Now former tax collector for Merchantville admits she stole $72,480
By John Barna/Gloucester County Times
CAMDEN — The now former tax collector for Merchantville admitted Wednesday she stole $72,480 in cash payments property owners made to settle their tax bills...
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Unbelievable! Did she really think that she'd get away with this. What type of person does this and who hired her?
Yes, so many have gotten away before her - she just got caught. The people who hired her are putting their hands in the piggy bank too. Just in ways they won't get caught. Par for the course with too many municipalities, too many more people that will steal.
The greatest imbezzlement scandal in my memory was the theft of more than $11.2 million by the superintendent, asst. super., and business clerk in the Roslyn School District of Long Island, discovered in 2004. The district had 3,300 students which comes out to $400 stolen for each student every year for ten years.
How could 9 board members look at the budget for ten years and not figure out the scandal? The board had an outside auditor as well.
And then there were the Nassau County Correctional Center overtime charges with no punch-clock records of "The 10 top overtime earners in 2003 had total compensation ranging from $137,000 to $197,000, on base salaries of $71,495."
For fun, Google "imbezzlements of $10 million" to see the collection of those caught.
It makes one wonder what civilization is all about.
Merchantville is full of people like this just look at the cops they retire as a cop and yet they still work for merchantville to me that's stealing
Is former Merchantville tax collector Michelle McKinney of Brooklawn, NJ related to Brooklawn Police Chief Fran McKinney?
Talk about tax theft, can I comment on the new school budget? At the March 8 school board meeting the board approved an additional $23,000 on top of the budget for contracting out after-school tutoring of students in reading and mathematics by E.R.I.C. (Educational Resources Information Center) for the balance of the school year. The principal recommended the add on.
The theft part is the board not deducting that amount of money from the salaries of the teachers who spend the last 45 minutes of every work day doing whatever they want. An Honest-Abe mind would say if there are teachers sitting around with unassigned time and there are students needing instruction, the teachers should be assigned to teach. There is no clause in the teachers' contract that dictates assignments of teaching periods.
I have two alternatives to adding on an outside contractor after school to bring a third of our students up to State standards. One, contract out the entire instructional day to bring all students up to their learning potential and fire all the teachers. Two, contract out the school leadership responsibilities and fire the principal. Start with the second change first.
Did you hear about the school improvement meetings begun last fall to improve student performance and to cut costs? The board announced the project IS ON H0LD. I say we didn't need an announcement that school improvement is on hold. We have seen that for years.
It is obvious the school is struggling. They are doing their best to stay above water. Things can't go on this way. It's a shame to say but it wouldn't be a bad thing if that school closed within the next 5 years. Consolidating with another school district would be a solution - and may be the only answer in the long run. They are in denial...
"it wouldn't be a bad thing if that school closed within the next 5 years"
I am coming around to that thinking too. And I may be five years late in deciding it.
It is a sad situation having a parent community not able to recruit nine citizens smart and strong enough to create a successful school for ALL Merchantville children.
Last year at this time the Board President told the public to wait for the spring 2010 test results, that the faculty was working hard on the problem of marginal student proficiencies. Well, five months after parents received their children' scores, the Board released those promised test results...and there was no promise in them.
If the school were a corporation, the president would have stepped down by now, or been released. The manager would be gone too. The companies that could not take such measures would have to close their doors.
Apparently our program and its management team are bankrupt. We need to face up to the failure and look for an outside buyer.
Thank you School Tax Theft. My sentiments exactly! Good comparison to a corporation - heads would have rolled long ago.
Funny Observation,
Three seats on Board up, four candidates, 3 incumbents and one newcomer. Did any of you speak up at the Board meeting about the EIRC issue and maybe ask about the prep periods? Maybe there is something called a contract that might be in place, or just maybe there are other issues that you may not be aware of. I am just saying don't want to jump to conclusions. i don't see our school as failing, needs improvement yes. Correct me if I am wrong but haven't test scores improved?
What is in it for cherry hill or the board of education to take on failing student? Maybe I am missing something.
Take note of what my great grandmother used to say:
"If you didn't hear me the first time, your loss. I'm not about to repeat it."
Did any of you speak up at the Board meeting about the EIRC issue and maybe ask about the prep periods?
The morning UNASSIGNED half hour and the afternoon 3/4 hour every day are not prep periods. And YES to your inquiry, the unassigned teacher time was discussed with practical suggestions of how the time might be valuably used for remedial instruction and student motivation. One proposal was to create morning mini-courses with high-motivation electives for students functioning above state standards and remedial/corrective instruction for students falling below standards. Students must test out of the basic skills instruction to join an elective.
At the school improvement workshop last summer, a dozen and a half ideas were introduced, discussed and numbered. None was adopted. Not #1, not #2, not #7 or #8, not #13, not #15, not any. Improvement ideas that would change the status quo died by follow-up inaction. "ON HOLD" is the term the Board is using this year. Last year the Board President killed public discussion with the response to a citizen comment, "Wait to see how the [current] project works out this year." It turned out that the assessment component of the instructional project was not implemented so it was impossible to know how the project worked out.
Let me ask you a question, funny observation. Do you think the school administrator should have attended the school improvement workshops held by the Board with teachers, parents and citizens? The President had announced that the workshops were his.
You say, "needs improvement yes". Explain how improvements can be generated when the Board refuses to adjust the status quo and the educational leader fails to attend the change-generating workshop sessions. Outside contracted tutoring by EIRC was not discussed at the improvement workshops. The dozen workshop volunteers worked on changes WITHIN THE SCHOOL DAY, not add ons.
