For more than a decade, the school district dress code, or uniform policy, has been a point of contention in the community.
Polls, public meetings have consistently shown about half the people support the idea of uniforms, and the other half do not.
It has been cited as both cause and cure for bullying, a savings for families — and an extra expense for families.
Teachers have complained that they are becoming the uniform police and parents have complained about both too lax and too stringent an enforcement of a policy that was often hard to pin down.
In 2015, while still a student at Pottstown High School, student board member Emanuel Wilkerson convinced the board in a 5-4 vote to suspend the policy at the high school as en experiment.
That experiment lasted until last month, when the suspension became permanent — along with a surprise vote to do away with the uniform/dress code policy for all schools.
This was followed by the tantalizing question: “What comes next?”
The answer, as it turns out, is very little.
Thursday night the school board quietly adopted a new policy crafted from discussions at a policy meeting the week before from which the media fled.
It says simply that “each building level (elementary/middle/high) will maintain and enforce a standard of dress among students.”
The standards will be based on three seemingly simple questions:
• “is what the student is wearing disruptive?”
• “would this standard of dress be appropriate in most work environments?”
• “is the student reflecting a version of Pottstown School District that is positive to visitors and community members?”
Other than that, the policy says that specific standards will be included in the student handbook for each building and that the administrators will “assess the compliance rate each year” and make whatever changes they feel are necessary.
Those changes will be announced before the end of school in June.
So you’re on your own folks.
Here are the Tweets from the school board meeting:
ONE YEAR IN: At left, Pottstown High School students Audrey Morton Cole Riulli, two of 14 students who completed the Early College program, are joined by sponsors and officials from Montgomery County Community College and the Foundation for Pottstown Education. with an average GPA of 3.4, those 14 students have completed the first year of college at Pottstown's community college campus at no cost to them, thanks to the $286,000 raised this year by the foundation, a 23.5 percent increase over last year.
As tends to happen at this time of the year, news of school districts focuses on budgets and their adoption.
Last night the Pottstown School Board unanimously adopted a $62.7 million budget that will raise taxes by 3.5 percent to make up a $1 million shortfall caused by the removal of Pottstown Hospital from the tax rolls.
But if the "fair funding formula" adopted but not funded by the hypocrites in the Pennsylvania legislature had been in place, that loss would not have been a problem.
Instead, Pottstown Schools would enjoy a $13 million boost, putting them for the first time in decades on equal footing with the districts whose students start on third base and pat themselves on the back for all their home runs.
To their credit, the Pottstown community, and particularly Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, are not taking this situation lying down.
Check out this video of Rodriguez speaking at a rally in the capitol Wednesday:
School Board member Emanuel Wilkerson said "I was raised in the Baptist church and Mr. Rodriguez was bringing the fire. You can't watch this not have goosebumps."
Rodriguez, Wilkerson and school board members Kim Stilwell and John Armato have been to Harrisburg to lobby against this unjust so many times now, they're thinking about renting a parking space.
On Wednesday they were there with the advocacy group POWER for the group's "100% Funding Day of Action." Power calls the uneven distribution of state education funding "educational apartheid."
The state budget now before the Pennsylvania State Budget will distribute just 8.8 percent of the new money allocated to education via the formula.
Although the rally was pushing for distributing ALL education money via the formula, Stilwell said that while she agrees, political realities have to be recognized.
MUSIC TO THEIR EARS: Tom Kelly, right, from Zeswitz
Music, was at the board meeting Thursday to give
the district's music staff another "Best Communities
for Music Education" award from the National
Association of Music Merchants.
As a result, the board unanimously adopted a resolution supporting a bill proposed by another advocacy group, Equity First and co-sponsored by all three of Pottstown's local state legislators, that would funnel 75 percent of all new education funding to Pennsylvania's underfunded districts, meaning 25 percent would go the over-funded districts, ensuring they still see an increase, albeit a small one.
"Dribs and drabs of more school funding just means more of the same for the next 20 years," Stilwell said.
In other business, the board adopted a new dress code policy which will set school-level dress codes, i.e. one for elementary, one for middle school and one for high school.
