Taxpayers Organization

ATTENTION !!
All Brandywine Heights Area School District Taxpayers

Please come out to the School Board Meeting on Monday, August 2, 2004, 7:00 pm, Middle School Auditorium, Topton. We must let this Board know how we feel about their pushing through an Inflated Budget and subsequent TAX INCREASE. We now pay The HIGHEST TAXES in BERKS COUNTY

If you are disappointed and angered, as most of us are, we urge you to join with us and attend this meeting.

NOTE:
We will be forming a Taxpayers Organization, so that we can
be informed and challenge how our Tax Dollars are being Spent. If you are as concerned as most of us are, please sign up and join with us.

If you would like information about this undertaking and want to participate with us,
please call (610) 987-6897 or email: Ffloydf@aol.com

Please feel free to copy this notice and pass it out to your friends and neighbors.

**********************

Always nice to see the public become involved just wish you had been around for the last several years. This is the second year we have had the highest tax rates as this site forecasted 4 years ago.

The board meeting starts at 7:30 not 7:00 (Agenda). The educational Co-Curr. Committee meets from 6:15-7:30. When you come please bring suggestions not just accusations. Works out better for everyone. You should really come to the Committee of the Whole meetings if you want to make changes, it is usually the last Monday in the month at 7:00 PM.

This meeting is where different issues are discussed before voting on them at the Regular Board Meeting. Just one friendly reminder it is illegal to put notices like this in people's mailboxes. You can attach it to them but not in them.

Spending Comparison

Enrollment figures from the BCIU. Recent budget numbers are from the Reading Eagle. 

Take out the tax hike due to the high school and we would be under or around the county average.  Reading was left off this chart they are in an entire different league. Teachers salaries are the biggest expense for every district.  That cost is greatly influenced by the average experience of the staff.  Around 20% of the Brandywine professional staff have 30 or more years.  The staffing level is below the county average of 13.7 with Brandywine  having 12.6 professional staff members per student.

 

The Rise of the Nerd Nation

The word "nerd" appears to have been coined in 1950 by none other than Dr. Seuss. From the webpage of Eric Raymond:
nerd: n.
1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.
2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare geek.
The word itself appears to derive from the lines “And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo / And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!” in the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo (1950)... How it developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1 seems to have entered mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports that in the mid-1960s it meant roughly “annoying misfit” without the connotation of intelligence.
When I was a kid, no one wanted to be a nerd. Nowadays, though, nerds are "out of the closet." People (well, guys) are proud to be nerds. Is this just part of the nerd life cycle - unpopular at 10, proudly nerdy at 33? I very much doubt it. Nerds of my dad's generation (like, say, my dad!) wanted to fit in with regular folks, not embrace their nerdity.
Why the change? Alex Tabarrok attributes it to the rising education premium. The ratio of nerd to non-nerd earnings has gone up, and the group's status has risen along with it. This is probably part of the reason, but I primarily credit the Internet. Communication, not economic success, is the foundation of group identity. Lots of non-nerdy sub-cultures have profited from the free-fall in the cost of social interaction. But in contrast to most other sub-cultures, nerds are virtually 100% computer literate. The Internet has been the One Ring of nerddom.  MORE AT Marginal Revolution

Enough Is Enough

OK it is bad enough putting poor Martha Stewart in jail but now the SEC is picking on Krispy Kreme. What next Ben & Jerry's. Oh the humanity!! SEC Probing Krispy Kreme Franchise Repurchases, Earnings Warning

Contradictions of the People

The following comes from Marginal Revolution about the public views on federal spending but the contradictions applies to the school district.

"Spending. The public wants less total government spending. In the 1996 General Social Survey, for example, here were the public's views on cutting government spending:
Strongly in Favor of 40%
In Favor of 41%
Neither in Favor nor Against 10%
Against 4%
Strongly Against 2%
Don't Know/No Answer 3%
However, the public also opposes cuts in virtually every kind of government spending except for foreign aid! Browse any of the numbers at the GSS webpage by clicking on 'subject,' then 'spending.'"

