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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/4/2008
Posts: 22
Location: Charlestown
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Just wondering if there is any place to get info about those running for the open school board positions. It seems like it would be hard to vote when there is really no info about the candidates. This forum may be a nice place for them to share some info about themselves. Just a thought...
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/13/2008
Posts: 28
Location: East Whiteland
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You can go to www.greatvalleystakeholders.com and click on "School Board Elections" to get information about how to contact the candidates directly. Some have websites with detailed information along with contact info while the others have email addresses.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/4/2008
Posts: 22
Location: Charlestown
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I wonder about this website. It's great that they do not endorse any candidates and just provide the contact info. However, I was looking around a bit and see that they ask for transperancy from the school board yet I can not tell who manages this site and provides the editorial comments about the board. Kind of weird to me.
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Rank: Just Joined
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/15/2009
Posts: 7
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"To "lassy": The Great Valley Stakeholders exists--very informally, without elected officers or anything of that type--as a group of citizens from Willistown, Malvern Borough, East Whiteland, and Charlestown. This group came together as a result of the limited public notice given to Dr. Jones' contract renewal approximately two years ago. Since then, the group has focused on questions the School Board has claimed to have been unable or was simply unwilling to address and/or provide details. Consequently, many of the people you see asking questions at public School Board meetings have been active with Stakeholders simply in order to get information that affects all of us as parents and taxpayers. As you might imagine, some people with children currently in school have been especially reluctant to air their questions publicly, but have been happy to participate in Stakeholders as a vehicle to do so. All information posted at the Stakeholders site is based on issues whose details have been gathered from publicly available documents, often gathered from Right to Know/Sunshine Law requests--again, the School Board has often been unwilling or unable to address these issues at School Board meetings or by email, or sometimes simply had no information! As with many groups (some of which you probably already belong to), the Stakeholders membership is not publicly posted, though you can discuss details regarding site management directly with the group by email at their site. Sadly, the very fact that a group like this was formed simply for people to get information about their School District shows me there's a real communications problem! So far, Bruce Chambers has been the only candidate for School Board (in Region One) that I have heard address the fact that this communications problem exists and provide some practical solutions. I hope you will visit his web site www.chambersforgv.com as he looks to have a real commitment to openess."
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Rank: Just Joined
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/31/2009
Posts: 1
Location: East Whiteland Twp
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Hi Lassy, I have asked this very question: Who are The Great Valley Stakeholders? on my blog just today: themalvernsocialclub.wordpress.com. I'd love to get some opinions and information from all the fine folks who participate here, if you could meander over there and take a look :) Thanks!
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/4/2008
Posts: 22
Location: Charlestown
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Administration
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 115
Location: Charlestown
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Congratulations to David Barratt and Steve Wicke on their successful bid to join the school board.
I voted at 6:15 pm last night - there were more poll workers than voters! Although, I seem to have a popular first letter in my last name. Yesterday I was in the "P through Z" line which had 3 people in front of me when I got there. I can handle that, but in the November election last year my line had about 45 people in front of me while every other line had 5 or 6.
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Rank: Just Joined
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/20/2009
Posts: 1
Location: East Whiteland
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great weather for voting yesterday. hats off to bruce chambers on a successful first step!!!
hope turnout is better in the fall.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/7/2009
Posts: 18
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frank wrote:Congratulations to David Barratt and Steve Wicke on their successful bid to join the school board.
I think we know for which two candidates Frank voted. Either that, or you missed that Bruce Chambers also continued on in his bid.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Administration
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 115
Location: Charlestown
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willster wrote:I think we know for which two candidates Frank voted. Either that, or you missed that Bruce Chambers also continued on in his bid.
Actually, I voted for Bruce Chambers and David Barratt... although I have nothing against Steve Wicke. I did miss that Bruce Chambers was continuing on, thanks for pointing that out. I received the update from Charlestown.org website that Steve and David had won. Looks like Jacob printed up a correction today:
Charlestown.org wrote:Correction - I misinterpreted the results of the GVSD director race in our region in yesterday's posting. In fact, David Barratt, Bruce Chambers and Steve Wicke will all be on the November ballot for the open positions. Many thanks to those who advised me of the error. See following entry.
www.Charlestown.org has a good link to the Daily Local article at http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/05/21/news/srv0000005389480.txt that explains the results in full.
It's definitely a confusing race with all candidates cross-filing as both a Democrat and a Republican. Thanks for helping sort it out.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/23/2009
Posts: 14
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The unfortunate thing about school directors being part of the election process is it becomes partisan and it shouldn't. When it comes to our kids education, it's not about what party you are and what your party represents. I just want someone who wants to understand, not someone who thinks they know everything.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/13/2008
Posts: 28
Location: East Whiteland
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To: Shellseeker
I am not being critical, but I am curious. How does your last phrase, " not someone who thinks they know everything" relate to the fact that the elections can become political?