According to the policy, it will be guided by questions like "is what the student wearing disruptive?" "Would it be appropriate in a work environment?" Is student's dress reflecting a positive image of the school district?
More on that in later issues of The Mercury.
In the meantime, here are the Tweets from the meeting.
The shaded area on this map between High Street and the Schuylkill River shows the area which could be developed under the guidelines Pottstown Borough and West Pottsgrove Township are being asked to agree to and work toward.
West Pottsgrove Township Commissioners Wednesday voted 4-1 to move ahead with a plan to work together with Pottstown Borough to try to develop, or in some cases re-develop, the 255 acres along the Schuylkill River south of High Street.
Commissioners Chairman Steve Miller cast the dissenting vote after repeatedly asking the representatives from the Montgomery County Planning Commission and PAID whether the 13 owners of the properties in question had made any commitment to contributing to what could amount to an improvement to their properties.
The primary issue is the extension of Keystone Boulevard, which currently connects to College Drive in the borough and was always intended to continue through West Pottsgrove and the former Flagg Brass site to reach Grosstown Road.
Now that PennDOT is re-aligning Route 422 and creating a new, more user-friendly Grosstown Road interchange, the connection significantly increases the attractiveness of the acreage there, said John Cover, chief of community planning for the Montgomery County Planning Commission.
They key question, if you'll allow me the pun, is who will pay to extend the road?
"It looks to me like you guys want West Pottsgrove to do the heavy lifting while these guys get the benefit," Miller said, who three times asked why none of the property owners had ever appeared before the township board to explain their support and their willingness to contribute.
Peggy Lee-Clark, executive director of Pottstown Area Industrial Development, said many of the owners have agreed to make a contribution, adding "I just can't give you a dollar figure right now because we don't have all the costs."
The vote the commissioners took authorizes the formation of a permanent committee, with representatives from both West Pottsgrove and the borough, and makes them part of a memorandum of understanding that will allow for two things -- an engineering study and a request seeking out interested developers.
For the developers, said Cover, the road will be a central question. It is up to the
This conceptual design from a presentation made in February
shows "high-end" residential developments along
Route 100 in Pottstown.
elected officials to decide whether to build it first to attract developers, or wait to see if any developers or property owners volunteer to help with the costs.
"The big obstacle," Cover said, "is the road and expecting a developer to do that may be a bridge too far. Otherwise the properties may remain the way they are."
"Building the road first requires a leap of faith, but sometimes development requires that," said Cover.
The concept calls for a mix of development including residential, described as “high-end apartments,” and non-residential uses, which include industrial, office and research and development.
Because so much of the design work has already been done, Michael Narcowich, a principal planner with the Montgomery County Planning Commission, said the defined plan can supercede zoning “and allow a developer to proceed directly to final plan approval,” during a presentation to Pottstown Borough Council in February.
Allowing a developer who follows the plan to proceed to the final planning step “is a powerful tool” to attract developers and gives the municipalities more direct control over what gets built, said Community Planning Chief John Cover.
West Pottsgrove Commissioner Mark Green noted that most of the $10 million tax benefit goes to Pottstown. "That's because their tax millage rate is much higher," Cover replied.
According to the planning commission’s analysis, a build out of the plan would provide an additional $65.2 million in increased property value for the residential portion in the borough; and $47.2 million for West Pottsgrove.
On the non-residential side of the equation, a build out would result in another $51.8 million in non-residential property assessment for Pottstown, and another $37.5 million for West Pottsgrove.
All together, that a total of $201.8 million added to the tax base of the two towns.
In Pottstown, that would add an additional $1.2 million annually to the borough budget and another $4.6 million in tax revenues to the school budget.
In West Pottsgrove, the township would see an additional $211,819 in annual tax revenues and the Pottsgrove School District would see $3,208,039 more in taxes every year.
That's revenue the township might want to consider given that later in the meeting, Township Manager Craig Lloyd said Montgomery County recently informed him the total assessed value of property in West Pottsgrove is now $179,529,641, down from $200 million the previous year.
