Kazoo Parade Success Despite Weather

The Express-Times has a report on the Kazoo Parade from yesterday (read it here).

While the weather wasn't quite what was hoped for, it was still a great event and lots of fun for all.

Insomniak Theatre Performance - Tonight

The Express-Times reports that Nazareth-based Insomniak Theatre will be having a performance this evening at the Charter School for the Performing Arts (read the article here).

Kazoo Parade

The Morning Call (read it here) has details of activities on the 4th of July including the Kazoo Parade in Nazareth:

In Nazareth, grab your kazoo for the Patriotic Kazoo Parade at 10 a.m. Friday beginning at Nazareth High School and ending at the borough ball field for a July 4th program.

The Express-Times has a similar blurb (read it here)

NAZARETH: Nazareth will host its Patriotic Kazoo Parade and July Fourth Celebration at 10 a.m. The parade will begin at the high school and end at the borough baseball field. Information: Nazareth Chamber of Commerce, 610-759-9188.

Paging Dr. Marino...

The Express-Times has an article on the chronically absent school board member Dr. John Marino, who has seemed to have missed more Board Meetings than he has attended (read it here).

I'm not sure what is worse, having board members that approve most every spending request despite knowing a massive tax hike is looming (or just passed) or having a board member who is elected for four years and doesn't bother to attend meetings.

If none of them came, we might be better off;-) but seriously, Dr. Marino step up and attend or resign.

MC on 'The Dungeon'

The Morning Call has an article today supporting the NASD's $1.2M weight room renovation and expansion (read it here).

The article notes that the students refer to the locker-room area as the 'dungeon'.

Now I've not been in the locker-room area for sometime and I suspect that the 'original' locker-rooms previously used only for gym-glasses off the main gym have been renovated, because they were in worse shape the ones now referred to as the 'dungeon'.

For those of you who attended the 'original' Junior High, now the School House Apartments across from Shafer, I'm quite certain you'd remember those locker-rooms. As close as I've been to a real dungeon with the dark concrete walls and recesses people seemed to change rather quick just to get out of there.

Nostalgia aside, the article notes the ventilation system is broken. Why has it not been fixed? Considering we did have a mold outbreak, taking an area that has moisture (showers and bathrooms) and is often in the dark (lights out when not in use) why wouldn't this have been a priority.

It seems the ventilation and air conditioning is an on-going problem at NASD. The current Middle School, soon to be intermediate school, had several rooms with no air conditioning during the heat wave we had. Shafer also had rooms without air at the time. I'm sure if these two had problems there were others.

Starting school before Labor Day or ending mid to late June only puts additional emphasis on having these systems working (and presumable higher costs), but this is the schedule we have, so it would seem we should have these systems working properly.

Letting things go to later point out the poor condition to gain approval for renovation is bad enough, but to then add costs by expanding the area at a time of near 10% tax hikes is simply wrong.

The other element of the article is on new sports facilities. Nazareth has done this better than anyone of late - having added a turf field, swimming pool, gym (at the new MS - which will give us four with bleachers), track/practice field (new MS), soccer field (re-graded), and now weight room.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but the point is we are spending too much at a time we should be cost conscious - each of these items will require additional maintenance and expense over time and I'm sure we haven't budgeted for that, but will have to pay for it.

Priorities (education over extra-curricular over overhead) of needs, not of wants is where our project focus should lie and we seem to only want.

ET on School Board Meeting

The Express-Times has an article on the school board meeting. It highlights the main points Scott made (read the article here).

What I found interesting in the article was the description of the weight room. The room was approved to both be expanded and have ventilation/HVAC installed due to its current 'condition' being a potential health hazard.

It was noted in the article that the weight room was 36 years old, built in 1972.

In the article it states:

The district hasn't improved its weight room since it was built in 1972, according to schools Superintendent Victor Lesky.