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/23/2009
Posts: 14
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Many will vote purely by party not because they know anything about who's running.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 9/2/2009
Posts: 59
Location: Malvern
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shellseeker wrote:The unfortunate thing about school directors being part of the election process is it becomes partisan and it shouldn't. When it comes to our kids education, it's not about what party you are and what your party represents. I just want someone who wants to understand, not someone who thinks they know everything.
I completely agree with you that it shouldn't be partisan. We should all take a closer look at the candidates. Steve Wicke is actually a bit frightening to me ... I spent a little time searching the public campaign donation websites and found Wicke has given large amounts of money to the DNC and always Democrats, large amounts to individual candidates. He gave the max $2300 to Bob Roggio for Congress, the max to Obama, going way back to Clark for President, Wofford for Congress, etc. etc. It looks like his wife matches the max amounts each time. We're talking well over $30,000 by my rough count.
I consider myself an independent ... and that kind of partisan giving, particularly by an individual, is bothersome. I mean, seriously, $30k!!! That's more than some people make in an entire year.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/16/2009
Posts: 14
Location: Section 2
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sammy
Posted: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 8:37:52 PM
Rank: Just Joined
Groups: Member
Joined: 9/2/2009
Posts: 3
Location: Malvern
shellseeker wrote:
The unfortunate thing about school directors being part of the election process is it becomes partisan and it shouldn't. When it comes to our kids education, it's not about what party you are and what your party represents. I just want someone who wants to understand, not someone who thinks they know everything.
Sammy wrote:
I completely agree with you that it shouldn't be partisan. We should all take a closer look at the candidates. Steve Wicke is actually a bit frightening to me ... I spent a little time searching the public campaign donation websites and found Wicke has given large amounts of money to the DNC and always Democrats, large amounts to individual candidates. He gave the max $2300 to Bob Roggio for Congress, the max to Obama, going way back to Clark for President, Wofford for Congress, etc. etc. It looks like his wife matches the max amounts each time. We're talking well over $30,000 by my rough count.
I consider myself an independent ... and that kind of partisan giving, particularly by an individual, is bothersome. I mean, seriously, $30k!!! That's more than some people make in an entire year.
Sammy, I think you missed one other of Wicke's contributions from his non-profit company --- Can you believe he made a donation to ACORN?
I consider myself a libertarian. I have always believed as SHELLSEEKER says that the running of our schools shouldn't be partisan. This in spite of the fact that Jimmy Carter created a Federal Department to reward the teacher's unions for supporting him. Like the Dept. of Energy who Reagan said never produced a barrel of oil in their near 30 year history of spending billions nor decreased our need of oil from the mid-east, the DEPARTMENT of EDUCATION has done nothing to ensure that our students remained on top of the global race for educational elitism. Instead after the Dept. of Ed. spending billions of taxpayer dollars, our students cost the most to educate but rank at the bottom in comparison with all other major developed countries.
So am I partisan, no just practical as most liberatarians are.. I believe in the pecking order and the doom to failure if you try to circumvent it. I've worked in 3 unions and like some teachers, I've seen many good people knock themselves out for love of what they are doing even though they are economically stymied because of union regulations that contain them in salary schedules.
Only free markets bring out the best and get the job done right. The Manhattan project or the landing on the moon would never have succeeded if efforts had to proceed as in our GOVERNMENT run education industry.
****************************************************************************************
SHELLSEEKER are you the party of WICKE which in my opion has given us the most corrupt administration in this county's history? Here's an example.
You can't make up stuff better than this!
Isn't politics grand?
HURRAH FOR THE DEMOCRATS!
Jesse Jackson's Newest Staff Member
![[]](file:///C:/DOCUME~1/RAYBAS~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/file000.jpg)
Mel Reynolds
Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat
Congressman Mel to Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll.
Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused
in President Clinton's
last-minute forgiveness spree.
Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year
federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud,
and lies to the Federal Election Commission.
He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving
five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.
This is a first in American politics: An ex-congressman who had
sex with a subordinate...won clemency from a president who had
sex with a subordinate...then was hired by a clergyman who had
sex with a subordinate!
His new job?
Ready for this??
***** YOUTH COUNSELOR *****
IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?
CONFIRMED BY: http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/reynolds.asp
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 9/2/2009
Posts: 59
Location: Malvern
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PEDAGOGY2009 wrote:
Sammy, I think you missed one other of Wicke's contributions from his non-profit company --- Can you believe he made a donation to ACORN?
I actually don't believe that one, are you just making a joke? Or are you serious? What is the name of the non-profit and do you have a link to the page showing this?
