Your Opinions and Comments
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The following letter was sent to the Editor of the Reading Eagle and the comments to that letter are included.
It is the opinion of many in our community, that the Exeter Township School Board does a fine job dealing with curriculum and necessary items concerning the education of our children.
However, we also have very little faith that our school board can efficiently and effectively manage the finances of the school district. There have also been many instances when their judgement has been questionable in matters of land use, making decisions leading to litigation and incurring expenses from poor management. It is the opinion of many rsident of Exeter and St. Lawrence that the current Board of School Directors is in effect bankrupting our company by their out of control spending.
Tell the School Board Members who are up for re-election that you will not vote for them unless they come up with a better way to control expenses and stop over burdening the citizens of this community!
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Use stimulus to cut tax hike (4/23/09)
Editor:
The Exeter School District proposed a millage increase to 29.463 from 27.784. This is the maximum the school board can increase the tax without taking it to the taxpayers for approval.
School board members said costs are up and revenues are down and they need as much as they can get their hands on to build a new school and add many new employees, services and equipment that go along with the new building.
The preliminary budget, submitted months ago, was $59.9 million. That was with the same maximum tax increase factored in. At the time, the school board said that was all they'd need. Since then the budget has grown to more than $61 million. The difference comes from the $1.22 million in stimulus money.
Does stimulating the local economy mean raising taxes again and again in order to tax the residents out of their homes?
The preliminary budget of $59.9 million should be the final budget, with the stimulus money taking the place of what would have been bled from the taxpayers. We need to end rampant spending and endless taxation by school boards before they tax everyone out of their homes.
Andrew Yawger
Exeter Township
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Andrew, we are now reaching the point where it is just getting too damned expensive to educate our children. The whole system is broken. And how many times have you heard this lie?....."If only we had a single payer health care plan managed by the government, we could contain and reduce the cost of medicine for everyone." All one has to do is objectively examine what the government has to to 'manage' costs of 'single payer' education system, and that should be all the evidence you need to keep the government out of your personal healthcare management!!! And Andrew, next year when the 1.2 million in your stimulus funding dries up, they won't cut that 1.2 million out of your budget. They will RAISE YOUR TAXES TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE!!!! which is exactly the point I think you were trying to make. LUNACY, it's all LUNACY!
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Comment By Beachman 101 at 4/23/2009 7:44:10 AM
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As usual, Mr. Yawger is shooting his mouth off with half the story. He doesn't bother to discuss the fact that what he speaks of was a working session and the maximum tax rate was mentioned as a point of reference. Nor does he mention the fact that as these figures are mentioned, a detailed explanation is given that these are working numbers only and the Board does not feel that raising the taxes the maximum amount is appropriate. There has been no proposed tax increase at all, just public discussion of expenses and receipts. Opinion is the right of all citizens, but accuracy is also appropriate; a responsibility some seldon exercise.
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Comment By Robert Quinter at 4/23/2009 8:04:47 AM
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Did I touch a nerve Bob? Yeah, it was shown in data from a workshop meeting that you'd be raising the budget. The board has consistently shown that it will raise taxes by the max amount. Even your own board members have stated that (i.e. Mr. Hart). What have you done to make the public believe otherwise? The only board member who has tried not to raise the taxes and stated as such has been Mr. Smith. Do the right thing and use the stimulus the way that it was meant to be used.....to decrease the tax burden on the citizens of Exeter and St. Lawrence. Need more data... it's all on the PDE website. Check out Tom Gluck's presentation to the House Appropriations Committee (March 19, 2009). There's also a wealth of info about the money being given to the school districts (i.e. Economic Stimulus LEA Allocations 3/30/2009). Want more info? OBTW..... you should talk to some of the residents who won't attend school board meetings any more because you and a couple of the others are rude, disrespectful and continually yelling. Great professionalism there Bob.
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Comment By Andy at 4/23/2009 9:43:02 AM
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Andy....you are beating a dead horse. What you need in Exeter is a board with balls. A board that will fight back and tell the Feds to pound it. Get rid of all the costly UNCONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL MANDATES that these cowards hide behind, and save yourself untold millions. Then ask them to stop making bond holders rich at the expense of taxpayers on building project. then have them fire the first shot across the bow and REJECT prevailing wage requirements on their next building project. Then have the board renegotiate teachers contracts and if the teachers don't like it, start a non-union school district!! Hire new teachers like Reagan did with the Air Traffic Controllers. Bottom line Andy, we need to bust up and destroy the education cartel in this state. It is failing the citizenry and the students. the time for REAL CHANGE is upon us. Carpe Diem Andy. So Bob, do you have the balls to champion these causes and represent taxpayers and bust up the bureaucracy or not? We will all wait and see. Our Founding Fathers demanded nothing less.
