The Sanatoga Post

John J. Rundle

SYRACUSE NY – John J. “Joe” Rundle, the father of Debbie Zlomek of North Sanatoga Road, Sanatoga PA and father-in-law for 31 years of Sanatoga Post Managing Editor Joe Zlomek, died Friday (Oct. 14, 2011) at the VA Medical Center in Syracuse NY. He was 87.

Mr. Rundle was for 47 years the husband of Rosalie Rundle, who also died in Syracuse only four months ago (June 2011). He was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed gardening. He was a decorated veteran of the U.S. Army, and served on Iwo Jima as a medical orderly.

Mr. Rundle worked for several years as an experienced long-haul driver of tractor trailers and other large trucks, and often told entertaining tales of his time spent crossing the country via its highways.

He also spent many years in retailing, most of them in lumber and hardware sales at the Cooley’s True Value franchise in Morrisville NY, from which he retired. Contractors and do-it-yourselfers alike came to rely on his advice and guidance in their projects.

Besides Debbie Zlomek he is survived by daughters Donna (Bill) Thompson of Syracuse NY, Laura Montenaro of Long Island NY and Mary (Ken) Vincent of Chittenango NY; sons Greg (Joyce) Rundle of Mexico NY and John (Jennifer) Rundle of Dover DE; 13 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. He was also predeceased by a son, Rod.

Services and burial on Tuesday (Oct. 18), under the supervision of NewComer Funeral Home of North Syracuse NY, will be private. There will be no calling hours. A private burial will be held in Mexico Village Cemetery, Mexico NY, with veteran’s honors accorded by a representative of the Army. Messages for the family may be left at the funeral home website, here.

POTTSTOWN PA – Only three days after Pottsgrove School District administrators were taken to task by members of the Board of School Directors for some students’ poor performance on Pennsylvania reading and math tests, one of the criticized schools distributed an e-mail newsletter showing its teachers diligently at work to help their classes succeed.

The Fall 2011 "Learn" newsletter issued Friday

Pottsgrove Middle School on Friday (Oct. 14, 2011) issued a Fall 2011 edition of its “Learn” newsletter, which it said intended “to highlight the awesome learning of our teachers and students.” Its four headlined stories, which described how teachers tackled learning difficulties encountered by their pupils, were written by teachers themselves, Principal Bill Ziegler reported.

Ziegler did not indicate whether the three-page piece was meant as a response to directors’ biting comments Tuesday (Oct. 11) regarding Pottsgrove’s 2011 reports of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) from the state Department of Education. Those results showed the district made its overall AYP goals, but that certain student groups tested at Pottsgrove Middle, Lower Pottsgrove Elementary, and Pottsgrove High schools failed to meet proficiency standards in required subject matter.

AYP is a measure of learners’ achievement, as defined by the federal “No Child Left Behind Act”.

One board member this week cited teacher unwillingness to enforce educational discipline as a potential cause of some students’ inability to master their studies. However, the board as a whole during the past three years has publicly denounced what it cites as continuing problems in helping students significantly improve their academic skills and understanding.

The newsletter optimistically focused on teacher solutions to those problems.

Its lead story told how 8th grade algebra students were divided into three separate groups as a way to maximize assistance teachers offered. A second article covered how students gained confidence in understanding the mathematical concept of “percentage of change.” A third tied reading aloud in science to improving reading in other subjects too.

The middle school’s goals, the newsletter added, in bridging learning gaps are to:

• Align courses with state standards, teach effectively, and test regularly for understanding. The so-called dipstick tests of student progress are professionally known as “common formative assessments.” School board members charged the district has heavily invested in their development and training in recent years with too few positive results.
• Have teachers across several subjects – math, English, science and social studies among them – collaborate on instructional strategies; and
• Ensure consistency in writing across all grades.

The newsletter’s brief fourth story explained how students were also encouraged to teach lessons to one another as reinforcement.