Taxpayers have paid for three add ons in three years, each with a brief introductory explanation at a board meeting after approved. The first consisted of some teachers volunteering to attend classes in mathematics instruction at Rowan. They were to bring back the information and share it among all staff. The students were failing mathematics basic skills but the teachers got the lessons. Student test scores worsened the next spring. The next year some teachers volunteered to attend classes in creative language arts at Rowan. Same concept: students have deficits but teachers get the college classes. The students test scores did not improve the next spring. Now we will have out-of-school tutoring by a contractor while teachers sit in the teachers' lounge.
Several years ago a respected research study revealed that incompetent personnel do not know they are incompetent. They believe that others are the cause of their own failures. Why don't we replicate that study in our school and board room?
Your loss – “what is in it” for a merged M-CH community is money. Consider that presently there are educational spending budgets in M and in SC. Included in those budgets is an approximate $600,000 payment to Pennsauken for high school tuition. That payment goes away with a merger. The kids go to CH’s high schools. The influx of M students to CH’s high schools may cause a need for increased spending at the high schools but not by much. (Thinks about how much PHS expenses increase because of the presence of 60 M students; that is 15 students per year in a 1,200 student school. The expenses do not increase.) The bulk of the $600,000 is a windfall to the merged M-CH community available for other educational spending or for tax reduction.
WIN – WIN – WIN
An opportunity for Merchantville to merge with Cherry Hill is a golden opportunity.
Unfortunate that people are unable to speak their mind truthfully and not use offensive language or insulting others. And too ignorant to see it for what it is. Don't cry foul when you are foul.
Comments are being moderated from an anonymous party from the same IP address that for weeks has made disparaging remarks about the community, especially the school children.
I do my best to provide an open forum so that all sides can be heard, but I also have a responsibility to keep the discourse as civil as possible. I do not care if you are from Cherry Hill or if you are from Merchantville and you get your jollies playing this anonymous character, but please make your points and move on to the next one. I ask you kindly to be a little more respectful and not spam multiple posts with your propaganda.
I'm so tired of the troll who claims to be a cherry hill resident obsessed with our blog.
School Tax Theft responded to "Funny Observation" (3/26/2011 8:06 PM) with a summary of actions/inactions/comments that school board personnel have presented to the public in addressing marginal test proficiency.
Yes, that summary was critical of the Board and the School Administrator. But it was factual. It addressed the Board's invitation to the public and school personnel to introduce student improvement measures via a "school improvement workshop". After a dozen or more proposals were discussed, the Board stopped scheduling the meetings and labelled the project "ON HOLD". School Tax Theft was critical of that action and was critical of the School Administrator failing to attend the school-improvement meetings. School Tax Theft was critical of the last three Board initiatives over those years to improve student basic skills proficiencies, saying they addressed teacher retraining rather than student learning and thusly were ineffective in improving student performance. School Tax Theft was especially critical of the $23,000 approved for after-school tutoring program to be contracted out to E.I.R.C. when teachers would be available to teach at the time but were allowed to continue the past practice of "unassigned" use of that time.
In all, School Tax Theft third comment presented legitimate complaints about the long run performance of the School Board and the School Administrator. The points made in the comment may have cut deep but they had been researched.
I believe Mville Citizen acted on personal bias when deleting School Tax Theft's third comment. Contrary to Citizen's rationale, criticism of elected and appointed officials in failing to meet State mandates is appropriate and important for the blog.
Cruiser,
I understand this is a golden opportunity for Merchantville. Money.
Do you know the cost of bringing a non proficient to a proficient status? If you do not know this espense then there is no way you can say this is a win for Cherry Hill.
Did you know if takes the average proficient from another district three years to ramp up to the Cherry Hill standards? what will this cost to cherry hill? these are the things we are thinking about. our estimate do not add up to a golden opportunity for cherry hill.
Troll
Clown
Did you know if takes the average proficient from another district three years to ramp up to the Cherry Hill standards?
You have made that claim repeatedly over the months. Where did you hear it?
If that is the case in C.H., then you need to be working with your school board and personnel to get them up to speed in diagnosing and remediating basic-skills deficits.
Successful remedial programs can improve student performance about half a standard deviation per year.
In parental terms, that's moving a child from 35 percentile to 50 percentile in one year. And possibly from 50 percentile to 65 percentile the second year.
I have seen faculties move their whole student population above state minimum standards in two years. Why does Cherry Hill need 3 years to remediate a fraction of its student population?
The troll continues to spew the same hurtful nonsense about our kids just to upset people. No one from CH is on the Merchantville blog everyday. You need a new hobby clown. You are annoying and add nothing to the conversation.
KTBFW,
I agree if you are a public official you must be open to criticism, I did not have the opportunity to read the rebuttal to Funny Observation.
With that said all of us American Citizens have a right to know our accusser, disparaging anonymous blog posts don't fit that criteria. So I must diagree with you on this point only.
Ktbfw,
I heard it at a cherry hill school board meeting. It was stated by the asst super Jim Gallagher and confined by the other asst supers and the superintendent.
Three years to get to cherry hill standards. Cherry hill average standards are higher that the state proficiency.
Go to a meeting and hear the truth. Three years.
Three years is nothing. Why do you keep beating a dead horse?! They will love our money and our kids!
JAMR: American Citizens have a right to know our accusser
On that point (American juris prudence) you are correct certainly and I agree with you.
