One Day We May Let Them Grow Up And Make Their Own Choices

Three school districts in the Atlanta area last week became the first in the country to offer the parental-monitoring option of an electronic lunch payment system called Mealpay.com, created by Horizon Software International of Loganville, Ga.
For two years, the payment system, used by 1,000 school districts in 21 states, has allowed parents to electronically prepay for student lunches. Students type in their identification number before the cafeteria cashier rings up each day's lunch bill. The bill then is deducted from the student's account.
The system was initially designed as a convenient way to make sure children bought lunch without worrying that lunch money would get lost, spent on other things or stolen.
However, these days parents increasingly are interested in what their kids eat away from home. It was requests from concerned parents that prompted Horizon Software to develop the online meal-monitoring option.
Under the system, parents can see all of a student's lunch purchases Article

Excellence In Education

In todays Reading Eagle
Wyomissing academic performance earns high ranking by Newsweek The magazine says its method of comparing schools is one of the best ways to rate how well students are prepared for life after graduation.
By Darrin Youker Reading Eagle
A national news magazine has ranked Wyomissing Junior/Senior High School as the 527th best for student participation in advanced-placement tests.
Newsweek examined the nation's 27,468 high schools for the number of students taking advanced-placement tests.

That figure in each school was compared with the number of graduating seniors in 2004.
Schools placed on the Newsweek list if the number of tests given was equal to or higher than the number of graduates.

Wyomissing was No. 527 on a Web site list that contained 1,036 schools. The top 100 schools were named in the May 16 edition of the magazine. Newsweek said its comparison was one of the best ways to rate how well high schools prepare students for the post-graduate world.
Wyomissing officials were thrilled with the ranking.

“Overall, we've been a well-kept secret in the success of our kids,” said William E. Hartman, junior-senior high principal. “It's a great award.”

Wyomissing had 110 students take advanced-placement courses in 2004, Hartman said, explaining that the school offers 13 advanced-placement courses.
Wyomissing gave 225 tests for its advanced courses, but also had students take tests for courses not offered by the district, he said.
Advanced-placement courses are supervised by the state and are more rigorous than regular classes. Participation can count for college credit in some cases.
Hartman said he felt the method used by Newsweek was a fair comparison of high school performance because every state closely scrutinizes advanced-placement tests.
Dr. Mark T. Dietz, superintendent, said the ranking shows that students and staff at Wyomissing are working hard at academics.
“Anytime a national publication ranks your school, it's something special,” Dietz said. “Wyomissing does a phenomenal job of stressing academics.”

Contact reporter Darrin Youker at 610-371-5032 or dyouker@readingeagle.com.

Making the gradeNewsweek recently listed the nation's top high schools based on student participation in advanced-placement tests. Wyomissing was among just 10 from Pennsylvania on the list of 1,036 high schools.
Pennsylvania schools and their rankings:
Conestoga Valley (Lancaster County) 195
Lower Moreland (Montgomery County) 263
Harriton (Montgomery County) 427
Quaker Valley (Allegheny County) 523
Wyomissing 527
Upper St. Clair (Allegheny County) 637
Unionville-Chadds Ford (Chester County) 674
William Allen (Allentown) 924
Central Bucks East (Bucks County) 1,013
Allderdice (Allegheny County) 1,036
View the complete list at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7761678/site/newseek .
Source: Newsweek

Rent My Son

Ok for those who are always complaing about not having kids but having to pay school taxes and for those with kids that need a little extra income to pay your taxes here is a site for you. RentMySon.com

A univeral final

This test would probably correlate to a final exam grade and as about as usefu.

"The solution to the following puzzle is unique; in some cases the
knowledge that the solution is unique may actually give you a short-cut
to finding the answer to a particular question, but it's possible to
find the unique solution even without making use of the fact that the
solution is unique. " EXAM:

Maybe We Will Have A Horserace

Reading Eagle Article

Two Brandywine Heights School District activists who mounted write-in
campaigns in Tuesday's primary election said they are confident they will be on
the November ballot for school board.
Republican Alane M. Falcone and
Democrat Rosemary Lamaestra asked voters to write them in on their respective
ballots.
The two women are both members of the citizens group Taxpayers
Association of Brandywine Heights. They each need only 10 Democratic or 10
Republican write-in votes to get on the November ballot, provided the write-ins
are valid and no one else gets more.
If they are successful, five candidates
will be battling for four seats.
There were 247 write-in votes cast on the
Democratic ticket and 190 on the Republican, according to complete but
unofficial results.
The write-in votes need to be certified by Berks County
election officials.
Lamaestra said she is not concerned about the
certification process.
“We should be able to find 10 good ones,” she said,
referring to the minimum required for nomination.
Previously, only three
incumbents were running for the four vacant seats.
Board President James D.
Mabry cross-filed and came in second on the Democratic ticket with 290 votes and
third on the Republican ticket with 252.
Member Roger A. Bollinger, who also
cross-filed, came in first on the Democratic ticket with 292 votes and second on
the GOP ticket with 316 votes.
Vice President Michael A. Sacks won on the
Republican ticket with 326 votes. He did not cross-file.

