'Finally at rest': Unclaimed veterans buried with help from a former coroner's office intern and reporters
Ximena Conde
Al Duncan of Malvern, a member of the Chester County Vietnam Veterans of America, salutes after placing the remains of Eugene Gorski in a niche at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
On the last Thursday of every month, Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Bucks County performs military burials for veterans whose remains were never claimed by family and often left on a coroner's shelf.
This service for the "unattended" started almost a decade ago and includes the customary bugle, a color guard and three volleys of rifle fire.
A bugler plays taps to end the funeral ceremony for 14 veterans who died unattended. The service took place at Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Newtown, Pa. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
The ceremony Thursday honoring 14 veterans, brought together people from all over the region striving to ensure those who served don't remain unclaimed. From motorcycle biker groups Warriors' Watch and Patriot Guard to members of the Disabled American Veterans to a local member of Congress, about 100 people helped mark their service, even if they had never met the deceased.
Members of the Warriors' Watch Riders carry American flags during a burial ceremony for fourteen veterans whose remains were unclaimed. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Carol Shelby Ford is a Vietnam-era vet in Langhorne who rides in on her motorcycle every month, whether the dead came from the region or elsewhere. She and other bikers formed a procession for the veterans who served from World War II to the Persian Gulf conflict.
"They didn't just say I'm only going to be fighting in Vietnam for Chester County," she said. "They fought for everybody."
An Army National Guard soldier stands beind the cremated remains of 14 veterans who died whose remains were unclaimed. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Like Ford, many attendees said they come to bury the vets out of a sense of obligation, a small token of thanks for people who gave so much to their country and in many cases died alone.
"It could have been any one of my relatives that could have died and I wanted somebody to be there for them just like they were here for us to serve our country," explained Carol Rathbeger, from Chester County, who took off from work with her husband to ride the bodies in.
Veterans hold flags during a funeral service for 14 veterans who died unattended. The service took place at Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Newtown, Pa. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Rathbeger is part of the motorcycle group the 6B Network. The group heard about the event through the Chester County Coroner's Office.
The issue of unclaimed remains
Justine Newman, a former intern at the Chester County Coroner's office, identified nine of the bodies interred Thursday and coordinated with 6B Network and other groups to raise local interest in the ceremony.
This is the second time she's helped identify and bury veterans whose military service would have otherwise gone unrecognized.
Justine Newman, a former intern at the Chester County Coroner's Office who helped to identify veterans among the office's unclaimed remains, is presented with a memorial flag during the service for 14 veterans who died unattended. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
In "Unclaimed," an ongoing series at the Bucks County Courier Times, investigative reporters found unclaimed remains are growing in number in our region, increasingly falling on the laps of county coroners.
The issue affects more than veterans. The reporters have found homicide victims and children on coroners' shelves.
"We've found between Bucks County, Montgomery County and Burlington County, New Jersey, we have found probably close to 300 people," said Jo Ciavaglia, one of the reporters on the project.
Ciavaglia and her reporting partner James McGinnis were also at this Thursday's burial where they laid to rest the remains of four Bucks County residents their work helped identify as veterans.
Jo Ciavaglia, an investigative reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, attends a funeral service for 14 veterans that she helped to identify through her reporting. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
One of the men buried was Leo Murphy, a veteran Ciavaglia knew from her time covering homeless camps in Bristol Township.
"Leo had talked to me about being a military veteran because my family was a veteran," she said. "So I knew at least one veteran and I really am so happy to have Leo finally at rest."
The remains of Leo D. Murphy (center) the first veteran that investigative reporter Jo Ciavaglia was able to identify, are placed with the remains of 13 other veterans in niches at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
But proving military service is often more tedious. Records have typos or misspelled names and according to McGinnis, running names through the Social Security Administration's index is harder for records after 2013.
Still, it's work that other coroners' offices have said they want to take on and work Newman, Ciavaglia and McGinnis have vowed to continue.
"I don't think anybody belongs on a shelf in the morgue," said McGinnis.
DEP names Bergey's Tires as source of PFAS contamination in Bucks County private wells
The Pa. DEP determined Bergey's was the source and "potentially responsible entity" of the contamination involved 14 private wells in Bucks County.
Regional Roundup – 11/11/19
On today's Regional Roundup - Philadelphia councilmember Helen Gym, helping veterans transition after service, and sports stadiums create rooms for children with autism.
Air Date: November 11, 2019 10:00 am
Listen 49:00
Puerto Rico's Medal of Honor recipients honored at Valley Forge rededication
The names of Puerto Rico's 9 Medal of Honor recipients are now etched into a seven-foot granite obelisk in Chester Co., steps away from Valley Forge National Historical Park.
About Ximena Conde


Home » News » Blackstar appoints Musicmaker as Distributor for Ireland and Northern Ireland
Blackstar appoints Musicmaker as Distributor for Ireland and Northern Ireland
News | 1st May 2019 15:28
MIA Member Blackstar Amplification Ltd are pleased to announce that as of 1st May 2019, Musicmaker Ltd will be a premier retail, and exclusive distribution partner for Blackstar Amplification products in Ireland and Northern Ireland…
Musicmaker will give end users the chance to experience the Blackstar product range inside it's flagship city centre location on Exchequer Street in Dublin, and also build and support a network of dedicated Blackstar dealers throughout the territory.
Alex D'Arcy, Blackstar Head Of Sales comments, "consumers in Ireland and Northern Ireland will have the chance to experience the current breadth of the Blackstar product range, and receive a top level of brand service through Musicmaker. Furthermore, dealers who have independently supported Blackstar in the past will now have a consistent route of local supply, service and contact to help them grow their business with the brand to its true potential."
John Paul Prior, General Manager at Musicmaker says, "We believe that Blackstar is a perfect fit inside Musicmaker's newly refreshed guitar department, and offers guitar players the most complete amplification line available today for sonic performance, quality and value for money. Our team have visited Blackstar HQ for training and can't wait to share their new found knowledge and passion for the brand with Irish consumers and dealers."
www.blackstaramps.com/uk
www.musicmaker.ie/


The Potomac Pest Control M&A Commentary
A Rush for the Exits, Anticimex Acquires JP McHale, ServiceMaster Acquires Inspect-All
"You're going to hurt sellers by calling the top of the market. Now everyone is going to rush for the exits and there will be a glut of sellers, pushing down prices. You need to think before you say things and how it will impact the market" said one unhappy pest control business owner to me in an email in response to this Commentary.
I am flattered that a reader thinks my words move the multi-billion dollar global pest control market, especially in light of the fact that I can't even convince my wife where we should go out to dinner (let alone the other things I try to convince her to do).
If I owned a pest control company and was thinking about selling it, I don't think that I would be worried about a "glut of sellers."
In the US market, the entry of Anticimex and the resurrection of ServiceMaster has provided a certain level of support to the market. ServiceMaster has completed 11 acquisitions thus far this year and intends to do at least 50 more by the end of the year, while AX is on track to build its North American business to north of $200 million in 2019. All the while, both of these players have really cramped Rentokil's North American style, especially on the East Coast as supply of quality targets dwindles. Though Rentokil did acquire a PCT Top 40 company on the east coast this morning.
This week, as PCT Magazine publishes its 2019 Top 100 list with ghosts of pest control companies past, I head to sell-side meetings in the US. One of the US states that I will be in, if it were a country, would be a top 50 global economy and it literally has nothing left in terms of independent pest control companies of scale and capabilities. After this deal is over, that's it, the rest of the businesses there are small, inefficient enterprises that will take years to generate into Top 100 companies.
So, be of good cheer my unhappy reader, you needn't worry about a "glut of sellers."
If I were a buyer in the US, on the other hand, I think that I would be getting a little bit nervous right about now. Multiples are already in the stratosphere, the Big Four are buying everything (including rubbish companies) while the market is beginning to thin out in terms of businesses of scale that have real resources and capabilities. While there will always be revenue to acquire, it's getting a little harder to buy real capabilities.
Sell-side processes are going into three, four, five and sometimes more rounds of bidding. If a 20x EBITA bid gets hit on a material deal, I will definitely have to eat my words from when I called the top (and I would actually be ecstatic to do so).
I have noticed, however, that there has been a palpable change in sentiment among pest control owners thus far in 2019. Individuals who I didn't expect to pull the trigger are now heading for the exits. Is it a rush for the exits? Not yet, for now it's a brisk walk… a light jog perhaps. The rush will happen after the market goes into the toilet, as it always does. For now, as long as the world's central banks remain on a crash course with reality and continue to refrain from doing what's right — normalizing interest rates — this market will continue… until it doesn't.
Today's Commentary:
Announcements: This month we closed three transactions. However, today, I am just going to discuss two Top 100 transactions: Anticimex's acquisition of JP McHale and ServiceMaster's acquisition of Inspect-All Services, which took place over a month ago. We'll save the rest for next time.
The Pest Control Executive: Are You Still the Best Owner of Your Assets? Q&A on how to decide whether or not now is the right time to sell your business.
The Institutional Investor: In today's Institutional Investors' section, I am going to say a few things that certain people aren't going to like. In a world of magazines with stupid listicles, transgender bathrooms, and the French, I write this Commentary freely and openly. This is not a hit piece on ServiceMaster, but rather a story of hope. And while it's said that all good things must come to an end, perhaps the same can be said about all bad things. As always, there are no "safe spaces" in the Commentary.
