Send in the Clowns
POTTSTOWN, PA – Has the circus come to town? Apparently it has.
At last night’s Pottstown School Board Committee of the Whole meeting, board member Thomas Hylton thought it appropriate to recruit members of the audience to be on his posse clown team for the next election cycle.
Hylton did not recruit before or after the meeting…he recruited DURING the meeting. As other members of the board were giving their committee reports, Hylton got up, walked out into the audience and spoke with several individuals who earlier in the evening addressed the board during the public comment period. We guess it’s never too early to start rounding up potential candidates to run for office on Clown Team Hylton (maybe he can spring for some colorful t-shirts for his team to wear at meetings).
And in another totally unsurprising move, during the Round Table portion of last night’s meeting, Hylton publicly asked Board President Rick Huss on who decided on which community members were chosen to serve on the President’s Task Force. The task force, as most of you know, is comprised of 40 community members and is headed up by former school district business administrator Jim Bush. The goal of the task force is to study all information on the district’s five elementary schools and to make recommendations back to the board on a solution. A list of proposed meeting dates and sites for upcoming task force meetings is available on the district’s website. You can also view the list here:
President’s Task Force Future Meeting Dates
So, now it’s only a matter of time until Hylton pens another infomercialatorial in The Mercury on how tainted the process of the President’s Task Force is.
Let’s face it. Hylton had his chance to address the bloated elementary school system in Pottstown and he crashed and burned. Big time. Now, since he’s been kicked out of the sandbox for being a bully and not playing well with others, he’s trying desperately to figure out a way to derail the task force. And isn’t that just a typical Tom Hylton move. He probably has that list of 40 members posted above his desk just ready to start “naming names” in his next informercialatorial.
Some things just never change.
I keep trying to give Mr.Hylton the benefit of the doubt but I could not believe that he just got up during committee reports and went to visit with people seemingly to recruit them.
On another note, each SB member is in charge of one or more Committees that give reports. With the exception of Ms.Pargeon who was not at the meeting, everyone spoke on their Committee. All except for Mr. Hylton, whose committee (Neighborhood Schools) was reduced to a sub committee of Facilities. Essentially the NSC has been relegated to the bad ideas scrap heap. Hence Mr. Hylton’s free time to wander.
I think that every member should listen to the reports intently – that’s part of the ‘job’. I can assure you if I was speaking and another member got up for a social chat during my report I would’ve questioned that conduct, immediately.
Mr. Hylton owes the other members the same courteousy he demands of them when he has the floor. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a band of clowns BUT it certainly was inappropriate and a bit rude. A bad example to set for our youth!
Just a clarification – we are certainly not referring to the board as a “band of clowns”. We are referring to any potential political operatives recruiting by Tom Hylton to run for office as clowns. We take our clown accusations very seriously.
I got that…I just don’t think there was enough to fill a clown car, hence not really a band.
No worries – the clown police haven’t been contacted!
Send in more clowns…. I need clowns…. No more “force,” just clowns, please, and plenty of them. Ugh.
Here’s an interesting paper I found on-line regarding moving younger students to middle or junior high schools (Tom Hylton’s latest recommendation). The authors did quite a lot of research, and conclude that moving younger students results in lower academic achievement…. Something the task force will certainly want to consider:
http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jrockoff/papers/Rockoff%20Lockwood%20Feb%202010.pdf
WAYFTP very interesting read. can you, or did you send this to the school board? Thank you
Yes, VERY interesting read!! I think I’ll be looking at this again!! LOTS of information to digest!
Thanks WAYFTP!!
Actually that paper concluded that middle schools in general result in lower academic achievement. Moving them over younger just hurts more.
Point taken, pbspence. I didn’t have time to read the entire study. But it seemed clear that maturity was a factor. It was implausible that moving another, younger grade to the middle school would be an academic positive.
The private school model K-8 and 9-12 seems to look better all the time, or is it just me?
Unfortunately, no way that I see that as a model we could use in the PSD – unless anyone has some ideas?
I’d say this study has merit to the argument that 5th grade belongs in the MS – not! Apparently, there is a cost factor to correct the damage that is done in the learning/achievement process when children move to a larger setting too soon.
Anyone else see the irony of keeping 5 smaller schools and then showing no regard in ‘thrusting’ the 5th grade to the MS to eliminate modulars? The way I see it with that concept the 5th graders kinda get the short end of the stick, educationally and socially.
There has to be a better alternative to consider so that as many students as possible prosper and don’t loose out academically. Much to consider beyond available space issues!!