Ask the Coach
Education issues Editor’s Note: This column was written before the Connellsville Area School Board decided to close three buildings in a controversial consolidation program.
—
Hey Coach! I live in the Connellsville School District, and I’m sure you have read up on everything that is going on about school closings.
While everyone understands that we face challenging financial times ahead, I’m writing about something different, yet related. I say the school board should not have this much power. Five votes is the magic number for school boards, but how can five people determine things when hundreds and possibly thousands feel differently? I do not know one person who supports the proposed plan. Who is most responsible for our children’s education? I say, parents and teachers know what’s best.
Signed….Perturbed
Dear Perturbed: The Coach is only aware that there is a move to potentially close some elementary schools and to reconfigure the grades by grouping them differently. Any time there’s talk of closing schools or consolidating, there are typically issues for a certain number of parents and people. These are not the best of times, financially, and our dear mother used to say that money doesn’t grow on trees — or she would have planted a few more in our yard. The reason that five people can control the lives of thousands is because that’s how the system has been set up. Without knowing much more about this matter, being a school board member can many times be a very difficult job, and these five people (or however many support the current plan) must have extremely strong beliefs. Hopefully each board member has made his/her beliefs known and not just said that it’s best for the school district. When people make those kinds of statements, they are not really telling us anything. Hopefully, all school boards are open to public input because, many times, hundreds of voices can come up with some very good ideas/suggestions, when compared to only nine voices. As far as who’s most responsible for the education of our children, the Coach is going to take this in a completely different direction than what was believed to be intended by your question. The Coach is absolutely tired of hearing about how teachers are not doing their jobs when student production and performance is falling or has not met expectations. While teachers, parents and school boards are all vitally important parts of the equation, at some point toward the end of elementary school, and definitely in middle school, the opinion here is that the student is most responsible for his/her education. Almost all teachers work very hard to offer a quality experience, but some students put forth very little effort in school and at home, even with parents being very supportive and encouraging. As with any case, let’s hope that cooler heads prevail and that all sides can compromise to move things forward to better help all current and future students in the district.
WPIAL Hall of Fame
The Coach had some strong feelings about a number of things that the WPIAL Hall of Fame selection committee has done, or hasn’t done, during the last two years, and the Coach had planned to address some of those issues in this column.
However, knowing that George Von Benko, this paper’s outstanding Memory Lane writer, was also addressing this same matter in today’s sports section, the Coach will just refer you to that article for what should make for some very interesting reading.
With that said, the Coach will address one of the glaring and disturbing weaknesses regarding this selection committee; that there is no representation from Fayette County (and perhaps other counties).
Thus, who is going to support and fight for our sports heroes?
—
You can contact the Coach at askthecoach2003@yahoo.com.