School District in Turmoil, Could Nazareth be Next?

In the August 4, 2006 Morning Call there was an article by Kirk Beldon Jackson about the Northern Lehigh School District (read it here) that struck me as interesting for two reasons.

First, both Bob Kern and John Fidelbus, who were recently hired at Nazareth, served on the high school staff at Northern Lehigh and were portrayed as leaving along with several other administrators because the stance of the School Board was perceived as being cost conscious, and in the view of the administration micro-managing.

In response a school director noted:

'If we need to control spending and put our finances back in order, that's why the board is there, to do what's in the best interest of the taxpayers and the community.

Second, Nazareth has not yet settled its teacher's contract and I believe that the administrators contract follows not too far after (maybe one year). Given the concern within the borough regarding the building of the new government center (which will cost a fraction of what the new school building behind Calandra's will), I think the question of finances and public responsibility may soon be hitting the district harder than in recent years.

I can't equate the two districts as I'm not that familiar with Northern Lehigh, but I do know that it is borough based, as Nazareth is, and I would guess it has some townships and new developments, as Nazareth does too. And this made the article an interesting read.

The coming weeks will tell us alot about the state of the school district. All parties involved in that situation would probably be wise to pay a little attention to what is happening in the borough to get a gauge of public sentiment, while final negotiations take place.