Courier roundup: Veterans Day

• Observances mark Veterans’ Day week in Milford
  
• Students reach out with the arts
  
• Play made ‘Bah Humbug!’ famous
  
• How to make a paper backpack
• A really big pumpkin
• On school boards and abortion
  
• Thank you teens (letter by board member John Kupillas, who publicly lamented about undeveloped teenage brains a few weeks ago)
  

People continue voicing opposition to Kupillas' statement

This letter appeared in this week's Pike County Dispatch in response to John Kupillas' sentiments about how young people's brains are undeveloped.

There also have been a few comments that have surfaced on the Times Herald-Record article about the vacancy, which ran in yesterday's sell-out election issue.

Record runs long-awaited article on vacancy

The Times Herald-Record ran today an article on the vacancy on the Delaware Valley School Board.

Kupillas didn't return phone calls. Bob Goldsack, school board president, said Kupillas was "busting Ryan's chops."

Yes, because going to the local press in the capacity of an elected public official to alienate the very young people you serve is appropriate chop-busting.

Kupillas hasn't returned my phone calls, either. Nor has Diane French.

What with the election coverage, this story got a little buried, but hopefully running this information in the regional daily newspaper will give the whole issue more attention.

Record article not printed today

The Times Herald-Record did not run a story about the school board vacancy, contrary to an e-mail from a reporter a few days ago that the story would be printed today.

The story, which discusses the process by which the vacancy was filled, did not appear in the Record's print edition nor on recordonline.com. It is unclear when the article will run in the Middletown, N.Y. daily paper that sporadically covers the eastern part of Pike County, in the absence of a daily newspaper in the county.

Record to run story Tuesday

The Times Herald-Record will run a story about the school board appointment, according to an e-mail from reporter Stephen Sacco.

Sacco interviewed me mid last week, and also indicated he spoke to board president Bob Goldsack and a few other sources. (Sacco said Goldsack said John Kupillas was "busting my chops"??) 

Be sure to pick up a copy of the Record on Tuesday.

Better late than never: Letter says Oct. 9 meeting is canceled

A letter I received Thursday, Oct. 23 from the Delaware Valley School District notified me that the Oct. 9 special purpose meeting, at which the board was originally scheduled to fill John Wladar's vacancy, was to be canceled because of Yom Kippur.

The letter was dated Oct. 8 and postmarked Oct. 21.

⇒ READ THE LETTER

Dear Mr. Balton:

Thank you for applying and interviewing for the vacant position on the Delaware Valley School Board. Your willingness to serve the students and community of the Delaware Valley School District is greatly appreciated.

Due to the religious observance of Yom Kippur and the annual Pennsylvania School Board Conference on October 14-17, the next board meeting will take place on October 23,2008 at 7:00pm. At this meeting, the board will appoint a member by voting in the new candidate.

Thank you again for your interest as we serve all students of the Delaware Valley School District.

Sincerely,


Candis M. Finan, EdD Superintendent

CMF:lm

View a .PDF of the letter

Coverage on Schor's appointment

• Schor takes seat on DV school board
  

Schor sworn in at tonight's meeting

More coverage on Schor's appointment

PoconoNews.net has mention of the selection of Sue Schor to fill the vacancy on the school board.

We all owe Mrs. Schor a pat on the back for offering to fill the vacancy and serve our community. We also owe a thank you to Jack Fisher who went through all of the rigamarole to file the petition. These two individuals are excellent examples of seriously committed and caring people in our community. 

Join me in wishing Mrs. Schor well as she serves on the board. I spoke to her on the phone this afternoon, and she is very excited and honored to take the position. She also specifically mentioned she is hoping to work together with the Taxpayers United representatives for the greater good of our school district.

Said current board member Sue Casey in an e-mail today:

Seven applicants with admirable qualities and intentions applied for the open director position on the DV School Board, and I would have been fine with serving this next year with any one of them.

My whole-hearted support was for Sue Schor whose qualifications and intent was vetted by the voters in the November 2007 election. The appointment by Judge Chelak was the right choice.

This community, students and taxpayers alike will be better served with Sue Schor as our newest director.

Courier roundup: Responses to Kupillas, already outdated top story on the board appointment

• Court decides board vacancy
• AND UPDATE (7:30 p.m.): Court decides board vacancy
• Spirited students
• Teddy Bears on parade at Shohola
• Smoky and the kindergarten
• Getting Physical with Education
• September’s best at Delaware Valley Middle School
• Pike County Youth Coalition response to John Kupillas
• Secrets, discrimination and irresponsibility
  

Sue Schor is the ninth board member

The judge has selected Sue Schor to fill the vacancy on the school board, according to a phone call from superintendent Candis Finan and board secretary Bill Hessling.

Schor was the next highest vote getter in the 2007 election.

