At their May 2 meeting, Bethlehem Township Commissioner Thomas Nolan called the school resource officer at Freedom High School a "front line of defense for our children." Nolan was referring to the proposed elimination of two high school resource officers at Freedom and Liberty High School by Bethlehem Area School District, which would save $140,000. "We as a Board have to take the responsibility on our shoulders if need be," Nolan continued. "The safety of our children is paramount." But at their June 6 meeting, there was no sudden rush from Commissioners to restore that front line. Instead, they were told that Bethlehem Township's school resource officer, Brian Kirchner, had already cleared out his belongings from Freedom High School. "Right now we sit and wait," said Township Manager Howard Kutzler, who reported that there is a "good possibility" that the state will restore some funding to Bethlehem schools. "This position is high on their priority list," Kutzler stated.
Commissioner Michael Hudak asked about the proportion of students attending Freedom from other municipalities, but Commissioner Jerry Batcha responded that "the reality is that we are the police jurisdiction." Batcha also noted that the position was created at the request of the school board, "not by us. In the unfortunate event the budget doesn't change, there won't be a school resource officer."
Another school resource officer at the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School, is unaffected by these budget cuts.
17 comments:
Boo Hoo.
This is what happens when you overpay for everything else you do. Another example of a public sector house of cards. Local school district wants money from state, who wants money from Feds, who borrower it from the Chinese...
Crash and burn is on the way. And it will be a pleasure to watch the troughfeeders fall.
I consider a SRO a very good idea.
Me too. But something's gotta give.
And when you are bound by union contract to pay gym teachers two to three times more than what they could command in a free market, pay outrageous salaries and contract buyouts to inept superintendents and their cronies, you will sacrifice the "good ideas" in order to maintain the boondoggle that is public education.
Want another example? Math and science teachers, incredibly hard to recruit and retain. Why, because we have no flexibility to up the ante for those skills. And they can take those skills elsewhere, unlike the kickball playing sweatsuit wearers who stalk teenage girls and are in their cars at the sound of the bell.
We discontinue courses that we want for our kids because those offerings are secondary (at best) in importance to the salaries and pensions of the entrenched.
Public education is a "good idea". In practice, it has been botched beyond our wildest nightmares.
Shitty tenured teachers with padded pensions have slopped the trough dry. There's no money to keep schools safe.
if parents did their job you wouldn't need this position
@11.31
you're right of course, but that's only a small part of it.
a school board that doesn't know what's going on. a superintendent who's still feeling his way after a year when we were promised one who would hit the ground running (and one who hardly anybody but the board seemed to want at the time of his hiring). senior school staff who act as if their messed up fiefdoms are elite schools, a crappy curriculum across the board, that gives the good teachers no room and little chance to make a difference, a teachers union that gives the appearance of being happy with layoffs because that'll keep the salaries up for the survivors - whatever happened to one out, all out - parents who turn out in big numbers for sport or band, but stay home when the meetings are about academics (unless it's to do with their johnny or mary going to college).
even if there was loads of money,and fifty school resource officers manicuring their nails all day because bethlehem has only perfect parents and darling children, none of the above would still give a shit unless, as seems to be becoming traditional in bethlehem education, they step in it.
Without an on site police presence, both Liberty and Freedom will be run by the Latin Kings. The schools will become an unsafe scary place for the lily white suburbanites. Hold on tight folks. Many argue that at least three cops should be in each school. Just ask for the arrest statistics at the schools and ask to see how many should have been arrested that were not.
Whaaa. so some of you troglodytes didn't go to college and got a job right out of high school. You took the fat paycheck and the nice raises. All of a sudden the "free" market dumps your sorry asses to hire Chinese and Indians and you blame teachers.
Stop whining. You choose your path in life just as teachers and pother public employees did.
When the public sector got peanuts you kids laughed all the way to the bank. Now they are collecting pensions they payed for and you are crying the blues.
Why not cry to Wall Street. Better yet write a letter by hand to Sean Hannity and crap in the other hand, see which one does you the most good.
Grow up and deal with the life you picked!
Grown up!
I find it so remarkable that these "victims" of the private sector are now attacking unions who have negotiating salaries and pensions under the same " free" market that they praise. Now you want us to cut our salaries and be on even keel with everyone else. Don't know about you, but that sounds like socialism.
