Forgive the time it’s taken to get this out there.  There genuinely aren’t enough hours in the day, these days.

The most important takeaway from Monday’s Scranton School board meeting is that only one person in the audience made an April Fool’s joke.  I genuinely can’t believe it.  I was waiting for, “You’re cutting Pre-K, that must be a sick April Fool’s joke!”

Well, I’ll risk being glib by saying that, yes, cutting Pre-K ended up being a something of an April Fool’s joke, thankfully. And we’re not doing it.

Dr. Kirijan presented a more detailed version of what I’ve posted about previously.  Basically, we’ll end practices that aren’t allowable, and we’ll enact policies that straighten things out.  A lot of people are worried that, because of federal income guidelines, their children will be excluded.  This isn’t necessarily the case.  Right now there are openings in our Pre-K program, which means that if our enrollment level stays the same, anybody who wants in, gets in.  So don’t give up hope.

Another note on Pre-K is that there was some concern that the amount of classes would be reduced from 14 to 13, but a retirement got posted, so it appears that we’ll be keeping the same number of classes.

One thing I want to say about our meetings is this: public comment is important.  If directors don’t know what the public things, it’s hard to address those issues.  So I take notes on every speaker and I do my best to understand what comes up and work on fixing things.

Lincoln-Jackson’s status stood out to me, not just as a West Sider who drives by the building regularly, but as a frequent attendee of Board Meetings.  A gentleman spoke up about the deplorable condition of the building and the lack of action from the district on taking care of it.  I’ve seen him speak at board meetings for years.  The reason this situation strikes a chord with me is because I live by John Marshall, another dead building, but one with a completely different story.  It’s now full of high-end apartments and remains a jewel of the neighborhood.

Here’s my position on Lincoln-Jackson: selling it for whatever we can get means it’s back on the tax rolls, gets a small amount of one-time revenue, and removes a maintenance expense for the district.  And more importantly, it means the neighborhood won’t have an eyesore.  Property values have to have suffered.  Vagrancy, mice, vandalism… it just hasn’t been fair to the residents.

I’m confident this one will be fixed.

Lastly, I want to let you all know that I’ve been visiting all of the PTAs with some of my fellow directors, based on an effort spear-headed by Director Paul Duffy.  I’ll write more about that soon, but suffice it to say it’s the best experience I’ve had on this Board.  There’s really nothing quite like talking to parents and families directly about what concerns them.