in the woods
Monthly Archives: May 2012
a word from your friendly neighborhood blogger
Apparently, my latest post on the issues in the West Chester School District with the swimming coach from Bayard Rustin named Kenneth Fuller has hit even more of a nerve than any of the nonsense I have reported in West Vincent, including the attempted eminent domain for private gain at Ludwig’s Corner. Even my sniptastic comments about Phoenixville have not elicted such a response.
That being said, I thought it might be *prudent* to let new followers and commenters know that as the blog admin I can see the I.P. address you are commenting from as well as your e-mail address. Generally speaking, I keep that to myself UNLESS there are comments which are very extreme, and/or threatening.
Please feel free to comment and I am glad you are reading this blog, but please be responsible with your comments. As blog admin, I also reserve the right to not publish a comment.
It also seems that this latest West Chester School District issue, other issues may come to light and in general emotions are running high. *If* you have a major problem with this school district, please go to the proper authorities. It is far more effective than writing a comment on any blog or newspaper site.
I think that this school district seems to have issues and the current events of the past couple of days are bringing it all to a head. I know of what I speak since I moved from the evil spying laptop issue laden Lower Merion School District. This is an issue and a story that will go viral. Other blogs and more media outlets and papers are also starting to comment.
Thank you from your friendly neighborhood blogger.
Have a great night!
calling all preservationists and angels: historic st. peter’s church needs you!
It is a horrible economic time to have a crisis with a historic structure, let alone one of the most favorite and beloved in the Philadelphia region. It is because of that this blog is making a little side trip to the Society Hill section of Philadelphia where I was born.
St. Peter’s, is an 18th century, American Revolution relevent Episcopalian Church in Society Hill and 4th and Pine streets. I went to grade school at St. Peter’s School, so I have many happy memories of this church (and others like getting a book autographed every year at the St. Peter’s book fair by Marguerite D’Angeli who was a friend of the headmistress.)
St. Peter’s was one of the Society Hill landmarks that was my playground as a child. It is also one of the most beautiful and serene places in Philadelphia.
I attended Easter Services at St. Peter’s and it was like instantly going back in time to when I was a little girl. St. Peter’s is one of those places that makes you realize you can go home again. From her beautiful windows to the high boxes inside the church, to the climb up the stairs for a look out over the church yard, St. Peter’s is just a very cool place.
I learned on the news today that St. Peter’s needs the help of anyone who can spare a dollar or two. The church is being forced to close due to instability in the roof of the historic structure. St. Peter’s Church was designed by Robert Smith and opened in 1761 as an offshoot of Christ Church in Old City. The Church’s tower, designed by William Strickland, was added in 1842.
St. Peter’s is a National Historic Landmark.
Saint Peter’s is not just a historic structure, it is a church that does many good things including a food cupboard. They live their slogan of “Open Hearts. Open Minds”
Can you help save St. Peter’s? The faster they have angels drop donations on them, the faster they will reopen.
Donations of any amount can be sent as follows:
Saint Peter’s Church, ATTENTION: HISPIC,313 Pine Street Philadelphia, PA 19106
Media on the topic:
Plan Philly: St. Peter’s Church roof at risk of collapse
St. Peter’s Church at 3rd and Pine streets has been in continuous use since the 1760s, but parishioners will not be able to worship in the sanctuary this Sunday.
The Inquirer reports that St. Peter’s sanctuary roof is at risk of collapse. An engineering firm reportedly inspected the sanctuary’s roof trusses and found their condition dangerous enough to order the building closed until stabilization measures can be completed.
WHYY Newsworks: With roof in danger of failing, historic Philly church takes sabbatical May 17, 2012 By Kevin McCorry
May 16, 2012|Bob Moran
favorite photo of the day
Did not know I had her photo in today’s photos untill I got home. Met this precious little girl at the East Goshen Farmers Market. She was munching on a strawberry and bumped into me and this little voice first says “excuse me” and then “what are you enjoying?” (I was sampling the salt caramel ice cream goodness insanity from Zsa’s Gourmet Ice Cream.)
Anyway, how can you not adore this little girl?
found at the farmers market
It was a beautiful afternoon to visit the East Goshen Farmers Market. It was sunny and the temperatures were perfect….and the market was mobbed with people young, old, and in between! It was so packed that by the time I arrived at a little after 4 pm a lot of the vendors were running out of product or had run out of product.