Announcement: Anticimex Acquires JP McHale Pest Management
Rich, Jim and Doug McHale
On May 1st, we closed on the sale of JP McHale Pest Management ("JPM") to Anticimex. For Anticimex, this transaction filled one of the only gaps the company has on the Eastern corridor, from Maine to Florida. At $25 million in revenue, JPM is number 32 on this year's PCT Top 100. Unlike many of its competitors, JPM has consistently grown revenue and cash flow at double digits in a very competitive market. This is one of Anticimex's most profitable and fastest growing platform acquisitions in the US and will be a real engine for growth for the Company, especially with Jim McHale and Mike Coughlan at the helm.
JP McHales Service Footprint in the New York Metro Area
Located in Westchester County, NY, JPM services clients in some of the wealthiest areas of the US, from Westchester, down to NYC to Western Connecticut. With the acquisition of JPM and Triple S, the Swedes now service the Pentagon, CIA, past US presidents and some of the most fabled ballparks in the nation (although I am not positive, I am pretty sure they don't do IKEA… at least they don't back home in Sweden).
We were engaged by JPM almost a decade ago to perform a valuation for an S-election and have remained an advisor to the Company since. If you still own a C corporation, you should do what JPM did and track us down today to get that fixed… it will haunt you when it comes time to sell if you don't.
Jim McHale is a brilliant marketer and his innovative approach has served JPM very well over the decades. In addition to his constant "innovation around the edges," as Jim would call it, he has built a very capable management team. Unlike many companies this size, Jim realized early on the importance have having robust internal financial capabilities. He brought on a real CFO, Mike Coughlan. Many companies don't develop these internal capabilities and I can say that that is one of the biggest issues that companies like Anticimex run into when they acquire platform companies — weak or non-existent financial and accounting capabilities. So, if you're in this for real, learn from Jim and make sure you're building your internal accounting and financial capabilities and as soon as you hit $4 million or $5 million, find yourself a real CFO. You can outsource compliance (the filing of tax returns, etc) to an accountant, but if you're going to really look to grow your business, don't outsource key financial and managerial accounting functions.
If I were an owner of a pest control business and needed guidance, Jim McHale would be the first person I would call. In fact, over the years I've often found myself calling Jim for advice in a variety of areas. I already miss working with him on a daily basis. Jim, I wish you, Jen and the JPM / AX team every success in the future.
You can learn more about the transaction and the history of JPM here.
Announcement: ServiceMaster Acquires Inspect-All Services
Although we announced this deal a month ago, I haven't had a chance to discuss it in the Commentary. At the end of the 1st quarter, we closed on the sale of Inspect-All Service's pest control business to ServiceMaster.
Fast-growing and dynamic, Inspect-All Services found itself on a lot of lists: the PCT Top 100, the Inc. 5000 and the Bulldog 100 for multiple years. This business was owned and operated by brothers Brandon and Brian Lunsford.
Although this business was founded by their father, Brandon and Brian bought it from him when it was less than a few hundred thousand dollars per year in revenue. Neither of the brothers were "pest" guys, per se. Rather they got into the business after pursuing different careers after graduating university. After working in very different businesses for a few years, they decided that they could take the tiny business that their father had founded and grow it. And grow it is exactly what they did.
By 2017, the combined pest control and inspection business was doing almost $8 million per year in revenue and growing at over 30% per year — all organically — in the very competitive Atlanta metro market. Further, they did it all the old-fashioned way, no door-to-door sales and no acquisitions.
The Lunsford brothers are two more examples of young people (one is 39 and one is 41) selling at the top of the M&A market. In today's Pest Control Executive below, they tell us why they've decided to sell.
I really enjoyed working with Brandon and Brian and I have no doubt that this is just the beginning for these two incredible entrepreneurs.
One working with Potomac, Brandon Lunsford said:
While there are a lot of qualified advisors out there, when you're doing the most important transaction of your life, you really need to have the absolute best in your corner. We wanted someone who has been at this for decades and had seen every situation possible, we wanted a real pro, and we got that and more with Paul Giannamore. If you're going to do a deal, do yourself a favor and do the research like we did. Interview advisors and you'll see just how much Paul stands out from the crowd. Engaging Potomac and having Paul at our side was literally the best and final decision that we made as owners of Inspect-All Services.
You can learn more about Inspect-All Services and the transaction here.
The Pest Control Executive: To Sell or Not to Sell, Are You Still the Best Owner of Your Assets?
I am addressing the question below today because I think that it's on the top of everyone's mind.
Every time I look, you're announcing another deal, so a big congrats on what you're doing out there for the industry.
I don't know if you remember me, but we spoke on the phone a few years ago. At the time, I was very burned out dealing with government forms, paperwork, health insurance plans, wage garnishments, customers and employees that I just wanted to be done with everything and do something else for the rest of my life. After a brief chat with you, you convinced me that it wasn't the right time for me to sell. If you would have said anything other than what you did, I would have sold my business then and I would be regretting that decision today. Now we own a business that's doing almost $4 million in revenue, something that I never thought we would achieve in the first place.
Every time I look, there is another company being purchased and I know that multipliers are very high, maybe the highest that they have ever been. Based on how we are growing, I know that we could get the business to $5 million, but if it takes us 3 to 5 years to do that and then the market changes, I would hate myself for the rest of my life.
What if I sell now and multipliers go up? What if I don't sell and they go down? What if I sell and don't have enough money for retirement? I guess I just don't even know how to make this decision.
I know that I am rambling on, but since you deal with this every day, how are others making this decision? I guess I don't even know where to start but since you were the exact opposite of self-interested when we spoke before, you're the only guy in the thick of it that I can count on to give it to me straight. I know you're super busy, but any thoughts you have would be immensely appreciated.
Well, then give it to you straight, I shall.
I've been advising on transactions in the pest control industry for over fifteen years and for the majority of that time, I never received many questions like the above.
The market was static, at least from a valuation perspective. Deals were almost entirely driven by life events, such as death, divorce, disputes, illness, retirement, and burnout.
That is, people would say: "I feel like I want to retire but I need $5 million. Can I sell my business for $5 million?"
If the answer was yes, retirement started in about five months. If no, grind it out for another year or two while putting away a few extra shekels for retirement.
Now that the financial markets have become a casino, being a shareholder in a pest control company is somewhat akin to owning Bitcoin today or a tech stock in the 1990s — at least from a psychological perspective.
There is currently a large disconnect between the intrinsic value of many pest control companies and the prices being offered to acquire them. Some owners are experiencing classic "fear of missing out" symptoms and others are experiencing what is akin to physical pain watching others make seemingly easy cash on the sale of their businesses.
So what do you?
As the owner of a privately-held business you wear to hats, you're an investor and a manager. That is, you are a private equity investor with a 100% portfolio concentration risk in your pest control company. Further, you are the company's CEO, responsible for setting strategy and organizing all of the resources and capabilities of the firm.
At age 59, while you shouldn't bet the ranch on the roulette wheel, you still have significant time to invest. The question is, are you a good investor? If you are looking at your ownership in your pest control business as an investor, then your primary concern should be your risk-adjusted return on your investment… and right now your investment is trading at an all-time high.
If you were to monetize your pest control business today, would you get a better return, on a risk adjusted basis, by investing that money into a different asset or asset class than you would by continuing to own your pest control business?
That's not an easy question to answer in the era of sky-high asset prices and phenomenally low interest rates. But with a little math, I think that you can get close.
If you are (a) at the age right now whereby you would naturally look to sell within five years, or (b) you are any age, and there exists a better use of capital, then you need to seriously consider selling soon. Financial repression from central banks have pulled financial returns into the future. In other words, by selling today, it will be as if you owned your business, benefited from it for five to ten years and then sold it, under normal capital market conditions.
If you are in this for the long-term and don't have a better alternative use for the capital, then stay in the game and double-down on growing your business.
When our clients engage us, the first thing that we do is a preliminary valuation. This process answers many questions, among them:
What is the business likely worth to strategic acquirers in the current market?
Given my specific set of circumstances, what is the inflection point in the valuation spectrum where it makes more sense to sell now versus hold on to the business?
For most of our clients, this comes down to pure math and we do our best to try to take the emotion out of it and make it a question of mathematics.
In your particular case, you believe that your business will be 20% larger in three to five years. Although it's very hard for anyone to say, I think that it's probably more likely than not that in three to five years we won't see the same sort of valuations that we are seeing today.
When we talk about trying to turn this decision into a mathematical calculation we mean looking at your total shareholder returns from holding the business versus selling it. As an owner of a business, you realize financial returns through dividends and capital appreciation. My suggestion to you would be to model out your total projected returns from your business — both dividends and capital appreciation — over the course of the next five to ten years using the historical market median transaction statistics relevant to your business. If you do that, your decision will become much clearer and that's what we attempt to do with each of our clients. By doing that, you can compare a variety of alternative investments against the ownership of your pest control business in this market. It will help you understand if you really are still the best owner of your assets.
When we spoke a few years ago, you were burned out — in my experience that is a common, but not always the "right" reason to sell. Now that you're a little older and a little closer to retirement, you're beginning to fear that if you don't pull the trigger now you might miss this consolidation bubble. At your age and the life cycle of your business, I think that you owe it to yourself to start really looking at the numbers. [For others who would like to discuss our preliminary valuation process, you can contact us here.]
You asked me how others are making this decision, so I inquired for you. Since we discuss JPM and Inspect-All this week, I asked the sellers why they decided to sell now. Both shareholder groups are very young, the McHales are in their late 40s and early 50s and the Lunsfords are in their late 30s and early 40s.
