Community Matters

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 »

May 1 was the deadline for the School District to submit their variance application to the Township in order to be listed on the Zoning Hearing Board’s May 23 meeting agenda.  According to Township Manager Bill Martin, the application was received today. Some of the neighbors of the Valley Forge Elementary School tennis courts may [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 20 Comments »

The Valley Forge Elementary School tennis courts are on tonight’s agenda of the TESD.  Every time you think that this situation has moved forward, it takes a couple of steps backwards.  As a result, it is unclear exactly what is going to come out of tonight’s meeting — will the courts stay or will they [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 7 Comments »

At today’s Facilities Committee meeting, chair Pete Motel and the other 3 School Board committee members, Jim Bruce, Betsy Fadem and Liz Mercogliano made a 180 degree turn from their former position of demolishing the tennis courts at Valley Forge Elementary School.  With a unanimous vote from the Facilities Committee, they will send their recommendation [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 19 Comments »

Spring is PSSA time for public schools in Pennsylvania and the results are in for 2013. The Pittsburgh Business Times has published their 2013 Guide of Western Pennsylvania Schools, which lists the rankings of all  school districts in Pennsylvania.  The analysis of the school district performance is based on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 55 Comments »

Tomorrow evening (Tuesday, 7:30 PM, TE School District Administrative office) at a special school board meeting, there will be an opportunity for interested parties to voice their opinion on the Valley Forge Elementary School tennis courts, and whether or not to demolish.  Tonight Finance Committee will meet at 7 PM, followed by the Budget Workshop [...]

Filed under: Tredyffrin Township | 63 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 »