Blue Ridge board opposes Act 1

BY STACI WILSON

Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1 came under fire by Blue Ridge School Board President Alan Hall at Monday night’s meeting.

The board passed a resolution opposing the senate bill.

Hall said people believe the bill is about “school choice.”

“There is a lot of misunderstanding,” Hall said. “It’s really a segregation bill.”

“In the third year of the bill, 360 Blue Ridge students will receive a voucher to go to any public and private school,” Hall said.

However, vouchers will only be given to students whose family income falls below the poverty line.

“If you make too much money, your kids don’t get a choice,” Hall said.

The board president said he had addressed the House Democratic Committee last week about the effects the senate bill will have on Blue Ridge and other rural northeast Pennsylvania school districts.

He said the voucher system “doesn’t put us on a level playing field.”

Hall said private schools are not tested and there is no way a parent can tell if a school is doing “as excellent a job” as we are. “We have proven PSSA scores,” Hall said.

The board president told members that he supports a parent’s right to choose the best educational avenue for children he thinks the decision needs to be made with “all the information.”

With the current proposed state cuts in education funding this year, Hall said Blue Ridge stands to lose $1 million and Susquehanna County school districts will be losing $5.6 million in funding.

Hall said there are 144 failing schools in Pennsylvania and most of those schools are located in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

He said the message of his testimony and others who presented to the legislators was clear: “If you have a problem with those schools – go fix them and leave ours alone.”

“Public education in northeast Pennsylvania is doing a fine job,” Hall said.

“We’re going to keep fighting that fight,” he added.

Hall said the lack of school funding by the state would have a detrimental impact on school.

“It’s not just us,” Hall told the board and mentioned cuts to programs in the Mountain View, Scranton and other area school districts.

Barbara McCain was approved to fill the slot of acting director of special education, beginning Apr. 5.

Hall and Superintendent Robert McTiernan said special education director Mark Fallon was “on leave” at the present time.

The board also approved a revised school calendar on Monday night.

A snow make-up day was scheduled to be held Thursday, Apr. 21. Students originally had the day off as part of the school Easter break.

The board also approved a French Club trip to France that will be run in conjunction with the Montrose School Distict.

Board member Christina Whitney said, “We will be working with (Montrose) to provide the trip.”

Blue Ridge will also be utilizing an independent contractor to provide behind the wheel driver’s training to students.

A fee for the roadwork, borne by the student, is involved.

McTiernan said classroom driver’s training will be incorporated into the curriculum.

The district also approved a request from the 21 Hoops program to use the gym facilities for basketball practice, Mar. 30 – Apr. 29, in the evenings.

The next meeting of the school board will be held Monday, May 9 in the elementary school cafeteria at 7:30 p.m.