Jim McHale on why he sold his business:
"In all honesty, it was multifaceted for me. For one, I had a significant portion of my wealth locked up in this business, so the decision to sell allowed me to 'de-risk' my life. No more worrying about a vehicular fatality, or a bonehead move by one of our team members that could sink the business. If the whole place burns to the ground, I'll certainly be sad, but I won't be wiped out financially, and that's a great feeling.
Second, I decided that I would sell my equity at the top of the market, keep my powder dry and be ready to buy assets again when the market turns. With history as our guide, we know that that is a certainty… there will be a downturn. I've been in this business for over 30 years and have never seen such favorable market conditions for potential sellers, if I missed selling now, and these conditions don't show up again for another 30 years, I would have really regretted not pulling the trigger.
Finally, by selling to Anticimex and being the New York platform we have resources that we've never had in the past. I am excited to grow the hell out of this business, something that is very difficult to do if you don't have a strong strategic and financial backer like Anticimex. In my mind, I always thought I would do a private equity deal, but after really thinking it through and running the numbers with Paul, I decided that the resources that AX brings to the table would provide the best long-term growth opportunities for both the Company and every one of our team members."
Brandon (39) and Brian (41) Lunsford on why they sold Inspect-All:
Just about everyone we know — including our families — was surprised that we sold our pest control business. Perhaps because selling a business is often equated with retirement, which we are certainly not doing.
Our decision, in a lot of ways, boiled down to this. We own both an inspection business and a pest control business. The value of the pest control business in this market got to a number that we never really thought we would ever see. After thinking it through, we decided that if we sold the pest control business, the proceeds from the sale would not only be an insurance policy for us and our families, but also investment capital to put into our other business and investments. Everyone says you've got to buy low and sell high, well, we had an opportunity to sell high and then buy low by investing in our other business. For us, it was a purely mathematical calculation. Paul really, truly helped us take the emotion out of it and I think we were very successful in doing that. That was one of the real benefits of having a true investment banker like Paul on our team. He is used to having conversations with boards of directors and institutional investors looking at risk and return, and he helped us look at our business exactly as the board of a publicly traded company would look at theirs.
Now that we're two months from the closing, we don't think that we could be any happier. ServiceMaster did a great job with the transition, and the only changes we've heard about seem to be very positive. It was a great decision selling this year and it was a great decision choosing ServiceMaster. And if you would have told us two years ago that we would be saying these words now, we would have never believed you.
The Institutional Investor: ServiceMaster in 2019 and Beyond
In the last Institutional Investors' section we began to discuss the following question, with a focus on Rentokil. Today we are going to shift our focus to ServiceMaster.
I came across your newsletter recently and, having been an equity analyst following the trials and tribulations of Rentokil over the last 20 years (and in more recent years quite a significant turnaround in equity investors' eyes), was very interested in your thoughts on the US pest control industry. I also enjoyed your broader commentary on central banks' intervention in the global economy since the Financial Crisis, and wholeheartedly agree that they are the biggest culprits for the rise of inequality and frothy asset valuations. Right now, I'm very intrigued by how Terminix is going to perform following ServiceMaster's disposal (at last!) of American Home Shield, as well as Anticimex's more aggressive push into the US market, and Rollin's seemingly greater appetite for acquisitions, and whether all of these factors will encroach on Rentokil's progress in the US market; I'd be very interested to hear any thoughts you might have on these topics.
I've been doing deals with ServiceMaster for over fifteen years and have lived through at least six or seven Terminix presidents. It had gotten to the point that I didn't even put their names in my phone anymore, just Terminix – President and ServiceMaster – CEO. That way, when the next one comes and goes it's an easier edit for me.
However… could things be finally changing? After working with Nik and Dion, I began to think that maybe it's time to actually give these guys names.
Unlike Rob Gilette, the former CEO of ServiceMaster and President of Terminix (yes, he was both the CEO and the President of Terminix, just like in Horrible Bosses when Kevin Spacey took on two executive roles), Nik actually moved his family to Memphis. Which, by the way, if you've ever been to Memphis — often ranked the second or third "fattest city" in the US — you know what a sacrifice that is.
In the last Commentary I said, "No matter what you think of Nik and Dion's strategy, they are going to be willing to make some bold moves that their predecessors were either too scared, too dumb (or perhaps too smart) to make."
Today we are going to focus on the future of ServiceMaster and some of the moves that I think Nik and Dion will make in 2019 and beyond. However, in order to discuss the future, it's important to get some contextual background of the past. Unfortunately, the history of ServiceMaster over the last decade reads like a tragedy, so grab a box of tissues and a stiff drink… you'll need one.
ServiceMaster: The First Turnaround and the Lost Decade – 2007 through 2017
Back in the mid-2000s, ServiceMaster was plagued by a falling stock price as a result of serious mismanagement. The company was experiencing substantial customer attrition and out-of-control costs. The board had finally had enough and the business went out to market in 2006, ultimately to be acquired by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice ("CD&R") in early 2007.
Back in 2007, the US pest control market was essentially a duopoly (at least in terms of the big players). Rentokil North America was barely doing $150 million in revenue, while Terminix was the largest player at $1.1 billion in revenue and Orkin was the number two player at $900 million. In those days, Orkin was the commercial pest control leader and Terminix was the residential and termite leader.
From the time that CD&R took ServiceMaster private until the IPO, ServiceMaster and Terminix turned over executive management like it was a sport. With each successive management team, there would be new initiatives and objectives and a new team of morons to execute these cockamamie plans. The company lurched from "culture building" to "cost cutting" to "innovating for the future" back to some other corporate buzzword all the while frontline technicians became more and more alienated and frustrated.
Many of the management teams that were brought in were extremely polished and sophisticated, but it appeared to me that none of them ever sat down and said, "Hmmm… we want our employees to do A, but our incentive structures causes them to do B. Perhaps we should think about changing this."
I remember years ago I went to a Terminix closing and stuck around for a day or two and was absolutely shocked at what I saw. A few days after the closing, the area manager sat the new employees down to inform them that "nobody should think that they are not expendable here.. if you don't earn your keep and put numbers on the board, you're out of here."
While this idiot was telling his new employees that they are nothing more than a number, one of the guys showed me a ServiceMaster corporate email that had just arrived on his phone. It informed all employees that it was "Diversity Awareness Month" and urged asked them "Are you having dialogues with others with whom you would not ordinarily speak? Those dialogues can help us gain a greater appreciation of one another. It can be an important step to positively enhance our world."
What nonsense. Management was so out of touch they were actually paying some idiot to send out these newsletters. Terminix had the highest turnover in the industry (amongst the big players) and they wanted their employees to reach out and touch someone who was a little bit different from themselves. I joked with another Terminix manager that day that they should be sending emails to the board entitled "Keep a Senior Management Team for More than 2 Years Awareness Month."
While in no way was CD&R successful in "turning around" the business, they did eventually bring it public seven years later and made a return on the investment.
From 2006 through 2017, ServiceMaster made hundreds of acquisitions, largely focusing on buying sales and entering new markets, never really looking to acquire real resources and capabilities. In many ways they sat on the sidelines while Rollins overtook them as the largest domestic player, Rentokil went from $25 million to $700 million and built a real national accounts business and Anticimex entered the US acquiring premium assets up and down the east coast.
ServiceMaster: The Eunuch and The Dark Year – 2017
While I have always liked a lot of the folks at ServiceMaster, in fact some of them are very close friends, my patience for the company had worn very thin due to some of the stupid things that they've done over the years.
Back in 2016, we were getting ready to take a sell-side client to market (we'll call it Project X). ServiceMaster had been courting the sellers for quite some time and asked if they could pre-empt process. While I've learned over years that that typically doesn't work out in my favor, every once in a while, I am willing to give it a go if the conditions are right… or should I say, if the numbers are right.
At the time, ServiceMaster put what was the first deal in the industry clocking in at the elusive 3.0x revenue target. After discussing it with the client, we decided that we probably weren't going to do better in formal process and began to negotiate directly with ServiceMaster.
Everything went swimmingly until the final ServiceMaster board call a few days prior to closing. The board failed to approve the transaction, citing "it is way too expensive."
Clearly I was incensed that the CEO would sit through dinners and meetings with the client and not have the requisite authority to champion a $50 million transaction through the board approval process. I mean, how do you even sign such an LOI, let alone get through weeks and weeks of diligence and not be able to get your board to close a deal?
For me, the final nail on the coffin for ServiceMaster in the fall of 2016 was that Rob Gilette and NO ONE on his executive leadership team had the balls to call the client and apologize… or even call the client and offer an explanation as to why he was so impotent he couldn't get the board to approve such a relatively small transaction. As soon as that deal fell apart, I knew that there would be another massive management turnover right around the corner. And there was.
In the postmortem of ServiceMaster's spectacular failure, I learned that "the board is shutting down all acquisition activity because management uses acquisitions as a crutch to conceal incompetence and high customer attrition rates." And that, "there won't be any more acquisitions until management fixes the problems."
At first I didn't believe it.
However, from late 2016 through late 2017, Terminix acquired less than $5 million in revenue, giving Anticimex carte blanche to acquire premier platforms up and down the east coast (Modern, Viking, American, Killingsworth) and giving Andy Ransom the perfect opportunity to pick up VDA, something SvM's management wanted but knew its board would never approve at those prices, especially given the state of its management team.