Green also remarked that before Pottstown looks to partner with West Pottsgrove, "they should get their downtown in shape first. Pottstown is going down the tubes."
Lee-Clark said she "takes issue" with that view, pointing to at least a half-dozen success stories going on in downtown Pottstown right now, including a microbrewery, a new restaurant and an engineering firm that will soon employ 50 people.
Cover agreed, saying "there is increased interest in Pottstown and they are on the verge. It's a good time to be a developer in Pottstown right now."
That being said, Lee-Clark said there is not as much vacant commercial space in the borough as some may believe, and there is a market to develop the property along the river.
"I get calls every day about space in Pottstown, and the calls are increasing," said Lee-Clark, adding "and there is a need to space and expansion out there."
Of course, being along the river, much of that property is already in the flood plain, and so anyone who wants to develop it will need lots of fill to raise it above the flood plain level.
We don't say this too often, but "PennDOT to the rescue!"
Cover said the ongoing project to rebuild Route 422, including the Grosstown Road interchange and two new bridges is generating a lot of fill, which is usually expensive to transport.
But thanks to an agreement by the owners of the 80-acre former Flagg Brass property, that fill is being stored there free of charge and will be available free to help raise the developments and the Keystone Boulevard extension above the flood plain level.
In Other News
There are two other things worth reporting out of last night's meeting.
The first is confirmation of what most had already guessed at. Township Manager Craig Lloyd said with the purchase of the YMCA building in Pottstown by a private developer, the organization has indicated it has no interest in running the pool program at the township pool this summer.
As a result, the pool will remain closed.
Also, Miller announced the remaining community day committee planning meetings are July 10, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in the township meeting room. The event is planned for Oct. 13, with a rain date of Oct. 14.
This new configuration of town homes, part of the proposed 30-acre Limerick Town Center project, was preferred by township supervisors Tuesday over the one presented two weeks ago.
Two major construction projects were reviewed by Limerick Township Supervisors Tuesday night.
The first, known as Limerick Town Center is located on 30 acres at the intersection of Ridge Pike, Lewis Road, and Swamp Pike.
It calls for a large senior living facility at the center, 160 townhomes and commercial retail buildings along Ridge Pike, as well as a re-alignment and extension of Lewis Road into a traffic circle for the new intersection of Ridge, Swamp and Lewis.
But it was only the townhomes on the agenda for discussion last night. The developers, Ridge-Swamp Associates LLP had, after getting input from the supervisors last week, re-arranged the townhomes to make the project less linear.
The change allowed for larger two-car garages on some models all of which reduced any potential parking problems.
The developers also reduced to one the entrances off Swamp Pike. The new configuration pleased the supervisors and attorney Bob Brant said that is the configuration they will bring to the planning commission on June 28.
The yellow loop shows the location for the new on-ramp.
Also up for an update is a project that began back in 2008, a new westbound
ramp onto Route 422 from Evergreen Road.
The new ramp will allow shoppers leaving Costco and the Philadelphia Outlets to get onto 422 west without having to make the dangerous left across opposing traffic on Evergreen Road.
Joe Platt from Traffic Planning and Design said the project will be reviewed by PennDOT in August and that construction will most likely take most of 2019.
Much of the $1.8 million project is being covered by PennDOT grants and the local share is being split between Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove, with 65 percent of the local share being paid by Limerick.
That money, said Township Manager Dan Kerr, is being drawn out of the traffic impact fees the township has charged developers for years and no local Limerick tax money is being used to pay the township's share.
So one of the problems with having five meetings to cover on any particular Monday is that you miss things.
I have not been to the Upper Pottsgrove Township Commissioners in several months, mostly because their agendas look like nothing is going on and others seemed more newsworthy.
But I evidently missed something at the May 21 meeting because for what may be the first time in more than 30 years of community journalism, Monday night's meeting saw a disagreement about adopting the minutes of that meeting.
Commissioners Elwood Taylor, Martin Schreiber and France Krazalkovich went back and forth about how much of any of their comments were included in the draft minutes of the May 21 that were presented last night for approval.
