What's On Your Mind, East Penn?
Though it is still the middle of the summer, its worth thinking about what comes next for our schools.
I've taken a long break from regular newsletter posts. But I'm back and want to know what is on your mind these days when it comes to our East Penn schools? What are some of the successes we should be celebrating and quality programs you know about that we should be building on? And what are the issues that worry you about this upcoming year? The things we should be talking about as a community? I want to hear from you! Your thoughts and concerns will help me chart a plan for this newsletter over the coming months. So please send me an email or drop your ideas in the comments below.
And in the meantime, here are four few things I've been thinking about that I'll definitely be posting about soon:
1. Realignment and Renovation
The district is moving ahead with a plan to move all 5th and 6th graders to Eyer Middle School district-wide, while all 7th and 8th graders will be sent to Lower Macungie Middle School. The plan also calls for spending tens of millions of dollars in renovations to both buildings. The scale of these changes deserves greater scrutiny and discussion, both about the overall direction of the changes and the ways in which the details are will be handled.
2. Teachers Without a Contract
For the first time in my memory, the district administration and its teachers have not been able to come to an agreement on a new contract. The previous contract expired July 1. The lack of a contract impacts all of us, not just the teachers and students. It's worth discussing the major issues in the impasse and how they might best be resolved.
3. State Money
No matter what measure you use, East Penn schools are underfunded by the state relative to many other districts. The result is our schools don't get the resources they need to meet the ever-increasing state mandates, and local taxpayers end up on the hook for the failure of state lawmakers. The most recent state budget has some good news and bad news for fixing these problems. I think we should be discussing the progress that's been made, what needs to happen next in Harrisburg, and how we can help make sure things get fixed.
4. Schoolyard Culture
Every day seems to bring a new low in our national politics. More shouting, more name-calling, and more lies. Less civility, less problem-solving, and less facts. These trends inevitably have an impact on our kids and the kinds of things they hear and must deal with in our schools. But I get the sense that a lot of these impacts are being swept under the rug, as we lack both the courage and the tools to address them. We should be talking about how to protect our kids and our schools from the poison of our present partisan political moment.
What do you think? What's on your mind when it comes to East Penn schools and public education?
2) On the teachers contract, having gone through this once myself whilst on the board, if the law and the contract are the same now, if there is "no contract", there really is, in that both parties agree to operate under the old one until one side or the other doesn't want to. So, negotiations can go on, like they did for 20 months in 1992-1994.
Two of my last meetings had votes to accept or reject a mediator's recommendation. I was a lame duck, and before the election I voted for it, and after it, I rejected it.
3) On state funding, while any new money sounds good, overall, it's a loss for EPSD taxpayers. Because EPSD is a relatively wealth off district (around the 25 percentile), it gets about 50 cents on the dollar compared to an average district and only about 33 cents on the dollar compared to poor districts. (In very round numbers, EPSD gets 20% and the average is about 40%.) That's only to get worse after the recent court cases.
4.1) At a place where I spend much time in another state, I'm advocating for them to actually enforce the cell-phone policy, which is not unlike EPSD's, but it's applied unevenly. Educators there complain that they're not supported by the administration (all the way up to the highest levels) and many teachers then let anything go, adversely affecting those who want some discipline.
4.2) Both sides should consider what they say. Kids are listening. Reducio ad Hitlerum. And don't talk nasty trash about the female VP, your (grand)daughter is probably listening, too.
1.1) On the "realignment", while it's always questionable if the enrollment projections used to justify the facilities expansion will come true, the extra space will be useful in any case. IMHO, almost any grade structure is workable, and the design of how to use the new one best will be developed over time. Several board members questioned many of the past and future so-called district priorities were things which EPSD should be doing, but didn't really suggest which new positions shouldn't be funded.
1.2) But that's only half the story, or maybe only a fifth, as far as capital improvements. Nothing has been said recently (except by me) about a possible HS project costing about $250,000,000, compared to the $65,000,000 for the MS's. What's up???
For my own info, I called the business manager from another SD which did build a brand new HS to find out how they covered the cost, with or without a referendum. While their project was about half the size of EHS, they dedicated about $2 million of new money each year for 5-6 years to eventually have enough to fund the bonds. For EPSD, $250 million would take between $16-19 million of debt service, or at least 3 mills.
Thus, I publicly advocated that for FY24-25, ESPD should take the full 6.2% allowed by the Act 1 index, if they were serious about any HS renovation or new construction on the scales proposed so far. Instead, they reduced the increase to 5% and then 4%.