After Project X fell apart with ServiceMaster, I decided that the only way that I would do a deal with ServiceMaster going forward is if there was a significant breakup fee in the LOI. Further, I couldn't blame the board of directors, after all, the management team was chock full of imbeciles.
ServiceMaster: Enter the Dragon – 2018
As we all know, ServiceMaster once again played another round of management musical chairs in 2017; however, when the music stopped this time, everyone was out. Nik Varty rolled in like Marcellus Wallace to go to work on the management team with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. I'm not going to lie to you, I sat back with a big bowl of popcorn and a tasty beverage to enjoy the show.
In late 2017 as Varty began to replace management at a rapid clip, I began to hear that Terminix was once open again to doing deals… but this time it was different. Instead of buying anything that moved, Terminix was looking to acquire real "capabilities" and "unique resources." What? I had never heard these words from them before.
The Commercial Code
One of Varty's first moves was to split up residential and commercial into separate divisions and acquire Copesan. At first, I thought that this was a bad move. Why would anyone want to focus on national accounts? After all, these are the customers that have the most bargaining leverage and it doesn't take an afternoon at a boring Michael Porter class to know that buyers having a high degree of bargaining leverage tends to force prices down.
Over time, however, I have warmed up to the idea (a bit).
First, while it's certainly not going to allow Terminix to lock up all of the Copesan partners, it will make it hard for other acquirers to buy the larger shareholders. Case-in-point, JP McHale was a Copesan equity partner and it's now a happy member of the Anticimex family.
However, if you look at the table below, you'll see that nine shareholders owned a majority of Copesan, and these are the companies that have a large component of Copesan business, so it will be hard for AX, Rollins and Rentokil to cozy up to some of them.
In addition, Terminix is a much better brand than Copesan. As much as everyone in the industry likes to knock Terminix, if you speak to Copesan sales reps you'll hear things like:
"When we were just Copesan, I'd often hear from potential clients things like 'What the hell is a Copesan?' However, now, being part of Terminix, everyone knows who that is. They may have had a bad experience with Terminix in the past, but at least I don't have to spend the first fifteen minutes explaining to people what Copesan is."
To paraphrase Andy Ransom on an earnings call last year, "there is a big difference between publicly proclaiming you want to be a major commercial player and actually doing it." However, I think that a pivot to the commercial segment is a good thing for Terminix, but it won't be without its growing pains.
ServiceMaster: The Second Turnaround – 2018 and Beyond
In December at its Investor Day conference in New York, ServiceMaster laid out four strategic priorities for 2019.
Improve customer retention
Continue to drive new recurring units
Strengthen the termite business
Tiered service offerings
During their discussion, they talked a lot about compensation plans which I found to be very interesting. For fifteen years I've been saying that a major source of Terminix's ills can be boiled down to incentive structures, or in Terminix's case, the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B.
Years ago, when I was engaged as strategy advisor by Scotts LawnService to help the company get into the pest control industry, the first thing that I did was go to Memphis.
I needed to understand how ServiceMaster could have the world's largest pest control business and lawn care business under the same roof, but literally do no cross-selling whatsoever.
When I went to Memphis I learned why. Below is an excerpt from my notes from the meeting for the Scotts executive team that will help you understand:
The closest that ServiceMaster ever got to the concurrent stop model was to establish a cross-sell program between Terminix and TruGreen. The original goal was to test cross-selling as well as a basic concurrent stop between Terminix and TruGreen. ServiceMaster conducted a pilot program taking a Terminix service center and putting a TruGreen manager in charge and a TruGreen service center and putting a Terminix manager in charge. The plan was to implement cross-selling within six months and test a concurrent stop at nine months.
The test program was over in less than 180 days. It proved unsuccessful due to the culture of the organizations, the separate leadership at the most senior levels and the lack of clear incentives for technicians and salespeople to cross-sell services. Although TruGreen technicians and sales professional were charged with cross-selling pest control services, strangely, their compensation plans only provided incentives for selling (and servicing) lawn care services. One would think that this would have been management's first change at the onset of the pilot program, but instead it was entirely ignored.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
A few years ago, I had dinner with an old client who had sold his business to Terminix. He brought a few of his key managers who I had gotten to know over the course of doing the deal.
Over dinner, the manager said that he was having a very difficult time with not only his sales people but also his technicians. He explained that his bonus was tied to profitability and recurring revenue, among other metrics. However, his sales people were paid a 15% commission on both recurring and one-time services.
He said, "Paul, my sales folks get it. We are supposed to be selling contract services, but a lot of these one-time jobs are chunky money. Further, it's easier to sell a one-time service than a contract, so if they are getting the same money for each, there is no reason for them to do it no matter how important I tell them that it is."
The more he went on, the more I realized that that was the least of his problems.
He continued, "Our people are paid to sell. Management wants sales. Technicians get paid to sell, sales people get paid to sell. The problem is, they are paid to sell, but not to service and retain customers. Guys are out selling all day long and there are not enough people to do the work, so we're selling a lot of accounts that will actually never be serviced. It will take us too long to get out there and the customer will can us before we even get a chance to service the account. I'll have pissed off customers and pissed off employees who don't get their commission. It's a train wreck and I don't even know who to talk to about it because I don't know who's in charge in Memphis anymore."
While Terminix executives were out dining on prime rib and lobster with me and my sell-side clients, Rome was burning. Not a single soul in Memphis sat down and thought through the organization's incentive structures.
But someone finally did sit down and begin to ask those questions. Better yet, someone actually asked the frontline employees. And what do you know, changes are being made that are impacting the bottom line.
If current management does absolutely nothing else but get this right, it will be a game changer for Terminix.
The Terminix crew is not happy with the growth of Rentokil and Anticimex on US turf. As I mentioned, for years Terminix's acquisition activity was focused on buying revenue rather than buying resources and capabilities. They've allowed Rentokil and Anticimex to pick up acquisition targets with true capabilities, while instead buying businesses like Magical in Canada. The only thing magical about that company is that it didn't go out of business years ago. While the turf war rages in North America, in 2019, ServiceMaster will go global. In my mind, it's no longer an if, but a when.
While Rollins is focused on the former Crown colonies and the UK itself, I fully expect ServiceMaster to bypass the crowded markets of the UK, Australia, and Singapore and instead focus on Asia, Continental Europe and Latin America.
In fact, I fully expect Terminix to enter China in 2019. On a trip to Asia in the fall I learned from the locals that ServiceMaster had locked up a $5 million deal in diligence that ultimately didn't make it across the finish line. The Chinese knew Nik and Dion too well to believe that that deal was a one-off occurrence.
China is not a market that I would choose to go for a variety of reasons. First, I don't feel like there will ever be a successful foreign, national pest control business in China — at least in the foreseeable future. Rentokil has tried that and learned the hard way. Second, there are a lot of other low-hanging fruit around the world in markets with far better risk profiles. However, I can certainly understand how China would be enticing. It's a big market and it's extremely fragmented… probably one of the most fragmented pest control markets in the world. By our estimates, some of the largest players in the country wouldn't even make the US PCT Top 100 list. Nonetheless, I'd put my money on a Terminix entry into China in 2019.
I also expect ServiceMaster to enter the European market in 2019 with an acquisition in a highly fragmented country like Italy or Spain. As I said in the last Commentary, platform opportunities are few and far between on the continent, but if ServiceMaster wants to play ball there, they will need to acquire some serious managerial capabilities. Buying small businesses such as Pietro's Pest Control & Pasta Bowl or Jose's Rioja & Roach Killers just isn't going to cut it.
Notwithstanding, Terminix is likely to enter the EU market in the next few months by acquiring a small, commercial business. My bet is on Spain, though Italy is certainly a possibility. Both of those countries have a plethora of small, commercial pest control companies looking for a savior partner.
Building a New Rat Trap
Anticimex is moving full-steam ahead with their SMART traps. If you go to Stockholm and watch them in action, it's hard not to be impressed.
Today, for a change, I will keep my opinion on remote monitoring and technology-enabled traps to myself. However, I will say that there are a lot of people in the industry that get distracted by such bright, shiny objects and I believe that ServiceMaster is one of them.
I expect ServiceMaster to begin competing with Anticimex in the SMART trap realm in 2019, either by acquiring all or a portion of a digital technology company or manufacturer / designer. It will most likely be a European or Asian company, but my money is on Europe, for now — though I think there are a few options in the US. In my mind, it is likely that they will do this early summer 2019.
I often say that the most objective proof that pest control companies are resilient is the fact that Terminix's management has been trying to break that business for almost 20 years and has never succeeded.
Although at first glance, it might look like I'm not particularly bullish on ServiceMaster, and for a very long time that has been the case. But for all of its ills, Terminix is a great brand that has suffered poor management.
Nik, Dion and the new management team have a tremendous opportunity to effect change within that organization by simply doing basic things that so many executives before them have just neglected to do. And from where I'm standing, it appears that they have begun to do those things.
The new management team is bold and I am excited to see what they will do in the coming years. The first day that I met Nik and Dion I asked them if I should bother putting their names in my phone, or if ServiceMaster is simply just a waypoint for them as it was for so many others who have come before them. Based on my interactions with them I believe that they are in it for the long-term, but only time will tell.
My hope for them is that they continue to focus on the basics such people, architecture, culture and incentives and selectively enter new markets, while mitigating distractions that will take their focus off the core. In my mind, this is the first management team that I've seen in over fifteen years that can actually do what others have only talked about.