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Comment By Beachman 101 at 4/23/2009 9:57:56 AM
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You've got it Beachman, the proof is in the pudding and we'll all have to just wait and see. I'm not in the habit of misrepresenting things like Andy and, having been at the meetings, I know the feelings of the Board. As a matter of fact, the teacher's are being very responsive to the ecponomic conditions in the negotiation of the new contract, and every member of the Board has expressed a desire to keep any tax increase to a minimum.
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Comment By Robert Quinter at 4/23/2009 1:09:00 PM
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I cannot contain myself any longer--I,too, have been at school board meetings, and my figures come directly from meeting minutes. Mr. Quinter has stated "that every member of the board has expressed a desire to keep any tax increase to a minimum." Why then, did every board member except Mr. Smith vote in favor of filing for exceptions that would allow an increase in taxes up to the maximum allowed by law, of 1.679 mills, or 6.045%, rather than the 5.2% increase allowed by the index? Mr. Quinter, when you say, "the maximum tax rate was mentioned as a point of reference," what does that mean exactly? I'm all ears! Can you clarify or elaborate on that concept? Why do I get the feeling that the underlying meaning is that Exeter taxpayers will be paying a new rate of 29.463 mills for the 2009-2010 school year? The bottom line is that the school board has a choice--either to function within their means, or to "Rob Peter to pay Paul", as the saying goes. Most of us adjust our budgets to spend money within the constraints of the assets we have available. If I don't have as much money as I planned to have, then I have to live more frugally. I don't have the luxury of raising taxes to fund my excesses; instead I cut back on the "frills" in my budget. But while I'm trying to cut back on my spending, the school board continues to take even more of my money to fund more raises, more staff, more improvements, and more benefits for their staff. Both the state and federal governments have allocated increased funds for education, and it turns out that Exeter will receive more, not less than expected from these sources. I agree with Andy, that these stimulus packages were not meant to stimulate YOUR spending--they were meant to allow you to maintain your level of services WITHOUT unduly burdeneng the taxpayers with increased school taxes.
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Comment By Linda at 4/24/2009 5:02:59 PM
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Should the School Board Resign?
It is the opinion of many of the citizens of our community that the Exeter Township School Board has wasted countless time and money since they were informed by the Berks County Court of Common Pleas that the decision rendered by the Board of Supervisors was defective in that it did not follow the laws set forth in the Exeter Township Zoning Ordinance. In other words, the allowance for conditional use was illegal in the first place.
The School Board, which remains largely the same since the whole mess began, ignored facts brought to their attention by the residents of Exeter Township and not only continued with their illegal application but also used taxpayer funds on not one, but two, unwarranted appeals. A new school could have been started a year and a half ago but the School Board's irresponsibility has led to a delay that is detrimental to the taxpayers and the children of our community.
The School Board should have chosen to listen to the public and stopped their pursuit of the property on Ritters Road. This shows that they not only disregard the very constituents they are supposed to serve but also that they are not fit to make decisions for this community.
Other evidence of the inability of the current school board to act in the best interests of our community can be found in the process that was used for determining the budget in each of the last couple of years. As a matter of fact, the current budget was not approved by all of the school board members. There were two who did not agree because the budget called for a larger increase (by .5 mill) than was necessary. The two opposed believed it would be needlessly taxing the public. However, the rationale of the remainer of the board was that they might not have been able to get those extra funds in later years and they wanted to jump on it while they had the chance (disregarding the impact on the taxpayers).
Other items of concern include the treatment of residents who attend school board meetings. Many people will no longer attend these meetings because they are treated rudely and "shouted down" by unprofessional board members. Also, the meeting minutes are never posted for easy access by the community prior to meetings. This is not conducive to having residents who are adequately prepared to participate in the meetings concerning recent subjects until a couple of months go by. This does not allow for timely interaction on important issues. Lastly, the Meeting agendas, while posted on the ETSD website, are not usually complete. Many times items come up as "addendums" that are only unveiled at the meetings. This does not give residents adequate time to prepare questions and comments.
Accordingly, many of the citizens of Exeter Township believe that each of the school board members should resign their positions immediately.
Let us know what you think by taking the survey below and/or post a response in our Guest Book located on the Opinion/Comments Page.
Thank you.
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History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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