The Sanatoga Post

POTTSTOWN PA – Celebrate Halloween a couple of days early in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township by watching two teams of women roll past your seat at high speed.

Pottstown's Roller Derby Rockstars

The Pottstown Roller Derby Rockstars, the local women who comprise the Greater Pottstown area’s own roller derby team, have scheduled a Halloween-themed “Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun” double-header for fan enjoyment next Saturday (Oct. 29, 2011) from 2-6 p.m. at The 422 SportsPlex, 1400 Industrial Hwy., Pottstown PA, at the township’s western edge.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

In addition to what team representative Kristin McGuire called “hard hitting, action-packed roller derby” fun, the family event (which also observes the team’s first anniversary) includes costume contests for kids and adults, raffles, a disc jockey, face painting, candy, and a bounce castle for kids.

Tickets cost $12 for adult general admission; $15, adult VIP admission (on track seating); and $6 for children under 12. They can be purchased online, here.

Photo from the Roller Derby Rockstars

POTTSTOWN PA – “Pippin,” the tongue-in-cheek, anachronistic fairy tale-turned-musical (right) that captivated Broadway audiences, continues in performances this weekend and next (Oct. 22-23 and Oct. 27-30) at the Tri-County Performing Arts Center (Tri-PAC), 245 High St., Pottstown PA.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Pippin is a young prince who longs to discover the secret of true happiness and fulfillment. He seeks it in the glories of the battlefield, the temptations of the flesh, and the intrigues of political power. In the end, he finds it in the simple pleasures of home and family.

The energetic, pop-influenced score bursts with show-stopping numbers, from soaring ballads to infectious dances (above). “Pippin” is written by three-time Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, the creator of the Broadway hits “Wicked” and “Godspell;” the animated films “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback Of Notre Dame” and “The Prince Of Egypt,” and other musicals.

The cast (above) includes David Bazemore, Matt Kiesling, Carly Fried, Neal Newman, Donna Dougherty, Ben Fried, Jason Burke, David Eurillo, Drew Carr, Dane Duncan, Jordan Popky, Pat Rhoads, Kelsey Riker, Jordan Shoemaker, and Carrie Thorwarth.

Tickets are available online, here, or will be sold at the door if space is available.  Ticket prices range from $13 to $23, with discounts for students and seniors, as well as groups of 10 or more. Book tickets online and reserve your seating in advance. For full information check the Tri-PAC website, here, or call the theater at 610-970-1199.

Tri-PAC is a non-profit performing arts organization founded in 2001 by a team of performing artists, arts educators, business leaders, and area residents.

Photos from Tri-PAC

POTTSTOWN PA – A former Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township commissioner, who hopes to regain a seat there during next month’s general election, has asked the Pottsgrove school board to reconsider disciplinary action against a Pottsgrove High School student accused of attending a recent football game in an intoxicated state.

Stephen Klotz of New Kepler Road, Pottstown PA, made his plea to the district Board of School Directors during its meeting last Tuesday (Oct. 11, 2011), in an effort to reverse or at least lessen the discipline against the student who was not identified by name but who was said to be a male athlete.

Directors agreed they would take a closer look at disciplinary policy, and the board’s Policy Committee scheduled a meeting next Tuesday (Oct. 25) at 6:30 p.m. in the district offices, Kauffman Road, Pottstown PA, for that task.

Under the guidance of district Solicitor Kyle Berman, however, they limited discussion of the case’s specifics and pointedly made no promises about over-turning decisions in it.

Klotz is not related to the student or his family, he told board members, and said he appeared before them primarily as someone who knew those involved and wanted to be of help. He argued the district policy regarding intoxication and banned or controlled substances should be applied “on a case-by-case basis” rather than broadly meted out.

The policy, according to district Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis, can involve punishments up to expulsion, attendance at night school rather than during the day, and required counseling.

Although various laws demand privacy in such situations, it was revealed – to Berman’s obvious dismay – that the student had agreed to attend Pottsgrove’s “Twilight Program” night school, staffed by its own teachers, for an unspecified period. “I think we’ve been very sensitive in the matter,” Landis said.

“But are we setting this kid up for failure?,” Klotz countered. He suggested that a single infraction should not jeopardize the student’s opportunity to obtain a scholarship or attend selected colleges. “Every kid should have the right to a better education,” he added, “and I really feel you have to look at this policy. I think it’s a mistake.”