Related (regarding academic performance at Pottsgrove):

• Teachers Helping Classes Succeed, Newsletter Contends
• Poor Math, Reading At Pottsgrove High Frustrates Board
• State Says Pottsgrove Schools Make ‘Adequate Yearly Progress’
• Pottsgrove Teachers Review District Accountability Plan
• School Board Criticizes Lack of Students’ Improvement
• Notebook Worthy For March 23, 2009
• Pottsgrove Tops Many In Science, But …

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

• Teachers Helping Classes Succeed, Newsletter Contends
• Poor Math, Reading At Pottsgrove High Frustrates Board

Construction during August at the Carmike Cinema being built next to Target in the Upland Square Shopping Center, Route 100 and Upland Square Drive, in Pottstown

POTTSTOWN PA – Carmike Cinemas, which is making progress toward soon opening a new theater complex at the Upland Square Shopping Center in Pottstown PA, announced Tuesday (Oct. 11, 2011) it would launch the grand opening next week of a similar theater in Missoula MT.

The Georgia-based Carmike chain said it would unveil its “BigD” theater in Montana that showcases “large-format digital movies with bigger screens, bigger and better sound, and luxurious in-theater seating.” Missoula’s 12-theater complex could seat more than 2,000 customers at a time, according to company executives.

The BigD screen is reported to measure 62 feet wide and three stories high. It is intended to carry projected images of “significantly higher” resolution than high-definition televisions, Carmike said.

Higher technology equipment also is being readied in a nearly identical venue for Pottstown movie-goers. Carmike contractors have been at work for months in building an even larger complex at Upland Square, next to the Target Department Store there, which is set to open before year’s end.

• Read a story at the Roy’s Rants blog about construction progress at the Pottstown cinema, here.

Photo from Roy’s Rants

Already ordered, but it probably will be painted yellow when you see it

SANATOGA PA – Bet you wished your household finances could work like this.

Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township commissioners voted late last month to buy the Highway Department a new truck, an “upfitted” 2012 Ford model F-550 from the Fred Beans Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership in West Chester PA. It replaces a 1997 vehicle that’s already been taken out of service. Its total cost: $77,772.

Money to pay for it, however, hasn’t quite arrived yet. It’s been allocated, in advance, from next year’s township budget.

Board members unanimously agreed Sept. 28 to the unusual move because the need for the truck is immediate, according to Commissioner James Phillips, and its purchase has been under discussion for some time. Roadmaster John Fogel assembled specifications and obtained bids for the truck weeks ago, as did Phillips, a former automobile dealer. Their results were almost identical, he noted.

It will take extra time, maybe several more weeks, to marry the $41,017 truck chassis to its additional equipment, being installed by Triad Truck Equipment Inc. of Limerick PA at a price of $36,755.

By then, commissioners expect, the 2012 budget – complete with the anticipated truck – will have been approved (probably during November or early December).

So, too, will the tax revenues to cover it.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove 2012 budget):

• We’ll Gladly Pay You In 2012 For A Truck Ordered Now
• Open Budget Meetings, He Complains, Not That Open
• Township Committee Planning Two Budget Meetings
• Thanks To Survey Input, Township Preparing Trash Bids
• Pottstown Library Asks Township For Higher Funding

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Sept. 28):

• We’ll Gladly Pay You In 2012 For A Truck Ordered Now
• On Sunnyslope Drive, Acquisition Better Late Than Never
• Conflict Waiver Keeps Township Out Of An Ethical Jam
• Lower Pottsgrove August 2011 Warrants Now Online

SANATOGA PA – An extension of Sunnyslope Drive in Sanatoga village, located off Welsh Drive southeast of North Pleasant View Road, is the newest property acquisition of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township.

Just the road, not any land surrounding it.

It’s common that, once most development projects are completed to a municipality’s satisfaction, it usually owns and assumes responsibility for maintenance of roads built there. Until late last month, the extension of Sunnyslope Drive – on which a four-lot subdivision was approved in 1985 – was an overlooked exception to that rule.

The township has been providing services there, tasks like snow plowing and pothole patching and gutter cleaning, for more than two decades. But Manager Rodney Hawthorne determined it never received what is known as a deed of dedication, which transfers the roadbed’s ownership from the developer to it.

That problem is now solved. The township Board of Commissioners unanimously approved dedication of the road section, and accepted the deed, during its Sept. 28 (2011) meeting.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Sept. 28):

• On Sunnyslope Drive, Acquisition Better Late Than Never
• Conflict Waiver Keeps Township Out Of An Ethical Jam
• Lower Pottsgrove August 2011 Warrants Now Online

Illustration from Google Maps

SANATOGA PA – File this item under the heading “Sticky Wicket, Unstuck.”

Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township recently found, and eliminated, what could have been a conflict of interest issue in its pursuit of disciplinary action against a member of its police department, Ofc. Matthew Meitzler.

The Board of Commissioners during July (2011) authorized Chief Michael Shade to suspend Meitzler for two 12-hour shifts without pay, following an earlier incident that involved a police vehicle. Attorney Blake Dunbar Jr. is representing Meitzler in an appeal of the suspension, expected to be heard by the township Civil Service Commission in coming weeks.

The conflict, defined late last month by township Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway, is this: Dunbar works with the law firm of Robert L. Brant and Associates of Trappe PA. Its principal, Bob Brant, serves as solicitor to the township Zoning Hearing Board. That sets up a scenario in which the same firm both assists and opposes the township, albeit in far different judicial matters.

Of such stuff, legal ethics textbooks are written.

To ensure Lower Pottsgrove’s name doesn’t end up in one of them, Holloway and the attorney representing the township in the Meitzler appeal – Ryan Cassidy of the Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellot law firm in Philadelphia – asked commissioners to issue a waiver that officially acknowledged and dismissed the conflict.

Board President Jonathan Spadt, an attorney himself, had no objection. No one in Brant’s firm is representing the township regarding the Meitzler case, he noted, and both Dunbar and Cassidy have a “good working relationship,” he added. Commissioner Michael McGroarty agreed, saying he saw “two separate issues here” that posed no problem for him.

Commissioners unanimously granted the waiver during their Sept. 28 meeting. A date for the appeal hearing, which is open to the public, has not yet been announced.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Sept. 28):

• Conflict Waiver Keeps Township Out Of An Ethical Jam
• Lower Pottsgrove August 2011 Warrants Now Online

Photo from Clipart.com

The 2011 Adequate Yearly Progress report for Pottsgrove High School

POTTSTOWN PA – Frustration and anger over the Pottsgrove School District‘s inability to significantly increase proficiency in reading and math skills among its high school students boiled to the top of the district Board of School Directors‘ meeting Tuesday (Oct. 11, 2011).

“At the end of the day we’ve made no stinking progress,” Director Fred Remelius grumbled, giving voice to feelings that – as observers looked around the board tables – seemed to be held by several of his colleagues. Remelius argued that a heavy investment of taxpayer dollars into fixing the problem had yielded too few results.

At least one administrator, Assistant Superintendent Shellie Feola, countered that what the district really needed was more time – possibly several more years – to make those investments pay off. “It takes five to seven years to turn a district around,” she said. However, the district has only three years, until 2014, to meet government requirements or face penalties.

The focus of board complaints was the 2011 report of adequate yearly progress (AYP) among the district’s five schools, the federal and state measurement of how well or poorly students are being educated as defined by the “No Child Left Behind” Act.

As a district, Pottsgrove met AYP targets during 2011 and 2010, even though two schools this year received warning notices, and the high school was flagged as more problematic

The district met its 2011 AYP targets overall (see graphic above), as it also did during 2010, for student attendance, test participation, and graduation rates. However, it lagged in academic performance ratings that determine students’ ability to read and do math at higher-than-minimum levels of understanding.

This year’s results have been available since July, but did not become part of the board’s public discussion until Tuesday night. They show  (click on text links below for individual schools’ results):

• Ringing Rocks and West Pottsgrove elementary schools met federal and state AYP targets;
• Lower Pottsgrove Elementary and Pottsgrove Middle School did not meet their goals and received warning notices; and
• Pottsgrove Senior High both failed to meet its goals and was flagged as a school in need of substantial improvement.

“That’s just not acceptable in the real world,” Remelius said of the high school results. “And I think our problem is that we’ve set no high level of expectation that students must do well.” Some Pottsgrove teachers, he claimed as an example, failed to enforce homework deadlines and created a student culture of indifference to education. “We’ve got to change that culture or we’ll never move off the dime here,” Remelius added.

“We’ve been hearing about this for a long time,” Director April Kontostathis said of the statistics, “and before we buy another laptop computer or overhead projector, we’ve got to be sure our teachers know how to teach reading and math. I think we’ve been trying to take on too much at one time,” she said, advocating a back-to-basics approach.

“It’s not as though we’ve been doing nothing,” district Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis replied. “We’ve made some significant progress,” he said, in improving academic performance among Pottsgrove subgroups that AYP reports showed to have learning difficulties: those in special education classes, economically disadvantaged students, and non-Hispanic African-American students.