I met my first East Goshen Supervisor today, a really nice man named Carmen R. Battavio, who also happens to be a bee keeper and a whiz with honey (Carmen B’s Honey). I bought some of Carmen’s honey (and have already tasted it and it is terrific), and he told me that East Goshen is a great place to live, work, and play. (And to my Radnor Township followers, as it is told here in East Goshen, many moons ago someone in Radnor borrowed East Goshen’s slogan – imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that good stuff.) It was nice to visit with Carmen and his Queen Bee, Karen.
I also saw Laura of Laura’s Biscotti, whom I had met before through my friend Sandra who used to run an organic foods and produce company called Panache Foods. I am familiar with Laura’s biscotti, and today we came home with some of her granola.
We also stopped at Zsa’s Gourmet Ice Cream and Dia Doce Cupcakes and Blueberry Hill Farm for some veggies. My last stop was Pureblend for something my friend Nicki would be thrilled – Matcha Green Tea.
I can’t wait for next week!
east goshen farmers market is today!
Yay! The farmers’ market is this afternoon in East Goshen Park. I encourage all my readers to support local farmers whenever possible.
Yes, some of the farmers here are from Lancaster and Berks counties, but you are still supporting Pennsylvania agriculture. I will admit however, that I am disappointed that they don’t have more local Chester County farmers like Farmer Bob from Sugartown Strawberries represented at the market.
And once again, I can and will boycott one purveyor at East Goshen Farmers Market – Birchrun Hills Farm, which is owned by West Vincent Supervisor and lover of Eminent Domain Ken Miller. Maybe if he hadn’t tried to make the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show Grounds disappear and hadn’t done a lot of other skunk worthy things, I wouldn’t be so tough on his farm. But you don’t have to take my word for it – check out Chickenman or aswestvincentturns on You Tube – Even The Daily Salvo has picked up on the manure stench of West Vincent.
The East Goshen Farmers Market wants to know what we make with our goodies gleaned from the market. From last week’s bounty I made a Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp. Extra yummy due to a touch of tamarind nectar and a dash of cardamom.
See you at the market!
what’s up with coach touchy feely in the west chester school district?
In January, West Chester Area School District ballyhooed the maintaining of their bond rating. But as I have said before, if you are an issuer of debt and rated by issuer paid ratings agencies, in a sense you get what you pay for. Wonder what today’s news will do to their rating/reputation?
Yes, I make no bones about being skeptical and somewhat jaded about public school systems in PA, and yes I am a pure product of private school. But truthfully, that occured because at the time my parents worried about what we would learn and not learn in Lower Merion School District, and I am forever grateful they sacrificed so we could go to private school. Not that private schools don’t have coach issues – Shipley had one a year ago when a squash coach found himself in the hot seat for having an affair with a student. I lost track of the case in September, so I am not sure what happened to the guy James Civello (the former Shipley coach) in the end. If I am reading the court docket correctly, he has not yet had his trial.
I am indeed critical of public school systems, but heck, all you have to do is follow a non-profit action organization called LMVUE and other grass-roots groups that fight for public school education and you will get an education of your own.
When I was first introduced to the West Chester Area School District I was appalled by what they called education in the elementary and middle schools. Let’s start with how much bullying is tolerated in the elementary and middle schools, how they don’t really want gifted student programs, and many other issues. What happened to the language programs in at least the elementary schools? What’s up with in essence, science in a box? I saw first hand via a friend, what qualified as “homework” in basics like social studies.
I said it before and I will repeat myself, all I see out of West Chester Area School District is a dumbing down of students and paper pushing. I remember spring a year ago something coming out about rankings – I don’t remember West Chester being so hot when it came to stacking up side by side against other school districts. According to the Philadelphia Business Journal the top ten included Tredyffrin-Easttown, Radnor, Lower Merion, Unionville-Chadds Ford, Central Bucks and others. But not West Chester. West Chester according to the statistics was 41 in this ranking of PSSA scores.
But now we flash forward to the giant high schools, and today’s news brings the news of a touchy feely coach. A swim coach at Bayard Rustin High School named Kenneth Fuller, who judging from NBC10’s 11 a.m. news report lives in West Goshen has been accused of doing some non-swimming stroking with an underage girl he was coaching.
O.k. …ICK. Just ick. I do not and never will get older guys who have this Lolita fixation. And it is not the first teacher I have heard of doing this, as these things are unfortunately in the news far too often. And then of course there are the incidents which never make it to the news or get reported beyond family.