Lesky, who wanted the weight room doubled in size to accommodate increasing student loads, kept pressing one fact home: The money, $1.2 million, is already in the district pot, the result of the approval two weeks ago of a 9.72 percent increase over last year's budget.

So what this says is that the money we are paying for the weight room is not being borrowed, but is a part of our 9.72 tax hike. This is very clearly an item that in light of having to make a tough cut could have been cut.

If you have better information let me know, but my recollection is that the weightroom - located under the gym, in its current state was not purpose built as a weight room in 1972. The gym addition may have been completed at that time, but until the mid to late 1980s the weight room was in the small auxillary gym that was converted to a wrestling room for a period and I'm not certain its current use. That room was on the home bleacher, girls lockerroom side of the gym.

Under the gym was the equipment storage area between the boys and girls lockerrooms. The equipment was relocated to the old junior high wrestling room (formerly the stage that opened up to the gym). The weights were then moved in. If it was 1988, that would make the room 20 years old.

Age also seems to insinuate old equipment. For years the football team, who mostly used the room, would have a lift-a-thon to raise money for new equipment. I know there were dumbbells and other pieces purchased by the wrestling team. I don't know to what extent this has continued, but for some time there was a new piece of equipment or two per year being added to the weightroom and unsafe or broken equipment was removed.

It is bothersome that in hard times when cuts have to be made we go with expansion of a weightroom. Having been in the current one, a converted big storage closet, I understand their needing to put the HVAC in, but increasing the size is a nice want at the time we can ill afford it.

School Board Meeting

Thanks Scott for posting your notes from the meeting in the comments section - here they are:

Quick update from tonight's meeting....

The road was turned down, and the weight room renovation and expansion was approved.

It was pointed out that this is money that has already been borrowed as part of the Middle School debt ($24 million). The money doesn't have to be spent, though. So, at least $1 million won't be.

One other positive was that there were more community members than normal. About 7-8 were there and a few spoke (including me, of course). Let's hope this trend continues. We need more community participation.

Also of note was the discussion and vote about the Community College agreement. Basically, NCCC is looking to add 30 years to the agreement of sponsorships with the school districts. This would extend it to 2056.
That means that all 8 districts involved would be committed to funding the college for the next 48 years. The real problem is that there is no oversight or approval authority on the school districts' parts for capital borrowing.

After much debate, a motion was made by Mr. Bradley to table the vote until NASD can further study the situation. Proposed was to go to the County to ask if they would contribute as well. We are the only district not to approve this extension yet. So, NASD has some leverage.

My personal opinion - good move. While funding the NCCC is a good move, the current agreement may need a new look. Also, extending it for 48 years from now (30 year extension from 2026) seems nuts.


It was also asked at the end of the meeting if there are any provisions for replacing Dr. Marino on the board, who has been absent for most meetings this past year. The solicitor will come back with any steps which can be taken at the next meeting.


That's it for now. I will add more if I've forgotten anything after I review my notes.

Scott

$2.2M for Road and Weights - Vote is Tonight

The votes to spend $1.2M to upgrade the weightroom and $1M to build a road between the new MS and HS will take place tonight at the Board Room behind the high school in the North Campus at 7:30 p.m.

Time to Reconsider Community College Support?

Tonight the Board of Directors will vote to extend the agreement for thirty years between the NASD and Community College.

In essence, taxpayers in Nazareth have a portion of their school taxes sent by the NASD to the Community College to reduce the cost per credit of students attending who live in the Nazareth school district municipalities.

Last year during the presentation by the Community College Brad reported the following (read the post here):

Dr. Scott of Northampton Community College gave a presentation on NCC's budget. He presented some interesting numbers regarding NASD student enrollment at NCC. There are approximately 1,800 students attending NCC from NASD. There was a figure that showed 28.6% of NASD students attend NCC. English I and Bowling I were two of the most highly enrolled classes by NASD students.