I do not see the blog in the same way. In my mind it is --or should be-- a commentary of opinions expressed politely and humanistically.
As to School Tax Theft's criticism of the actions/inactions of the school administrator and school board in addressing marginal student proficiencies over the past three years, my perception was that the article revealed the facts briefly and then offered a critical opinion.
That third comment which the blog administrator deleted was similar to the first two comments which still stand. The differences I could see were that the criticisms cut deeper into the officials' job performance and ended with a reference to a research study finding that personnel who are incompetent do not know they are incompetent, thinking instead that others have caused their failures.
Maybe that was one-step-too-far for the blog administrator who has been on a rip in deleting the "disparaging remarks about the community, especially the school children." Mville Citizen serves us well by deleting those comments.
Hey troll,
All Cherry Hill BOE minutes are availble online, so if you ever want to cite some supposed discussion in between bad mouthing our children, list the date. Better yet go away or apologize and admit that you live right here.
Yeah, go away Troll!
We do not need you bad mouthing our children and their school. We already have plenty of folks who live right here in town that are doing a fine job of trashing our kids and their school!
"I do not see the blog in the same way. In my mind it is --or should be-- a commentary of opinions expressed politely and humanistically"
We agree, it's when those lines are crossed that Mville Citizen must step in. Of course we will never all agree when the line is crossed, so we must leave it up to our moderator.
I decided not to open any more comments labeled "Anonymous". Too often I am disappointed in the content ... and the lazy title appears to forewarn that.
Yes, any future "Anonymous" will be treated as "Comment Absent".
So you are consenting that Cherry Hill will get our money???
I had a friend that came to pay their taxes with a check, and was told that she could not submit a check and had to return with cash. My friend complied, paid the tax bill with cash, and sometime afterwards was notified that her taxes were unpaid.
That was how the scam was played.
Lavardera: ...how the scam was played
My wife went to Sears to return an item. The clerk said she could only give a store credit. So my wife read aloud the sign above the clerk's head reading: "Complete Satisfaction or Your Money Back"
Wife asked, "Please explain to me what you think that means". The clerk's supervisor refunded the full purchase price.
The great advantage of a small town goes beyond easy correction of errors and divisiveness. It is being able to call somebody important, maybe the mayor, when you think situations are not right.
A few years ago I got permission from the zoning board to grow some native grasses to maturity in order to reseed my lawn. "Ticketron" issued a summons for my violation of a local ordinance knowing I had permission because he was an officer of the zoning board.
I called in the mayor over the court clerk's protest.
Ticketron ate his ticket although wild grass stir fried in oil & vinegar would have tasted much better.
In a big metropolis, as Lavardera would like us to become, one needs to educate himself thoroughly for protection against victimization -- or to get a TV crew to buy into his complaint.
In a small town, every citizen has town officials eager to help and each is just a phone call or e-mail away.
Stir Fried -- from the example given of Sears, the large entity, making the customer satisfied, the result is the same whether the entity being dealt with is large or small. It is all in how well the entity is managed.
With small entities, however, the ability of pestering nitwits to make themselves more of a nuisance and a cost is greatly increased.
The pestering nitwits of the world shuld realize that, one way or the other, Merchantville is going to be part of a larger, merged community in the near future. The choices, right now, are Cherry Hill or Pennsauken. The Cherry Hill opportunity which exists right now could go away.
Given a choice between Cherry Hill or Pennsauken, what would be the best choice?
The opportunity for Merchantville to merge with Cherrt Hill is a golden opportunity.
Cruiser: Merchantville is going to be part of a larger, merged community in the near future.
Merging school systems and consolidating municipalities have been the talk for fifty years that I know of.
Forcing such marriages has been the waxing theme of Democratic politicians. The appointment of "super" county superintendents is an example, done by the previous governor.
It is hard to see the weather in Democratic-controlled Camden County, Cuiser, but step outside anyway to check if the forced-consolidation clouds are still overhead.
I think not.
k.t.b.f.w. - are you not paying attention to what is going on in Trenton? It is unprecedented. Just like the Petitioning Group. And look where they have gotten in such a short time. The past fifty years are history. No one is looking up at the clouds - the way ahead is clear.
This to shall pass!
In your examples, (the thieving tax collector and the corrupt officer) the small town abused its citizens twice.
I don't think your stories mean what you think they mean. (with apologies to Inigo Montoya).
Did you ever get the feeling that someone, maybe at great distance, is trying to communicate with you? You want to borrow a weegie (sp?) board or join a seance.
Well the other day at precisely 4/04/2011 4:49 PM I felt a presence. A message appeared on this blog then, too, but I vowed to myself that I would no longer open "Anonymous" comments.
I wonder if there were a question I could answer but it is just not getting through.
Say again! Speak louder! Give a name, any name, you there! Let skywriters draw it below the clouds.
How does someone rationalize this type of theft? Did she think that she would pay it back or get away with it? This makes no sense. What was her plan?
Dear Stir Fried,
You don't want to turn this crime into a big town/little town issue.
The truth is this scam would have never gotten off the ground in Cherry Hill because there is no sole person handling all the tax collection. This person could have never operated the way they did in Merchantville.
And no call to the Mayor released my friend from the Tax obligation that Merchantville claimed said she still owed. And frankly that's the way it should have been. Nobody should have been given a hall pass because they were friends with the Mayor until the whole mess was properly investigated. So if you are suggesting that we should live in a small town where the inner circles get more privileges and favors, well, I'm not interested in that model of government.
