Welcome Linda Walker

We have a new School Board Director.  Linda Walker was appointed last night to replace the seat left vacant by the resignation of Sara Yassem.  Ms. Walker gave a great speech and out shined the few that actually showed up for their interviews.

Ms. Walker is a retired educator.  She has been through consolidation.  She cares about the students and the quality of their education.  She is going to be an asset.  She really doesn't have big shoes to fill.

She is replacing a school board member who was border-line illiterate.  If any of you have ever received emails from former director Yassem, you will understand.  She writes with no capitalization, no punctuation, and no sentence structure.  Ms. Yassem was also a puppet, who only said what she was told to say and voted how she was told to vote.  With her puppet masters now gone, she became more vocal, since they no longer had a voice on the board, they used her as their microphone.  There was a plan up their sleeve with her resignation and it looks like their plan backfired.

Welcome Ms. Walker!  Let's move forward and bring this district into the next century with quality education with fiscal responsibility!

Senator Don White speaks out about Elderton Reopening

In a recent Leader Times article, Senator Don White speaks out about education spending and the reopening of Elderton High School:

Education spending: The senator called the current public system broken, adding that taxpayers are "paying through the nose" for that system.




"The education funding increase gravy train is going to stop," he said. "The governor has continued to take money from other programs and dump it into an education system that is flawed and we need to take that money back and put it where it belongs."


White also mentioned the Armstrong School District and the battle over Elderton High School, saying that the issue "has done nothing but waste millions in tax dollars."


"We as taxpayers need to pay close attention to the people we are electing into the school director positions and stop electing people who have no fiscal restraints," he said. "I have no power over the people who are elected to the school boards, the voters have given them the power to do what they do."

This is a MUCH different opinion than ASD School Director Sara Yassem claimed that Senator White had on the issue, when she claimed, under oath, that Senator Don White told her to fight for the community schools and not to believe "them" when they say that they're not interested in building a new big school.

Effective Practices

An Editorial by Becky Fullerton and Jennifer Willyard

On Monday evening, the ASD School Board revealed the secret identity of our new Superintendent to be Stan Chapp from Freeport School District…however, that was all they really revealed.

Where was the transparency in the hiring process?

Where is the transparency in revealing the contract terms and salary?

This is all public information and should be divulged at the time of hire. And once again, where is the transparency in a long range plan for our district?

Part of the problem in the lack of transparency of the ASD school board, is they are not following half of the practices set by the Pennsylvania School Board Association. For the detailed Standards for Effective School Governance set by the PSBA here is a link:
We urge everyone to read this with particular interest paid to the benchmarks.

Some of our personal favorite questions to answer are:

"How have the boards actions and attitudes elicited community trust and respect?"

"How often do members of the board speak to or participate with community organizations?"

"How do board members balance the need to represent the electorate with the need to to lead the district forward on behalf of children?"

"How does the board measure and evaluate the public perception of the board's behavior and demeanor, and how do those preceptions help or hinder confidence in the board?"

Wow!!! Perhaps being that she is the district representative with the PSBA, Ms. Yassem should get a copy of this to all the board members for their review! Or maybe this could be one of the things that could be read and discussed during one of the 5 annual training opportunities that the board members are suggested to take part in!

There are reports that there were only six candidates in the pool for the Superintendent position and only two of those were interviewed. Why not hire an interim Superintendent for a longer period of time to make sure a candidate did not slip through the cracks. Perhaps extend the search, or even use such services as the University of Pittsburgh Tri-State Study Council or Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, to help identify a strong candidate?

Perhaps it would have led the board to hire Dr. Chapp, but due diligence would have been done. We do not want to discount Dr. Chapp’s qualifications. He, on paper, seems to be qualified to do a great job as Superintendent of schools, however, it would have been nice if there would have at least been an open interview process so the public could hear what the vision was of each of the candidates.

Will they bring something new to the table, or is it more status quo?

What are the goals the board has for the new superintendent?

This district needs to move forward, it is time the board works with all of its constituents.

This is a time where vision is absolutely needed and transparency is a must, will the school board FINALLY do so?

With the end of the school year, we wish to congratulate all of the outgoing seniors the best of luck, health and happiness in all their future endeavors!