Directors and administrators made it clear they did not.

“We’re not turning our backs on this child,” board President Michael Neiffer observed. “We’ve provided several options” for discipline, he added, and the student and the district agreed on one. Pottsgrove’s zero-tolerance policy in such circumstances was worthwhile and protected all involved, he indicated.

Director Fred Remelius went further. “There’s been a lot of tragedy in this school district and others regarding alcohol in the last couple of years,” he reminded Klotz, in a reference to automobile accidents that claimed students’ lives. “The headlines in the local paper are filled with them. There are very, very serious consequences that go along with that,” he said, and said dealing with improper student behavior is one way to address them.

And high school Interim Principal Yolanda Williams objected to Klotz’s characterization of the policy as one-size-fits-all. “It’s not a blanket approach to each kid” she said.

After about 20 minutes, Berman stepped in again. “This school board meeting is the venue” to address directors, he told Klotz, “but not the venue for a back-and-forth discussion of the specifics. It’s not a place for this give-and-take.”

Both board members, some of whom are running for re-election in November, and Klotz, who is running for election to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, took the hint and stopped talking.

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Oct. 11 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Asked To Review Student Discipline Case
• In Pottsgrove, Redistricting Study Work Gets Started
• Pottsgrove Board Personnel Decisions Affect 72 Positions
• Teachers Helping Classes Succeed, Newsletter Contends
• Poor Math, Reading At Pottsgrove High Frustrates Board

"Agency Of The Year" award given this week to Family Services of Montgomery County

SANATOGA PA – Family Services of Montgomery County, which operates offices on East High Street in Sanatoga, was named “Agency of the Year” by the national Alliance for Children and Families during a special awards luncheon at its annual conference this week in Washington DC, Family Services’ Executive Director Mark Lieberman announced Thursday (Oct. 20, 2011) on Facebook.

Family Services – which supervises the county Meals On Wheels program, schedules shut-in visits to the elderly, provides parent education classes, and a variety of other social service programs – was selected in a contest of its peers, a “national competition of agencies within the network of Alliance agencies,” Lieberman said.

“Such national recognition was only possible due to the collective effort of the board and staff of Family Services,” he added. “Each and every staff member’s professionalism, creativity and dedication to the mission of improving the lives of people living in Montgomery County is the reason why Family Services was able to succeed in competing for this award.”

Photo from Family Services

SANATOGA PA – What’s your group, school, organization or company got going on in coming weeks? If it’s a local activity open to the public, The Post Publications – The Sanatoga Post, The Limerick Post, The Pottstown Post, and The Main Street Post – want to help promote it … for free.

One of The Post’s most visited pages weekly is its community calendar. Post readers have come to rely on it to plan fun for their weekends and keep up with can’t-miss-stuff during the week, in part because we also link directly to 18 other community events calendars in Limerick, Pottstown, Boyertown and Douglassville PA. Feel free to send your notices of community events to us by e-mail to sanatoga@yahoo.com. We’ll make sure they get posted to the calendar.

Here’s what we added Thursday (Oct. 20, 2011):

• Halloween Haunted House (Sanatoga PA), 10/21-22/2011
• Run For Courage Fund-Raiser (Royersford PA), 10/22/2011
• Pumpkin Run Car Cruise (Boyertown PA), 10/22/2011
• Community Movie (Royersford PA), 10/22/2011
• Ham And Oyster Supper (Collegeville PA), 10/22/2011
• Pippin [The Musical] (Pottstown PA), 10/22-23-27-28-29-30/2011
• Tournament Of Bands SE PA Championship (Royersford PA), 10/23/2011
• Sacred And Secular Jazz Celebration (Pottstown PA), 10/23/2011
• Business Card Exchange (Limerick PA), 10/25/2011
• Leadership And Management Seminar (Pottstown PA), 10/27/2011
• Halloween Safe House (Sanatoga PA), 10/27/2011
• Drug Take-Back Day (Various Locations), 10/29/2011
• Power Networking Luncheon (Limerick PA), 11/2/2011
• Earned Income Tax Law Basics (Pottstown PA), 11/3/2011
• Chamber Membership Breakfast (Pottstown PA), 11/10/2011

See the entire calendar and Upcoming Events page, here.