So spare us your spin that somehow my friend was better off in a small town where they could call the Mayor for some help. The citizens of Merchantville are not so stupid as you think to take your spin without question. I as one of them don't much care for your low expectation of our intelligence either.
[Lavardera: ...suggesting that we should live in a small town where the inner circles get more privileges and favors.]
I do not see your implication, Lavardera, in Stir Fried's comment "In a small town, every citizen has town officials eager to help".
However, because the clerk's theft occurred a year or more ago and was discovered and solved then, how about if we move onto a new headline --which you might know about.
The SNJ Business People (published monthly in Haddonfield) reported the results of a survey of its readers on Camden, municipal mergers and school superintendents.
57% say YES Camden should declare bankruptcy.
75% say YES NJ municipalities should be forced to merge to avoid duplication of officials and services (a cartoon of C.H. and Merchantville is shown).
75% say YES the governor should cap the salaries of public school superintendents.
Tell me Lavardera, do those responses reflect your thinking on bigger government working more efficiently?
Heavy taxation is not a little-towns-like-Merchantville story. Over taxation includes C.H. and Camden County and New Jersey. It is the front-page article of SNJ Business People titled "Lt. Gov. Fights Reputation of NJ as Worst Possible Place in the Country to Open a Small Business". Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno cited NJ residents as the most overtaxed in the country and she announced in March for new businesses to "call me to cut through the red tape".
"Call me" sounds a lot like Stir Fried's take on Merchantville having "town officials eager to help ... just a phone call or e-mail away."
We are supposed to be in a non-inflationary cycle but the expenses not included in the formula are food, fuel and heat.
Has our world just become a state of denial? Here are a couple of quotes from the 1950s to help with reality.
"I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $10.00".
"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t be long before $1,000.00 will only buy a used one."
"Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 7 cents just to mail a letter."
"When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon."
"Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $50,000?"
"Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes."
"It costs nearly $2.00 a night to stay in a hotel."
"If they think I’ll pay 30 cents for a hair cut, forget it."
What you have written about the Social Security COLA is not true. Social Security bases the COLA on the CPI-W, which includes costs for energy and food.
see http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/social-security-cola/
The problem with the COLA was the volatility of energy prices -not a failure to include them.
Sorry, I should have made my point clear. I was not referring to the Social Security cost of living formula. As you suggest, that lags behind conditions.
The Federal Reserve Bank and U.S. Treasury are the big movers in setting monetary and fiscal policies which affect every business and every citizen. Those guys tell us we are in a non-inflationary cycle and that they are taking measures to keep the economy from sliding into deflation.
Seeing food prices and fuel prices and heating costs rise every month --and not falling back seasonally-- I challenge the big guys' formulas and presumption. I find support from the few who claim those guys are intentionally inflating the economy to generate business growth and to mollify the debt.
What I know from my own experience --maybe I should stick to that-- is that the prices of bread have risen over the past few years without falling back, and dairy prices and vegetables too, and so on through the whole retail economy.
We get used to it and producers play their games so we don't notice. A large jar of apple sauce used to contain 50 ounces. It now has 48 oz. at the same price or higher. Did you notice that Wegmans is switching to plastic bottles with hand grips? An ounce less. The new standard in tooth paste appears to be 6.4 oz. with sale items at 6.2 or 6.0 ounces. What happened to 7.4 oz tubes at lower prices?
The cost of every product with corn in it is higher. Why? Policy makers mandate bio-fuels be added to fossil fuels. The mandate hikes the price of the fuel and the scarcity of corn for food hikes the price of food.
Policy makers call it energy conservation and eliminate those costs from their formulas. I call it inflation where I live. It fits with policy makers intentionally inflating the economy. Yet, my social security has been frozen for two years.
Glad to note that the champion of small government, k.t.b.f.w., is complaining because his government checks are not going up as frequently s he would like them to.
{Cruiser: ...is complaining because his government checks are not going up ]
I am not complaining about S.S. not increasing, Cruiser, even though I am part of that generation who started paying into the system when I was 13 while working after school, weekends and summers and continued to pay every week ever since for forty five years. Name another generation that has paid so long.
NO, if there is a complaint, it is about continued increases in taxation by federal, state, county and local governments WHILE CLAIMING WE ARE IN A NON-INFLATIONARY ECONOMY.
And it was not me who raised the point of OVER TAXATION of New Jersey residents -- highest in the nation. It was our current Lt. Governor. She was speaking in Burlington County. Had she been speaking in Camden County, well, her audience and SNJ Business People would be in tears over the news. I certainly am. Last month our borough raised sewage fees again after raising them 20 percent three months ago. Here is the logic: We are relining our sewer system because we were spending too much repairing it.
Cruiser, explain accounting-wise why the rates are going up when the relining project was purchased as a money saver. Remember, the relining project is funded by a bond. And while you are thinking about that, tell us why Council moved our MUA payments from months staggered between CCMUA payments to months coinciding with CCMUA payments.
The hike and the changed payment dates increase my 5-unit sewer bills in April to $1,000. In case you did not know, two thirds of all tenant turnovers occur in May and June. That is when rental property owners make maintenance upgrades and capital improvements. Government could not pick a worse time to charge landlords ... assuming government wants more and better maintenance.
Sorry, I meant to say And it was not I..."
