Farris and His Posse for the New Middle School

I’m only a tax-paying citizen of this school district, hoping not to have to support a new middle school. Yes, I can afford the tax increase but, as a lifetime (77 years) Valley resident I understand the hardship this tax would cause many of my friends and fellow citizens.

This is nothing more than John Farris, president of the school board, being an egotistical, selfish, fanatic who has been festering all these years because he lost re-election a number of years ago. The citizens voted him out then because it was proven the new middle school was not needed. Farris, at close to 80 years of age, wants to saddle the taxpayers with the disgraceful cost of a new middle school.

I see the “yes for a new middle school” signs mostly at newer homes. It just shows me that these people don’t know the background of John Farris or don’t care about all the citizens who can’t afford the tax increase. These residents only seem to care about themselves, which I understand to a point. “In reality it’s what we can afford.”

I remember when this new middle school was an issue a number of years ago.  At that time at one of the school board meetings Mr. Frank Skepton, who was a major contractor in the area, spoke of the proposed new middle school. Mr. Skepton said he felt there was no need to build a new middle school. He even went so far as to point out that he sent his children to the best private schools which had buildings much older than our current middle school and with these old buildings got the best of educations for his children. Frank Skepton built the Montgomery and Bucks county prisons and more major commercial structures too numerous to list including the Marlborough Elementary school. Mr. Skepton didn’t just run electric wires in buildings for 45 years and became an instant expert as Mr. Gillespie; he actually constructed the buildings.

What happened to the requirement that the superintendent live in the community so they might have the personal interaction with the citizens and understand the community? I don’t think this can happen when you live in an opulent area like the Main Line which doesn’t remotely relate to this community.

Much the same can be said for Business Manager Sandy Kassel who is the second highest paid employee, heading toward $200,000.00 a year and who also I don’t think ever lived in the valley.

Speaking of Sandy Kassel, I’m glad to see that others of the community besides me have come away from school board meetings feeling that she has been anything but open and forthright with information. Respect for some citizens, not respect for all citizens seems the culture of this district. A perfect example is the ground-breaking for the new school. I did not attend, and I would bet 99% of the citizens of this community did not attend either. Why would they not attend? Could it be attendance was by invitation only? Just because you are a taxpayer paying the bill for this new school doesn’t mean you’re invited to the ground- breaking ceremony. Only a select few chosen people got invitations. I understand at the next board meeting superintendent McGloin came along with all sorts of excuses why the citizens paying the bill for the new middle school were not invited to the ground-breaking ceremony. It highlights the arrogant mental orientation toward the citizens of this community.

Then we have John Gehman, our school board member who lost the primary election. The loss shows that people of the school district have come to realize that Gehman is one of the weak links on the school board. I think it is only in his mind that he considers himself a prize; it certainly is not in the minds of the voters of the valley. Mr. Gehman, you have made so many poor decisions while on the board. One decision many people were upset about didn’t even involve the school directly. It was your allowing the beautiful old stone farm house to be torn down and replaced by, of all things, a sign. Then after getting so much flack for your depraved decision you tried to blame the residents for tearing down the irreplaceable house. That’s so typical of you. I have not trusted you for many years and I think you understand why. Another example of your inability was hiring the superintendent before our current leader McGloin, that superintendent came and went so fast I think most of us can’t even remember her name. Another recent example of bad decisions is your flip-flopping on the new middle school. One minute you’re for it, the next minute you’re not. I guess to you it’s not a big deal if it only involves $60,000,000.00. Knowing candidates Pike, Maginnis, and Warren are aligning with you, Mr. Gehman, this tells me I want no part of any of you. I guess, Mr. Gehman, you were part of McGloin and Farris’s secret ruling of who would be invited to the private ground-breaking ceremony. I also believe you have or had a law suit against the school district concerning you’re paying too much school tax. How interesting, but yet you don’t seem to care about the rest of us and how much we pay in taxes. This accurately shows true lack of care and concern for your fellow citizens. You remind us that your ancestors helped build the Mayflower. Well, Mr. Gehman, I’m sure your ancestors if they were still on this earth would be certainly ashamed of what you have become.

Then we hear from the ghost of the former Superintendent Tim Kirby. Now this is someone you want to take stock in his every word. He’s not worth wasting much time on, but here we have someone who certainly during his tenure seems to have led this school district right down the drain. Yet he walked away with what I am sure will amount to millions of dollars of retirement money from this district. Mr. Gehman, you were on the board the whole time he was superintendent, so you had direct input to the amount of money he would receive when he retired. So it’s not hard to understand the flowery letter he would write. I think he owes you many more flowery letters even if there is no substance to them.

Here’s a final little tidbit of which you might not be aware, since in my opinion our current school board and administration are anything but open and above board. There is a state program called ProCon which will provide millions of dollars to school districts for construction. We were supposed to receive millions of dollars from this program. Guess what, the program has NO money, we will never see a dime.

This whole middle school project has been rushed at 90 miles an hour because John Farris had to satisfy his selfish and arrogant ego.