NAIS UPRISING

The Express-Times reports on the parents who attended the NASD School Board meeting last evening regarding the Intermediate School.

The complaints identified in the article reflect those posted yesterday. Of interest is the fact that the article does not indicate that Principal Yanek responded or was even in attendance. Dr. Lesky is the one quoted.

Lesky asked parents to give him two months to sort through the host of issues. He said he plans to unveil changes in January.

The responses noted in the article were, if you want shorter routes we could add another bus at $325,000 per year, we could shorten the day to 3:00 p.m., playground equipment is on order, and the parade was replaced with another activity.

In reality though, one bus won’t fix the problem. Adding a bus to shorten bus rides in Lower Nazareth will not impact those riding from Bushkill. I also don’t believe it is possible to end the day at 3:00 p.m., unless we put IS students on MS/HS buses. Bell times now are 2:05, 2:55, 3:30 and to move to 3:00 would mean the buses currently transporting students are being used for secondary students – there aren’t that many more buses or drivers available to accomplish this.

These complaints are not new. The issues raised at this meeting were raised years ago when the district was discussing the new building. The choice that was never even considered was a new elementary school and bringing 6th grade back down to free up space at the MS. This would have relieved cost burden, lower operation, shorter bus times, etc., but I digress.

One other point that arose in discussing our new elementary structure is the principal position. We have three building principals who lost two grades and now manage k-3. This has resulted in significantly fewer activities and evening obligations, with the same pay. The new IS principal has 4-6, but was provided with a vice principal, again less responsibility, with the same pay. This has nothing to do with performance, but purely takes into consideration responsibility and pay. In the public sector, if a job position had its responsibilities reduced, I’m pretty sure the pay would have gone with it.