For example, way back when I was in high school I used to do an occasional appearance as a catering extra hand with a friend from high school – it paid better than baby-sitting. This one summer she and I were extra servers at a very Main Line wedding. I was either 16 or 17 and one of the guests, a man at that time I believe close to 30 if not a little older came onto me. It was very creepy.
What was even more creepy is when he called me up at my parents’ house a few days after the wedding like he was some teenage boy asking for a date. Unfortunately for him, he was one of those obnoxious touchy feely men who was a known quantity on the teen girl circuit, and he had actually approached another girl I knew at the time. I made it simple for him, I told him if he ever called me or bothered me again I would tell all my friends, my father, and all my parents’ friends. That worked like a charm. I never outed the guy, and see no point now since in essence my friends and I rendered him a failure to launch at the time and scared the crap out of him, but when I would occasionally see him as an adult at things with his wife and family I was hard pressed not to vomit.
So, this whole West Chester incident, while disgusting if true, is not surprising. You just never know what lurks behind a seemingly nice package. Human nature is a funny thing.
However, I did find what the West Chester Area School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon said this morning on the 11 a.m. NBC10 news cast somewhat disturbing. When he was speaking about the incident he said that this Kenneth Fuller was not a teacher, just a coach. News flash: IT DOESN’T MATTER. What matters is that the school district hired him and if the allegations are proven true, they had this guy around students. And besides, isn’t coaching in a sense, teaching? Instead of teaching academics, coaches instruct/teach with regard to various sports?
Schools always protest when one of these relationships is outed that they did background checks, criminal checks, etc. So I have to ask, is there something else they should be doing, or perhaps paying for more thorough background and criminal checks? (there are different levels of checks – I know because I used to perform them as part of my previous job.)
This distinction made by West Chester Area School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon that Fuller “was not employed as a classroom teacher. Like all employees, Mr. Fuller had state and federal criminal history clearances and child abuse clearances before he was hired” just doesn’t sit right. To me it is like there is a subliminal message or the school district preparing to do a Pontius Pilate.
Parents need to start asking this school district some tough questions. And if they don’t get the answers they need, they should work to get a new school board and administration. Yes, these incidents happen. But the true test is in how the school district handles this issue, not just how a purported criminal act is investigated and disposed of through the judicial system. The school district needs to be accountable for their staff….no matter who they are.
As for this coach, shame on him. The trust of students and young people in general is a very big deal. Not only do you have a part in shaping the adults they will become, you are the adult in the equation. If this is true, this coach deserves what he gets.
Here’s the media on this:
NBC10: Swimming Coach Has Sex With H.S. Student: Cops
A swimming coach in the West Chester Area School District is accused of posing as a student’s father to get her excused from class so he could have sex with her.
By Jackie Gailey
| Thursday, May 17, 2012 | Updated 8:22 AM EDT
Here is the press release from West Chester Area School District:
Rustin HS Boys and Girls Swimming Coach Arrested
Posted: Thu, May. 17, 2012, 3:00 AM By MICHAEL N. PRICE mprice@dailylocal.com Posted: 05/16/12 07:08 pm Updated: 05/16/12 10:36 pm
|
is phoenixville the wild, wild west?
Someone I know told me a story about Phoenixville the other day. It involved a police officer shooting a dog believed to be a pit bull mix. I am going to preface this entire post with a couple of things:
- I wasn’t there
- This was recounted to me
- Anyone who knows me knows that pit bulls are so not my breed and we will leave it at that.
- Being a police officer or any type of first responder is a very hard job with often the need for difficult decisions to be made.
However, that all being said, drawn guns in neighborhoods when there are people and even children around gives me pause.
So I was told that this dog got out of her owner’s yard. As unpleasant as that can be, it happens. The dog apparently was in an empty lot?
I am one of those people who does not like roaming dogs. At all. But I also know not to confront them.
When I was first out here in Chester County part-time, I actually called the police about two dogs on the lam. The police came out, and were completely calm and got the dogs into the police car and returned them to their owners. No muss, no fuss. And these were big dogs. Not pit bulls, or even pit mixes, but big dogs – and any dog has the potential of reacting negatively in loud, chaotic situations. Especially if the humans around are all tense and upset.
So as it was told to me, the owner of the dog, who by newspaper accounts was a Spanish-speaking woman was trying to get the dog to come to her so she could get her inside, and begging the officer not to shoot her dog? And that some on the scene have said the dog was upset but had not charged? Is it possible in the chaos that this officer made a mistake?
