Last Day of What Was a Tumultuous School Year

Today is the last day of school for students and what a year out of the classroom it was.

The Teachers' Contract talks began in January of 2006 and by mid summer the threat of strike was likely and loomed over all activities in and out of the classroom. While the contract was debated in a very public fashion, plans rolled out to build a new MS in the area of Mitchell Fields and the NASD sought to take land from a nearby property owner via eminent domain. The building project further tore at the community as questions arose regarding its needs and costs. Eventually the Board and Administration kept all amenities including a pool, despite at the same time acknowledging the budget couldn't be balanced now without a tax hike exceeding the Act 1 index. A later 'windfall' of revenue from County Assessments kept the tax hike at the index level, but future years will face the same challenge.

In January the Teachers' Contract was finalized and this was shortly followed by a retroactive pay raise to Superintendent Lesky and a new Administrative Team Contract.

With the MS building in place and a budget essentially set, construction began on a new synthetic football field, fencing, sidewalks from Liberty Street at the field to Center Street to the Gym, and other cosmetic improvements around Andrew S. Leh Stadium. To accommodate all sports' field size requirements, the track had to be removed and rebuilt near the new MS as a stand-alone facility.

The Administration again grew with new positions added and there was turnover again on the building level as Shafer, MS, and HS all had new Principals or Vice Principals. The MS turnover is of particular concern with Kern being the fourth (I believe) to serve in the position since 2000.

When School Board elections rolled around, it was a bit of a surprise to see Board President Don Keller not seek re-election. He was joined by member Angela Callie. Few candidates stepped forward to run for office excepting in Bushkill where there will be a three way race for two seats in November.

PSSA testing was again at the forefront of determining where our schools rank in comparison to others across the state and within the region and contrary to the perception of having the best schools, Nazareth was mid-pack in the Lehigh Valley (7 out of 17) and 'above-average' statewide being at the very bottom of the top third (144 out of 498 districts according to the Pittsburgh Business Times).

While there were many individual accomplishments of merit by students and student groups, there is much room for improvement. Let's hope that all the controversy of the 2006-2007 school year has resulted in establishing the base needed to turn the focus from staff, building, and facility issues to classroom issues that will improve student performance in 2007-2008.