Robert Hawkins Sentencing Rescheduled for February 10th

The sentencing in the case of Robert Hawkins, former Math teacher at Council Rock High School South, has been rescheduled from the earlier date of January 21st. It is now set to occur on Wednesday, February 10th, at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 7 at the County Courthouse in Doylestown.

District’s Special Counsel Claims Melsky Deal Is Still Basically the Same — We’ll See… Is the Track Record Really That Assuring?

At last night’s School Board meeting after I raised issues over the sudden appearance of an agreement that the District would sell the entire 134 acres of Melsky to Toll Brothers (and after questioning on this matter by school board members, notably Dr. Anagnostakos), special counsel John Donaghy proffered that this was not really a [...]

Holy Cow! Another Change to Melsky: Now Toll Brothers Gets to Buy the ENTIRE Property from Council Rock School District

The agenda for tonight’s Board meeting had a motion proposed for passage that would authorize Board president Bernadette Heenan to to act as the duly authorized agent of the Board of School Directors to execute all documents presented by special counsel to finalize the sale of the Melsky Property. Sounds innocuous enough. But looking at [...]

Robert Hawkins Sentencing Date Postponed; No New Date Yet Available

I just got off the phone with the District Attorney’s office to verify the time and location of the sentencing of Robert Hawkins, former Math teacher at Council Rock High School South. It was to have been held tomorrow morning, January 21st at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 7. The word given was that the sentencing [...]

Location Change for January 21st Board Meeting

I just came across this at the School District’s website: the location for tomorrow night’s meeting of the School Board has been moved.  Instead of being at the Chancellor Center as usual, it will be held in the auditorium at Council Rock High School South.  The meeting start time remains unchanged.

Council Rock Sale of Melsky to Toll Brothers and Leo Holt Going Ahead — This Was First Class Work?

At the January 7th Board meeting Superintendent Mark Klein made an announcement that Toll Brothers would be going ahead with settlement on the Melsky tract purchase by the extended deadline of January 29th. Looking at the documents and the process that brought things to this point, Council Rock taxpayers have a right to ask whether [...]

Initial Look at 2010-11 Budget = 6.9% Increase in Property Taxes (Up 7.45 Mills to 115.41)

Thanks to Act 1 (not that there’s a ton for which to be thankful there), School Districts have to present preliminary budgets much earlier in the year than they had several years ago. This is a double-edged sword, since it requires Districts to make more projections when they don’t have a ton of data from [...]

R-Rated Movies Shown in Classes at Council Rock Schools

On November 20th, 2008, during public comment at a Board Meeting, a concerned parent spoke out regarding the propriety of showing R-rated films to students during classes.  The film she cited was “The Merchant of Venice” with Al Pacino, being shown during an English class. She said that rather than containing brief nudity as was [...]

Property Tax Assessment Appeals Results for Council Rock – Revenue Loss $1,267,831; Millage Needed to Offset Loss 1.08 Mill; District Appealing Few Cases, Focusing on Properties Where Loss was $3000-$4000 or More

At the Finance Committee meeting on December 16th, figures were presented showing the results of the large number of property tax appeals filed within the District this year. A chart showing the results is presented below. The tax revenue loss to the District at that point was $1,267,831 annually (with 16 cases still to be [...]