky, but I'm still convinced an elementary is the way to go. The 7th & 8th has a lot of extras.
• What is the school's responsibility? Core is to educate. How can you spend money and then cut education?
• We elected you to make decisions because you are in a position to have information to make these decisions. It should not go to a referendum.
• Did you consider year round schools to better utilize what we have? Yes, but it needs to be done regionally.
• Like to know about the financial models used. Taxes keep going up with all people moving in you'd think you'd be alright, but it doesn't work. Redundant facilities in this building. I understand you start with a dream and cut back on cost. I wonder if we've cut far enough.
• In Texas we had year round school in elementary and it was on a split basis. Some took traditional, some took year round and it worked.
• I also nearly closed out the first public comment by asking about the Act I referendum, specifically in regard to the idea of a tax shift. Because Earned Income Tax (EIT) will probably go up annually with raises and bonuses, will it continue to be a tax shift? How will the exemption correlate to the extra money the district gets through EIT. The answer was that there is a high and low cap. The more people who participate in the exemption on property tax, the more EIT can be collected, but can't gain on EIT. If you do then the EIT percent must be adjusted.

The post meeting Community Corner had additional comments, one was in regard to the question of how many square feet of building there was in the new building, and my own was in regard to the debt ceiling. Specifically, roughly what amount of money will we have when the current HS is expanded (in 2015 we will be overcapacity in that building) and the Intermediate School (current MS) is within 100 of capacity in the same year. It was noted we keep 5% or about $7-10 million and with debt being paid off we will have more in the future by about 2015 we may have $20 million. It was also noted that we will have to be very careful with what we spend on projects moving forward.


There was

School Board Meeting - Monday, February 12

There are some big issues to be resolved at the School Board Meeting on Monday, February 12, 2007 beginning 7:30 p.m. in the Board Room.

An agenda for the meeting is available here.

1. Elementary School Redistricting. The Board will vote to approve (or not) the committee recommended plan to redistrict elementary students. While most people will not be 'upset' with the decision to do so because all current students and their siblings will be allowed to remain at their current school, there is some concern about class size and resources. The concern is future class size at Shafer, the location where students from Lower Nazareth Elementary will be shifted to. Given a hiring freeze and decision not to replace retiring teachers to meet the budget, it may be difficult for Shafer to maintain class size as more students are moved into the building. Read more here and here.
   
2. Finance Report. There will be an update on the impact to the 2007-08 NASD budget as a result of the Commonwealth of PA budget, and on the recently advertised Act 1 of 2006 - Tax Shift - Front-End Referendum Question (read more about it here).
   
3. 2007-08 Budget. There is a vote scheduled for the 2007-08 NASD Budget that includes a 4.2% tax increase, which means the administration must have found an additional $500,000 in cuts since the last meeting. These have not yet been presented (read more here and here).
4. Pool as Building Plan Option. There is a vote scheduled to continue with planning for the Pool at the new MS complex with a referendum question on the May ballot (while not exhaustive, read more here, here, and here.
5. Continuation of the new MS Building. "Approve the submission of PlanCon, Part D, Project Accounting Based on Estimates, and PlanCon Part E, Design Development, for the new 7/8 Middle School, to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, as previously presented to the Board, and which becomes part of this resolution through reference." Read more about the new MS here.
   

Additionally, while I wasn't surprised it was not included, I had hoped that there would have been a motion to rescind the previous decision by the Board to use Eminent Domain in the acquisition of the property from the Calandra's following Board President Don Keller's public comments that it was not the right thing to do.

Any other item can still be added and there is an executive session at 6:30p.m., but it is listed as personnel, not legal.

School Stuff - In the News

Today there were three articles in the local papers about and impacting the NASD.

The first from Michelle Pittman of the Express-Times (read the article here) who reports that the new State Budget includes increases for education that will result in NASD receiving 4% more than last year. Most districts across the state will receive 2%, though are schools Easton and Bethlehem are higher than Nazareth.

The second is an op-ed from the Express-Times (read the article here) regarding the decision by the NASD board to use a non-binding referendum. The Op-ed opines, as was done here, that the Board ought to step up and take responsibility for the decision regarding the pool. It further notes that the course of action chosen will be more costly if it is decided not to build a pool after all (paying for plans that could be as much as $300,000 and to date spent $35,000) and equally costly if it does (the pool will still cost $200,000 a year to operate and $425,000 a year in debt service for 25 years). In short, the Board needs to do its job and make a tough decision, which according to the editorial is to take the YMCA offer.