Schreiber and Taylor voted against their approval.
I did not understand everything that was talked about and the commissioners went into executive session immediately after the meeting, so I could not delve further.
What I did determine is that at some point, a vote was taken to have the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development undertake a study of the township fire company's effectiveness.
What was also evident was that a motion was made to have a "letter of no confidence" in the leadership of the fire company drafted.
What I don't know, other than the decision months ago by the board not to move forward with the purchase of a new fire truck, is what the hell this is all about.
But I will.
And when I do, you will too.
In the meantime, say farewell to Police Officer Steve Sigoda next time you see him. After 30 years with the township, he has announced his retirement.
The board will vote at the July 16 meeting whether to replace him, as Chief Fran Wheatley has requested.
Sunday marked the day a grateful daughter held the first Father's Day celebration at a YMCA in Spokane, Washington 108 long years ago.
Sonora Smart Dodd wanted to honor of her father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, a single parent who raised his six children. And so we have Father's Day.
Sadly, we fathers are not so smart these days and our failures make headlines nearly every day.
I look at the cards we send, the phone calls we make, and the sentiments we share and I shake my head in disbelief.
I consider all of the things dads are supposed to be to our families and, by extension, our greater world-wide family of humanity -- protector, provider, teacher, comforter-in-chief, fair-minded, selfless, generous, providing a good example -- and I find us failing miserably, particularly here in America.
Consider, the majority of our elected officials are men, and most of them are fathers as well, so it is on we fathers that the weight of this nation's failures rest.
Hopefully, the wave of women running for office in these mid-term elections will tip that balance and help to make this nation a kinder, more nurturing place. It cannot come soon enough.
But in the meantime, look around at the country we fathers have built.
I knew when the fathers of this country failed to take any action on gun control after the massacre of Sandy Hook Elementary School children in Newtown, CT that nothing would change; that if image of slaughtered children, of parents grieving could not motivate our nation's fathers, nothing would.
And nothing has, despite shooting after shooting after shooting. We throw up our hands and say "what can we do?"
We're fathers. We're the ones who are supposed to do something.
But as I looked into those devilish details of what the alternative to taking action means, our failure became more painfully apparent.
Because American fathers love their guns more than their children, kindergarten students at Lincoln Elementary School are no longer surprised (or terrified) when they hear there is an armed intruder prowling the halls who wants to shoot them.
Rather than running screaming through the halls, like any normal person might, they calmly barricade themselves in a classroom, or silently slip through the halls when their teacher gives them the signal.
For them, it's routine, and they drill for it three times a year.
Think about that for a minute, our children practice dealing with a gun-toting murderer in their school; the place they are supposed to feel safe, cherished.
They drill like they would for a fire which, Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Mike Foltz sadly noted, is now statistically less likely than an armed intruder shooting them in school.
How can we have normalized that? As fathers, how can we have accepted that our kids have to drill to keep from being shot in school? Because we have failed them as fathers, that's why.
Some believe the answer is more guns in schools. If the answer to any problem is "more guns in schools" we have failed as fathers.
We are, depending upon our politics, watching, allowing or actively encouraging hate to once again take a place as a legitimate reason for policy.
That unthinking hatred drives the headlines I read about children being separated at the borders from their fathers and mothers, who committed the crime of seeking a better, safer life for their families -- like so many of our fathers and grandfathers did before us.
I cannot begin to imagine what that would do to me, to be separated from my son when he was young as we undertook an act of desperation in search of a better life. He clung to us when we tried to leave after dropping him off for a three-day stay at karate camp. To be a parent and live through what they're doing at the border?
It's unthinkable.
But American fathers are doing it every day, and we don't give it much thought because they're not our children.
And the people who have decided that is the appropriate policy for our country are fathers as well. They are fathers in a country whose creed was once "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore; send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
I can imagine a father writing that, although the poet who wrote it was neither a father nor a parent. All the more ironic that Emma Lazarus could so clearly define a promise that we fathers, who seem to have lost all empathy, can no longer claim to keep.
