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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, October 11, 2019

Nazareth Schools Will Finally Close on Election Day

Last year, both Executive Lamont McClure and Northampton County Council were besieged by Nazareth parents upset about conducting elections at Butz Elementary School. The County countered that state law prefers that elections take place in public buildings. Nazareth, unlike other school districts, was reluctant to close on election day.

At Wednesday's Budget Hearing, Administrator Charles Dertinger reported that Nazareth Area School District has finally agreed to shut down on election day. What's more, the school district is allowing the use of the school cafeteria at Butz Elementary. Dertinger said that no one will be forced to wait in line outside

Elections will cost the County $868,000 this year. Next year, the cost is budgeted at $1,090,000, a 16.1% increase. The reason for this is because next year's election is a presidential election.

Registrar Amy Hess told Council that no polling precinct will be seeking an increase in rent. She added the County will use 286 of its 320 ExpressVote XL machines.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I think this is a non-issue.

Anonymous said...

Utter nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Considering all we pay for these fancy school bundlings and all the taxes for their upkeep, we damn well should use them. With all the time teachers and kids get off during the year, damn well right thy can take another day off.

What a bunch of a-holes!

Anonymous said...

So the students education are risked for a different venue to hold the election poll-

Do not worry Lamont your out of a job like Brown in next election.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Gone are the days of holding elections inside someone's parlor. The state election code prefers they be conducted in public buildings. Most schools conduct in-service days on election day. Nazareth is finally getting it.

Anonymous said...

Nazareth thought they were special, sorry Corry you are not special, well maybe in some ways

Anonymous said...

Thank God the slaughter of Nazareth children will finally end. Now, if mom and dad would stop texting and speeding through school zones when they're late dropping the kids, we'd be nearly perfect. 11 kids die each day in texting/driving crashes. 0 kids have ever died in election day school shootings. Next up: eliminating potential Bigfoot threats on playgrounds. High fives all around!

Anonymous said...

What a shame, these kids need to go to school and not miss ANY days. There is no where else in Nazareth that we can have people vote at instead of disrupting the kids from going to school that day?!?

Susan Derr Kirk said...

Finally! I wrote to the Election Board and the Principal of Bushkill (Butz) Elementary School several times. The school and parents were concerned about the safety of everyone in the school on election day (especially after the criminal incident in the area). They should also have been concerned about the voters, especially the elderly. The "solution" was to change parking and voters had to park and walk through mud and wet grass driving through an area not designed or marked for parking. When weather was ok kids were outside on the playground going to the train area, crossing in front of voters leaving the grassy area. Ridiculous! Simple solutions were ignored: change dates of two in-service days so kids wouldn't be in school on voting days or, better yet, change the location to Bushkill Fire Company. That building is less than one mile away, is a great facility that is handicapped equipped, and has a large paved parking area. Maybe the Fire Aux. could even raise some needed funds for the volunteer fire co. by offering snacks or lunch for sale.