The third is a letter to the editor in the Morning Call (read it here). In it the writer notes that growth cannot be stopped, most new residents are from outside the area, and most of them don't find the recreational or cultural opportunities they desire within Nazareth. As a result, the NASD ought to be 'visionary' and provide a theater that could bring in music and the arts, and a pool that could provide the recreation needed by residents.

It is a well-written and impassioned call, and maybe because this writer is new(er) to the area, she is unaware of the beautiful auditorium we have at the HS (that according to the Express-Times recently cost $15 million), the recently built one at the current MS, and the myriad of cultural events in and around the Lehigh Valley.

If we had events on a regular basis at the two facilities we currently have, I could understand wanting a third. In light of the fact that we host very few events outside of those school related, it doesn't seem building one will provide us with the opportunities the writer seeks.

At the last Borough Council meeting an individual was seeking approval for use at the Borough Park for a Greek Theatre Festival. I think this is a tremendous idea and I hope he is able to make it happen. I would love to have a summer Shakespeare in the park program where each of the neighborhood parks would host one event over the course of the summer bringing this type of entertainment to everyone and making them aware of all the wonderful parks that are provided to residents of the Borough. Doing this doesn't require a new facility.

The pool is slightly different as the NASD doesn't currently have one, but the YMCA does and so too does the Borough. The opportunity exists for those who want to take advantage of it.

In short, the school is not responsible to provide residents with recreational or cultural opportunities. They do share their facilities whenever they can, but this not their primary objective. Some of our municipalities have done better than others to provide recreational facilities, but none have kept up with some neighboring communities.

If you are new to the area and these are critical to you, it is slightly unfair to demand them because they exist in the municipality in which you chose not to live. At the least, take a moment to gain a good understanding of the current budget situation in NASD and its potential impact on the education of our children. If you do, I think you will find that these 'extras' for the 'benefit of the community' are not as important as having adequate space, appropriate classroom size, student and teacher resources, and student activities. All of which are currently at risk for the 2007-2008 school year.

Even More Unbelievable - NASD Folds

If you've ever wondered why the NASD can't balance a budget, just look at what happened last night according to articles in the Express-Times (read it here and here) and Morning Call (read it here).

Five members of the School Board met, which I believe is a quorum so you can expect this recommendation to go through at the meeting on 2/12, along with superintendent Vic Lesky for a "Special" joint committee meeting regarding a pool at the new MS. Supporters of the pool, the swim team families and friends, lobbied for their 48 student athletes to have a pool built that will cost $300,000 to plan, $200,000 per year to maintain and $425,000 per year for 25 years to build, and this does not include any costs of having a swimming team itself.

The NASD currently pays $10,000 per year to rent pool space at Wilson Middle School and $9,000 per year to bus students to the facility.

The Nazareth YMCA has offered its facilities for the team at the same price as the current contract with an annual cost of living adjustment.

The Committee has recommended to put the issue to a non-binding referendum to see what the community thinks. And this is what grinds me. If you want to put it to the people, make it binding. If not the Board ought to do their job and make decisions.

A non-binding referendum means we spend the full $300,000 to plan a pool and then resume the conversation after the vote once that money is spent.

The pool is only the tip of the iceberg. The pool is a part of a bigger project we can't afford and that is the new MS building. Estimated to cost about $50 million with debt service over the next 30 years, the building is intended to solve our space issue, but it doesn't. It will provide room at the elementary level and ample space for 7th and 8th graders (the new building will have 1/3 of its space unused), but we will still need to build facilities to accommodate HS students and by 2015 we will be within 100 students of capacity of the current MS which will then be an intermediate school. The building doesn't meet our needs or solve our problem.

And even before we begin to really spend money on this building project we can't balance our 2007-08 budget without raising taxes more than 4.2%.

As a matter of fact, we started with a budget that required a 10% tax hike and hiring freeze on teachers.

