Leave it to Cherry HillThe Cherry Hill Sun - Robert Linnehan Cherry Hill and Merchantville have joined forces in the name of shared services. Cherry Hill announced last week that it will allow the ... |
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Raking in the Dole
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17 comments:
If sending leaves to C.H. for composting instead of to Gloucester Twp saves a couple thousand dollars, good. It won't mean anything in municipal expenses but symbolically it is a good step. And perhaps Merchantville residents will gain the privilege of bringing back compost for our lawns and gardens. If not, Alice will remind us again of how to compost our own leaves in 1,500 backyards, saving even more collecting costs.
What is important to me is the start in "sharing" services. Would that we could make a habit of it in many other areas not the least of which might be policing services. The petitioners with their scheme would surrender the whole of policing to C.H. so why not share and keep some policing personnel for ourselves?
And that brings me to my big thought. And it is not new.
Why not, to please the petitioners bargain-style, give our school system to C.H. and we keep our municipal system on an, item by item, shared basis.
I read where C.H. cut its night court. Well, we could disband our municipal court and share C.H.'s on a fee basis. That would give C.H. opportunity to restore its night court, maybe. In fact, if ours is partially sufficient from violations revenue, sharing would cost us minimally. Alice's proposed study commission could work out those details.
Yes, give C.H. our school system --that the petitioners want most to do-- and share municipal services.
Keep in mind, I am of the persuasion that our school could be fixed, but this is a compromise.
If we "share" all our services, then what kind of town are we? "Sharing" almost always means we purchase a service from another town.
If all we do is purchase services, we could replace the town council and boro administration with a general contractor.
Instead of being the Borough Of Merchantville, we could be Merchantville, LLC.
I thought that it was already stated that Cherry Hill wants the whole ball of wax and not just the school. I believe the Mayor was asked and he was quite firm in regards to that.
Alice told us clearly that it can be "negotiations". It should not matter what preconditions C.H. named.
CEO instead of Mayor: If all we do is purchase services, we could replace the town council and boro administration with a general contractor.
Take another look at the campaign brochure the Democrats walked around town. We almost have general contrators.
Last year Mayor North allowed the municipal workers union to recommend replacment employees, saying he was comfortable negotiating with union personnel. In his business life that is one of the jobs he holds.
Unfortunately for us, municipal employees have been knocking out 4 percent raises clear through this multi-year recession while the rest of the world's wages have been stagnant or declining.
CEOs have ways to pass on costs. Those costs stop at our doors in town business.
ktbfw,
We don't want your school system. I think that is what is getting lost here. It is not up to par with Cherry Hill, as previously stated. The facility was toured in 1999 and determined to be unacceptable. it is estimated that it takes $500k of resources to bring a child to a proficiency level. How many kids are below proficiency level in Merchantville??? 400??? write us a $200M check and we will think about it.
anonymous,
you are absolutely absurd with these numbers you make up. It takes $500K to bring a child up to proficency, yadda yadda. what are you even talking about?
And lets stop pretending that the cherry hill school system wouldn't get a significant financial boost with the introduction of 400 students.
and as for kt, come on. it is so clear that we can not get out of the send/receive relationship, so your idea of not merging and just sending our cherry hill doesn't work.
Are you serious???
do you really believe the Governor of the State of NJ is going to continue to give the Merchantville state aid to Cherry Hill?
The Governor will talk about economic efficiencies and the money will go away.
Cherry Hill will be left with 400+ student and 50% that are not proficient.
Again, go the the PTA meetings. We don't want this and it will never happen.
Anon 5:27- stop pretending to be from Cherry Hill. I call BS. I'll bet that you're the spouse of a public worker.
I also call BS on Anon 9:49 for calling BS on Anon 5:27.
To Anonymous who says 50% of Merchantville students are failing academically:
The closest Cherry Hill elementary school to Merchantville is Joyce Kilmer School, a K-5 school. Looking at the latest online State test scores (2008-09) for Joyce Kilmer (3rd-5th grades) and Merchantville (3rd-5th grades) suggests that Kilmer would not have been hurt academically with the addition of Merchantville students. The schools are actually very similar, except that Merchantville offers a full day kindergarten, while Kilmer has a half-day program.
