Letters to the Editor for December 1

Here are today’s Letters to the Editors…

Submitted by retired educator Ed Kern of Levittown:

The Neshaminy School Board has recently voted to move forward with its School Consolidation Project. This project will commit the Neshaminy School District tax payers to a $55 million bond obligation that will cost the tax payers $107.5 million over the next 23 years. Their plan is to close three of the eight elementary schools, Samuel Everett, Oliver Heckman and Lower Southampton and build a new mega elementary school on the Tawanka sight in Lower Southampton at a cost of $34 million. It also includes $21 million to renovate two elementary and one middle school. $34 million of this is for something we think is unnecessary, the new mega elementary school. Although most of the elementary buildings need maintenance and renovations, none are dangerous or unsafe for the children. The popular opinion is to keep all the elementary schools open and make necessary renovations to the buildings.

It is important to note that all Board Directors do not agree with building a new school. It was approved with only a six – three vote to move forward with this project. Keep in mind that two of the six directors were appointed, not elected. The next step is to hold an Act 34 Hearing at Neshaminy High School on December 4th. Thirty days later, having heard from the community, they will vote whether or not to pursue a bond for funding.

What started out as a school consolidation project has morphed into a much more complicated, unsettling issue. Not only have they voted to move forward with this project, they have now approved moving the fifth graders, ten year olds, from all elementary schools into the three existing middle schools, creating a 5 – 8 middle school model. This model is not popular in the educational world because the majority of ten year olds are just not ready for the middle school environment. There is no social, emotional or educational advantage to moving the fifth graders to the middle school.

At this point in time, there is no decision on what programs will be available to the fifth grade students at the middle school. Moving the fifth graders could cost as much as $1.5 million, although final numbers won’t be available until February of 2015. Meanwhile, the Board has committed the district and taxpayers to this new middle school model without having answers to these concerns.

Moving the fifth graders is not a decision to be taken lightly. The majority of parents do not want this and 92% of the Neshaminy teachers have indicated that they do not think it’s a good idea. It is important to keep the existing K – 5 neighborhood elementary school concept.

The Boards decision to move the fifth graders to the middle schools was a knee jerk reaction when they found out that after implementing the Full Day Kindergarten Program the underutilization of facilities was really at the middle schools, not the elementary schools. This middle school shortage is the result of the Board moving the ninth graders to the high school.

One possible solution would be to move the ninth graders back to the middle school and let the fifth graders stay in their existing, renovated neighborhood elementary schools. This would help balance the enrollment at the middle schools without the added cost and disruption of moving the fifth graders to the middle school.

At numerous Board Meetings parents and members of the community, including over 1300 signatures on a petition, have asked the Board to put the consolidation funding process out to a referendum. They have also requested many times to not move the fifth graders to the middle school. In each case, the Board has chosen to ignore the requests of the community.
The members of the Board need to remember that they are there at the will of the people and they have a responsibility to not only allow the public to speak but to actually listen and understand what they have to say. Six members of this current Board have decided that they think they know what is best for the District and its children and are completely ignoring the will of the parents and community. This needs to go to referendum.

Submitted by Jeff Drinnan of Levittown:

“How does it feel?

To be on your own?

No direction home

A complete unknown

Like a rolling stone

-Bob Dylan

Recently, homeless people in Lower Bucks County were kicked out of the only place they call home. Plans are supposedly being made to find new areas where people can plant themselves, but meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The sudden mass exodus of the homeless population is not a result of a problem that just appeared. It started back in the 80’s and has been mushrooming, especially in Lower Bucks County.

Back in January 1988, as reported in The Morning Call, Bucks County Commissioner Andrew L Warren told members of the Pennridge Chamber of Commerce that the homeless problem is not just found in major cities like Philadelphia, but right here in Bucks County. “We in Bucks County have to realize that as state and federal governments begin to back away from some of the local concerns, that Bucks County government in the 1980’s and 90’s is where we are going to begin to have to find more solutions for issues like this”, the commissioner said.

In January 2013, More Homeless Camps Discovered in Bucks County, Pennsylvania appeared in phillyburbs.com. It was reported that a representative from Penndel Mental Health Center and from the Sunday Breakfast Mission visited a homeless camp in Bristol Township. Several volunteers also visited the camp. Organizers reported that the unsheltered population and number of encampments are growing.

And the homeless population in Bucks County continues to grow. People from outside of Bucks County added to the ranks of the homeless in Bucks. Some of them entered recovery houses but left for one reason or another and became homeless.

Many of the places the homeless can stay are treatment centers. One needs to have an addition or mental health problem to get in. But what about those whose only problem is housing? Many people have become homeless as a result of losing their jobs, a house fire, or other reasons unrelated to addictions, criminality, or mental health.

The only year round emergency shelter in Bristol Township, which has become a magnet for the homeless, operated by the Family Service Association of Bucks County, has a waiting list of more than 100 people at any given time.

Whatever the reason people have become homeless, it is a challenging situation to be in. I have helped the homeless at their encampments. I have felt the soggy blankets and wet clothes, seen the ruined food after a hard rain during cold weather. I have seen the holes in tents and the occasional looks of helplessness and despair. I have felt the strain of people fighting for physical and mental survival. I have experienced exhaustion when I helped homeless people move after having been evicted from public areas.

Some of them are baby boomers, not exactly spring chickens. One 50 something years old homeless person had to move half a dozen times within a 1-2 years period, four times during the past six months.

And now the question is what to do with the broken hearted as they have recently departed.

There are vacant lots and run down, vacant buildings throughout Bucks County, including empty army encampments. Charitable donations could fund the development and renovation of these places. Homeless people with building skills could do the work and the homeless with business skills could help manage them. Given the chance, many homeless people are willing and able to accomplish such tasks. Many of them have useful backgrounds which can be put to good use.

Realtors with the wherewithal could acquire and manage places for the homeless. One skill homeless people have honed on the street is improvisation. They know how to think outside the box.

Government funding to help the homeless is limited. This is why the private sector, which is more efficient than the government, should step up to the plate. For example, out of every dollar donated to the Salvation Army, 82 cents goes to the needy. Likewise, the Advocates for the Homeless and Those in Need (AHTN) gives more bang to the buck in Bucks than does the government. Vacant government and private land should be acquired, earmarked for the homeless and developed, with the homeless doing much of the work.

The homeless need help. In time of need, Americans helping Americans, neighbors helping neighbors that should be counted on. During his presidency, Grover Cleveland vetoed the $10,000 Texas Seed Bill, which would send seed grain to farmers who had suffered a loss as a result of drought. Instead, he counted on Americans helping fellow Americans. And they did. More emergency funds came from the private sector than was proposed by the government.

Americans can help Americans. In the tradition of Grover Cleveland, those who have the money, heart and skill should do something to help the homeless.

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