If you weren't able to attend the Town Hall Meeting in Kittanning on Sunday, March 28, 2010, you can watch the meeting in it's entirety on YouTube. There are 14 videos. (Use the control arrows on the left and right to scroll through the 14 videos)
Questions that were subitted in advance and were in the printed program:
- Why isn’t the Department of Education getting involved?
- Do we have a long-range plan?
- Were we able to realize any savings from the closing of EHS?
- What’s the story with EHS’s secession to AR, was there interference?
- What were your reasons for voting for or against reopening EHS?
- What are your plans for the upcoming pension plan fund spike?
- Studies show that elementary schools should be kept smaller and secondary should be consolidated, why is ASD doing the opposite by consolidating KTE with EE and reopening EHS with small class sizes?
- Why does Kittanning have inadequate facilities like science labs?
- Are there plans for a Super School? If so, how can we afford it and where will it be built?
- Why wasn’t there a referendum vote?
- What were the reasons given by the board to have Lee Price dismissed as solicitor?
- What were the reasons given by the board for not entertaining any other possibilities and choosing from a candidate field of "one" to have this person as our new solicitor?
- Where did the new solicitor come from?
- What is his background?
- What other school districts has he had involvement with in the past and does he currently have involvement with on either a solicitor level or on a council level to private groups involved in activities with a school district?
- Why do you keep spending thousand of dollars to do studies and do nothing with them when you don't get the results that you want?
- Would it be more beneficial for our school district if the board members were elected at-large instead of by attendance areas/regions?
- If so, what would we need to do to go about making that change?
- Since the District's state mandated retirement contribution is scheduled in the next 5 years to increase from just under 5% to over 30% of salary expenses, wouldn't it be prudent for the District to lower salary expenditures by reducing the number of teachers?
- Armstrong County is similar to the State of Kansas where an aging population and a declining student enrollment are causing schools to be consolidated. Closer to home, surrounding areas are closing and
- consolidating schools. Why is Armstrong County expanding the number of schools and teachers?
- Does the Armstrong School Board think like the State and Federal Governments that taxpayers have the where-with-all to pay any bill they lay on the table?
- How many teachers were actually furloughed when EHS closed?
- What is it going to take to revers the decision back to close EHS?
- Because certain boar members will not let the Lenape half day figures alone, is there a fear that ASD could potentially choose to only go for half day because of the hybrid option and not allow student choice?
- What is your forecast for the "Elderton Transfers" vote and what will be the fallout of that vote?
- Is it ethical for a school board member to block emails from his/her constituents?
- Will EHS be on school improvement due to low PSSA scores for 08-09. Will this process cost ASD additional funding?
- How will this years PSSA scores be configured?
- Board Director Solak posed a question on February 23's agenda on OTH-5 - Has PDE given approval for re-opening EHS?
- What recourse will parents have if transfer requests are denied?
I have no question, my comment would be that while I empathize with the desire to maintain a sense of community, community members need to take the energy they've used to re-open Elderton High School (at great expense to their fellow citizens) and use it creatively to find another way to maintain that sense of community.
Truer words have never been spoken.
