Can You Fog a Mirror?
POTTSTOWN, PA – We see that a young innocent virgin letter writer has expressed his gushing love for all things Hylton in today’s Mercury. Aaaah the innocence of youth! If you haven’t already, you can read the letter here:
Something doesn’t add up: Increased staff, lower enrollment
Since everyone knows that Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton is always on the prowl for new blood for his political dynasty (as evidenced by his recent highly unprofessional behavior of recruiting audience members during the committee report portion of the May 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting), we thought we’d save Tom some time by looking up Mr. Reifsnyder’s phone number and posting it here (because we also know that Tom just can’t help but read about his zany antics here at Save Pottstown!!).
So here you go Tom. Here are two phone number listings for Mr. Reifsnyder, courtesy of our friends at Verizon:
The staff here at Save Pottstown!! has decided to deny Mr. Hylton the pleasure of doing his dirty work and we have removed Mr. Reifsnyder’s public contact information from this post. If Mr. Hylton wants to recruite Mr. Reifsnyder to run for office under the guise of Clown Team Hylton, he’ll have to pull out his dog-eared copy of the white pages and look up Mr. Reifsynder’s contact information himself. Or maybe just wait until the next board meeting…and if Mr. Reifsnyder decides to publically address the board, Mr. Hylton can then recruit him during the meeting…just like during the last meeting. Maybe the board should consider taking away Mr. Hylton’s hall pass so he won’t be able to aimlessly roam around during board meetings. Or maybe they should consider making him head of a committee – how about if he chairs the Community Relations Committee (where he could put his people skills to the test)? Or the School District Tree Committee?
Maybe Tom should consider a career in network marketing? We bet he’d do a real swell job at signing up new business partners!
This is a perfect reply by ‘YODA’ that was posted in the PottsMerc.
YODA wrote on May 17, 2010 12:54 PM:
” *** Congratulations on your MBA! ***
Just what is it that Mrs. Weand and Mrs. Pargeon do not understand?
Did they not understand that “replacing smaller upgraded windows with large HISTORICALLY CORRECT windows” (Hylton’s Idea) would have raised our taxes?
Did they not understand that “borrowing 15 MILLION DOLLARS ” ( Hylton’s Idea ) would have raised our taxes RADICALLY ?
Do they not understand that “the school district may not fire support staff mandated by state and federal governments”? (again Hylotn’s idea)
Do they not understand that “ hiring an interim Superintendent and conducting a nationwide search “ (Hylton’s idea) would cost us Tens of Thousands of Dollars?
Do they not understand “the Sunshine Laws”? (Hylton doesn’t)
You are right , Mr. Reifsnyder, in saying “Hard choices have to be made and no one takes them lightly. If you do not see this as something you can do, then please resign and let the people who can make those hard choices make them and save taxpayers from further increases.”
However, you should be directing this request to Mr. Hylton and his puppets.
Let’s applaud Mrs. Weand, and Mrs. Pargeon, and Mr. Huss, and encourage the other board members to follow their thought processes and actions. “
While some of his letter I don’t agree with, Mr. Reifsnyder hit the core of the problem with this statement ..”I am a firm believer that you get out of an education what you put in it. If students don’t care, it will not matter how many teachers you hire. I think education starts at home. The parents need to take responsibility for their children’s education. I was lucky enough to have parents that cared and pushed my brother, my sister and myself into doing our best. The parents need to ensure the students are getting the most out of their education. They are the ones that need to be involved, not more teachers.”
By the way, there has been a lot of exchanges with evan Brandt about posting anonymously, so if we disagree with a writer, or don’t like the person they are standing up to, we post the phone number and address and humiliate them. I am all for INFORMED debate, but this is over the top. Mr. Reifsnyder is owed an apology, not for his opinion, but how it was handled here. Sure we can look it up in care of “our friends at Verizion” but if I want to rebute him, I will write my own letter to the Mercury.
I have said it before and I will say it again. I understand fixed costs like state and federal mandates for Special Education. Beyond that, I am not 100% convinced that there could be additional savings in this budget. I do know that there is money built into this budget for the Teachers contract. The exact amount is not known by the general public. I do believe that 66% of the budget being dedicated to personnel and benefits is way too high.
I also believe that collecting the $2 million PLUS that is sitting out there uncollected would help a great deal, too late for this year but perfect for next year. All the SD has to do is get tough on the serial deadbeat landlords who refuse to pay year after year as a way of doing business.
I agree, east1ender, public humiliation is not usually the best tactic, but I didn’t read that in this post. What I read was a strong suggestion by SP that TH is probably up to his old recruiting tricks in order to re-stack his proverbial political deck – SP, correct me if I’m wrong. While this post may be a little harsh, if someone is making deals with the…well, everyone knows how that saying goes…I would imagine they should realize that it is likely to be pointed out to the public, especially with so many eyes on school districts happenings now.
While I don’t know Mr. Reifsnyder, it sounds as if he does have some rather naive, limited, or falsely led opinions in regards to what is currently happening in the Pottstown School District. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is, or is soon to be, a “Citizens for Responsible Government” new recruit. Time will surely tell.
Like any Svengali worth his salt, Mr Hylton is mysteriously able to sway and enrapture those who do not yet know him or fully understand his tactics. He entices them close with lofty-sounding rhetoric and then pulls them into his web of illusion. Its seems that Mr Reifsnyder may be another of his impressionable and gullible victims.