Federal taxes are at their lowest rates in 50 years.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Tax-Day-rhetoric-aside-apf-3276228499.html?x=0
NJ state income taxes were raised temporarily in 2009--but only for one year for high earners. The tax rates went back to 2008 levels in 2010.
http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/taxtables.shtml
You can't claim that Federal and State taxes have outpaced inflation when those taxes have not been raised in years (NJ) or were actually lowered in the last two years (Federal).
You win!
Prices are not up, taxes are down, everybody is just fine. My mistake.
I was wrong that General Mills reduced the sizes of all its cereal boxes from 10 oz to 8.9 oz, from 20 oz to 18 oz., from 50 oz to 48 oz a couple of years ago and every other producer followed suit. I must be wrong, too, that a Corolla that cost $13,500 now costs four or five thousand more.
And, how could I think it, that incomes creeping up put folks into higher tax brackets when Alice gave us the website showing taxes are lower.
Yes, I am totally wrong. County taxes didn't go up recently (or did they?) and Merchantville's school and municipal taxes have not budged an inch these past several years. Who said that each pushed to and through the two percent caps?
You win again, Alice. I'll e-mail the Lt. Governor to tell her she doesn't know what she is talking about in lamenting that Jersey is the most over-taxed state in the country. She must have been talking about Delaware.
You have to remember that the Lt. Governor is a Republican. Their goal is the have the affluent pay nothing. Their principal tactic is to make speeches with embellished truths like the one you cited. In NJ, for starters, the Republicans substantially decreased taxes on the highest incomes so that leaves the rest of us to never pay less.
Prices (and rents) go up. That is a fact of life. Get over it. Do you advocate the government getting back into Nixon era price controls? Is it bad that, as you mention, that incomes are up putting individuals into higher tax brackets?
Certainly advocate for low taxes but don't deride personal income growth. We are a great nation, in part, because we are a wealthy nation. Taxes are the price you pay for civilization.
ktbfw,
I didn't say anything about food or energy prices or county and local taxes. You tried to paint with a broad brush and as a result made some wrong statements and conclusions. Federal and State taxes ar enot higher and federal taxes lower than they wer ein 1961. Your complaint about the federal reserve is particularly off the mark. I have complaints about the federal reserve too, but suggesting that they contribute to higher local taxes becuase they they conclude there is no inflation is weird. The Federal Reserve is a very conservative institution which is obsessed with inflation.
Too bad you can't admit your mistake and move on to justified (and factually supported complaints) about local inefficiencies. You might even note that loss of federal and state aid (due to lower revenues from reduced taxes) contribute to higher county and local taxes and fees.
I am all for efficient local gov't, which is one reason I support a consolidation study--something you oppose.
TOMORROW NIGHT -- TUESDAY-- The Planning Board will be discussing the new redevelopment plan for Wellwood Manor (606 W. Maple Ave.) and the rehabilitation plan for Wellwood's neighboring four commercial store fronts.
Several of us bantered about Wellwood last July on this blog.
It's time to hear the facts. Come one; come all!
"Their goal is the have the affluent pay nothing."
What a pile of hogwash. A steaming pile.
This article in the Apr. 8 Courier Post about tying teacher evaluations with student test performance would be a sure way to get student performance rocketing above the State minimum standards.
"Gov. Chris Christie spelled out his teacher tenure reform plans ... his proposals will call for each school district to have significant discretion in constructing its own teacher and principal evaluation systems.
"Christie said growth in test scores, grades and other metrics should serve to make up half of each teacher's annual evaluation. Districts should also design their own subjective evaluation based on administrators' in-class observations and other criteria."
...
"Cherry Hill Education Association President Martin Sharofsky said his district is 'way above the curve' on teacher evaluations. Cherry Hill has an evaluation tool in place, he said. It is performance-based with delineated standards and goals ... It will be great to see if it can be adapted to what the governor is saying needs to be done."
http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20110408/NEWS02/104080355/Christie-Create-local-evaluations-teachers?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
The Merchantville Observer reported last month that the school board "authorized an additional $23,000 for a program to provide after school tutoring to children who were borderline or partially proficient on the NJ [ASK] Test in an effort to improve these scores."
The Board's intention is to hire an outside organization --E.I.R.C.-- to provide instruction in our classrooms to students failing basic skills required by the State while our teachers, fully paid, sit in the faculty lounge or in empty classrooms during that time. The plan is absurd.
First, New Jersey law requires each municipality to educate its children up to the State's minimum standards. Student attendance is mandatory for that purpose. School boards are empowered to hire teachers to do that.
Second, the number of hours that the outside organization will schedule for the tutoring could easily be found by our teachers within the school day or in the same time slot that E.I.R.C. plans to use.
Third, although the E.I.R.C. tutoring could have immediate positive results, that progress will fade quickly after the contracted instruction ends. If our faculty provided the instruction, they could reinforce those skills everyday, all year long ...keeping the skills alive.
Our teachers need to be held accountable for teaching the State-mandated basic skills. Sitting around while others do it should be unacceptable.
Officer Schmidt passed away yesterday.
My best wishes go to his family.
Marvin
Merchantville selected as school choice district
We are down one policeman. Monday night Council decided to leave it that way in next year's budget.
Hopefully we'll be a part of the county police group or we Merge police with Pennsauken or Cherry Hill. I can't believe what we pay in taxes.
I do not know if Merchantville folks are familiar with the Kimmel Center. Thirty-some years ago it was planned to replace the Academy of Music, a deplorable idea from its inception in my mind. Well, those who wanted bigger and glassy-ier and colder got just that. And today, a generation later, they are besides themselves in trying to make the building warm, cozy and inviting to people ... seeing as everybody including the restaurant has moved elsewhere.
