Wissahickon School Board Says No Tax Increase This Year-But What about Next Year?

I attended another Wissahickon School Board Meeting  and have the following observations:1)The Board Agenda was to the best of my information posted on 4/25 for the meeting on 4/25 and the attachments were not posted at all;  How can any member of the public get to the meeting, review the material and ask questions before the Board votes to approve everything they have on the Agenda?  Impossible.  Tthe majority of the Board is not interested in public input, questions, suggestions because "we elected them to do the job, and they will do the job, and if we don't like it, that is why they have elections".  More on that later; 2)The Board had a spot for Public Comment on the early part of the Agenda, but, did not stop and ask for comments till the end of the meeting.  When I asked about that, I was told they had a spot, and I should have commented.  Throughout the meeting, when anyone in the audience raised their hand to speak, they were told "you can comment at the end of the meeting",  after they passed everything on the Agenda.  Sound crazy.  It gets worse; 3)There was no mention of the posting of the tentative 3 year teachers contract until I asked at the end and was told, "it will be posted tomorrow, no by the end of this week, and so on".  In fact, the full contract was posted on May 3, 2011 BEFORE THE BUDGET WAS APPROVED; 4)When I asked about the Board's approval of a $28,000. per year, plus, settlement of a claim against the District on an Individual with Disabilities Act claim, the solicitor responded they can't discuss the claim because it was a privileged matter.  I responded, that details that to not disclose the identity of the claimant student, would not be privileged, but, he refused to respond; 5)Repaint track, scoreboards, library improvements, etc. all approved.  No discussion with the public;  6)All Committee meeting minutes approved, without public comment till after all was approved.7)List of payments for month of March, 2011 were posted, approved, comments taken later;  8)General Fund Revenues and Expenditures as of March 31, 2011 also attached at the meeting to the Agenda, approved, but, it is hard to tell from the way the columns were totaled, whether the Board is over, under or on budget for fiscal year ending 6/30.  7)When prodded, Budget meetings are to be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 2,  May 9 and May 10; 9)At the May 2 Budget Committee, it appears that there will not be a school tax increase for 2011-12, but, dependent on cost cutting and other expense savings, perhaps a 3.5 Million Shortage in 2012-13, something that was not generally reported in the press.  I guess there are a lot of variables, such as earned income tax, real estate transfer tax and other economic factors, but, I am concerned about the Retirement Plan/Pension Benefit crunch in Pennsylvania, for which the District is partially responsible that will come in 2013.  This could get a lot worse.
I suggest that we get people out in numbers for the budget meetings and try to have the Board and Budget Committee answer questions from the public before passing the budget, and encourage early planning for 2012 & 2013.
The real solution to our taxpayer plight in Wissahickon is to elect School Board members who will be responsive to those who elect them.  To that end, the Blue Bell Tea Party Patriots have 7 out of 7 candidates coming to our next Blue Bell TPP meeting on May 11, 2011 at 7:00 p.m., Whitpain Township Meeting Room on Wentz Road,  at which time we will conduct a forum for the candidates to explain why we should elect or re-elect them and each of their positions on spending, teacher's pay increases, education in our district, etc.  We intend to take questions from the public of each candidate and I think, at the end of the meeting, each voter will know who they want to vote for in this most important Primary and the General Election in November.  Keep in mind, the SCHOOL Board Budget far exceeds all Township budgets of Whitpain, Lower Gwynedd and Ambler COMBINED.
Let's fill up that Whitpain Township meeting room and get something done logically, for a CHANGE and with public input, BEFORE  the vote.
A.VICTOR MEITNER JR, CoordinatorBlue Bell Tea Party PatriotsPhone: (215) 540-0575; bluebellteapartypatriots@gmail.com