Now, because their parents violated old and unreformed immigration laws (an area of policy in which the United States has a decidedly tarnished reputation) we punish the children.
If that inhumanity is truly the policy of this nation, the fathers who run it have failed.
I see the selfishness of the fathers who worship money and accumulate more of it than they could reasonably spend in a lifetime. And to preserve it, these fathers act to enforce a wage gap that keeps the children of other families living on the edge -- one major illness away from financial ruin.
Keeping children safe, fed and under roof is job one for a father, a job at which the nation's fathers have undeniably failed.
I look at the melting ice caps, the seas rising in Miami, an increasing frequency of severe storms; all the result of the climate change widely accepted throughout the scientific world as fact.
And I see the fathers who lead this nation living in denial of the truth, ignoring what is literally a world-wide threat that much of the rest of the world recognizes and is taking action, however timidly, to address.
Because, for the fathers who run this country, money is more important than providing breathable air, clean water and a livable climate to the next generation of our children.
In April, French President Michel Macron spoke to Congress like a father is supposed to speak to a child, trying to make them aware of a reality they cannot avoid as adults.
That the people who embrace the denial of this looming global disaster represent the nation that has done the most to bring it about is truly to shower shame on a nation that is supposed to be "the shining city on a hill."
My son, now 19 and a member of his college debate team, has initiated this conversation with me several times with increasing effectiveness, particularly when anyone mistakenly refers to him as a "millennial," that supposedly pampered generation of "everyone's-a-winner" fame.
He points out, with painful precision, that in fact it is my generation of fathers who have cocked things up so badly in this world:
Our (love for/fear of) guns is so great that we cannot even talk about controlling them to protect our children from being shot in school without being shouted down, so our solution is to help them get used to it;
We have allowed hate to once again carve a foot-hold in discussions of public policy which now carry increasingly disturbing echoes of a fascist state, much like the ones our fathers once defeated in war;
It is the policy of the fathers who lead this nation to intentionally inflict pain on helpless children who come to a land once defined by hope and which for them will now and forever be defined by cruelty and pain;
We allow more children to starve and be sick than any other developed nation on Earth, all so we can remain in a state of perpetual war with an idea which few of us could ever define;
Hell, we cannot even act to preserve the planet our children will inherit.
By nearly any measure you chose, the leaders of this nation have failed as fathers and as leaders and I am ashamed for all of us.
From left, First Presbyterian Co-Pastor Kerry Pidcock-Lester, Kendyll King, Isiah Perez and former Barth teacher Sharon Holloway
Blogger's Note:The following was provided by the Pottstown School District
At Barth Elementary School they practice the intent of the John Lennon song "All We Are Saying Is Give Peace A Chance."
The annual "Peacemaker of the Year" program which was developed through the joint efforts of Barth Elementary School and the First Presbyterian Church of Pottstown, recognizes two students for the qualities of kindness, respect, courage, and the willingness to solve problems in a peaceful way.
The school‑wide program includes written student nominations.
Recently at a school assembly, students read their nominating speeches which describe the qualities that the nominee has to qualify them to be "Peacemaker of the Year'. Pastor Kerry Pidcock-Lester was on hand to present plaques and a $100 award to this year's Peacemakers Kendyll King and Isiah Perez.
Classmates described Kendyll as someone who listens to everyone's side of a story and tries to be a problem solver.
"She cheers you up by making jokes:she is very funny. She helps us when we do not understand something in class. She does her best to be positive and cheer people up. Once when I was sad about something that happened she talked with me till I felt better," read some of the comments.
One of Isiah's classmate wrote; "he helped me pick up my papers when I fell. He also made me feel welcomed and helped me when I first moved here. He included me in games at recess if he saw I was not involved. I was shy about singing in the chorus concert and he made me feel that it would be alright. Once I got mad because I tripped and he came to make sure I was OK and gave me a way to stay calm.
Barth Principal Ryan Oxenford, Barth said "thanks to First Presbyterian for supporting this program for the last 19 years. It is a powerful learning lesson for our students and a stepping stone to becoming positive productive citizens."