Cruiser would like the Kimmel Center. It fits his vision of a higher, bigger, ratables-generating Merchantville. And that thought brings me to the stumbling Town Center East redevelopment according to the April Merchantville Observer. It seems that anticipated parking problems might jeopardize the happening.
Let me entice a response from Cruiser. If we were to merge into Cherry Hill, would that be sufficient to allow the downtown triangle to be cleared for just an attractively-designed parking lot and park? There are four empty or near-empty buildings on it (including bank and white medical building). Why not knock them down and plant grass and white stripes?
The Kimmel Center is a huge attraction for Philadelphia for the Arts. What are you talking about??? Have you even been to or through Philadelphia's Art District??? It is thriving and alive!!! And I am proud to have roots in the city for many reasons and that only being one!
is a huge attraction for Philadelphia for the Arts
Define "huge". Then define "low public use of the arts center".
Better yet, Google the Inquirer articles of November 2008 and March 2011. Both could have been written on the same day.
[2008]Kimmel weighs renovations Low public use of the arts center and an inferior acoustic are the top targets for planners.
[2011]Decade after opening, Kimmel Center still evolving
"The restaurant is closed, the gift shop shuttered.
"If you show up at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts just before curtain, the place is lively, and its patrons fill Center City restaurants and garages before and after shows.
"Most other times, though, the Kimmel Center sits empty and sterile, physical evidence of a promise unfulfilled. Linger too long in the plaza and a security guard will come along and ask you to state your business.
"The Kimmel was conceived as an energetic public space. The region's power brokers - Ed and Midge Rendell among them - promoted it as an economic engine, a town square pumping foot traffic in and out 18 hours a day, a friendly new face for classical music..."
The Kimmel Center is doing as well as any other attraction for the Arts, if not better given we have been in the worse recession in the last decade. Be real, don't care what the article written said, it is only the author's opinion. What have we got that is doing better? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Blight and more blight? Can't knock what you don't have, so don't go there. The Cherry Hill Mall has done great with its improvements and would be better if the economy were even stronger. So would the Kimmel Center. Our school however has nothing promising but high overhead and an aging building. We need and want better for our kids. The school board fails to see that. Not voting in this years election. Hope they don't even get to serve out their terms before a new district is on the table.
Plant grass - your piece is as full of holes as a the typical Observer article.
Let's go down the list.
First of all, the Kimmel center was never designed to replace the Academy of Music. The Academy of Music is still there, doing fine.
I attend events at the Kimmel Center and its calendar seems quite full. Get a listing of all of its events. Not all the events are of interest to me but the calendar is quite full.
If the restaurant inside Kimmel did not prosper that is likely because of the extensive, highly competitive restaurant scene in the area. The Kimmel Center area has a large, lively restaurant scene. Good restaurants prosper there. The problem with the Kimmel restaurant is simply that it was not a good restaurant.
I lived for several years in a building (1426 Spruce) which was taken to build the Kimmel Center. I have watched the area for years and am quite familiar with it. The Kimmel Center brought tremendous investment and improvements. Several other performance venues developed because of it. Existing properties (particularly rental apartments and condos) became more valuable because of it. Upscale apartment towers were built from scratch because of it. The place is a gold mine to the area.
I don't know what the Kimmel center has to do with ratables. Likely it is a not-for-profit community foundation and does not pay real estate taxes. Likely there are city taxes in the ticket prices. The value of area properties increased, improving ratables.
Overall, Kimmel may have some problems but it is still a tremendous success.
But I really do not understand why the Kimmel is cited as something which is relevant to development in Merchantville. The issues involved in each are miles apart from each other.
Are you saying that if a park had been built on the Kimmel site, that that area of Philadelphia would be better than it is?
So now, we come to mention of the Observer which seems to be a publication which is either biased or completely blind to what is really going on. There is nothing (even in the Observer) which indicates TCE is "stumbling." It is going through the throes of what developments like this in older communities typically go through. There is an issue with parking. I think this issue was completely expected. There are two aspects to this: (1) zoning codes typically have requirements (such as parking places per unit, setbacks, etc.) which are intentionally excessive, the real intent being to get developers to appear before local boards where, in reality, the proposed development can be judged on subjective matters which can not be written into the law (for example, proposed ugly buildings would never be granted variances); and (2) the reality that a site can be over developed and that should not be allowed. Borough Council and the Planning Board will have to judge all of that. Certainly those who are opposed to the project for other reasons will be sticklers about the parking issue. Is the parking in the design sufficient but simply not in compliance with a zoning requirement which is intentionally excessive? Or is there really insufficient parking?
I really have no idea of how the golden opportunity of a merger with Cherry Hill would affect the triangle. If the present development gets going before the merger happens, it is a moot point. If after the merger with Cherry Hill TCE is still the same, a significant effect could be that commercial property, particularly office space, could become more marketable. The properties would have the cache of a Cherry Hill address which could be appealing to those seeking space. How that could affect further development in TCE is completely unknown.
and there you have it Democracy in action! You are probably not even a registered voter, and if you are Shame on you!!
Where is the "Democracy in action" comment to which "Fought For Democracy" responded? I could not find it. Was it deleted?
