I'm saddened at what the QCSD Board of Directors has done to our once-respected school system. The public's discontent runneth over. Eleven - count 'em - eleven candidates are vying for the five vacant board seats in the May 15 primary. No one can remember such protest - ever.
Problems abound: one of the highest teacher salaries in the entire state; the lowest SAT scores in Upper Bucks; school taxes raised 50% in five years; ignoring the Sunshine Act at least 29 times in the past two years; the unannounced "early-bird" teacher contract with no input from the public. Integrated Math; long-withheld results from three surveys; the stacked math study committee.
QCSD suffers from educational idol-worship, treating PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) scores as sacred, though they actually measure only the minimum proficiency to satisfy the No Child Left Behind Act. We emphasize test-taking rather than learning. We use a benchmark of "proficient", with little regard for "advanced". Instead, we improve our image by giving retakes, with only the highest scores reported.
And students have no incentive to care. Barron's Profiles of American Colleges describes over 1650 schools, including average SAT and/or ACT scores. Not a single one mentions PSSA's. Yet our directors patted themselves on the back for a PSSA "achievement award". What did we "achieve"? Private and parochial schools aren't even required to take PSSA's. But inner-city kids, and those in poor rural areas, are. Hooray - we rank among the best of the worst.
And our board simply ignored the fact that 36 percent of QCSD 11th graders failed the math test. For what we pay our teachers, this is inexcusable. According to the PA Department of Education, that test "predicts first-year college performance as well as either the SAT or a university's placement exams". We have big trouble.
No wonder the district refuses to investigate teacher complaints that the board and administration were pressuring them to raise grades, and promote unqualified students to the next grade level. The district needs high grades, and selectively-publicized PSSA scores, to justify our huge teacher salaries, and deflect public opinion away from all of those problems.
In light of the board's failings, it is not surprising that they fought to maintain the regional system of representation, making it much more difficult to vote them out of office. The three incumbents should all be on the same ballot with the eight challengers. They should have to get more votes than those eight challengers to keep their seats. They should, but they don't.
Region 3 incumbents Phil Abramson and Nancy Tirjan only have to face two opponents. Last year, Abramson convinced Quakertown council to support the regional system because it would allegedly allow him, and Tirjan, to "better represent town residents". So, how have you benefited, Qtowners? Did Abramson and Tirjan consult with you about the early-bird contract? Did they tell you if your kids' grades were manipulated? Did they discuss those surveys, or help your kids with IM? Did they lower your taxes? Did they ever attend town meetings? But Abramson and Tirjan now have a much easier path to re-election.
And how do you folks in Haycock feel about vice-president Linda Martin? She suggested withholding funds necessary to make repairs to Haycock Elementary School when unhappy citizens there dared to consider a switch to lower-tax, higher-performing, Palisades. Sorry, Haycock - Martin is up for re-election in Milford/Trumbauersville. Regionalization sure helps you, doesn't it???
So if those jumbo salaries, poor test scores, crippling taxes, long-withheld surveys, multiple Sunshine Act improprieties, questionable grades, and self-protective voting districts offend you - and they should - just take a few minutes of your time to vote May 15. It is a small, small investment in the future of your children and your community. Reform can come quickly.
Actually, it began two years ago, with the election of Manuel Alfonso and Paul Stepanoff. They have blown the whistle on the clubby relationship between the directors and the administration, which has allowed the problems to flourish. The current board merely rubber-stamps anything the administrations wants. Staff has ballooned from one full-time employee for every 12 students in 2001 to one for every nine in 2006. And you know about those salaries, and the IM horror stories.
And to pay for everything, the board simply raised your taxes. You had no say in either the taxes or the spending. And what did you get for it? A pain in the math.
Stepanoff and Alfonso were regularly outvoted 7-2, so had little power to actually bring about change. But now you can. Four candidates, Lou-Ellen Renshaw, George Dager, Tom Marino, and Dean Wackerman, representing all three districts, running together on a common platform, have vowed to support the Reform effort. They have exactly the backgrounds needed - corporate finance, education oversight, and no connection with the administrators. And the shared belief that everyone must be accountable to the community.
If they are elected, the Reformers would have a majority on the board. No more middle-of-the-night teacher contracts. No more unquestioned spending. No more hidden surveys or unearned grades. And, most important, no more lockstep approval of everything the administration requests, without regard to cost.
The Reformers' plan is spelled out in careful detail on their website, Reform-qcsd.com. It is a blueprint for QCSD's future, including cutting costs without eliminating programs, bringing in unbiased outside evaluators, and using meaningful nationwide testing to measure student performance. The secrecy which defines the current board would be eliminated. The administration would be required to live within a budget. And much more.
Reading it will help you understand not just what the Reformers would do, but why, and how. And understand everything the current board hasn't done. You will then appreciate the importance of electing people like Renshaw, Dager, Marino and Wackerman. To bring back that community pride.
Next week - meet the Erin Brockovich of QCSD, and all the candidates. Some are promising. Some are not.