Enrollment Increase Projected In Boyertown School District

Anticipating steep enrollment growth in coming years, the Boyertown School Board received an assessment Monday of the district’s ability to accommodate new waves of students in schools that are nearing, if not above, capacity.

In a presentation before six board members, representatives from the Harrisburg-based architecture and engineering firm EI Associates shared their finding that the district’s elementary schools were ill-suited for projected enrollment growth.

Their feasibility study, authorized in May, found that the Colebrookdale and Gilbertsville elementary schools were over capacity by 16 and 83 students, respectively.

Across its seven elementary schools, the district is at 96 percent capacity, with 3,761 students enrolled and a capacity of 3,900.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=402183

Commonwealth Medical College Taken Off Probation

The Commonwealth Medical College moved a step closer to full accreditation on Thursday when it announced the national medical school accrediting body has lifted the college’s probationary status and granted it provisional accreditation.

The advance comes a year after the Liaison Committee for Medical Education placed the school on probation largely because of concerns about its financial stability.

With the new status – a rung higher than the school’s preliminary accreditation before the probation period – the accrediting body also determined that the college has the resources to expand its class size from 65 to 100 medical degree students beginning in 2013.

“This is an external statement by an accrediting body that this school is solid,” Lois Margaret Nora, M.D., the college’s interim president and dean, said. “For anyone who has any questions about permanence, this is just a major statement.”

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/commonwealth-medical-college-taken-off-probation-1.1329922

Pottstown Pennsylvania – The Land That Time Forgot

Image via Wikipedia

Evidently we live in a time warp in Pottstown.  Forward momentum and progress are alien concepts here.  Instead we prefer to stick our heads in the sand, cling to the past (and our favorite elementary school) and refuse to look at the grim reality that lies ahead.

Pottstown School District and Pottstown Borough cannot afford to continue to operate in “Leave It To Beaver” mode any longer.  There are serious financial challenges that lie ahead and they need to be addressed in creative and thoughtful ways.  Instead, we have people like Responsible Tom who are trying to push Pottstown back into the 1950’s.

In case nobody has paid attention, the world has changed drastically from the days of Laverne, Shirley and the Fonz (whoa).  People have different expectations these days.   Parents want modern schools with state of the art technology for their children’s education – or at least the middle class, home owning families we are “supposedly” trying to attract to stabilize our tax base do.

Fixing up five old buildings will leave us with five temporarily fixed up old buildings.  Down the road, this problem will have to be painfully addressed again.

The Task Force spent a long time pouring over information.  A variety of people, from all facets of Pottstown life, were included on the Task Force to make sure there would be good representation from all segments of the community.  Now the Task Force has reached their decision and we want to totally invalidate the time and effort they put into this project because some people do not like the outcome.

Progress and change are not easy.  It is painful for many people.  However, for this community to survive and prosper, change must happen.  We can NOT please everyone nor should we try to.  However, in this land that time forgot, where a tiny fraction of the public votes, attends school board or borough council meetings, we continue to delay the inevitable reality that irresponsible spending will only continue to compound our already tenuous financial position.

We need to run the borough and the school district like businesses and stop spending money we do not have before the financial bottom falls out of everything.  If you can’t afford something at home, you don’t buy it.  The same should hold true with spending taxpayer’s money.  We have champagne taste and a beer pocketbook here in Hyltonville.  It’s about time we snap into reality.  Somebody needs to bite the bullet and “let go” of something so that the entire community can move forward.  Until that time comes, Pottstown will be “the land that time forgot”

I leave you with a story.

The Child and the Filberts

A child (taxpayer) put their hand into a pitcher full of filberts (elementary schools). They grasped as many as they could hold (5), but when they tried to pull out their hand, they were prevented from doing so by the neck of the pitcher (bank account). Unwilling to lose their filberts (elementary schools), and yet unable to withdraw their hand, the child burst into tears and bitterly lamented their disappointment. A bystander said to the child, “Be satisfied with half the quantity (elementary schools), and you will readily draw out your hand.”