Then we began to make cuts to try to get the tax hike down to 4.2%. We cut:

• Two IT positions to save $119,763.
• Eight staff by not replacing retiring teachers to save $295,000.
• Senior Citizen Tax Rebate program to save $100,000.
• What tax collectors earn to save $52,648.
• Three portable computer labs (one for each elementary) to save $100,000.
• A school resource officer to save $41,345.
• Staff professional development to save $20,000.
• The athletic budget by 5% to save $40,250 (and to consider pay to play to cut further).
• Field trips and activity buses to save $56,000.
• Extra-curricular and coaching salaries (EPED positions) to save $15,000.

This (plus a saving for a van purchased this year instead of next and a reduction of retirement bonus) provides us with a one year savings of less than $1 million. We still need to find almost $500,000 of savings to be able to "only" raise taxes 4.2%.

So given all these cuts, plus the anticipated increases with the new building, we decide to spend $300,000 on drawings for a pool that will cost $625,000 annually, instead of simply saying sorry we can't afford it right now.

And then the Board and Admin sit at the meeting and wonder why it is so challenging to balance the budget. Simply unbelievable.

Student Recognition, or Lack Thereof

Joseph Owens has an interesting post on his blog today (read it here) regarding students who get left out.

Specifically, he draws a comparison between the arguments to include a swimming pool at the proposed Middle School and the existing auditorium at the High School.

He deflects some ire for the comparison by noting that Board Member Tom Maher referenced the auditorium bringing the two together. Who made the point isn't that important to me, and I'll too give credit to Maher, for he makes a good one.

The auditorium, according to the post cost $15 million, is as good as it gets, and was supposed to reap rewards through public use (paying fees to rent the facility). To date the Miss PA pageant is the most visible (and good for the community) event and one of only a few that make money.

One of the arguments by the swim club for a pool is that we will generate revenue. $5 million is one third the cost of $15 million, but even that will cost us $625,000 a year for the next 25 years. We would need a lot of revenue events to off-set that.

Owens' point, though, goes another way. He sticks with the auditorium and wonders why our thespians, given these wonderful facilities and often rave reviews for their performances aren't given the opportunity to be recognized for their skills compared to others in the Valley via the Freddy Awards.

Nazareth doesn't participate in this program conducted by the State Theatre and featuring drama clubs throughout the Lehigh Valley of all sizes.

The show is broadcast on WFMZ, Channel 69, and is amazing to watch.

The point to me is that we can spend all the money in the borough, develop an amazing facility, impede our ability to pay educational needs, and our students will still be left out.

I'd personally like to see our school participate in this event. For every person that complains that sports get too much recognition, here is one reason why - we chose not to be recognized for a student activity that most people believe we would do very well in and from which our students could benefit greatly.

Visit Joe's post here.

Meetings Tonight

While there is nothing listed on the Nazareth Borough Calendar for the month of February, there should be a workshop meeting tonight preceding the first Monday of the month's business meeting. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and is held at the Council Chamber (Church and Center Streets). (If I've got the wrong date, please post a comment and I'll post the correction;-)

The NASD is holding a special committee meeting to discuss the pool offer/situation. This meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Board Room.

Parents, Coach, Swim Team Plead Case in Express Times

Today the Express-Time's Paul Sokoloski has another story on the issue of the Nazareth pool and the swim coach, team, and parents claiming the move to the YMCA would be a step backward (read the article here).

The $5 million figure is again floated, but Board and Finance Committee member Tom Maher notes it is really $625,000 per year for 25 years to cover maintenance and debt service . Some quick math shows the figure is really $15,625,000 total with $10,625,000 the cost less annual maintenance to build and pay off the debt.

The team claims it is treated as a "second-level" program because it's facilities are not on school grounds. The swim team is not alone. The baseball team plays at the Borough Park and the Cross Country team competes there as well. The golf team and ice hockey teams also do not compete on school grounds.

================== ADVERTISEMENT ==================
On Thursday, February 8, 2007 NewsOverCoffee will present "Resident to Candidate: What You Need to Know" at 7:00 p.m. at the Nazareth News Agency (Main Street, Nazareth).

This non-partisan program is free of charge and designed to give you the information needed to become, or recruit, a candidate for local office.

Caffeinate Your Brain - Engage Your Community!
=============== END OF ADVERTISEMENT ================

It is also worth noting that the move to the YMCA brings them back into the community and closer to the school.

