Political Grandstanding at Spring-Ford Work Session !!!

Christina Melton a Candidate for Spring-Ford School Board- Region 3, in the November 3rd election who is running against encumbent School Board President Mark Dehnert attended this weeks School Board’s Work Session. Here is her commentary on what transpired. Video Link for Meeting is at the bottom of the posting.

This Really Happened in Last Night’s Board Work Session Meeting…

Mr. Dehnert decided last night was time to grandstand. The cameras were rolling and the meeting was live streamed.

The Property Committee recommended engaging a consultant to assess the High School weight-room deficiency, and to identify solutions to the issue. In concert with this was a recommendation to explore pricing and feasibility of modular units to address the immediate overcrowding and potential safety concerns. While he had no questions, comments or concerns in the Committee Meeting, last night Mr. Dehnert said he didn’t want to spend the money to understand what the issues are or what options the district has. Mr. Dehnert was the sole dissenting vote.

Really Mr. Dehnert? 1) You KNOW the deficiency is the capacity and over-crowding leading to student safety risks. The weight room can reasonably accommodate 35-40 students. Current enrollment in that building is nearly 1,800. 2) The purpose for the consultant is to define the needs, and identify options! By voting no, you have placed your campaign ahead of the safety of our students.

The next Agenda item that drew opposition from Mr. Dehnert was a Programming and Curriculum recommendation to lease 288 ThinkPads for deployment in certain high-school science, math and computer science classes (STEM courses). Once again, Mr. Dehnert pushed back on integrating technology into the learning process. He claims to be concerned with the cost, and the impact that will have on taxpayers. He claims he doesn’t know how we will measure effectiveness.

Again, Really Mr. Dehnert? On understanding the plan – Maybe if you attended the Curriculum and Technology Committee Meetings, and if you truly supported STEM, you would embrace this opportunity. As for the cost - You weren’t concerned about the taxpayers when you proposed a budget with a 1.9% tax increase. You weren’t concerned about the taxpayers when you voted for a budgets with 4.32% and 3.95% tax increases. Finally, as I shared, we may not see huge jumps in PSSA tests, or Keystone tests, or even mid-terms or finals. What we will see is that our students will be better prepared for the next step in their journey. Studies and reports indicate that today only 25% of students have the technology skills to achieve academic success in college. But you could have found the same reports!

So, Mr. Dehnert, perhaps your grandstanding plan did not go as intended.
I encourage everyone to watch the meeting on RCTV, or on demand at RCTV Online.

Link:

https://vimeo.com/143176388