No comments have been recently deleted. I did release one comment from Blogger's auto-spam filter, but it was unrelated.
don't care what the article written [Kimmel Center] said, it is only the author's opinion
Wish you were correct...but the news article is not just one opinion. The Board of Trustees have been concerned about Kimmel's inability to attract the wide public use it was conceived to generate. Donors contributed millions and millions not to simply replace the Academy of Music but specifically to create "an economic engine" for Center City. And over the past four years (not just during this recession) specialists have been hired and millions more spent in renovations to solve the chronic underutilization problem.
The point I was raising is that revitalizing a downtown area, as with Merchantville's, takes more than packing it with buildings. Our latest TCE developer will build 50-some apartments and a few retail outlets (reluctantly). Residents are coming out to complain that the parking situation is not being addressed. The developer does not want to hear that complaint. We have two parking studies in hand which he has seen but he is going to do his own. Our Borough has no money to create parking. We have no space.
In recent times Cruiser has championed dense redevelopment for its ratables. I am challenging Cruiser to comment on just making the downtown triangle an attractive park and parking lot ... like the old towns of New England with their center public "greens". Maybe that would be the best attraction for a community merged with one of its neighboring "economic engines".
I picture a nice man made lake with paddle boats and weeping willow trees along the shoreline, I like your idea KT
Grass and white stripes - your proposed plan for a landscaped parking lot at TCE is fine. It has two significant disadvantages, (1) not doing as much for the downtown businesses as the additional proposed residences within walking distance would, and (2) there is no money available with which to do it.
As the business district now existes, there is no need for more parking in TCE. On any day, any time, tour the area, there are plenty of empty parking places. There is not a parking shortage problem - there is a customer shortage problem.
I think merger with Cherry Hill will improve the liklihood that the customer shortage problem could get better because the economic diversity of the area will improve because families with higher disposable income will populate the area. They will tend to spend more wherever they go and with quality businesses in the TCE area (McFarlans, Blue Monkey, Aunt Charlotte's, Belle Vita, national drug chains, etc.), the businesses will prosper more than they do now. That will be the major effect of a Cherry Hill merger on TCE.
I think you are looking at Cherry Hill as some kind of deep pockets entity which would put up the cash needed to change TCE the way you have suggested. That could happen. I expect that Cherry Hill has a list of similarly deserving projects in various areas of the township. Anything which could happen at TCE would depend on how it could get prioritized on the list.
Meanwhile, Merchantville has to go on in the belief that it will not merge. Its finances are stretched. More ratables would help resolve the problem. The landscaped parking lot would not add anything to ratables. The landscaped parking lot does not solve the "parking problem" as there is no parking problem. The only thing the landscaped parking lot does is eliminate blight. In the alternative, the residences increase ratables, provide a logical customer base for the businesses and eliminate blight.
Your idea is good but I don't think it will ever happen.
Imagine a world where our children attend a better ranked high school, where our school tax rate actually decreases, where our fire protection is still handled by our wonderful local Nigara fire Department, where our safety is entrusted to Merchantville's finest, where TCE actually gets developed and becomes a positive for not only downtown but the rest of us too, where Wellwood is developed into a finer apartment complex, and the West End redevelopment plan comes to fruition. Imagine all of this, I can and can't wait, to me a much better alternative than your last chance consolidation plan.
JAMR, how do you think we will still have Niagra & Merchantville's finest protecting us with the countywide consolidation looming? It really is inevitable - we can not afford the heavy handed police force and we will not vote to keep it. Stop imagining, that's just what it is.
The Philadelphia Orchestra just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That's not the fault of the development of the Kimmel Center, either. There is not enough support for the Arts, period. Even Broadway is getting hit. Stop taking this out on a building that was put up that the people that can afford to use it actually enjoy. What do we have in this area??? The Rayco Armory!
and we will be able to afford a countywide system? do some research no savings and less proactive protection. "'We' will vote for consolidation" won't be as many of us who will vote against it. Love stirring up the consolidation theorists!
Looking for a smile on this rainy holiday weekend? Here are some too-quickly written bulletins . . .
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
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The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
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Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.
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Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
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Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
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Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
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A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow..
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At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
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Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered..
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The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
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The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM . All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done.
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The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM . Please use the back door.
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The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM . The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours.
Thanks for the laughs, k.t.b.f.w.
I especially liked the instruction for the Low Self Esteem Support Group to use the back door, and the Weight Watchers group to enter through the double doors.
Can we afford not to go to a countywide system? Penalized if we don't. Check todays paper. Stop living in your "imagine" world. It's so unrealistic and unaffordable. Bottom line.
The article is at www.courierpostonline.com
The carrot and stick tone of Mr. Sweeney in the article reinforces my belief that the forced merger of towns is not that far away. If Merchantville lets the golden opportunity of merging with Cherry Hill get away, then when the time for the forced merger comes, you can imagine who it will be with.
Choose Cherty Hill how or get Pennsauken later.
Yesterday a man died who had been the class president of the first graduating class of Cherry Hill High School [west]. He was sixty eight.
He was my lifetime friend like no other. We drove cars and horses through the woods behind Springdale Road when twelve; swam in Cooper Creek in March with a bon fire on the bank to restore blood flow; rode bicycles to the shore before dawn; searched for hen's eggs around his grandmother's barnyard for breakfasts; skied every slope from Pine Hill NJ to Killington VT; camped on warm summer nights in the back woods, in two-foot deep snow outside of a youth hostile in the Poconos to save 50 cents, and in twenty below zero in Coutersport, western Pennsylvania to ski just-opened Denton Hill. We added a 20-foot recreation room to his parents' house when 16 stealing every piece of lumber (dug a bomb shelter in the cellar the year before), and started our own construction company while still in high school. We double dated. Bought motorcycles; owned matching cars. Tormented each other with unending practical jokes. We attended Rutgers South Jersey, sharing a house on Federal Street. He was my buddy. I was his role model. Everything I did he had to do one better ... and he succeeded beyond my comprehension.