Finan and Hessling said they are calling all of the candidates to inform them of the decision.

No word on appointment

As of about 10:30 this morning, there is no word on the court's appointment to fill John Wladar's vacancy, according to the court administrator's office.

Stunning negativity in "Stunning Negativity"

I want to assure board member Diane French and the community that I do not believe Nick Troiano or I or anyone else has second guessed the amount of work she and the other board members undertake. I think we all can agree we see the outcome of the work by her - and of course by many others, too - and we appreciate their efforts.

⇒ READ MORE

Mrs. French lays out a list of the board's accomplishments since last November, and I am unsure why she took this defensive approach. I do not think Troiano's letter at all attacked her or the other board members for what they have contributed over the past year. I sure have not. What I think Troiano and I and many many others have raised are concerns about how the vacancy was handled (one of which Judge Chelak agreed with yesterday) and concerns about the letter her fellow board member John Kupillas wrote in last week's newspapers and the "stunning negativity" it casts upon the very people that attend and have graduated from Delaware Valley.

I believe Mrs. French knows I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have the phone interview on Oct. 2. While I believe it was within my rights to request it, I could not say enough that evening to express my gratitude to the board for accommodating me.

Unfortunately, I think Mrs. French may misunderstand my intentions. I fully agree with her that the position is "not a summer joke or a way to make headlines." I expressed complete sincerity to the board about this position, and I still am completely sincere in my intentions to offer Mrs. French and her fellow board members a helping hand and to give back to the community and school that raised me. I never once requested that the board adapt to fit into my schedule. In fact, I offered to take on extra work if I ever missed a meeting. I never once mentioned a "social agenda" nor did I say it would ever supersede board duties if I was selected.

I was indeed upfront and admitted I may not be able to make all of the meetings in the fall if selected. Ironically, the candidate Mrs. French backed instead, Bernard Marasa, is in Florida and will not be at this week's meeting, at which she planned to vote for his appointment.

If I do not exemplify the seriousness, the time commitment and the passion that Mrs. French writes are necessary to make our school district the best, I don't know who does.

I hope she realizes my intentions are sincere and in the best interest of her, the rest of the board, the taxpayers, students and their parents, and everyone in the community – and that my interest in the vacancy only demonstrates how thankful I am to the school district and how serious I am about giving back to it.


Quick fact checks:

• “... we kept our word and did not raise taxes or cut programs.”
  

True, taxes were not raised, though the zero tax increase was caused largely by increased state funding from the gambling money that Mrs. French mentions, which is more luck than action by the board. Whole programs have not been cut, though many budgets, both academic and co-curricular, have been under scrutiny and have been tightened, according to teachers and club advisers I’ve spoken to.

• “... we are working diligently to provide a better quality education for all students from special education to the advanced programs.”
  

A broad statement that is lacking justification. How have they worked diligently to provide better quality special education? The special education chair, John Wladar, has resigned. He did not attend a meeting nor hold a special education committee meeting for the past six months. When he was first appointed chair, Wladar did not know what an IEP was and wanted to discuss confidential special education student matters in public.
In the past year, the special education subgroup at DV High School failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the state PSSA tests. On the other end of the spectrum, Mrs. French has publicly spoken out against increasing the number and enrollments of Advanced Placement classes.

• “These changes will have an impact on the improvement of SAT and PSSA scores ...”
  

This improvement has not yet been measured. The only indication available now is that since Taxpayers United claimed a board majority, DVHS has fallen onto the state’s warning list for low PSSA scores among special education students. No improvement so far.

• “A sex education program was developed because of the lack of a sufficient program for years.”
  

Only after a major public controversy arose over it. This action was not initiated by the Taxpayers United members and was unanimously agreed upon.

• “Finally, the water tower will be completed and plans have been started for the elementary school in Milford.”
  

The water on the Dingman Delaware campus has already been meeting all standards and the primary school well has been producing pristine water. On an opinionated note: The costly water tower has nothing to do with the quality of education. This may be nothing more than a huge, expensive water storage facility that the taxpayers are footing the bill for - with money that could have been used directly on education.

The previous board had already initiated the new elementary school plans on the Westfall campus in *Westfall. The current board has stalled on getting anything done and is backing a plan that requires the demolition of the administrative offices, the current elementary school, the playground and a practice athletic field. The construction will disrupt the educational process and consume field space and limited parking spaces on the campus. The final proposed building will not solve any of the serious safety and traffic problems caused by overcrowdedness on the main DV campus. The project will cost as much as or more than the previous board’s original plan, which included new land to build a safe, separate elementary school campus.

• "Sue Casey, the previous board president, suggested we take a poll as to whether we would have a consensus as to the candidate."
  

