Robert Hawkins Awarded Pension Benefits

The story of Robert Hawkins trial and conviction has been followed here and in many newspapers in the area.  The latest chapter appears to be that with the assistance of the teacher’s union, Mr. Hawkins is being allowed to retain his pension benefits despite his criminal conviction. Details are sketchy and many of the specifics [...]

Salaries and Benefits Make Up 72% of the Budget

Reading the recent Courier Times article about the budget at Council Rock, people may have gotten the impression there’s a lot of items that can be trimmed before looking at salaries and benefits.  The article stated that salaries and benefits comprise 55% of the budget.  That percentage is way understated. Next year’s proposed budget shows [...]

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 [...]

Council Rock School District Considers Looking for a Tax Referendum Exception by Raising Retirement Contributions More than Required — Can This Maneuver Allow a Greater Tax Increase without Voter Input?

At the Finance Committee meeting of December 16th, District officials discussed two potential referendum exceptions to the Act 1 index which could be requested if the School Board wished to proceed. The first was an exception for loss of certain revenue (about which I posted before), and in this post I would like to focus [...]

What Is the Responsibility of the School District to Keep the Public Informed? Where Is the Response to Public Comments? What Is the Status of the CRESPA Contract?

Let’s be clear — the Council Rock School Board is a governmental agency.  They have taxing authority over the public.  And with that comes a responsibility to keep the public informed of matters impacting the District and potential problems that could affect the budget and, in turn, the taxes we pay. They don’t just operate [...]

Update on Hatboro-Horsham Teachers’ Contract and Merit Pay

I’ve written a couple of times about the contract negotiations at Hatboro-Horsham, where the School Board is trying to inject some element of merit pay into the salaries teachers receive.  Here is an update from the Intelligencer on-line, posted on the 19th of October, reporting little movement in those contract talks. But the bargaining position [...]

Pension Contribution Jump in 2012-13 May Cripple Budget and Cause Massive Tax Increases for Years

People who have watched the School Board meetings for the last few years have seen me mention the upcoming pension contribution explosion as an issue of concern.  The District’s contributions toward pension funds may jump by more than $8 million from one year to the next. And that’s not a one-time jump; the increased amount [...]

Guest Editorial in Courier Times about the Need for Merit Pay and for Ending Tenure

Today’s Courier Times contains an interesting guest editorial from Simon Campbell in Pennsbury discussing the need to introduce merit pay and to end the current system of tenure. As part of the write-up, the writer cites statements made by Bob Chanin, retiring general counsel of the NEA (National Education Association), the teachers’ union.  The comments [...]

Complete Minutes with Attachments Not Available to the Public for Months after Meetings

At the most recent Board Meeting, August 20th, I spoke out against a systemic failure of having the official complete minutes available to members of the public to review in any semblance of a timely manner. Board Policy 006 states in part: The official minutes (containing the full context of all resolutions and addendum items) [...]

Hatboro-Horsham Looking into Merit Pay Increase System Instead of Seniority Based Increases

I’ve come across a couple of articles on the doings at nearby Hatboro-Horsham School District where they’re negotiating a new teachers’ contract. (Recall that Council Rock recently extended its teachers’ contract by one year with a pay raise of 2.75% for 2011-12 in exchange for them reducing this year’s raise from 2.5% down to 1.75%.) [...]