Contact Phoebe Sweet at 610-371-5014 or psweet@readingeagle.com.

Who's In and Who's Out on ACT 72

As of today 26 districts are out and 23 are in. Current List

Exeter Opts Out

The Exeter School Board voted 6-0 Tuesday night to opt out of the Homeowners Tax Relief Act, known as Act 72.
That makes Exeter the first district in Berks County to reach a decision on the controversial measure. School boards have until May 30 to decide whether to take part in the act, which would provide districts with gambling revenue as a means to lower property taxes More

For further information on ACT 72 there will be a presentation tonight at the Middle School at 7:00 PM.

We're No 2

Antietam administration was asked to roll back their original tax increase of 2.85 mills s 11% increase to a 2.5 mill or a 9.7% increase. This allowed them to leap past Brandywine to a total millage of 28.25 compared to our paltry 26.5. Their raise like most everyone's this year was due to a 18% increase in insurance and utility cost. They also added new building debt. Don't give up hope the sunkswamp supervisors are trying to ensure that we will add to our building debt in the near future. In a year or so we can regain the No. 1 spot again.

Stuck in Sunkswamp

In case you were wondering.

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore! Taxes are too high,
elected officials are out of touch, spending is out of control; state government
is a train wreck. Bah humbug."
If you have ever felt like this (and who
hasn't at one point or another?) and if you also want to do something directly
-- like petition for a new law or other ballot proposition -- better pack your
bags and plan some travel first, because you can't do it in Pennsylvania. You
are going to have to move to one of the 24 states that allow ballot
initiatives.
Or maybe it's a particular politician that has your ire --
the governor perhaps, or one of the statewide officials like the auditor general
or attorney general, or a state appellate judge. You believe that the state may
not survive another day with them in office, and you want to do something about
that.
If so, keep those bags packed because you can't do anything about that
in Pennsylvania either. You are going to have to move to one of the 14 states
that allow elected statewide officials to be recalled before their term is
over.
Both these actions -- getting something on the ballot or someone
out of office -- are often referred to as "direct democracy," a term that
includes the initiative and referendum as well as recall. Pennsylvania
doesn't have either the initiative or the recall at the state level, and in fact
in Pennsylvania there's very little that's direct about democracy. MORE

Sad State of Affairs

It was a tough call for the 6 original signers of the lawsuit but they had to withdraw under duress from the very people who were elected to represent them and big money developers. There will be other battles and with the citizenry now more engaged then ever hopefully they will turn out better. There will be a Longswamp Supervisors meeting tomorrow night. Turn off the TV and turn out to show them how you feel about their obscene behaviour.

Morning Call Act 72 Editorial

"We are seeing an unprecedented amount of pushy salesmen, from Gov. Ed Rendell,
to his cabinet members (minus the secretary of education), to members of the
House and Senate, out trying to force school districts to opt in to Act 72.A
good question to ask is, why? Why is this piece of legislation getting so much
hype? One might wonder, if it is so beneficial to everyone, why doesn't it sell
itself?Everyone I know of is in favor of tax reform, lower property taxes, more
reliance on income-based taxes for schools, and keeping the cost of education
reasonable. If Act 72 really did all this, everyone would be in favor of it, you
would think."

.....

"I believe the reason for all the high-pressure sales pitches is that the Legislature and Gov. Rendell are running scared. They are scared of what Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton County, was quoted in The Morning Call as saying: that representatives and state senators have ''more at stake'' than school directors because they are paid to do their jobs. ''There is a difference in the level of accountability,'' Boscola added. ''A school director will have his job next year if he raises taxes.'' The legislators and governor, it seems are scared that they won't keep their nice paid jobs.

For years, these legislators and governors have been using school boards to shield themselves from taxpayer anger at increasing taxes for education. They mandate regulations, laws and programs that cost a lot of money, and then don't send enough state money to pay for them. School directors must obey the law and provide the programs, and then must find local tax money to make up the difference."

MORE

Governor Corleone

Since nobody is buying the Gov. plan he is now resorting to the threat of forcing it on school districts.

"We may mandate it, there's so much anger in the Legislature. We may mandate it
without some of the exceptions that are worked in, and that would be a
disaster," Rendell said Saturday. Rendell said he had heard that Democratic
legislators will introduce a bill today that would force school boards to
participate in Act 72.

Any tax relief at all is years in the future while the damage to our schools will be immediate. How much real help will result with alarmed school boards across the Commonwealth already raising their rates as a safeguard against further intervention from Harrisburg? Why are Democratics supporting this bully when one of their main source of support is the teachers unions? In a few years any course or activity not mandated will be on the chopping block. Athletics, music, business all could be forced to be cut back or eliminated. Is having the opportunity for free hotel rooms in Philadelpha casinos for legislatures so compelling that they would risk harming the education of the next generation. The state should concentrate on supporting public schools at least by 50% which would ease the pressure on property owners and leave the muscle work to Tony Soprano.