PEST CONTROL M&A COMMENTARY
PEST CONTROL M&A WEEKLY COMMENTARY


Introducing the newest member of the Supers family - Super Thanks
By Barbara Macdonald
Product Manager, Paid Digital Goods
Super Thanks enables fans to support their favorite channels, while giving creators access to a new source of revenue.
Editor's note by Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer:
For creators, building a business isn't a one-size-fit-all approach. Some may gravitate towards tools like channel memberships while others may double down on Super Chat. At YouTube, we're always looking for fresh ways creators can diversify their revenue streams. That's why I'm excited to unveil our fourth Paid Digital Good — Super Thanks. This new feature gives creators yet another way to earn money while also allowing them to strengthen relationships with viewers.
Creators are at the heart of what we do here at YouTube, and we're constantly exploring new ways to help them get started, grow their businesses and diversify their revenue. In fact, we offer a multitude of ways that creators can make money on our platform -- from running ads and selling merchandise to channel memberships and beyond. We've recently been experimenting with an applause feature that allows fans to show support for their favorite YouTube channels. Based on creator feedback, today we're super excited to share that it's expanding to even more viewers and creators -- along with a new name: Super Thanks.
Since launching Super Chat in 2017 and Super Stickers in 2019, creators from around the globe have wanted us to bring this magic beyond livestreams and Premieres to video uploads. Enter Super Thanks! Fans watching YouTube videos can now purchase Super Thanks to express their gratitude and show support. They will see an animated GIF and, as an added bonus, get a distinct, colorful comment to highlight their purchase, which creators can respond to. Super Thanks is currently available at four price points between $2 and $50 (or local currency equivalent). Just like Super Chat and Super Stickers, Super Thanks does double duty for creators: keeping their connections with (super) fans meaningful, while also giving them a new way to make money.
Over the past year, we've partnered closely with creators to beta test this feature and gather feedback to inform and shape the experience. In fact, while beta testing Super Thanks, psychic intuitive Nicholas Ashbaugh was able to generate a new revenue stream—one that now accounts for nearly 15% of his revenue—by tapping this new way to recognize and engage with his most active fans. Here's what he has to say:
"Having a built-in feature like Super Thanks ensures that my viewers can show their love and support while watching a video -- without interrupting their viewing. It nicely augments Super Stickers and Super Chat by allowing folks who are watching a replay of a livestream to still feel like they're being seen (thanks to the purchase animation) and also thanks to the comment that it leaves."
Super Thanks is currently in beta and with today's expansion, is now available to thousands of monetizing creators. The feature is available to creators and viewers in 68 countries on desktop and mobile devices (Android and iOS). Creators can check if they have early access by following the instructions here. If they don't yet have access, fear not -- we will be expanding availability to all eligible creators in the YouTube Partner Program later this year.
Products and Features
Partners in Innovation: the Creator in Residence Program
Introducing Super Stickers: Another way to help you earn money while connecting with your viewers
How these 3 creators are making the most of their channel memberships


By Game ChangerMarch 1, 2019News, Sellafield Ltd
The first blocks of concrete have been removed from the top of one of the world's most recognisable chimneys.
This marks the start of the demolition of Sellafield's Windscale Pile One stack.
The 125m tower – the scene of Britain's worst nuclear accident – will now start to disappear.
Workers are cutting out 6-tonne 'chunks' of concrete using diamond wire saws.
The blocks are then removed with the help of a giant crane, which at 152 metres is the tallest structure ever built at Sellafield, just six metres shorter than the Blackpool Tower.
Stuart Latham, head of remediation, said: "Following a period of intense planning, we're delighted to share this very visible demonstration of the work being done to make Sellafield a safer place. Not only does it reduce the risk associated with this historic, redundant stack, but it will also change the Sellafield skyline forever."
"This is a huge step in our clean-up mission at Sellafield , so everyone was incredibly proud to see those first blocks safely removed. This is thanks to the dedication and collaboration of the Sellafield and supply chain teams involved."
The Windscale Pile One chimney, with its distinctive top-heavy appearance, has dominated the Sellafield skyline for nearly 70 years.
The first piece to go will be the square-shaped 'diffuser' at the top, which will disappear before 2022.
Famously, this bulky filtration system was a last-minute addition, placed unusually at its summit. Despite being mockingly referred to as 'Cockroft's Folly', after its designer Sir John Cockroft, it turned out to be a masterstroke. In 1957, fire broke out in the Windscale Pile One reactor. The sky-high filters captured an estimated 95 per cent of the radioactive dust created.
Now, the chimney is a decommissioning project.
Teams from Sellafield Ltd and its supply chain are working together to safely pull it down.
The project is a collaboration between Sellafield Ltd and the supply chain. Partners include: DSA Progressive Alliance (Cavendish and AECOM) for design and engineering, DDP Framework ADAPT (Doosan Babcock, Atkins, and AREVA) for procurement and construction, and Access Installation Framework (Kaefer Engineering) for scaffolding systems.
Because buildings containing nuclear material surround the stack, traditional demolition techniques like explosives cannot be used.
This article is published under the Open Government Licence. To view the article in its original format, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/demolition-starts-on-windscale-chimney
NNL
Sellafield Ltd
Robots tackle Sellafield's notorious radioactive 'hot spot'


Global Agenda: How To Play The Online Team-based Game
By Uju
Global Agenda was started in 2005 by Hi-Rez Studios. It is an online team-based game developed using Unreal Engine 3. It went live on February 1, 2010, and then in April 2011, Global Agenda was re-released as a free-to-play game.
The game is played in a third-person camera view with some weapons allowing scoping in a first person view using a mouse action. The characters have jetpacks and other weapons and Global Agenda features, a large degree of variability in player appearance with unique achievement based flair items; almost all player items can be recolored using dyes for additional personalization.
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Dome City is the center of Global Agenda's gameplay and most of the game revolves around mercenary matches (PvP) or instances (PvE). It has two playable open world zones, the Sonoran Desert and North Sonora and players can also take part in Agency vs Agency (AvA) which is Global Agenda's guild-centric competitive mode.
Assault, Recon, Medic, and Robotics are the four classes that the game features. The different features have customizable skill trees and their own weapons.
As you play the game you are free to reset your skills at any time and at no cost while in Dome City but a player needs four characters, one for each class in order to have access to every specialization of every class.
Global Agenda supports the following modes:
Breach – One team defends three points, in succession, while the other attempts to capture them, in order. The attacking team wins if they capture all three points. The defending team wins if time runs out. Additional time is given after each capture.
Scramble – A control point is placed at a random point on the map after each capture and both teams attempt to capture it first. Three captures (or the higher number in case of a deadlock) wins.
Control – three control points are open on the map simultaneously. Whichever team has the majority of control points in control slowly gains match points. The first to reach 800 points wins.
Payload – The attacking team attempts to push a bomb to the end of the track. The defending team attempts to halt or reverse their progress. The attacking team wins if the payload reaches the final point on the track. The defending team wins when time runs out.
Acquisition – This is a tweak on capture the flag, except in this case, the flag is a robot. Once a robot is "activated" by a player stepping inside it, it can be both damaged and healed. It must be destroyed before it reaches the other side or the enemy team scores. Three points (or higher in case of a deadlock) to win.
Mercenary Mode – For more casual games, players can enter the Mercenary queue. The game will attempt to make two 10 players, skill-balanced teams based on each player's star rating. Players will be entered into a match whose mode is determined by that player's filters if they have any.
Special Ops – For cooperative games, players can queue for Special Ops. Teams of 1-4 players can attempt to clear instances of enemy non-player characters. Players have 20 minutes to reach the instance boss, and then get at least four minutes to defeat it.
There are four difficulties in Global Agenda:
Medium Security – The easiest difficulty available, these missions are canonically the first to have been undertaken by the Armed Revolutionary Militia and focus on the clearing of immediate threats to Dome City. Maps feature either Bandit bases or Recursive hives.
High Security – This is the first mode where players fight the Commonwealth. It features high-tech labs and weapons manufacturing facilities. Players will occasionally encounter enemy Elite Agents, which mirror the playable classes. Helots mirror Assaults, Assassins mirror Recons, Alchemists mirror Medics, and Techros mirror Robotics. Bosses are more difficult.
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Maximum Security – Patrol scanners start appearing in this difficulty. Their alarms spawn enemy reinforcements the first time they are tripped. Hunter Spiders, who can pull Agents from safety, start appearing. Additionally, there are more enemies, more Elite Agents, and more enemies spawn in the boss room.
Ultra-Max Security – In the highest difficulty, minion Androids are replaced by more dangerous Minion Ballistae and Minion Sentinels. Enemy density is increased. There are larger groups of Elite Agents. Alarms summon reinforcements every time they are tripped, rather than only once. Guardians start appearing. The boss room starts with a significant number of Elite Agents and enemies.
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A vibrant interdisciplinary community of scholars, students, and practitioners dedicated to understanding the moral challenges of our time and creating scholarly frameworks, policy, and practice to address them.
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Wilt Alston
Wilt Alston (E'81, P'13) is a Transportation Safety Consultant with over 30 years of experience in design, development, verification, and validation of industrial software-based systems. Wilt was a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees from 2002-2004. He is a runner, a biker, husband, and dad.