Still, the high school AYP measurements for 2011 show the student body as a whole did not meet academic performance levels in either reading or math. Moreover, math performance among non-Hispanic whites and blacks alike also fell below goal.

“Where we’ve put our money for the last three years has not given us what we were expecting,” Landis acknowledged, “but it hasn’t been for naught.”

Related (regarding academic performance at Pottsgrove):

• Poor Math, Reading At Pottsgrove High Frustrates Board
• State Says Pottsgrove Schools Make ‘Adequate Yearly Progress’
• Pottsgrove Teachers Review District Accountability Plan
• School Board Criticizes Lack of Students’ Improvement
• Notebook Worthy For March 23, 2009
• Pottsgrove Tops Many In Science, But …

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

• Poor Math, Reading At Pottsgrove High Frustrates Board

SANATOGA PA – Although Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s municipal building will be open for public business Thursday (Oct. 13, 2011), you may have a tough time finding members of its administration or department officials to talk with there after 9:30 a.m. That’s because many will be preparing for next month’s mock emergency drill at the Exelon Corp. Limerick Generating Station.

A Montgomery County amateur radio operator participates in an earlier drill involving Limerick Generating Station

The nuclear power-generating facility annually conducts a drill for municipal officials and emergency personnel during November. This year’s two-day event is scheduled for Nov. 15 and 16 (Tuesday and Wednesday) at and surrounding the reactor site at the intersection of Evergreen and Linfield Roads, and takes on added significance as Exelon pursues renewal of its generators’ operating licenses.

The site sits on the dividing line between Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove townships, which makes theirs the first among what would likely be thousands of first responders. As Lower Pottsgrove’s emergency management coordinator, police department Lt. Michael Foltz wants to ensure the drill runs smoothly. He’s scheduled the preparatory training session Thursday that will involve administrators, department heads and police, among others.

Foltz met during April (2011) with representatives of the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety to review Lower Pottsgrove’s emergency operations plan, its notification and resource manual, and its radiological emergency response plan in advance of the drill.

He’s been active since in developing and implementing training with the Sanatoga and Ringing Hill fire companies to ensure route alerting procedures could be fulfilled within specific time limits. Foltz and his emergency management colleagues also have been trained in procedures required by Exelon, and the Pennsylvania and the Federal Emergency Management agencies.

They aren’t the only ones getting ready for drill activities.

Montgomery County amateur radio operators also will again be part of Exelon’s event. Members of the county Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) provide emergency backup communications to every local government within the county, its website reports, and adds: the “Limerick drill is one of (the) most important deployments … we do. (It) allows us to show off our capabilities to local, state, and federal government agencies.”

RACES volunteers provide radio communications assistance as needed for more than 20 different government entities during the drill, and it’s still looking for amateur radio licensees who can donate time to the effort. Those interested must both become members of the group and pass a criminal background check. For more information, visit its web page, here.

Officer Wil James

SANATOGA PA – Wil James is back in school.

Lower Pottsgrove Police Department Officer Wil James, who for several years has served as the school resource officer for Pottsgrove High School, is returning to that position for the 2011-2012 school year. Both the township Board of Commissioners and the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors authorized his assignment with a recent contract.

The township is reimbursed at a fixed rate for days during which James works at the high school. That amount increased this year to keep pace with rising township costs, police Chief Michael Shade told commissioners. The district will pay about 30 percent of the $65,000 expense, he said.

Commissioners agreed to the contract during their Oct. 3 meeting, subject to the review and approval of Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway. District directors approved it at their Sept. 27 meeting.

POTTSTOWN PA – “Dare To Be The Best,” a new, six-session program for fathers that encourages them to be the best parent possible, will be held on consecutive Wednesdays beginning this week (Oct. 12, 2011) from 6-7:45 p.m. in the community room of Pottstown Public Library, 500 High St., Pottstown PA.

The series is being sponsored by The Pottstown Family Center of Family Services of Montgomery County, located in Sanatoga, and the library. It emphasizes father-child interaction, case management, education, and advocacy. Information about community resources, services and programs will be available. Light refreshments will be provided.

Advance registration is required. For more information or to register, call Rob Gaskill at 610-326-1610, Ext. 239, or send him an e-mail, here.

Photo from Google Images