Friday, May 15, 2009

Meet the PASD School Board candidates at Molly McGuire's open forum - UPDATED

Received via email from Mike Ellis.

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OPEN FORUM

I've arranged for all the PASD school board candidates to meet at Molly McGuire's on Monday, 5/18 at 6 p.m. for an open forum.

I hope you can take advantage of this opportunity to meet the candidates in this very important primary on Tuesday. A lot happened in the last year and we have some good candidates that would love to answer your questions.

For further information please visit the PASD blog I've been maintaining.

www.slanguage.com/pasdblog1.html

Please feel free to forward this information to all concerned Phoenixville Area School District taxpayers.

Thank you.

Mike Ellis

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do they think of this?SECTION 405. DISCONTINUANCE OF COUNTY LIBRARY AND TAX IN CITY, BOROUGH, TOWN, TOWNSHIP OR SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Discontinuance
of Library Tax
Wherever in a city, borough, town, township or school district, there has been or may be established and maintained a separate local library and there is at the time a county library in existence, three percentum of the number voting at the last preceding general or municipal election in said city, borough, town, township or school district, may petition the county commissioners to place on the ballot the question of whether or not such city, borough, town, township or school district, shall be a part of the county library district and be subject to levy and payment of any taxes levied for the purpose of maintaining or aiding in the maintenance of any county library. At the next general or municipal election occurring at least sixty (60) days after the filing of the petition but not oftener than once in five (5) years, such question shall be placed upon the ballots and submitted to the electors of the city, borough, town, township or school district, as provided by the election laws. If a majority of those voting on such questions vote in favor of the discontinuance of the county library and tax in said city, borough, town, township or school district, then such city, borough, town, township or school district, shall not thereafter be a part of the county library district and shall not be subject to the levy and payment of any taxes levied for the purpose of maintaining or aiding in the maintenance of any county library.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like this should be investigated a little further.

Not enough time for primary election, but lots of time until November.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Molly's is planning a take over of the school board, how about that? Come on, you conspiracy theorists have to have some story about them meeting at Molly's.

Anonymous said...

Molly McGuire for school board. Take the lieberry's 500k and divert that to the cocktail fund. Awesome!

Anonymous said...

The library question was posed. Josh Gould was the only unequivocal yes vote for the board to vote yes and accept Second Avenue. All previously declared candidates said they would not vote to accept the Second Avenue "donation". Jan Potts was not there at the time the question was posed. A write-in candidate, Pattison said he would accept but recommended that the board and the library foundation discuss expansion plans before continuing on its present course.
See onesmallpxvvoice.com

Anonymous said...

Too bad these events were not televised or covered by the newspaper. You have to go with a top three of Jan Potts, Betsey Ruch and Donna Jackson. With that trio you have intelligence, commitment, passion, openness and common sense. You also have representatives from each of the three municipalities as well as education and experience in education and business. You can have a senior, a municipal planner and a teacher all sensitive to both the needs of the children and the taxpayers. The remaining candidates who have not served have much to recommend them. There are 2 women of African-American heritage from who are from the borough and very fine people (Thornton and Kelly). You just can't go wrong with Potts, Ruch and Jackson. And among the newcomers you would have a hard time making a truly bad choice. As posted on one small voice in Phoenixville, "anyone but [incumbent candidate] Josh Gould!!!".

Karen said...

Received via email. Thank you!

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Around 15-20 members of the public attended the candidates forum at Molly Maguires at Bridge and Main.
Here are some of the issues raised by the public.

1) a perceived lack of respect on the part of some school board members amongst themselves and towards the public

2) legal fees and the impact on the budget.

3) specific concerns about the current legal firm representing the district, raised in the context of performance in other districts

4) more questions concerning "right-to-know" access to records surrounding legal fees and services

5) the suggestion that Barkley as a core of the community be opened up to the community more hours and for more activities, in spite of past concerns over supervision and incidents of vandalism

6) a comment and request that in preparing the budget those on fixed incomes and our aging population be considered; a request that when new census data comes out we consider all groups - take care of the kids but take care of the community, too

7) the role of PCEF, making good use of what they have to offer, set appropriate boundaries, scrutinize offers which may tie us to future staffing commitments

8) in addition to PCEF, work with other community groups

9) communications with the public. hard to find when meetings are, what issues are important

10) consideration of the role of sports fields and improvements such as artificial turf, lack of quality fields

11) whether as board member would accept offer from Phoenixville Borough Council of Second Avenue for library expansion

A few other items which may not have been captured in this list were also discussed.