Tao Libertarian Thought

"The greater the number of laws and restrictions, the poorer the people who inhabit the land. The sharper the weapons of battle and war, the greater the troubles besetting the land. The greater the cunning with which people are ruled, the stranger the things which occur in the land. The harder the rules and regulations, the greater the number of those who will steal. The sage therefore does not contrive, in order to bring about reform, but teaches the people peace of mind, in order that they might enjoy their lives.
Tao Te Ching Section 57"

Soylvent Kreme!

"Krispy Kreme has developed a new product that, if fully realized, would be comparable in importance to penicillin, the Bible, or the opposable thumb. We're talking about the drinkable donut, or as KK prefers to more innocuously call it, the 'frozen blended beverage.' We learned from the press release that the foundation flavor is 'Frozen Original Kreme,' which KK describes

as 'the signature flavor of our Original Glazed doughnut captured in a creamy frozen blend.' There are also raspberry, latte, and double chocolate flavors, and coffee may be added for further taste-splosion." More:

Democratic Education Platform

On Tuesday, the Democratic Convention will adopt a platform containing a three-page education plank that offers something for everybody but nothing in particular

...
"The closest the platform comes to a provocative idea — and the closest that John Kerry has come — deals with teachers. In 1998, you may remember, he gave a much-noted speech that called for 'ending teacher tenure as we know it.' (He also urged that every public school become 'essentially a charter school.') It seemed, for one brief shining moment six years ago, as if he might be breaking from the Democrats' ancient obeisance to the teacher unions."

...
 The word "tenure" is never used. It's a pale shadow of 1998. Indeed, it's muted since May 6 when Kerry said (per the Los Angeles Times) that "he would provide states more than $20 billion over the next decade to hire more teachers and raise their pay in return for new efforts to weed out poorly performing instructors.... Kerry would require all states receiving the new federal money to toughen the tests used to certify new teachers. Even more dramatically, he would require those states to simplify the process for teacher dismissal.

Predictably, the National Education Association threw a fit and summoned Kerry for career counseling. And the candidate has since eased off. Now he murmurs 'due process' first, then suggests 'improving or replacing teachers who do not perform on the job.' "

....

"Bottom line: The teacher unions remain in charge of the Democrats' education policies and Kerry-Edwards refuse to rile them. Hence the ticket's position boils down to this: "We sort of agree with Bush about what's wrong with American education and yes, we voted for his bill, though we now have misgivings, but we promise to spend buckets more than he will and we'll make sure that education reform doesn't upset the educators."

Article

Parents, scholars reconsider technology for youngsters

"But there's growing debate over whether children should be exposed to technology so early. Some parents and scholars see no benefit, and a handful even warn of a hindrance to child development.
'Mental ability is gained from manipulating the three-dimensional world at that age and (from) managing your own mind and not having it managed by an electronic machine,' said Jane M. Healy, author of 'Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Mind.'
Healy said computers take children away from other developmental activities more appropriate for their brains and can 'easily become a habit for both parent and child.' "
...
"Yong Zhao, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University, bought his daughter an iMac before she turned 1 and had her simply bang on the keyboard. Eventually, he said, his daughter picked up on how the banging led to changes on-screen. " MORE

Not sure the correct age but an iMac for a 1 year old may be just a little young.

Don't Go To The ER In CA

"Would-be California medical students with learning disabilities filed a discrimination suit Monday saying their prospects of becoming doctors are being thwarted because they aren't given enough time on the medical school entrance exam.
The proposed class-action suit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court by four students and two advocacy groups. It argues that students who have trouble reading are capable of learning and practicing medicine, provided they're given enough time to complete the Medical College Admission Test in a distraction-free setting.
'Without accommodations, I really can't show what abilities I have,'' said Brendan Pierce, 28, of Oakland, who has dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. He said he's been given extra time on his exams since junior high and has done well in school. " MORE

There are really some professions where time and the ability to work in a chaotic evironment is a little bit imporant. I have never seen an ER or even a regular doctor's office that was distraction free. Get a PhD and go into research.