Fouad Bashour
Fouad Bashour (T'98) is a founding partner of CIC Partners and has been with CIC and its predecessor since 1999. CIC Partners is a private equity firm that invests in growth-oriented middle market companies primarily in the food and restaurant industries. CIC manages the personal capital of its investment team and operating partners, who are successful CEOs and entrepreneurs, and seeks to partner with owner/operators, founders, and management teams. He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group. He is a former trustee of the Alcuin School in Dallas, TX and previously served on the Duke Annual Fund Advisory Board. He lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife Dr. Jennifer Bashour and their two children.
Charles Bell (T'82, P'18) is Senior Vice President for the Louis Berger Group's economic and institutional development market. He oversees economic growth (policy reform, microfinance, SME development), governance (decentralization, municipal services), community development (small scale infrastructure) and planning programs (resiliency, regional development) in transitional economies around the world. He has experience with USAID, DFID, DFAT, World Bank, and regional development banks.
Catherine Forster Connolly is the owner and CEO of Merida,—an American textile design house based in Fall River, MA. Catherine has been the CEO of Merida for 15 years and purchased the company seven years ago. During her tenure, Catherine has led the transformation of the company from an importer of high-end sisal to a design-driven textile company reimagining textile manufacturing in the United States. Prior to Merida, Catherine ran a market research company, Pyramid Research, in the high-tech space for 6 years and worked as head of Research and as an analyst for six years prior to taking over the company's leadership. Catherine got her MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1995 and graduated with an AB in Comparative Area Studies from Duke University in 1991. Catherine lives in Newton, MA with her husband and her three children.
Dan Drake
Daniel W. Drake is the president of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Funds, and chairman of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Fund for Engineering, Technology and Science. From 1967-1998, Dan served as managing director of J.P. Morgan & Co. and continued to consult with the firm until 1999. Dan also served as managing member and chief operating officer of Middlebury Capital Partners LLC from 1999-2001. From 2003-2009, he was the associate publisher of the Nantucket Independent LLC. Dan is currently involved on the boards of a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Linda Loring Nature Foundation and the Nantucket Shellfish Association, serving as president for both organizations. Dan received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Rochester in 1964 and his J.D. from the Albany Law School of Union University in 1967. Dan was admitted to the New York Bar in 1967. He and his wife Judith reside in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Jennifer Hainsfurther Saperstein
Jennifer Hainsfurther Saperstein (T'05) is a partner in the Washington DC office of Covington & Burling LLP, where she serves as vice chair of the Anti-Corruption Group and a Managing Partner for Legal Personnel. Jennifer's practice focuses on advising clients on compliance issues arising under anti-corruption laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"). Jennifer also leads cross-cutting compliance projects to help companies build and improve their compliance programs across areas of regulatory expertise, and conducts internal investigations on issues related to workplace culture, diversity, and inclusion. Jennifer was recognized by Law360 as a 2020 "Rising Star" in Compliance.
John Krampf
John Krampf (T'69, P'99) earned an AB in economics from Duke and a JD from University of Pennsylvania. He semi-retired as senior counsel for Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health in late 2017, after practicing law for ~45 years. John previously served on Duke's Trinity College Board of Visitors and volunteers with the Duke Annual Fund. He has three children and lives in Longmont, Colorado.
Derek Lindsey
Derek Lindsey (T'14) graduated with a B.S. in economics before moving to New York to work in Financial Services. He has held roles as a market economist at BNP Paribas, as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman (serving large financial institution clients), and in strategy and product management at J.P. Morgan. Currently, he is part of the Strategy and Business Operations team at Carta. At Duke, he was involved in a number of Kenan initiatives—including DukeEngage Dublin and the Kenan Focus program.
Danielle Moore
Danielle Moore (T'85) earned her A.B. in history. At Duke, Ms. Moore served on the DukeEngage Advisory Board, the Leadership Gifts Committee, and as co-chair of her 30th reunion. Ms. Moore currently serves as president of the Palm Beach Town Council. She is president of the Mary Alice Fortin Foundation, vice president of Fortin Enterprises, Inc. and a director of both the Fortin Foundation of Florida and the Barker Welfare Foundation. Ms. Moore sits on the boards of many charitable organizations including The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, the Boys and Girls Club of Palm Beach County, Rosarian Academy (where she attended and her daughters currently go to school), Town of Palm Beach United Way, the Garden Club of Palm Beach, and Women's Southern Golf Association.
Richard Morrill
Richard Morrill (G'68) is a Senior Consultant at AGB, The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, a premier organization focused on empowering college, university, and foundation boards to govern with knowledge and confidence. Dr. Morrill became Chancellor and Distinguished University Professor of Ethics and Democratic Values at the University of Richmond July 1, 1998, following his 10-year presidency. He is the former President of the Teagle Foundation and former Chair of the Board of Directors of ChildFund International. He has also served as President of Centre College and President of Salem College. He currently is a member of the board of the Richmond Symphony Foundation, and a director of Wintergreen Performing Arts. Dr. Morrill earned his AB from Brown University, his BD from Yale University, and his PhD from Duke University. He has received honorary degrees from four institutions.
Nayan Patel
Nayan Patel (T'95) is President and CEO of District Hospitality, a top hospitality and investment management company in the Washington, DC metro area. He is also a managing member of Walker Reynolds, a real estate investment firm with a focus on lodging, also in Washington, DC. In the past, Nayan has been President and CEO of YourDC Hotels and Chairman of the Board for Best Western Hotels and Resorts. He is an active member in the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Prince William (County) Chamber of Commerce. He also belongs to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and the National Association of Corporate Directors. Nayan is Featured in Harvard Business Review's book "Building Better Boards" and is a frequent guest lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Patel received a bachelor's degree from Duke University in Biochemistry and a degree in law from Georgetown University.
Vincent Price (chair, ex officio) is the President of Duke University and the Walter Hines Page Professor of Public Policy and Political Science. A leading global expert on public opinion, social influence, and political communication, Price came to Duke in 2017. As president, he also oversees Duke Health and one of the most successful collegiate athletics programs in the nation. Price previously served as Provost of the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Political Science in the School of Arts and Sciences. Previously, he was at the University of Michigan as Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. He is a member of The National Humanities Center Board of Trustees. Price earned his PhD (1987) and MA (1985) in Communication from Stanford University and a BA magna cum laude (1979) in English from the University Honors Program at Santa Clara University.
Louden Richason
Louden Richason (T'19) is the SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Zogo Finance, a financial technology start-up that partners with financial institutions to help them educate, engage, and empower the next generation of financial decision makers. He graduated from Duke in with a bachelor's degree in Economics. Throughout his time at Duke, Louden participated in several Kenan programs, including DukeEngage, DukeImmerse, and Citizenship Lab.
Poorav Rohatgi
Poorav Rohatgi (T'10) is a white collar criminal defense attorney at Gerger Khalil Hennessy & McFarlane in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining the firm, he clerked for two years for the Honorable Alfred H. Bennett in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Before his judicial clerkship, he handled both criminal and civil litigation at the law firm of Haynes and Boone, LLP. At Duke, Poorav majored in Political Theory and obtained a certificate from the Kenan Institute for Ethics.
Rodolfo Ruiz
The Honorable Rodolfo ("Rudy") Ruiz II (T'02) is a United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of Florida. Prior to his confirmation to the federal bench, he was a Circuit Court Judge for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida from 2014 through 2019, and a Miami-Dade County Court Judge from 2012 through 2014. Before entering judicial service, Judge Ruiz was an Assistant County Attorney with the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office, where he represented Miami-Dade County and government employees in federal and state court at both trial and appellate levels. Judge Ruiz was also an associate with White & Case L.L.P., where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, asset-backed financings, and general corporate matters.
Craig Saperstein
Craig Saperstein (T'95) is a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. He assists clients in developing and implementing sophisticated government relations strategies at the federal and state levels that are geared to provide a demonstrable return on investment. Craig lobbies on behalf of corporate, nonprofit, foreign sovereign, and public sector clients in Congress, the Executive Branch, and state and local governments. He represents clients on a variety of policy issues, including financial services, cybersecurity, international trade, veterans, energy, economic development, transportation, and health care matters.
Rahul Vinnakota
Rahul Vinnakota (T'00) is a Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital. He currently serves as a Board Member/Lead Director for United Flow Technologies, BHC, and Supply Source Enterprises. Rahul holds an A.B. in Economics from Duke and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He served as a member of the Duke Annual Fund Executive Committee and as co-chair of his 5th, 10th, and 15th class reunions. Mr. Vinnakota lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
Priya Virmani Rajparia
Priya Virmani Rajparia is the owner and founder of Privee by Priya - a personal styling company based in Short Hills, NJ. Priya founded the business in 2017. Since starting the business, Priya has helped elevate the style of many C suite executives. She firmly believes that style is a key element in executive presence and lends to self confidence and success. Priya is also employed as a stylist by the prestigious Mall at Short Hills. Prior to starting this business, Priya has worked in financial services for 10+ years. She has an MBA from Case Western University. Priya has spent 5 years in Paris with her husband and 2 girls. She is an avid reader, home chef, traveler, and mah jongg player!
Brian Weinstein
Brian Weinstein (T'94) is a partner in the Litigation Department at the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell, LLP. As part of his pro bono work at the firm, Mr. Weinstein was part of the team that secured a multi-million-dollar judgment in favor of Chinese immigrants working in the restaurant industry who had been paid less than the minimum wage by their employer. Mr. Weinstein was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and holds a B.A. in English from Duke, as well as a J.D. from Yale University. He is currently serving as the co-chair for the 25th Reunion of his class at Duke. Mr. Weinstein lives in Briarcliff Manor, New York with his wife and three children.