Again, I am not condoning loose dogs AT ALL, but I was also told that this dog was not male, but female and also had dropped a litter of puppies a few weeks ago? Is that true? Because if that is true and the dog was shot close to her home, that could have some bearing on her barking and attitude? Mother dogs will protect their young and their humans if they perceive a threat, won’t they?
It seems for an incident like this that there is a lot out there right away in the media. If the dog was a danger, then the police acted correctly albeit tragically. But, what if this dog was shot needlessly? What if that action was a bit precipitous? What if part of the stress of the situation was a language barrier between responding officer and the Spanish-speaking woman?
I for one would like to know. It kind of freaks me out when people shoot dogs.
Phoenixville seems to have issues. And it seems they might need to address their issues versus building a platinum coated municipal building, doesn’t it?
Sign me torn on this issue. Can anyone tell me if Phoenixville has an animal control person or a relationship with say the Chester County SPCA or anyone else who could assist in these situations?
I respect the difficult jobs police officers and first responders have. I want no misunderstanding there. But I also know how dogs react when threatened. And if this dog was just scared and was a female who had a litter of puppies close by?
Or if loose dogs are such an issue in Phoenixville then maybe the officials should spend a little more time educating the public on how bad that can be?
Again, sign me torn with many questions. I know many people with what qualify as breeds of dogs that are larger and working. And when I read things like this, it scares me that something like that could happen to their dogs if they accidentally got out.
Here’s the press on this:
Phoenixville Police Shoot, Kill Threatening Dog
The animal was shot near Barkley Elementary School on Monday.
A dog that appeared to be part pit bull was shot and killed by Phoenixville Police on Monday after it went on a rampage, The Mercury is reporting. The animal was shot once before later dying at the vet.
PHOENIXVILLE — A dog acting aggressively, trapping residents in their cars and homes, forced police to shoot and kill it Monday afternoon.Police Chief William Mossman said the dog, described as being brown with “some pit bull in him but bigger than a pit bull,” charged officers multiple times while growling and barking….A woman driving by in a car told the officers she knew who owned the dog….One of the officers went to the owner’s house nearby. A woman reportedly confirmed she owned the dog but did not know it had gotten out or where it was…..“(The officer) wanted to give the dog every opportunity,” he said. “It’s our responsibility, we have to protect the public. The officer was protecting himself and the crowd.”….Mossman emphasized that there was little to no danger for the public related to the actual firing of the officer’s gun. The officer involved is about six feet tall and was shooting on a down angle so the bullet wouldn’t have gone anywhere if he missed, Mossman said…. Additionally, Mossman said the officer involved is highly trained, a former marine that is also a part of the Northern Chester County Emergency Response Team. “That guy spends more time shooting and qualifying more than anyone,” he said. “We don’t like to shoot our guns in the borough if we can avoid it.”
the kids are all right
I had SO much fun this afternoon! It was an Open Farm Day at my friend Catherine’s Yellow Springs Farm in Chester Springs, PA.
(Incidentally, tomorrow, May 13th is another Open Farm Day and Native Plant Sale day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – the address is 1165 Yellow Springs Road.)
She has awesome goats, so yes I was a little obsessed with the kids in the herd – they are super cute and very sweet.
We also bought some fabulous artisanal cheeses – a couple of chevres, Red Leaf, and Nutcracker….and one more I forget the name of right now.
I got my plant fix – the Renzis’ plants are awesome. This is the third garden I have 
added them to.
But the other thing is this – the farm is a little slice of heaven. The setting is utterly bucolic, and the staff friendly.
So if you were going to pick a farm to try, this would be my pick. Check them out on Open Farm Days and other Open House events. Or find 
them at a local farmers market, or sign up for their goat cheese CSA. You can also call or e-mail them for an appointment, and they look for volunteers and interns too.
Buy fresh, buy local…in Chester County!
on a clear day you can see forever….
Got billboard? Or billboard fight in your community?
I just want everyone to take a good, long look at the ugliness that is the GIANT billboard on 202 in Westtown that is LIT UP 24/7. Phoenixville, Bryn Mawr, Haverford Township, wherever you are, this bit of ugliness is why when someone comes to your town and says they have loverly billboards, you just want to say “no”. It’s pretty much always the same guy around here, so he should be used to rejection by now.