Article

Article: "The Gov. Mifflin School Board on Monday night approved the use of a high-tech fingerprint identification system for intermediate school students to pay for school lunches.
The system will be part of the services provided by Food Service Solutions Inc., Altoona, which the board appointed as its cafeteria point-of-sale system administrator.
The company will maintain the debit purchasing system in the middle and high schools and institute the fingerprint identification system in the intermediate school for the upcoming school year."

....
"The also board approved the 2004-05 salary of $120,000 for Dr. Mary T. Weiss, superintendent, an increase of $5,000 from last year."

Log on to the internet to find your child

"The rights and wrongs of RFID-chipping human beings have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school.
The tags will be read by readers installed in school gates and other key locations to track the kids' movements. .,. " MORE :

Brandywine New Superintendent

"The Brandywine Heights School Board voted 7-0 Wednesday to hire Dr. John P. Curtin to a five-year term as superintendent at $120,000 annually.
?He has strong interpersonal skills needed in dealing with the challenges that face this district,? said James A. Gilmartin, who has been the acting superintendent since March.
Curtin, 54, who is assistant superintendent in the Interboro School District in Prospect Park, Delaware County, comes to the district during teacher contract negotiations.
He also is arriving immediately following a contentious budget season in which the tax rate rose from 24.3 mills to 26.15 mills the highest in Berks County for the second consecutive year.
Dr. John P. Curtin

Position: Brandywine Heights School District superintendent.
$120,000.
Age: 54.
Residence: Morton, Delaware County.
Experience: Adjunct professor of education at Cabrini College, Radnor, Delaware County. Twenty-six-year tenure in Interboro School District, Prospect Park, Delaware County, serving as assistant superintendent, 1995-2004; high school principal, 1993-1995; assistant principal, 1986-1993; English and Latin teacher, 1980-1986; and junior high English teacher, 1978-1980. Previously worked as a language arts and reading teacher at St. Andrew’s School, Drexel Hill, Delaware County, for about five years.
Education: Doctorate in education from Widener University, Chester County, 1998; master’s in education from West Chester University, 1983; bachelor of arts degree from Villanova University, 1973.
Family: Married 29 years to wife, Geri, a registered nurse. They have three children: Mark, 27; Sean, 24; and Bridget, 20." MORE :

Intuitor Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

Intuitor Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics: "Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of every detail. However, when supposedly serious scenes totally disregard the laws of physics in blatantly obvious ways it's enough to make us retch. The motion picture industry has failed to police itself against the evils of bad physics. This page is provided as a public service in hopes of improving this deplorable matter. The minds of our children and their ability to master vectors are (shudder) at stake."

Hope Everyone had a wonderful Fourth

"In Saddam Hussein's former stronghold of Tikrit, soldiers watched fireworks light the night sky as they held a joint celebration with Iraqi National Guard soldiers on a bank overlooking the Tigris. Thousands of troops celebrated at one of Saddam's old palaces with a buffet featuring hamburgers and hot dogs and traditional Iraqi dishes." U.S. Troops Celebrate 4th of July in Iraq:

Tax Base

Besides from the board members being complete crooks there is another reason our high taxes. There is a hugh difference in the tax base for the different school districts. Brandywine having the third lowest. If we didn’t have the new school with the 5 mill increase (A very big IF) the rates would be in range with similar districts. This was pointed out here on the site years ago but nobody didn’t seem to pay attention till Monday.



1Cost to a property owner for a teacher assumes $50,000 for teacher and property valued at $100,000.

There was some confusion about milleage rates and the tax bill. Just divide your property value by 1,000 and multiple it by the millage. For a 100,000 home in Brandywine the tax would be 2,430.in Hamburg it would be 1,563..

The trouble is all mills are not created equally when it comes to bringing in revenue. This allows othere districts to have a lot of cooler stuff and still be taxed less. In order to pay for a $50,000 teacher a homeonwer in Brandywine,where a one mill increase brings in around $490 thousand dollars , would have to be taxed 0.1 mills or $10.15. For the same teacher a resident of Boyertown, where a one mill tax brings in over 2 milllion dollars, would be taxed 0.02 mills or $2.16. Quite a difference for living across an arbitary line on a map.

So for the people who don't want any industry in the district to improve the tax base just get used to paying 5 times more for everything in this district then citizens of other areas.