Sara Barron Zablotney
Sara Barron Zablotney (T'99) is a Partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She focuses her practice on the tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and spin-offs, both domestic and cross-border. She also advises clients on the tax aspects of securities issuances, bankruptcy and restructuring, and investment fund formation. Sara was recognized as a 2014 "Rising Star" by Law360 for Tax Law, is listed in The Legal 500 U.S., and is listed as a "Recognized Practitioner" in the Chambers USA 2017 edition.


5 Reasons You Should Be Watching Penny Dreadful
Fabio Kanagaratnam May 17, 2016 Television
One of my favorite series returned recently, and if you haven't yet, you should be watching it. One could say that TV has its fair share of horror, some of the most popular are The Walking Dead and American Horror Story. However, Penny Dreadful is a breath of fresh air which without falling into the usual tropes of horror can genuinely scare you. At the very least Penny Dreadful's quality makes it the best among all the others.
But let's talk about what makes this series great:
1. It's gorgeous.
Penny Dreadful is a stunner, one of the first things that struck me was the quality of the scenes, the sets, the clothing, even the city backgrounds and cinematography. Each scene is visually captivating, and I am happy to say that in Season 3 it's even more noticeable, with the series going to different places and environments. Adding to this are the brutal moments of horror, which with a blend of digital and practical effects deliver in spades.
2. One of the best casts on TV.
I love Mad Men, I love Game of Thrones, both, series with a brilliant cast that act the hell out of each scene (Sand Snakes are of course not included). Penny Dreadful is right up there fighting with these behemoths comfortably. Timothy Dalton, Eva Green (more on this lady later), Josh Hartnett, Harry Treadaway are our "heroes". Each of them is believable and shine throughout the series. I am specially surprised with Hartnett who is doing his best work of his career, the days of 40 days and 40 nights are long gone!
3. Complex characters.
The reason i have written heroes between quotation marks is the fact that these are not really heroes, but characters struggling with a dark past. Whether it's a daughter kidnapped by vampires, inner demons or playing god, each character has a darkness to it that is palpable and enthralling.
4. Eva Green.
Why this woman has not been nominated for any Emmy it's beyond me. Green is a powerhouse in Penny Dreadful, delivering a performance that is nothing short of mesmerizing. Her character is complex, and Green portrays it with such ability that it's impossible to take your eyes of the screen while she is in a scene.
5. Vampires, werewolves, witches, badass butlers and Frankenstein.
No it's not Vampire Diaries, that series is probably crying in a corner asking "why can't I be like Penny Dreadful". Okay, granted, both shows serve different audiences. Still, Penny Dreadful approaches these fantastic beings tastefully and manages to present a story that is complex and packs an emotional punch, while satisfying your more violent entertainment needs.
What are you waiting for? Go watch it!
The Affair – Season 1
Golden Globes 2017: List of Nominees
By Fabio Kanagaratnam December 13, 2016


KDHE Home - Division of Health Care Finance - KFMAM
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Manual (KFMAM)
Eligibility Policy - 1/22/2022
01000 >>> 01220
01220 Availability and Confidentiality of Information -
1221 Confidentiality of Information Concerning Applicants or Recipients - Information concerning applicants or recipients (present and past) is confidential and may not be disclosed to another DCF employee, the client, or any other nonagency personnel except as set forth in this section.
Information concerning clients or providers who have been referred for investigation is confidential and may not be released unless the Fraud Unit or the prosecuting attorney to whom the case has been referred for legal action authorizes such disclosure.
1222 Disclosure of Confidential Information - The agency may disclose confidential information when the purpose of such disclosure is directly related to: (1) the administration of the KDHE-DHCF program; (2) an investigation, prosecution, or criminal or civil proceeding conducted in connection with the administration of the KDHE-DHCF program or the SSI program; or (3) the administration of any federal or federally assisted program which provides assistance (in cash or in kind) or services directly to individuals on the basis of need. For exceptions see 1225 and 1226.
Throughout this material related to confidentiality of case records, the term KDHE-DHCF and DCF employees includes contracted employees (e.g., contractor employees responsible for CHIP determinations).
1223 Nature of Information to be Safeguarded - The confidential nature of the following information must be safeguarded:
1223.01 - Names and addresses, including lists of applicants or recipients.
1223.02 - Information contained in applications, reports of investigations, reports of medical examinations, correspondence, and other records concerning the condition or circumstances of any person for whom or about whom information is obtained, and including all such information whether or not it is recorded; and
1223.03 - Records of agency evaluations of such information. General information, not identified with particular individuals, such as total expenditures made, number of recipients, and other statistical information and social data contained in general studies, reports, or surveys of welfare problems, does not fall within the class of material to be safeguarded.
1224 Disclosure of Information to Client - Information entered in the case record is to be made available to the client upon request, for inspection at a time mutually agreeable to the agency and the client, except as set forth below.
1224.01 Information Provided by Other Agency Programs - Information provided by other agency programs is not to be made available to the client unless the respective program regulations authorize such disclosure. This includes programs such as Prevention and Protection Services, Rehabilitation Services, Food Assistance, and Cash Assistance that are managed by DCF and Substance Abuse, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities that are managed by KDADS.
1224.02 Medical and Psychiatric Reports - Medical and psychiatric reports are not to be made available to the client unless signed, written consent is obtained from the medical practitioner who rendered such report.
1224.03 Names and Addresses of Complainants - The names and addresses of complainants are not to be made available to the client.
1224.04 Investigative Reports - Investigative reports concerning welfare fraud or other types of overpayments are not to be made available to the client during the course of the investigation or during the time period in which the case has been referred for legal action unless the Fraud Unit, Legal Division or the prosecuting attorney to whom the case has been referred for legal action authorizes such disclosure.
NOTE: With the exception of 1224.03, all documents and records to be used by the agency at a fair hearing are to be made available, upon request, to the appellant or his representative for inspection and/or copying at a reasonable time mutually agreeable to the agency and the client or his representative prior to the date of the hearing.
1225 Disclosure of Information to Agency Personnel - Information is not to be disclosed to another KDHE-DHCF, DCF, or KDADS employee unless the employee has a need for the information in the performance of his official duties. The client's signature on the application form authorizes the disclosure of information concerning a Caretaker Medical, Extended Medical, TransMed, Child Care, Medicaid, CHIP, and/or Food Assistance client if the purpose of such disclosure is connected with the administration of any of the aforementioned programs, the Child Welfare or Child Support programs (under titles IV-B, IV-D, and XX), or any other federal or federally assisted program which provides assistance, in cash or in kind, or services directly to individuals on the basis of need. (Example: SSI, LIEAP.)
1226 Disclosure of Information to Nonagency Personnel and the Public - Information is not to be disclosed to nonagency personnel such as courts, school boards, legislators, prosecuting attorneys, policemen, FBI agents, doctors, social service agencies, state employment offices, public housing authorities, landlords, creditors, relatives, etc., except as set forth below.
1226.01 Information Available to the Public - Information Available to the Public - Regulations, Plans of Operation, state manuals, and federal procedures, which affect the public, shall be maintained in the office of the KDHE-DHCF for examination by members of the public on regular workdays during the regular office hours.
1226.02 Directly Related to the Administration of KDHE-DHCF Programs - Information may be disclosed to nonagency personnel when the purpose of such disclosure is directly related to the administration of KDHE-DHCF programs or assisting DCF or KDADS in the administration of their programs. The information concerning a cash, medical, child care, or food stamp client is not to be disclosed without the signed written consent of the client unless the purpose of such disclosure is directly related to one of those programs. Any information disclosed is to be limited to that which is reasonably necessary to accomplish the purpose of such disclosure. Such purposes include establishing eligibility, determining amount of assistance, and providing services to applicants or recipients.
In the course of providing services to clients, disclosure of information should be made to representatives of other welfare agencies or programs only when they can give assurance that:
(1) - the confidential nature of the information will be preserved;
(2) - the information will be used only for the purposes for which it is made available (such purposes should be reasonably related to the purposes of the KDHE-DHCF program and the functioning of the inquiring agencies); and
(3) - the standards of protection established by the agency to which the information is disclosed are equal to those established by KDHE-DHCF itself, both with regard to the use of information by staff and the provision of protective office procedures.
1226.03 Federal or Federally Assisted Programs - Information concerning clients is to be disclosed to federal or federally assisted programs which provide assistance (in cash or in kind) or services directly to individuals on the basis of financial need if the requesting agency certifies in writing that the information so requested is necessary to the administration of its program. Example: SSI.
1226.04 Officials Conducting an Investigation, Prosecution, or Criminal/ Civil Proceeding - Information is to be disclosed to the official conducting an investigation, prosecution or criminal or civil proceeding in connection with the administration of the KDHE-DHCF program if such information is reasonably necessary to the investigation, prosecution or criminal or civil proceeding. This includes welfare fraud investigations and prosecutions. The client's signature on the application/redetermination form authorizes the disclosure of information from the case record necessary to conduct an investigation, prosecution, criminal or civil proceeding related to eligibility for medical assistance.
Information concerning clients is to be disclosed to the official conducting an investigation, prosecution or criminal or civil proceeding in conjunction with the administration of the SSI program if such information is reasonably necessary to the investigation, prosecution, or criminal or civil proceeding.
