CUTS AT BETHLEHEM SCHOOL DISTRICT

By Tim Darragh and Steve Esack OF THE MORNING CALL

August 18, 2009

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The Bethlehem Area School Board in an extraordinary meeting Monday night slashed $2.8 million from this year's budget, eliminating 45 positions and ending programs for at-risk students.

An overflow crowd of hundreds of district teachers, as well as some students and taxpayers, swarmed the board meeting at East Hills Middle School to plead for the programs. It got so crowded the meeting was halted as Bethlehem Fire Department officials ordered the aisles cleared of those who did not get one of the approximately 450 seats in the auditorium.

During the break, board member Judith Dexter asked for police protection for the board as it voted. Police were at the meeting to assist the fire department and did not have to step in.

The board listened to passionate pleas to stave off the cuts in non-mandatory programs, but in the end, most of the $3.5 million the board voted to cut last week was eliminated.

Of the 45 positions, 34 are teachers, teacher aides and guidance counselors.

Also gone are the Career Academy, a program for high schoolers at risk of dropping out, and the Regional Academic Standards Academy, a program for struggling fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders. A new program called the Middle Prep Literacy Academy will fill in some of the need caused by the lost regional academy program.

Not all the reductions involved programs for at-risk students. A human resources director position was eliminated for a savings of $105,207. Two districtwide mathematics specialist positions and six elementary school guidance counselors also were cut back.

The board had a series of votes, but the primary decision was 7-1 to make the cuts and add the Middle Prep program. Dexter cast the lone no vote. Outgoing board member Charlene Koch did not attend the meeting.

When it was all over, Superintendent Joseph A. Lewis, who recommended smaller cutbacks, said he couldn't understand the board's logic.

''I can't make rhyme or reason out of some of the decisions,'' he said.

Before the meeting started, hundreds of teachers marched from Freedom High School, where they held a meeting to discuss the cuts, to East Hills. Most were wearing black shirts to signify unity.

They applauded loudly as speaker after speaker approached the board and begged it to back off the cuts.

Teresa Donate, speaking on behalf of the Bethlehem Coalition for Quality Education, an advocacy group of individuals, teachers union members, church groups and social service agencies, said she was ''appalled'' that the board would consider eliminating programs.

''Mark my words.'' she said, ''If you approve all these cuts, you will go down in history as the most self-serving, discriminatory, arrogant and elitist board in the history of the United States.''

Jean Yasso, an academy teacher assistant, asked: ''If the school board shuts down the Career Academy, where is the safety net for these students? Because they will fall. Â… They will get lost.''

The audience cheered in support.

Again, the crowd offered a standing ovation as Caroleen Rivera of Bethlehem, a senior who would have started the school year next week at Career Academy, pleaded for its preservation.

''If you shut down our school, I can't go to Liberty [High School],'' she said. ''I mean, I won't make it. I need this school more than you can imagine. So I beg you, don't ruin my future.''

Board members and Lewis said they regretted the cuts, but without a state budget in place, they said they had little choice.

''I am heartsick'' at the program cuts, said board President Loretta Leeson.

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