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/16/2009
Posts: 14
Location: Section 2
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Sammy, I've hunted in vain but because so much is going on (see more examples below) about ACORN I forget where I found it so I'll have to retract my statement for lack of proof. I do know that $250 is sort of a cut-off amount that makes it hard to trace because the amount is insignificant and may have been recently removed as the below article states.. Those insignificant amounts do add up. ACORN's budget is $85 billion, our taxpayer money.
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 11:19 AM
Obama's Top Aide Gaspard Tied to ACORN
Monday, September 28, 2009 2:40 PM
By: David A. Patten
Article Font Size
Patrick Gaspard, considered one of the most powerful figures in the Obama White House, is a "longtime ACORN operative" and former union official, according to a report posted Monday on the American Spectator's online blog.
Gaspard's name recently surfaced as the official President Obama dispatched to urge beleaguered New York Gov. David Paterson not to run for another term. Paterson insists he'll continue to run for governor even without Obama's support.
Gaspard has extensive ties to organized labor and community-organizing groups. One measure of his influence in the White House: He holds the same "political affairs director" title that belonged to Karl Rove during the Bush administration.
The Spectator's Matthew Vadum, a senior editor at the Capital Research Center think tank, reported that Gaspard was the New York political director for top ACORN official Bertha Lewis before 2003. Lewis is the CEO and "chief organizer" for ACORN, which is the subject of more than a dozen investigations for vote-registration fraud nationwide.
The House and Senate recently moved to cut off ACORN funding after a series of videos revealed the willingness of its staff to help establish a reputed child-prostitution ring based in San Salvador. Obama refused to support ending federal funding for ACORN, however, telling ABC: "It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to."
Vadum cited the blog maintained by ACORN founder Wade Rathke, ChiefOrganizer.org, as his source for the Gaspard-ACORN link.
In May, Rathke described how officials of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) teamed up with HealthCare Reform Czar Nancy-Ann DeParle to pry big price concessions from private health firms.
Speaking of the advantage that comes from having powerful friends in high places, Rathke wrote: "Tell me that (Local) 1199's former political director, Patrick Gaspard (who was ACORN New York's political director before that) didn't reach out from the White House and help make that happen, and I'll tell you to take some remedial classes in 'politics 101.'"
The Spectator described Gaspard "ACORN's Man in the White House." It also reported that he was national field director in 2004 for American Coming Together (ACT), a get-out-the-vote organization.
The FEC hit ACT with a $775,000 fine for campaign-finance violations - one of the largest FEC fines ever - and it reportedly ceased operations in 2005.
Gaspard also worked for eight years for SEIU Local 1199, a hospital workers local, according to the Village Voice.
The Spectator report detailed what it calls the "fuzzy" line between the SEIU and ACORN.
Vadum reported that SEIU Local 880 and the SEIU Local 100 that Rathke heads are "part of the ACORN network of organizations."
He reported that the locals were listed as such on ACORN's Web site, but the references recently were removed.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 9/2/2009
Posts: 59
Location: Malvern
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PEDAGOGY2009 wrote:Sammy, I've hunted in vain but because so much is going on (see more examples below) about ACORN I forget where I found it so I'll have to retract my statement for lack of proof. I do know that $250 is sort of a cut-off amount that makes it hard to trace because the amount is insignificant and may have been recently removed as the below article states.. Those insignificant amounts do add up. ACORN's budget is $85 billion, our taxpayer money.
I'm sure any search including "acorn' is impossible to find anything now. But what is the non-profit company you say wicke runs? I'm just curious what non-profits the candidates are involved with.
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Rank: Member
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Joined: 4/7/2009
Posts: 18
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You all will probably be interested in this new blog. Someone dug up the records and presented all of Steve Wicke's donations in one list. Over $32000 to democrats!
http://stevewicke.blogspot.com/
I thought the final paragraph was an interesting observation:
"As if the quantity wasn't large enough, what should surprise you is that all $32,850 went to Democrats. There is not even a hint of someone who holds a balance of views. Not one penny went to an independent, a left leaning republican, or anyone else. Even more, activist groups like moveon.org are included. These are not run-of-the-mill organizations. It's quite clear that Wicke is a strong partisan. There really is no argument against these numbers, he is a partisan. How can someone who is so single-minded hope to represent the diversity of Great Valley? A school board should not be involved in republican vs democrat issues, it should be involved in local needs, local concerns, and the education of our children."
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Charlestown Twp
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Willster good points but I'd have to beg to differ about the "diversity" in Great Valley. The last time I checked it was well over 90% White and the household income was better than 90% of any other area in the country. We might be one of the least diverse townships in the country and Repulicans greatly outnumber democrats by a pretty big margin. I'd like to see the donations of some of his opponents. I'm pretty sure they are slanted toward their own party.
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