Is this an attempt to pass the buck? Bob Goldsack is the president now: Where was his leadership? Mrs. French went along with it, too, and now is publicly denouncing it.

Diane French: "This position is not a summer joke."

These two letters appeared in this week's Pike County Dispatch.

I appreciated reading Kim Pabon's letter (below), which discusses the cronyism that was taking place on the school board until today, when the board lost its power to fill John Wladar's Sept. 18 vacancy because the board had not acted within the 30 days required by policy.

Sadly, the Dispatch selectively chose to disregard a letter I wrote in response to Kupillas, in addition to at least one other response letter written by a member of the Pike County Youth Coalition.

After hearing last night about board member Diane French's letter (below), I contacted her to request a personal conversation with her privately. She has not yet responded to my request, nor has fellow board member John Kupillas, who wrote a similarly "stunningly negative" letter last week and whom I have tried to contact multiple times. I would be grateful if the elected public officials who represent me and our community would respond and take care of their personal problems with me in a "mature" manner.

Judge to appoint new board member by noon tomorrow

Judge Greg Chelak announced the court will appoint a new school board member by noon Thursday (tomorrow), after listening to candidates at today's 1 p.m. court hearing, according to multiple candidates and sources who attended the hearing. The hearing was ordered after the board failed to fill the Sept. 18 vacancy of John Wladar within 30 days and a petition was submitted by former board member and vacancy candidate Jack Fisher.

Board solicitor Mike Weinstein had earlier advised the board not to worry about appointing within 30 days.

Candidates present at the meeting were Denise Fey, Jack Fisher, Mary Gordon, Bill Greenlaw and Sue Schor. Not present were Taxpayers United favorite Bernard Marasa, who is in Florida, and I, who could not make travel accommodations on such short notice.

In Marasa's absence, current board members Deb DuCharme, Bob Goldsack and John Kupillas spoke on his behalf and presented his resume. Current board members Sue Casey and John Wroblewski endorsed Schor, and Pam Lutfy endorsed Gordon. In my absence, a letter and my resume, which I faxed to the court administrator's office early this morning, were examined at the hearing.

Current board members absent from the hearing were Diane French, who wrote a scathing letter to the editor in this week's Pike County Dispatch to be posted on the blog later this evening, and Ed Silverstone, who arrived at the end of the hearing.

Stay tuned to RB for DV - your only source for late-breaking news.

Meeting tomorrow: Where's the agenda?

The regular October school board meeting will happen Thursday (tomorrow) at 7 p.m. at Shohola Elementary School.

The hot topic of the night originally was to be the appointment of a new board member to fill the vacancy left by John Wladar at the September meeting, but a court hearing started at 1 p.m. today because the board has failed to fill the vacancy within 30 days.

There is no agenda posted anywhere on the school district's Web site. In fact, in looking for the agenda/minutes page, you will discover it is no longer an option on the board's page on dvsd.org. There also is no agenda posted on the "community bulletin" page, either.

One of these months.

Mobilize.org picks up Kupillas letter

A national non-profit youth organization called Mobilize has discovered the youth-attacking letter to the editor by board member John Kupillas and has mention of it on the Mobilize blog:

So Sad in This "Youth-Friendly" Election

Posted using ShareThis

Breaking news: Court hearing ordered to fill the vacancy

Judge Gregory Chelak has ordered a hearing on a petition submitted by Jack Fisher. The petition was submitted when the school board failed to fill the vacancy of John Wladar within 30 days.

The hearing will take place Wednesday (tomorrow) at 1 p.m. in the Main Courtroom at the Pike County Courthouse in Milford.

I just received this PDF in an e-mail from Bill Hessling, board secretary.

'08 grad responds to Kupillas

A member of the Pike County Youth Coalition, Ryan Jameson, wrote a letter to the editor responding to board member John Kupillas' letter in last week's Pike County Dispatch. The letter was posted on the PCYC blog.

In related news, I am seeking personal contact with Kupillas. I am hoping to speak to the elected public official personally about his letter to the editor, in a private and mature manner. I e-mailed board secretary Bill Hessling, who did not provide me an e-mail address or phone number for Kupillas, but assured me my request was passed along. I also have tried calling two different phone numbers for which Kupillas is listed in the phonebook and leaving messages, but I have not heard back from him yet.

Thirty days later, no replacement; resident submits petition to court

Today marks the first business day after 30 days have elapsed since John Wladar resigned from the Delaware Valley school board on Sept. 18.

According to board policy, the vacancy needed to be filled within 30 days. If not, a petition to the court with 10 resident signatures could be filed.

This morning, one of the candidates for the vacancy and former board member, Jack Fisher, submitted a petition to the court, according to an e-mail.

The board currently plans to appoint Bernard Marasa at Thursday's regular meeting 7 p.m. at Shohola Elementary School.