The Nat’l. Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test given to 4th graders at Joyce Kilmer School and Merchantville School resulted in identical results for both schools: 77.2% for Reading and 87.5% for Math.
Of the 7 State (ASK) tests given to students in 3rd-5th grades, the addition of Merchantville students would have resulted in a slight improvement of Joyce Kilmer’s passing percentages in 3 tests, the slight reduction of passing percentages in 3 tests, and no percentage change in 1 test.
Also, the addition of Merchantville students to Joyce Kilmer’s population would have increased the percentage of students who scored in the “advanced” category on 4 tests and decreased the percentage of “advanced” scores on 2 tests. One test showed no percentage change.
It would not have been to Merchantville's advantage to combine its K-5 student population with Cherry Hill's Joyce Kilmer School in the 2008-09 SY.
Gail, Your awesome....
Awesome Gail also pointed me to these postings on a facebook:
Merchantville Charter School "An opportunity to discuss and walk through the process of a charter school option for our community with Dr. Joe Conway, Merchantville resident and Chief School Administrator, Camden's Promise Charter School."
Charter School Option Meet Up Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 7:7:30 pm. Location to be announced.
I hear the First Baptist Church school building is vacant. Would that be a good spot to start a community charter school?
This doesn't make sense. Merchantville is not big enough to have a High School, but now people are proposing that we have 2 schools- K-8 and K-12 charter. No one talked about this until the petitioners. At least they got people thinking.
No one talked about this until the petitioners.
No, several have commented on the charter school option over the past couple of years.
The problem with starting a charter school is the logistics. It is not easy. The start up workload is horrendous. And there is great risk.
Way back I reported on a group of smart, idealistic, affluent Medford parents who wanted a charter option to the local public schools. Parents and some teachers joined together, quitting their jobs and pulling out their children, to create their own school. They found affordable space in a small church in Willingboro to open their doors.
In short time those became the doors to Hell. Within three years nearly all of the founders and beginning students had returned to Medford --the teachers having lost their jobs and the students having fallen behind their peers-- and the charter school closed soon after.
To answer your points, though, you should keep in mind that a charter school or a private school can have fewer students in a grade and less a range of faculty qualifications than NJ DOE would require of a public school. That makes possible a days-of-old high school program like what Friends Mullica Hill School had years ago with one year graduating only one senior.
Your point about the unfeasibility of two parallel schools is good except that the intention would be for the new school to phase out the public school. Opening a charter school to replace the public school introduces the problem of students not electing to go to the charter. They must be allowed to continue their public program. That is another big hurdle.
Your point about the Merchantville population being too small to support a K-12 school is easier to solve. Open the school to surrounding communities. Keep in mind, though, that the Willingboro student population overwhelmed the charter school of the Medford group. Those Medford idealists thought discipline was a matter of politely reminding a child that he needed to respect his classmates, sit quietly until called upon, attend closely to the lesson, and complete his homework for the next day. It did not happen as planned.
KT,
what was the name of that school in Willingboro. I can't find anything written about this online. If this Merchantville group is interested in starting a charter school that will be open to all, I applaud their efforts. The Camden High schools are the worst in the state and those kids deserve better. This group could definately find an abandoned warehouse in Camden to rehab for this project- maybe the abandoned Sears building on Adm. Wilson Blvd. This will take lots of money and time. I wish them the best.
I guess it's funny that I moved to a small New Jersey town surrounded by big towns because of it's unique atmosphere and friendly feeling. If I wanted to live in Cherry Hill, I would have moved to Cherry Hill dammit! My friends live there and like it, but I stay here because I love it! I'm willing to sacrifice and pay more
to keep Merchantville unique and
independent. Yes, I am a flag waver and I am patriotic to a fault. Lets keep out town called
"Merchantville", not a sub-section of Cherry Hill!
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