It is amazing to read how our fellow average Joe's have been manipulated in to fighting other average Joe's for the crumbs that fall off the masters table.
Most of us whether public or private employee's or past employee's didn't make fortune's. We tried to live the American Dream sold to us by the same people that exported it to China.
I will not attack another worker regardless of whether they are in the "private" sector or the "public" sector. We all played by the rules and tried to do right by our families. At the end of the day we are all being played by the same type of people who profited off our grandparents and make fortunes off the wars we and our families fight in.
I dream of an America where one day we will wise up and not be so easily manipulated by an American flag pin or a "hate your neighbor" game that the takers have been playing for millenniums.
Come on people snap out of it!
Dude, put away that apostrophe until you learn how to use it.
Hey Laura -
Most parents do the job, and do it well. Their children are the ones who need the protection of the RO.
10:04 pm -
You're a genius. Teachers have paid for their pensions? Really? Hope you are not the math teacher at my kid's school.
Teacher pension contributions are simply recycled confiscated wealth. Wealth confiscated through the threat of strike and the use of children as hostages to extort.
Your tacky, "I went to college" rant is typical, arrogant teacher mentality. My college experience was that those that couldn't hack business school or engineering or pre-med or the sciences were the ones we saw heading off to the ed buildings.
As for my life, I'm quite happy with the path I've chosen. My retirement planning is right on schedule, and I didn't have to put on a union skirt, carry a picket sign or terrorize kids and those who pay me to get there.
As a man, I could never say, "Unfair, unfair, give me mine" and put on the PSEA skirt.
But, hey, if the skirt fits...
arm the teachers
"I find it so remarkable that these "victims" of the private sector are now attacking unions who have negotiating salaries and pensions under the same " free" market that they praise."
Bullshit. Public employees do not negotiate in the free market. They are able to elect their employers and use political influence in bargaining. That's no free market. But it's understandable that those who've never earned a private sector dollar hold this twisted view.
One of the biggest mistakes made in the schools was to remove the teachers from the discipline sector. We had the appearance of the weak kneed sisters who did not want to keep students after school so they could leave at the absoulte moment. In addition to that they did not want to do hall duty and face the possibility of a kid who did not belong in the hall. So the administration in the form of assistant principals, a group of administraters that has grown to huge numbers, took over the disciplining for those teachers who refused to do so. Meanwhile the rest of us continued to discipline our students and keep order in the halls. Ultimately the school gave in to calling in the police for things like verbal abuse of teachers and various assundry things. When I left teaching in the 1990's we were moving toward armed guards and policeman in the schools doing the job I did along with teaching for over 3 decades. Now we have drug use and drug selling going on in our schools along with some heavy petting going on in sight on a regular basis. So what do we do? I have always contended that there are two items needed to be a good teacher--know your material and maintain discipline. You cannot teach if you do not maitain discipline in the classroom and hallways and you will gain no respect if you do not know what you are teaching. I have had students tell me that while I was tough, some would say I was a real SOB, they learned a lot in my class. That was what I was looking for as a teacher. But we do not hire content oriented teachers today. We hire people who do not read and do not like to read and we have schools who look to treat a problem and not discipline. Hate to say it but you must do both. Get into the schools folks. See what is going on. Yeah, go to the game but getting to the meeting with the teachers about your kids. There are going to be dramatic changes in our schools over the next 3-4 years because of the payment to the pension fund that affects not only the teachers and representatives, but the jobs and positions of many. You could be looking at an increse in school taxes of current tax times four. What do you think that will do to teachers, administrators and other personnel and programs? I would suggest massive cuts. The money is not and will not be there. Laws will be passed allowing the firing of personnel due to financial conditions. Who will be stepping forward when that time comes for it will be here for the next budget.
"Bullshit. Public employees do not negotiate in the free market. They are able to elect their employers and use political influence in bargaining. That's no free market. But it's understandable that those who've never earned a private sector dollar hold this twisted view."
And your typical propaganda rhetoric screams of a spoiled trust fund baby grasping at straws...so original.
hire BO - then all the perverts will congregate in one place right behind him
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