Something Stinks Here
POTTSTOWN, PA – It’s funny. At last week’s Pottstown School Board Committee of the Whole meeting, we don’t recall seeing Rev. Vernon Ross in the audience. And we certainly know that since he was not present at the meeting he did not address the board.
In yesterday’s Mercury, a curious article made the front page (partially above the fold mind you). The title of the article was Pastors want community’s input in Super search. If you haven’t already, you can read it here.
Rev. Ross, who is the pastor of Bethel African Methodist-Episcopal church, located at 401 Beech Street, believes that the community should have a say and chance to evaluate potential Pottstown School District superintendent candidates before a final selection is made.
While no one can dispute the idea to involve the community in a superintendent search is a valid one, we’re a little curious how Rev. Ross became involved in this debate. According to yesterday’s article, Rev. Ross said he “ran into some folks from the school district and I told them I read about David Krem leaving and I asked them what was being done to replace him”. We’re wondering which folks he ran into. Was it a chance encounter or a pre-determined one with an ulterior motive?
For those you don’t know, Rev. Ross at one time served on the board at the Ricketts Center with school board member Valerie Harris. Harris, whose family operates the Pottstown-based Harris Family Ministries, recently voted along with fellow board members Thomas Hylton and Nat White to hire an interim superintendent (which could easily mean hiring a candidate from outside the district). That vote was defeated 6-3.
According to data compiled in 2006, there are over 50 churches in the 19464 zip code. That’s a lot of churches. And that’s one of the big reasons why our taxes are so high…because we have so many tax exempt properties…a high proportion of them being churches.
In all the years we’ve lived and paid taxes in Pottstown, none of us here at Save Pottstown!! has ever once been asked to help select the church leaders for any of the churches we foot the tax bill for. So, for a church leader to come out and to start wanting to be involved in the procedure to select a new superintendent, we’re just a tad bit suspicious of the motives here.
When the search for former superintendents Ray Feick, Frank Heiffer, Anthony Georeno and David Krem were conducted, we don’t recall any Pottstown church leaders wanting to get involved in the selection process…at all.
So, the question is, why is this article on yesterday’s front page and who pushed to have it published? A very good question indeed true believers. We’ve spoken to several current and former school board members and none of them remember Rev. Ross attending any school board meetings or addressing the board recently. So, again, we ask, why is article newsworthy and who is behind getting it in print?
Hmmm. A certain school board member has made it well known of his desire to hire an interim superintendent. And that individual recently was rebuffed 6-3 by the board to hire an interim superintendent. So what’s one to do when you get told to talk to the hand? You start a campaign to undermine support of the superintendent selection process by introducing church leaders into the mix…church leaders who are acquaintances with a fellow board member you helped financially support to get elected. The concept reminds us of our Backing into Rupert post from earlier this year.
Does anyone else smell something fishy here?
My, my some interesting items for consideration!!
Since we need a larger tax base and 50 churches in a small town seems excessive to me…why can’t they share spaces to free up properties for commerce? I hear many of the churches have an abundance of underutilized space!
I find it very interesting indeed. I wonder if this is the first step in a campaign to have Dr.Tuck hired for the position. is there a hint of race politics here? If Dr.Tuck is the most qualified of the candidates then congratulations Dr. Tuck you should be hired. But I understand that Dr. Tuck is not the most qualified, so does this amount to setting the SB up to hear complaints that Dr. Tuck was not hired due to her race? I know Ms.Harris has been pushing an agenda to hire more African Americans as teachers, perhaps this is part of that plan.
No matter what a persons race is, the hiring of teachers and administrators should be based solely on their qualifications, not their race, gender, religion, etc.
monkeybiz, we could start sending 4k kids to these churches for classes to cut down on the number of kids in the schools. Then, we get rid of trailers and install historically correct windows and…..oh wait, someone else already thought of that!!
I think that this is more insidious than a campaign for a particular superintendent. I think that this is the beginning of a campaign to taint the President’s council (any other decisions by association) so that any recommendations, if different from the select few, can be dismissed out of hand. This problem needs to be cleared up NOW or the Council will never have the opportunity to be a positive impact. Remember the how the smear process works (we seen it several times of the last years), just a hint of rumor and/or a touch of innuendo, a couple of glossy mailings and a series of advertorials and forward process is effectively stymied!
The 19464 zip code encompasses much much more than the 5 sq miles of the borough, so those 50 churches aren’t all inside the borough. Heres a helpful link: http://www.city-data.com/zipmaps/Pottstown-Pennsylvania.html
I don’t think lack of space for commercial activities is the issue here, so having churches double up or share space to make room really isn’t fare. If they have underutilized space, its their underutilized space and slapping government activities in there without asking permission is called unlawful taking in my book…
According to the 2009/2010 Pottstown/Boyertown yellowbook, there are 39 churches and church-owned properties (i.e. tax exempt) within the Borough of Pottstown.
That’s quite a lot of nontaxable property within the 5 square miles of the borough.
Add that to schools, governmental property and The Hill School parcels…and that’s a whole heck of a lot of Pottstown property that are not currently on the tax rolls.
Regardless of the exact number of churches and church-owned properties…the point is that Pottstown has way more than its fair share of tax-exempt properties for its size.
pbspence, I was talking tongue in cheek about adding more school classes to churches. This was part of the NSC plan that was defeated by the SB in March.
I think there are a lot of other non-profit types in Pottstown that are probably not paying taxes…. At one time, Pottstown had a greater percentage of tax exempt property (I can’t remember if it was per square mile or square foot or per revenue) than almost all other towns in the Commonwealth of PA. It is a problem…. If it was just a matter of a few churches, it would not be anywhere near the problem that it is in Pottstown due to many, many tax-exempt properties.
Our friends over at Code Blue have posted Pottstown’s tax-exempt property figures based on those recorded by Montgomery County. And the numbers are a lot higher than you think. Check it out:
http://codebluepulse.blogspot.com/2010/05/hard-figures-on-tax-exempt-properties.html#more
WOW!!!
Check out the link SP!! referenced over at Code Blue…I think you’ll find the numbers QUITE shocking!!!
I’m still reeling. There is certainly more that the Boro and SD could be getting in tax dollars which, in turn, would reduce the homeowner burden in this town!!
I am beginning to wonder if lessening the number of tax exempt properties AND collecting unpaid taxes would be enough revenue to off set the burden we face, in the coming years, regarding the elevated PSER Fund contributions WITHOUT effecting staff levels and programs!
That is some REAL food for thought…