Information disclosed pursuant to the above paragraphs shall be provided the appropriate official in the following manner:
(1) - The official requesting such information shall be allowed to review pertinent case record material in the agency office during normal working hours.
(2) - Such official, upon request, shall be furnished with copies, or authenticated copies, or originals of pertinent case record materials as necessary at no cost. Prior to the release of an original document, a copy of the document shall be placed in the case record with a notation as to the disposition of the original.
If a question arises as to the pertinency of any requested material, consult the KDHE-DHCF Legal Division.
1226.05 Intention to Commit Crimes - Information concerning the intention of a client to commit a crime and the information necessary to prevent the crime shall be disclosed to the appropriate authorities.
1226.06 Reserved -
1226.07 Information Not Otherwise Authorized to be Disclosed - Information not otherwise authorized to be disclosed by this provision may only be disclosed if the client has the authority to disclose such information and the agency has a signed, written consent on file authorizing the agency to disclose the information to the specific person requesting such information, excepting that such information may be disclosed without signed, written consent in an emergency situation such as death or other serious crises to an appropriate person if the agency deems such unauthorized disclosure to be in the best interest of the client. If such information is disclosed without signed, written consent, the client shall be notified of such disclosure as soon thereafter as possible.
1227 Subpoenas and Testifying in Court Concerning Information Not Otherwise Authorized to be Disclosed - Since all information relative to a client is by law confidential and since clients are advised that any information they reveal is held confidential, any information received by the Case Manager or other person connected with the agency, is by statute, in the nature of a privileged communication just as is the information received by an attorney or physician from his client, or received by a minister in the performance of his function as a spiritual advisor.
The Legal Division must be notified immediately of a subpoena to produce records or of a court order to testify; such notice should be in writing whenever time permits. A staff member who is subpoenaed or whose records are subpoenaed, unless otherwise instructed by the Legal Division, should make appearance at the time and place stated in the subpoena, and should bring the records subpoenaed with him, if any.
After being sworn in he should make the following statement to the court in response to the first material question:
"I am attending the court's hearing as a result of a subpoena. The law and KDHE-DHCF policy require that I call the court's attention to the laws and regulations limiting use and disclosure of information concerning public assistance. K.S.A. 39-709b limits the use or disclosure of information concerning applicants and recipients of assistance to purposes directly connected with the administration of the assistance program, unless there is written consent given by the consumer. These federal laws and regulations also similarly limit use and disclosure":
1227.01 - Section 1902(a)(7) of the Social Security Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1936a(a)(7), and 42 C.F.R. Sec. 431.300, et seq. (the Medicaid Program);
The witness will submit the above statement in its entirety to the court and a copy to the attorney and will testify further according to the ruling and instructions of the court. Testifying and releasing confidential information when ordered to do so directly by a judge in an in-court setting is not considered unauthorized disclosure of information. See 1229.
1228 Questions Concerning Disclosure of Information - When there is some question as to the disclosure of information to another KDHE-DHCF, DCF, or KDADS employee, the client or other non-agency personnel, the question is to be referred to the legal division for clearance.
1229 Unauthorized Disclosure of Confidential Information - A KDHE-DHCF employee who discloses confidential information concerning an applicant or recipient (present and past) in violation of the provisions set forth in 1220 and subsections shall be subject to appropriate disciplinary action (official reprimand, suspension, demotion, dismissal, etc.).
Further, any individual who discloses confidential information concerning an applicant or recipient (present, past) in violation of the provisions set forth in 1220 and subsections shall be subject to criminal prosecution, and if convicted, may be fined up to $1,000 and/or sentenced to the county jail for a period not to exceed six months.
© 1996-2021 Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Curtis State Office Building, 1000 SW Jackson, Topeka, Kansas 66612


Home Model Trains	model trains liverpool | Model Train Express
model trains liverpool | Model Train Express
Some had wheels that turned, but these had to be pushed or pulled. Some of the early 19th-century drive toy trains were made of tinplate, such as the big, durable, stylized locomotive toys in the U.S., which were painted red and gold and decorated with hearts and flowers. model trains liverpool
Around 1875, technological improvements in materials and manufacturing allowed tin to be scraped, cut, wrapped, and lithographed faster than previously.
Toy trains were altered when Märklina German company that specialized in doll house accessories, sought to create an equivalent toy for boys where a constant revenue stream could be ensured by purchasing add-on accessories for years after the initial purchase. Along with boxed sets containing a train and track, Märklin offered additional track, rolling stock, and buildings offered separately, creating the predecessor to the modern model train layout featuring scenery and buildings in addition to an operating train.
Electric trains adopted, with the first appearing in 1897, made from the U.S. firm Carlisle & Finch. As home use of power became more common in the early 20th century, electrical trains gained popularity and as time moved on, these electrical trains grew in sophistication, gaining light, the ability to change direction, to emit a whistling noise, to smoke, to couple and uncouple cars as well as load and unload cargo. Toy trains from the first half of the 20th century were frequently made of lithographed tin; afterwards trains were frequently made mainly of plastic.
Pull toys and wind-up trains were marketed by children, while electrical trains were marketed towards teens, particularly teenaged boys.
Now, S gauge and O gauge railroads are still considered toy trains by their own adherents and are often accessorized with semi-scale model buildings by Plasticville or K-Line (who owns the rights to the Plasticville-like buildings created by Marx from the 1950s into the 1970s). However, due to their high price, one is more inclined to locate an HO scale or N scale train set at a toy shop than a O scale collection.
Many modern electrical toy trains comprise sophisticated electronics that emit digitized sound effects and permit the operator to securely and easily run multiple remote control trains on one loop of track. In the last few decades, many toy train operators may operate a train with a TV camera at the front of the motor and hooked up to a display, such as computer monitor. This will show an image, like that of a real (smaller size) railroad.
Thanks for your interest in model trains liverpool


Gilles-Sweet Elementary School
Music - Mrs. Howe
5th Grade Music
5th Grade Orchestra
Derby Dash
Grade 5 Music
Physical Education/Gym
Gilles-Sweet Elementary News & Updates
Blue Day
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Gilles-Sweet Elementary PTA Meeting
Indigo Day
Violet Day
DERBY DASH RETURNS ON MAY 20, 2023
Get your running shoes ready and support Fairview Park students at the Gilles-Sweet 2023 Derby Dash on Saturday, May 20, 2023!
Registration and check-in begin at 7:30 AM. The 1-mile walk starts at 8:30 AM, and the 5K kicks off at 9:00 AM.
Visit www.fairviewparkschools.org/derbydash and register today!
Welcome Back to Gilles-Sweet Letter for Families
On August 9, 2022, a letter was emailed home to families of Gilles-Sweet from Mr. Krivak and Mrs. Kovi. Click here to download this Welcome Back to School letter.
5th Grade Parent Night at Mayer Middle School on Feb.7
On Tuesday, February 7, Mayer Middle School will be hosting a 5th Grade Parent Information Night beginning at 6:00 PM in the FHS Auditorium. All current 5th grade families are encouraged to attend. Click on the link above for more information.
Notice of Finance Activities Communications Team Meeting on February 2, 2023
Pursuant to R.C. 3313.16 and R.C. 121.22 of the Ohio Revised Code, notice is hereby given that a meeting of the Finance Activities Communications Team of the Fairview Park City School District, Cuyahoga County, Ohio is scheduled for February 2, 2023 at 4:30p.m. in the Conference Room at Fairview Park Board Office, 21620 Mastick Road, Fairview Park, Ohio 44126. Click on the link above for more information.
Notice of Fairview Park City School District Board of Education Special Meeting on February 8, 2023
Pursuant to R.C. 3313.16 and R.C. 121.22 of the Ohio Revised Code, notice is hereby given that a special meeting of the Board of Education of the Fairview Park City School District, Cuyahoga County, Ohio is scheduled for February 8, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. in the Warrior Room at the Fairview Park High School, 4507 W. 213th St., Fairview Park, Ohio 44126. Click on the link above for more information.
Fairview Park Safe Routes to School Travel Plan - Take the Survey!
Members of the community have been working with the Ohio Department of Transportation's consultants to develop a School Travel Plan to determine community needs for students who walk or bicycle to school. Click on the link above for more information.
Our goal is to keep our students safe! Please observe the following rules when dropping off and picking up your child:
NEVER park and/or leave your car on Alexander Rd. and West 222 St. when dropping off/picking up your child.
NEVER double-park on Alexander Rd. and West 222 St.
NEVER drop off or pick up your child on West 220 St. This is extremely dangerous.
NEVER use the back parking lot to drop off or pick up your child – this is for buses only.
NEVER use the front parking lot to drop off or pick up your child – this is for Special Transportation only.
Students should enter and exit cars ONLY when they are in the curb lane.
Do NOT allow your child to walk between parked cars and buses to get to your vehicle.
Use designated crosswalks if you have parked across the street. Jaywalking is unsafe and illegal!
Click here to download the Arrival and Dismissal Map
Phone:(440) 356–3525
Fax: (440) 356–3701
Principal Matt Krivak
Email Mr. Krivak
Associate Principal Shanna Kovi
Email Mrs. Kovi
School Day: 8:40 a.m. to 2:50 p.m.
Early Drop off/ Breakfast Drop off by Recess Doors
Students may be dropped off
First Bell
Final Bell
Wave #1: Bus Rider Dismissal
Walker, bike, and car rider dismissal