Community Matters

Taxpayers, teachers, PTO presidents, paraprofessionals, parents, substitute teachers, TENIG members and students brought their collective voices to the School Board meeting last night, and were heard, at least temporarily. Standing three people deep and overflowing into the lobby, all attended the meeting for the singular purpose to oppose outsourcing of paraprofessionals in the TE School [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 114 Comments »

At the Monday TE School Board meeting, our community’s taxpayers, parents and School District employees deserve an open and honest discussion on the impact of outsourcing.  If the jobs of aides, paraeducators and substitute teachers are outsourced with a third party contractor, we deserve to know the long-term costs and financial benefits, if any.  Based [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 21 Comments »

It is almost impossible to believe that we live in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb with award winning, nationally ranked schools and our School Board is voting whether to outsource 175 aides, paraeducators and substitute teachers at Monday’s School Board meeting. Since attending the Finance Committee meeting and writing about it this week, I have heard [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 57 Comments »

Rising pension and escalating health care costs are putting intense pressure on school districts to lower costs. Tredyffrin Easttown School District is no different and there will probably be outsourcing discussion at Monday’s Finance Committee meeting.  Fueling the discussion of outsourcing TESD aides and paraeducators is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  As of [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 50 Comments »

At the T/E School Board meeting last night, the public comment section offered several interesting remarks from TESD residents.  Representing her Brookmead neighborhood, Rosemary Kait expressed disappointment to the Board for the lack of notification that the tennis courts at Valley Forge Elementary School will be razed on Saturday, March 23.  According to Kait, adjacent [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 68 Comments »

Economic times and tight school budgets have school districts scrambling to find ways to cut costs, and the ‘outsourcing’ chopping block continues as a major target.   Proclaiming cost-savings for cash strapped schools is the driver behind school district outsourcing decisions – and there appears to be an outside company available for virtually every classified service. [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 45 Comments »

I attended last night’s TESD Budget Workshop for the development of 2013-14 budget. Sue Tiede, Director of Personnel presented enrollment history and trends, projected staffing needs and changes for the District. In the review of staffing changes from 2008 to 2013, it was interesting to note that full-time teachers during this period has decreased by [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 7 Comments »

Laura Whittaker, President of T/E teachers union (TEEA) delivered a status update and message of support at Monday’s school board meeting for members of TENIG (Tredyffrin Easttown Non-Instructional Group) based on the District’s possible outsourcing.  (TENIG members include the custodians, maintenance workers, kitchen staff and secretaries.) Whittaker disclosed that members of TENIG’s bargaining union have [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 49 Comments »

The consulting firm, International City/County Management Association (ICMA) has completed their operations review and data analysis of the Police Department; click here to read the detailed 92-page report.  The agenda for Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting includes a presentation of the ICMA Police Operations Report. As reference, the Board of Supervisors approved this $49K police [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 28 Comments »

The TESD held its regular monthly school board meeting last night.  I was unable to attend but Ray Clarke attended and forwarded his notes from the meeting.  There had been much speculation about whether or not the public would see the tentative agreement between the District and the teachers union, TEEA.   The agreement was not [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 12 Comments »