The costs to the NASD were a bit over $600,000 this year up from $500,000 in 2005-06 and from $400,000 in 2000-01.

Before we look to cut any of our school programs, I'd think we should look to cutting something like this or at the least have the discussion.

The resolution to be voted on tonight during the 7:30 p.m. meeting is as follows:

RESOLVED, that the Board of School Directors of the Nazareth Area School District approve a second extension to the original 1967 Articles of Agreement of the Northampton Community College for an additional thirty (30) consecutive fiscal years, commencing on July 1, 2026, and that the President and Secretary of the School Board be authorized to sign the Second Amendment to Articles of Agreement of the Northampton Community College.

Healthy Community = Good Health

Some people may or may not be aware of the research work conducted many years ago that focused on the peculiar fact that heart disease was nearly non-existent in the residents of Roseto, PA.

I recently came across an article (it noted neighboring Nazareth) in the American Medical Association's Amednews.com that included excerpts from a new book that addressed the impact of community and the mind-body connection to good health (read it here).

One excerpt specifically addressed Roseto, PA. Here is the background:

Wolf was determined to get to the bottom of what he would later call "the Roseto paradox." Teaming up with a sociologist named John Bruhn, he reviewed the history of the town, conducted extensive interviews with the citizens, observed their lifestyle over years, and concluded that there was one key thing that set Roseto apart from its neighbors. Unlike Bangor and Nazareth, Roseto had been settled early in the previous century by immigrants from a poor town in southern Italy who had traveled together from the Old Country to build a new life for themselves. On arriving in Pennsylvania, the newcomers "were forced by snobbish neighbors" -- towns settled previously by immigrants from England and Wales -- "to look out entirely for themselves, to support one another for survival and to form their own enclave."

And this is what they found to be the reason why heart disease was unheard of in the town:

Denied the opportunity to assimilate, the newly immigrated Rosetans created an oasis of Old World values and customs in the heart of a rapidly modernizing America.

Not surprisingly, when a younger generation felt compelled to join modern America, heart disease and ailments arrived.

In 1963, reading the writing on the wall, Wolf made a bold prediction: if the new generation of Rosetans did indeed abandon the ways of the "old people," Roseto would cease to be a haven from heart disease. It did not take many years before he had the opportunity to test his hypothesis. Young people started marrying non-Italians, leaving the Church, moving into new suburban houses, joining country clubs, and taking up golf; some women even joined Weight Watchers! In the words of one observer, "It seemed like a capsulized, accelerated fulfillment of the American dream."

And in 1971 the first heart-attack of a person under 45 years of age occurred.

In spite of new efforts by townspeople to cut down on smoking and fat consumption, coronary heart disease more than doubled through the 1970s, hypertension tripled, and there was a substantial increase in strokes. By the end of the decade, the number of fatal heart attacks in the town had risen to the national average. Wolf's prediction, it seemed clear, had come tragically true.

So a positive outlook, regular engagement with family and friends, activity in civic groups and church, refuting envy, healthy eating, and exercise will together contribute to a long and healthy life.

Looks to me like a pretty good reason to laugh allot, complain less, be constructive more often, and to get engaged with local groups and organizations who could really use your help!

Joint Zoning - Worth Consideration

The Express-Times had an article (read it here) about Hellertown and Lower Saucon utilizing joint zoning. The concept is that Hellertown, a borough with plenty of high density and Lower Saucon, a township with more neighborhood tracts and farms, could benefit by having joint zoning because Lower Saucon wouldn't have to have high-density housing, it could point to Hellertown.

Nazareth has a municipal understanding with seven other communities (Bath, Chapman, East Allen, Moore, Upper Nazareth, Lower Nazareth, Bushkill, are included see COG entries), and a comprehensive plan (Nazareth 2030), but joint zoning is not a part of the agreement at this point in time.

While it would be challenging with so many municipalities involved, it is something that could be a tremendous help in addressing growth and preservation of open-space.