Other arguments include using a pool that is also used by young children who may have an accident (isn't this possible in any pool?), the pool temperature is about 5 degrees above PIAA recommended temperature (negotiate in the contract for a change in temp during the season to be within 3 degrees of recommended temp), concern for safety of swim team members by putting them in a facility that has adult members (many, many children use the YMCA daily and if the insinuation is child molestation, I think a lot of staff and members would take offense to this 'concern'), in the larger scheme of things it doesn't cost that much (costs a lot for number of students and amount they will use it-see below), and a lack of diving facilities (fair point).

Another argument, that I don't understand is that the only reason the YMCA wants the school there is so the school doesn't open a pool of its own and become competition for the YMCA. I don't understand how the school having a pool would take away from the YMCA. The notion that a pool will result in community use of it seems rather far fetched when you consider the school's tennis courts are often padlocked and therefore off-limits to the community. No discussion has been made about allowing anyone to use the pool other than the team and phys. ed. classes.

There are a few options, build a pool, use Wilson, use the YMCA.

If Wilson begins a team again, the pool may no longer be available. If the NASD takes past concerns into consideration and makes a contract with the YMCA that addresses these issues, it seems to be the best option.

The NASD can not currently balance its budget for 2007-2008 school year. They demonstrated at the last Board meeting that we are looking at annual deficits once the new MS is built. We haven't even calculated all the extra costs that will come as a result of the MS facility, so the expectation is that these deficits will grow.

Considering all this, the arguments posed by the swim team do not seem to merit spending $625,000+ per year (team costs were not included in the figures above) for 48 student's extra curricular activity that occurs for about three hours a school day and Saturdays from the 2nd week of November until about the first week of March.

And again, if we have no option but to have a pool, let's put it where it belongs, in the vicinity of the new gym that is being planned so we can have more shared facilities and locate it in a place that is intended to be visited and used by the public on a more routine basis.

ET Letter to Editor - Swim Boosters Speak Up

A letter to the Editor from Sharyn Pysher, Vice President, Nazareth Swim Team Booster Club, ran in the Express-Times today denouncing the potential arrangement between the NASD and the YMCA. The YMCA offer was made at the last school board meeting and seemingly met with much approval from the Board.

The Nazareth Swim Team currently practices and competes at Wilson HS. They previously did so at the Nazareth YMCA.

Pysher is incredulous that the NASD would consider a new agreement with the YMCA. She claims the YMCA facility is not up to standards and that YMCA members will not have use of the pool and should remember this was their concern the last time the team was there.

She further claims the offer is being made only to earn money to fund the renovations taking place and that the YMCA will cancel once it is done.

Having been at the Board Meeting and coincidentally sitting behind Frank Frey, Executive Director of the YMCA, he was kind enough to give me a copy of the offer to the Board.

According to the letter the YMCA is offering:

• Exclusive use of the YMCA swimming pool for two hours immediately following or before every school day for HS Swim Team practice during the PIAA swimming season.
• Use of the YMCA swimming pool for home swim meets.
• Use of the YMCA pool for off-season practice for swim team members.
• Use of the new wellness center for land training for swim team members.
• Exclusive use of the new multipurpose room for land training for swim team members immediately following the school day.
• Use of the pool for PE classes to teach swimming to students (grade level determined by NASD).
  

Having received the letter the NASD Board asked the architect to stop making further plans for the pool until the 2/12 meeting at which time the Board will make a decision. To date $35,000 has been spent on plans for the pool and it is anticipated that it will take $300,000 to complete the drawings related to the pool. Further the annual maintenance for the pool will cost $200,000 and the annual debt service related to the pool for 30 years will cost $425,000.

Pysher notes that the team has nearly 50 members. The offer notes it will charge the same rate the NASD currently pays Wilson with annual increases based on "the cost of living index used to calculate administration wage increases." I don't know what that contract is currently, but I do believe it is less than $200,000 maintenance cost and far less than the $625,000 cost of maintenance plus debt service. When you consider these costs against the number of students who will be using the facility for 3.5 months it is very costly.

In a perfect world a pool would be nice. When given these two options in light of our current budget crisis, the YMCA option is the more responsible decision.