Bethlehem Schools Poised For 1.7% Tax Hike, 56 Fewer Teachers

Nearly 100 people, many of them students, braved sweltering temperatures on June 8 for Bethlehem Area School Board's final budget workshop on a proposed $204 million spending plan guaranteed to make nobody happy. It eliminates 147 jobs - 56 of them teaching positions - and raises taxes 1.70%.

Although temperatures were cooler in the cavernous auditorium at East Hills Middle School, the crowd was still hot. Teacher furloughs and the elimination of middle school soccer, as well as East Hill's popular Harmonium program, guaranteed a raucous crowd.

Freedom High School English teacher Jamie Ott, one of 56 teachers facing the budget axe, was their lead-off hitter. In her classroom, she told the Board, is a poster about cheaters, who "risk everything and gain nothing." She pointed to the elimination of 6 English and 6 math teachers at the secondary level, and asked, "How much are our own students being cheated?"

Following Ott, three East Hills Middle School students presented board members with a petition signed by over 200 families, asking that the soccer program be retained for the 38 students who currently participate. That program would cost $24,000.

A small army of students, all uniformed in white "Music is Our Thing" T-Shirts, begged School Board members to retain the Harmonium program, in which 38 students spend the final two periods of the day as a team, engulfed in music. "We're like family," 9th-grader Tori Scovens told the Board. "This is the first time I received straight As on my report card all year," she added.

Aside from Board member Loretta Leeson, school board members were unwilling to tinker with the budget, which is scheduled for adoption on June 11. "We're getting rid of something that we haven't looked at that closely," she complained. But Board member Michael Faccinetto pointed to other team programs slated for elimination and cautioned, "You just can't focus on one program."

Leeson, noting the relatively low, $18,000, cost of Harmonium, questioned whether there was any study showing that it had a positive academic benefit. Superintendent Roy retorted that all day kindergarten provides a positive academic benefit, too, and that is being eliminated.

Leeson continued to question budget details, from dues and fees to professional organizations to the $1,000 travel cost projected for Summer school. "How do we have travel expenses for Summer School?" she asked.

Nobody answered, as Board members appear to be resigned to accept the budget. In fact, two School Board members, Rosario S. Amato and Eugene C. McKeon, were absent.

Superintendent Roy did offer some hope. If some state money is restored, he will restore full-day kindergarten and school resource officers at Liberty and Freedom High Schools. He also suggested new computers for slow learners in the middle schools.

That's not enough for Karen Becker, a professor at The College of New Jersey. She told the Board that Bethlehem Area School District is ranked 356 of 498 Pennsylvania school districts, based on five years of standardized tests. "The lowest tax rate gets you what you pay for, the bottom third."

After the meeting, she mentioned she has three children. Two go to Charter Schools and one goes to Bethlehem Area School District.

"He won't be returning next year," she said.

Photos:

Above right: Furloughed FHS teacher Jamie Ott (center), poses with students Anna Thomas (left) and Kaleigh Birdsong (right)

Above left: East Hills Middle School students Tori Scovens, Christa Abert, Vicki Lorah and Jordan Haas, from left to right, after their plea for Harmonium to Bethlehem School Board.

Below: Harmoinium student army at Bethlehem School Board