Back to School - First Day for Students Today - Poll Results on the Strike

If you have school aged children I probably don't need to tell you that the new school years starts today. If not, I ought to warn you that students will be waiting for buses, and there will be a lot of extra traffic around the district from 6:45 a.m. until 8:05 a.m. when bus runs are being made and parents are dropping their children off before work.

The wet weather will not make the first day any easier, espcially if you live in the Borough and walk, or attend Lower Nazareth and may have to deal with mud slides as a result of the yet incomplete parking lot paving project (I drove by on Saturday and it appears the entrance and former lot are ground down awaiting to be paved while the area to the east of the school is still be excavated and large mounds of dirt are piled near Newburg road).

The good news is the teachers are at work, the bad news is they have not yet settled their contract dispute with the District. The contract expires August 31 and an extension has been made to September 21. One rumor I've heard is that the teachers are looking for increases greater than "normal" with significant increases to the higher steps and scales (ie those teachers with longer service). Of course none of this can be confirmed as neither side has given any information publicly.

In its twelve days online, the NewOverCoffee Poll asked, ""Will the Nazareth School Teachers Strike?" While the poll was viewed over 300 times, only 14 people voted with the following results:

No.	35% (5 Votes)
Yes, before school starts	7% (1 Votes)
Yes, after school starts	57% (8 Votes)

Now that we are back to school, let's hope everyone stays in school until June and has a great new school year!