Annually he invited me to stay in his mountain cabin. I kept telling myself, "Next year". Today there are no more next years. I want to shake his hand, congratulate him on his accomplishments, and wish him well. I am too late. Oh, the sadness.
If you have a lifelong friend somewhere, call the person. There may not be a tomorrow.
Cruise,
what makes you think that if we dont jump now that we will be forced to merge with Pennsauken? Poppycock that opportunity will continue to be there. How much rhetoric have you heard in the past from out State governement and how much has actually come to fruition?
The opportunity to merge with Cherry Hill will always be there
JAMR - I do not deny what you are saying about forced merger talk in the past and the lack of meaningful action on it. Also not deniable is the 2007 law and the recent modification to it which allows petition/resolution merger initiatives to take place. Also not deniable is the absence of a high level of tax revenues which could continue to support the 1200+ local governments and districts in New Jersey.
Also not deniable in the situation of Merchantville is the strained financial position of both the borough and the school district. This year both are using significant amounts of surplus to hold down their tax rates while at the same time cutting back on services. Neither has remaining surplus to do this in future years. Tax rates are set to go so high in future years that many more residents will be screaming for relief and will be willing to merge with anyone to get that relief. Extremely high taxes and the absence of good government services (high school) will continue to gnaw away at the the value of property. Low property values will, in due course, cause even higher tax rates.
You have absolutely no idea whether or not the opportunity to merge with Cherry Hill will always be there. You pulled that comment out of the air. If Trenton bureaucrats control the mandatory merger process, Merchantville will go with Pennsauken as it has in numerous studies by the Trenton bureaucrats. But the opportunity to merge with Cherry Hill is here now. There is no sense in waiting until things get so bad that no one can take it anymore. Get the Merchantville community on the way to better days in many different ways by choosing the golden opportunity of merging with Cherry Hill.
Cruise,
Huge amounts of surplus while reducing services. Have you even looked at the school budget or attended a meeting? You are either uninformed or lying to propogate your argument. You neither have no idea that we will be forced to merge with Pennsuaken that Cherry Hill currently it is a moot point. From what I have been told the School District actually increased their surplus to the maximum allowable limit while reducing taxes and adding programs and improving the physical facilities. Apparently the school was also approved as a Choice district which would appear to be an additional source of income for the district. Other districts that were previously chosen for the program were able to reduce and maintain taxes while significantly improving programs and facilties. Hold on tight cruise you miss alot when you don't follow what's going on.
I get the opposite scenario from the same facts Cruiser cites. Rightly, he points out the legislative changes allowing citizens to take action and he notes the popular discontent with rising taxes. But strangely he concludes "If Trenton bureaucrats control the mandatory merger process..." which is at the opposite end of the changes he says are significant.
If one looks at the history of our State for hundreds of years, he finds that every municipal change --to merge or to separate-- has been decided by voting citizens ... not by appointed bureaucrats. I think the citizens will decide who merges with whom and when, if at all.
However, Cruiser is right about the school. If it should continue to fail its mission, and I see no progress towards improvement in the last decade, the State must take actions to bring our educational program into compliance with the constitutional mandate and with public law.
There is where we need a grassroots petitioners effort to force change or we will suffer the fate of appointed bureaucrats. We just do not seem able to sort that out. There is a school election today. It will make no difference in any way.
"It's enthusiasm, not apathy, that makes the world go 'round."
TONY ALESSANDRA, Charisma
ktbfw - What I am saying (and Assembly leader Sweeney is saying) is that if there is inaction on the initiatives now available to citizens (the carrot), then the legislature will eventually force mergers (the stick) to clean up the mess and reduce the cost of too many local governmental units in New Jersey. When they do this, they will go to their staffers and the bureaucrats for information about who should merge with who. In such matters, in the past, the bureaucrats want Merchantville to be merged with Pennsauken. It makes sense on a map but not much sense if Merchantville's choice is the golden opportunity of merging with Cherry Hill.
If you were voting on a ballot question in which the only two choices were merge with Cherry Hill or merge with Penssauken, how would you vote?
Cruise,
I understand your point, however politics has changed and I don't believe that we would be forced to merge with Pennsauken or any other community we did not want. We could argue this point in perpetuity about financial saving if any etc. The bottom line for our community is the High School Issue. Both the local government and school board extensivelt share services with other communities and even between each other.
JAMR - I agree politics has changed. It has changed from Trenton not doing anything about too many local governement units to doing something serious about the situation. The 2007 law shows that as does the recent unanimous change by the Assembly and the Senate to that law.
The highest levels of state governement want substantially fewer local governmental units. It seems both Democrats and Republicans are in agreement on this. They will do this by getting rid of the small units. They may be polite about it at first, such as the petition/resolution process, but if that does not work they will get tougher. That is clearly the trend.
There are substantial financial savings to the merged entities (starting with the end of tuition payments to Pennsauken), particularly to the Merchantville community because Merchantville property owners will now share in the commercial ratables of Cherry Hill.
An opportunity for Merchantville to merge with Cherry Hill is a golden opportunity.
Just correcting a ktbfw post from yesterday which said the school board election was yesterday.
THE SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION IS TODAY, WEDNESDAY, 4/27.
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