An editorial by Adam Scaife
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
40+ years of the ASD school board doing the same thing over and over should certainly qualify by Einstein’s definition above. Although, we don’t know that this current board is expecting different results. With the current school board and the soon to be chosen new superintendent we will be right back to the 1960's. The same poor results will continue. Higher taxes than the nearby successful school districts, keeping more facilities open and barely maintaining them, paying more teachers and staff than necessary because we have too many buildings open, offering less curriculum choices, and having low student to teacher ratios. Where has this gotten us in the past 40 years? Student test scores are not higher than the surrounding successful school districts. But our taxes are.
In the ASD we have an estimated $25,000,000.00 dollars in pension contributions coming due over the next several years and there is still no plan to pay for it. Where is this money coming from?
Re-opening Elderton Jr. Sr. High School means it will have to be staffed appropriately. Some current board members want to talk about teacher’s salaries and salary increases at the same time they plan to increase the number of teachers within the ASD by having to re-staff a re-opened facility. How much does the staffing of the Elderton Jr. Sr. High School cost the tax payers? The estimate of $2,000,000.00 plus for staffing Elderton Jr. Sr. High School has been used by the district. Elderton Jr. Sr. High School has 250 pupils with an average of 42 or less pupils per graduating class. This equates to a cost of $48,000.00 each for educating a graduating senior over the six years of educating them from the 7th through the 12th grade. This also includes some students who are not physically on the premises as they are attending Lenape Vo-Tech.
At the same time we are completing a study of facilities to the amount of $90,000.00+ to the architects. The only facilities that have been discussed or mentioned for renovations, at this time, are those of an increasingly under-utilized facility that will cost between $16,000,000.00 - $20,000,000.00 dollars or more. Of course if we were not considering renovations at Elderton Jr. Sr. High School, a building that should remain closed, the facility razed, and the property sold, and at the Elderton Elementary School we would not have this study completed and this fee to the architects to pay for. There are no other facilities that have been proposed by this current board for renovations. Please explain how this is a fiscally sound proposal for the entire tax base of the district in order to graduate approximately 42 students or less per year. Please also explain where the benefit is in the education to all of the students of the district including those attending Elderton. A great number of the Elderton attendance area students do not want to return, but they have been denied their transfer requests in order to suit the desires of the current school board.
Review the Freeport Area School District and their tax rates and make the comparison. You will find that for the same assessed property value you would pay significantly less in your school taxes. Freeport Area School District has been ranked by the state to be significantly higher in student test scores over the ASD student test scores for many years. Do not point to Leechburg as they are broke. Even if they raise taxes the maximum allowed, they are still broke. They are searching earnestly for any cuts they can make in order to reach their budget requirements and they are coming up short.
Is Leechburg area school district the mirror to the ASD’s future? They too are run by a school board and superintendent emphasizing the smaller community school. However, they have not found a way to continue to properly operate it with respect to revenues and expenditures and their budget, at this time, for next school year is looking to be in the red ink. They are searching for cuts and trims no matter how small in order to remain viable. How long will it be before they are no longer viable? What will suffer in addition to the obvious answer of the children’s education? This is a future that we can not permit to occur in the ASD.
C.N. Hanners, Dr. Brence, and Dr. Kerr, all were and are superintendents having a brighter vision for the ASD. These men were attempting to institute the appropriate and needed change for the future of the student's educations and the fiscal soundness of the ASD. Their visions were fought vehemently by those that fear change and as a result little progress has occurred. What is this current board’s plan for better educations for all students of the district and being fiscally responsible to the entire tax base? Or is it just back to status quo? What would Albert Einstein think of the sanity of the current situation we are faced with from this current school board majority?