HARRISBURG PA – Proposals to impose tolls on U.S. Route 422 may have fallen by the wayside, but Republicans in the state Senate – tired of waiting for Gov. Tom Corbett to address the issue of raising funds to repair Pennsylvania highways and mass transit problems – say they plan to find some of that money themselves.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman on Wednesday (Oct. 19, 2011) told The Pennsylvania Independent online news service he would support plans to increase transportation funding by $2.5 billion annually. Corman said he intends to introduce Senate Bill 4 to implement revenue-generating elements contained in an earlier report issued by Corbett’s Transportation Funding Advisory Commission.

Waiting to address infrastructure funding deficiencies, as Corbett has indicated he might do, could cost drivers and taxpayers more in the long run, Corman contended. Consequently, he said he would push for raising fees to use Pennsylvania’s highways and mass transit as the only way to improve the state’s crumbling roads and bridges.

“We’re not saving our constituents money by not doing this,” Corman told The Independent in an interview. “The money is going to be spent one way or the other, so why not spend it to fix the problem?”

Pennsylvania has more than 5,200 structurally deficient bridges, the highest total in the nation, and more than 7,000 state roads are rated in poor condition, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Tolling 422 is not expected to be in the package of increased fees. That proposal was abandoned by its prime advocate, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, in hopes that recommendations from Corbett’s group would be implemented quickly.

• Read a story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “Tired of waiting for Corbett, Senate GOP prepares transportation package” and published Wednesday by The Independent, here.

Photo from Boston.com

POTTSTOWN PA – A study of redistricting in the Pottsgrove School District officially got under way this week.

An “elementary attendance boundary committee” of parents and teachers from each of Pottsgrove’s three elementary schools, as well as administrators and members of the district Board of School Directors, was scheduled to gather Tuesday (Oct. 18, 2011), Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis said. Its task: determining which students would attend which school buildings in future years.

In addition to this week’s opening session, the committee is scheduled to meet on three other Tuesdays – Nov. 1, Nov. 15 and Nov. 29.

• These events have been added to The Post calendar.

Landis told the school board during its meeting last week (Oct. 11) that committee members had been selected and given several documents he hoped would help guide them in deciding how the schools would be populated.

He suggested three months ago that Lower Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove and Ringing Rocks elementary schools might be re-configured to make better use of building space and avoid overcrowding. Landis said he also wants to explore the possibility of changing the district’s elementary organization, by creating two schools (West and Ringing) for kindergarten through second grade only, and opening a Grades 3-5 Center at Lower.

Committee recommendation for changes, if any, would not be implemented until the 2012-2013 school term.

Board members agreed, and the administration put out a call for volunteers. It got plenty, Landis said, although a final list of committee members has not been publicly released.

Related (to Pottsgrove School District redistricting):

• In Pottsgrove, Redistricting Study Work Gets Started
• Pottsgrove Sets Dates For Redistrict Committee Work
• As Expected, Interest A’Plenty In Pottsgrove Redistricting
• Landis Calls For Pottsgrove Redistricting Volunteers
• Touchy Pottsgrove Redistricting Now Being Considered

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Oct. 11 meeting):

• In Pottsgrove, Redistricting Study Work Gets Started
• Pottsgrove Board Personnel Decisions Affect 72 Positions
• Teachers Helping Classes Succeed, Newsletter Contends
• Poor Math, Reading At Pottsgrove High Frustrates Board

SAN FRANCISCO CA – Representatives of Valtech Corp., the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township manufacturer of epoxy adhesives, molded polymers, coolants and detergents used in the solar panel industry, says it will be among exhibitors at five different solar energy industry events through 2013.

The company announced Wednesday (Oct. 19, 2011) it had launched a redesigned website to assist is growing customer base, and said there that its sales force was scheduled to attend:

• SolarconIndia, Nov. 9-11 (2011) in Hyderabad, India;
• SPIE Photonics West, Jan. 21-26 (2012) in San Francisco CA;
• International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference and Exhibition, May 16 – 18 in Shanghai, China;
• Intersolar North America, July 10-12, in San Francisco; and
• SPIE Optifab 2013, Oct. 14-17 (2013) in Rochester NY.

Valtech has its headquarters at 2113 Sanatoga Station Rd., Pottstown PA. It also operates a research and development facility in Livermore CA, has a manufacturing plant in China, and maintains offices in China, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Photo from Google Images