Comments for The Council Rock Watchdog Blog

Comment on Council Rock High School South Capacity Figures Magically Change When It Suits the Latest Need — Don’t Official Documents Matter? by crwatchdog

crwatchdog — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:42:30 +0000

Hi,
Sorry this information has taken so long to get. Although I had heard figures for North, I wanted to get the official number for that site to respond. I was asked to submit a Right-to-Know request and after some digging, the District noted that there had not been an Act 34 hearing for North’s renovation. The building was not increasing in size sufficiently to warrant Act 34. However, Plancon documents were prepared for submission to the State for review, approval and some reimbursement. I met with a school official to go over the Plancon F (the final version from which bids are submitted). The capacity figure for North per that document was 2,228 plus 31 for the natatorium for a total of 2,259.

Comment on Taxpayers Beware: Richboro Redistricting Would Create a Geographically Segregated Council Rock School Board — May Have Gigantic Cost/Tax Consequences for Years by Major Otis

Major Otis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:59:33 +0000

If I recall correctly, CR-South was originally designed with a pool. The cost (and usage) was to be split between the district and the township. But Jim Worthington from the Newtown Athletic Club claimed unfair competition and threatened to sue, so the township dropped out and the project was canceled. Strangely, the township did not cancel the building loan, they just used the money for other things. So we’re already paying for the pool, we just don’t get to swim in it.

Comment on Details from the Trial of Robert Hawkins, Former Council Rock School District Teacher by crwatchdog

crwatchdog — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:28:35 +0000

Thanks for posting this note. I had originally written that she was from South because in the official minutes of the School Board meeting of 9/17/09 where her termination is shown, she is listed as a “World language Teacher, CRHS – South.”

I found one reference on the Internet which seems to indicate her homeroom was at North.

At the moment I have simply removed the reference to which school it is, until I can find further clarification from official sources.

Thanks for helping me keep things accurate.

Comment on Details from the Trial of Robert Hawkins, Former Council Rock School District Teacher by Linda M. Seifried

Linda M. Seifried — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:45:12 +0000

Re: November 18, 2009, watchdog post

Barbara Cavanaugh was the German and Latin teacher at Council Rock HS North (not South).

Comment on Council Rock High School South Capacity Figures Magically Change When It Suits the Latest Need — Don’t Official Documents Matter? by Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:01:05 +0000

Okay I understand about making a point about the official numbers. So what are the official numbers for North? What does it say that buildings capacity is? I may be wrong but wasn’t there a conversation at the meeting about rennovations being done at North which has made the instructional space smaller?

Comment on Does the Council Rock School Board Listen to Public Comment? by 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? « The Council Rock Watchdog Blog

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:08:12 +0000

[...] Comments What Is the Responsi… on Does the Council Rock School B…crwatchdog on Council Rock High School South…Nicole on Council Rock High School [...]

Comment on Does the Council Rock School Board Listen to Public Comment? by 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? « The Council Rock Watchdog Blog

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:01:55 +0000

[...] Rock seems to avoid providing information on certain issues going on in the District. I have previously blogged about whether this Board bothers listening to public comment. That post discussed doubts based on [...]

Comment on Council Rock High School South Capacity Figures Magically Change When It Suits the Latest Need — Don’t Official Documents Matter? by crwatchdog

crwatchdog — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:42:14 +0000

The point I have been making about official numbers as shown in official documents has a lot in common with other issues that have been raised in this blog.

It has to do with the degree of trust the public can have in what is going on at Council Rock. Official documents should contain the data upon which decisions are made. There have been too many instances where things seem to get made up on the fly. Instances where different numbers get pulled out of a hat to try and justify some decision that the original numbers did not warrant.

Council Rock School Board is a government body and needs to act accountable for the accuracy of data.

So when District officials throw out projections that don’t match what is shown on official documents, I think it is proper for the public to challenge them. If the figures aren’t reliable, how can the public be certain the decisions relying on some new unofficial figures are going to work out correctly?

Comment on Council Rock High School South Capacity Figures Magically Change When It Suits the Latest Need — Don’t Official Documents Matter? by Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:39:52 +0000

I’m sorry I guess I should have made myself more clear when referring to numbers. I ‘m talking about the enrollment numbers. At no point in Mr. Klein’s scenario do the numbers at South get close to 2300. The biggest year would be 2014/2015 when the number reaches 2219. While I know it can be argued that more students would move into the district his numbers already allow 37 per year based on what has been the trend. I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden there would be a huge growth in only the South sending areas. Right now I believe there are about 2100 students currently in South and there is no concern that the school is overcrowded. As far as North being larger than South are you referring to instructional space or square footage of the school? As far as not having more than 25 students per class all I can say is ridiculous. This was a big part of the argument at the meeting as well. It was brought up about studies showing kids learn better in a smaller class size. I will agree with that at the elementary level. If at the high school level your child can not walk into a class of 30 students sit down, pay attention and learn the same as if there were 5 less kids in the class then you have bigger problems then which school your child should be in. Lets be fair here at this meeting and all the previous meetings it was never about numbers. It has always been about people feeling North is a better school than South. I think that point was made very clear when a large, opinionated group of women were asked flat out would you be okay with keeping the kids together as long as they went to North and they in unison responded yes.

Comment on Council Rock High School South Capacity Figures Magically Change When It Suits the Latest Need — Don’t Official Documents Matter? by crwatchdog

crwatchdog — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:58:56 +0000

Thanks for your comments and being part of the cconversation.

The official numbers for capacity at South are based on the documents submitted at the time the building was planned and built. An example is the Act 34 document which is a legal requirement for any construction project for the schools. If a capacity of 2000 was what the School District claimed in the year 2000 and there hasn’t been an expansion since then, then that should be current capacity (unless the District somehow built a bigger school than officially planned, leading one to question how much more it cost than needed). Those were the numbers cited by the women who contended that Mr. Klein’s figures were different that what the official capacity numbers are.

As far as the numbers at North and South flip-flopping if the RMS split continues, it’s true that North ends up with more students than South, but the capacity at North is larger than South, so a larger number there wouldn’t be overcrowding.