–C. N. Hanner, Superintendent (November 13, 1969)“I lived in Dayton for 14 years and, as County Superintendent, worked very closely with the rural people of the county. Knowing them as I do, I cannot comprehend, especially when they pay the same taxes, their acceptance of schools that do not provide their children with the same educational opportunities as those found in Ford City and Kittanning. If this school system is left to stagnate or deteriorate, I can now hear the statement being made that it never could succeed because it was too big. What a shallow excuse this will be. The real reason will be simply because of the lack of foresight of our people to invest in the future. The record will be there for all to see. We “missed the boat” on the Vocational-Technical School. Had we been allowed to build a complete school a few years ago, instead of the partial school we now have, we would have saved our patrons hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now we can’t even round up enough votes to complete it. We are paying a horrible price for every month of delay. Are we again going to “miss the boat” in developing the school system of the Armstrong School District?”
This statement speaks volumes! Dare we say history is still repeating itself again and again in the Armstrong School District? Should we STILL be dealing with this same issue in 2010? The SAME studies with the SAME results? Superintendents with the SAME visions as to what is best for ALL students and taxpayers yet, the same opposition?
For more than 40 years, the residents of Armstrong County have gone around and around on how best to right size our schools. Why has nothing been solved yet? The same problems are to the forefront of our district with other problems being pushed aside to fight the battle of appeasing interest groups.
Let’s take a step back and look at the picture. Other than the financial problems our district is facing, what other problems are there?
We have many children with inadequate test scores.
We have bullying, physical abuse, drug and alcohol abuse.
We have schools that lack equipment in order for teachers to properly do their jobs.
We have other deteriorating buildings.
There is an endless supply of concerns for ASD….but it seems as if all else in the district has been pushed aside with the reopening of EHS looming. There are other issues that need to be addressed in this district. Why must all of the focus be on EHS? Why are all available funds being funneled into the Elderton project as Director Michael Markilinski stated “We’re not going to do a bare-bones project. It might be (deciding) between the middle of the road and a high-end (project),”. Should some focus perhaps be on the many other issues in the district rather than focusing all of our time, energy and money on one small part of this district?
Why are the rest of the issues of ASD not as important as renovating and reopening one building when so many other problems need to be addressed? We think it is time that you make your concerns with OTHER issues known to our school board.
And we would like to hear YOUR issues.
What problems do you personally see within the district and how do you think they can be solved?
Email us at info@asd-news.com or write to us at:
HERC-ACT
PO Box 424
Ford City, PA 16226
All responses will be considered for a future editorial and/or posted on our website. If you do not wish for your name to be used, please just post/write anonymous.
