Letter: K-5 plan remains best option for students
To The Editor,
I have been a resident of and teacher in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District since 1976. Prior to the construction of Pocopson Elementary School, a committee researched the elementary school configuration plan. This study took place over a period of approximately three years. In the end, the recommendation was to house four K-5 elementary schools. The one stipulation was that...
Letters: Weigh board options carefully
To The Editor:
As a current Unionville Chadds Ford school board director I’m asking the public to carefully weigh their choices in the upcoming UCF school board election. The candidates who will continue the positive behavior of the past two years are Rob MacPherson (East & West Marlborough) and the trio of Timotha Trigg, Frank Murphy and Sharon Jones (Chadds Ford, Pennsbury).
In contrast,...
Letter: Casting your vote for a Township Supervisor
To The Editor,
Voting day is upon us. The need for competency in politics starts with the most basic of elected positions — Township Supervisor — the office a resident has the most access to. Nearly 100% of decisions at this level of government directly affect the resident. Managing a budget of between one and ten million dollars in this neck of the woods, is a lot of responsibility.
...
Letters: Thought’s on Monday’s school board meeting
To The Editor,
For what its worth, I attended the recent regular school board meeting at Patton middle school on May 17th and thought you might appreciate reading my observations and analysis.
First off, I must say that I was impressed with all members of the board. Several members seem to play the roll of the “bad cop” but that (in my opinion) is healthy and brings balance to the nine-member...
Letter: Price argues full cost of keeping busing in-house not looked at fairly
To the Editor,
The UCFSD debate about potential outsourcing at last Monday’s Board Meeting may need some clarification. The low bid we received (from First Student) was shown as offering 5-year savings of $718,203 over keeping things in-house as we are structured right now. First Student is also prepared to purchase our bus fleet for the sum of $1,717,553. The net 5-year difference was $2,435,756.
...
Letter: Response to Knauss
To The Editor:
I am writing in response to the posting Mr. Knauss wrote in his response to Victor Dupuis’ letter. I have included direct quotes from the Citizens for Efficient Education home page – the organization launched by Mr. Knauss and Mr. Hellrung originally to defeat the referendum regarding funding of the high school renovation project a few years ago. My replies are beneath...
Letter: Real questions about budget cutting
To the Editor:
School budget season is in full swing, and it’s clear that there’s a new sentiment that holds a majority vote on the School Board: Spend less!
This is not necessarily a bad thing – Economic conditions are not where we all would like them to be, although Chester County largely avoided all the “Financial Tsunami” and “Unprecedented Economic Disasters” that are too often...
Letter: Mushroom Festival grants might be best kept secret in area
To The Editor:
One of the Best Kept Secrets in Kennett Square…
The Mushroom Festival! Well it’s not the festival itself that is a secret; the Festival is well known and rated as one of the best food festivals in the nation. What I am talking about are the grants that the Mushroom Festival provides to local non-profits. The Festival raises tens of thousands of dollars each year, which they then...
Letter: Substantial savings by outsourcing Unionville busing
To The Editor:
TAS (Transportation Advisory Services) determined that there are substantial savings possible if we choose to outsource transportation. This is because we now pay well above market total compensation in using District employees to provide non-teaching services.
Because all our employees are subject to PSERS we are forced to pay for extremely expensive pensions that private sector businesses...
Letters: praise for ‘Girls on the Run’ program