It’s always good to have an outsider’s perspective. One interesting thing about my Board service is that Dr. Finan and I came into this at the same time. So we learned about the inner workings of the district together and both of us noticed that the way the district is run isn’t efficient or even, […]
Right off the bat, I will point out that Special Education has been a disaster in the district. Why? We get sued straight to hell. It’s partly our fault, and we’ve drastically reduced lawsuits, thankfully. And it’s mostly a cultural problem in the world of lawyers. Why? Well, students in Special Education programs have individualized […]
Scranton’s kids have an issue. While we look at our district’s budget of $166 million and how we constantly experience shortfalls that require cuts and borrowing and tax increases, we are missing the biggest issue when we talk about how to address it: fair funding. According to the last state budget, a kid from Scranton […]
News broke of the first release from the grand jury investigating the Scranton School District. I’ve read the whole release, and you should, too. Here’s what you need to know: There will be more from the grand jury. There is an “Unnamed Co-Conspirator” who pops up in the release. Even without Times confirmation (which I’m […]
Blame for the current Scranton School District Disaster isn’t actually very easy to assign, because we are going way back. And that means there are different political majorities and factions and people in control at different times. Not every person listed below is getting blame, per se. The Grand Jury will handle that definitively. The […]
Having a little guy (now 15 months) means I don’t get to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, so forgive the absence. There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to the precarious position of the Scranton School District. The good news: it’s better than it was. The bad news: good people […]
In today’s paper, we learn, via the Board’s budget chairman, Tom Schuster, that the Board is considering doing a “scoop” in order to balance the budget this year. This is a mistake. Right now, with the cash infusion from the state, we have $4 million to find. If you want to save 89 jobs and […]
With news that the state is going to provide $2 million to the district as a kind of lifeline, there’s reason to celebrate this Christmas. There’s also reason to be cautious, because, based on the district’s Powerpoint from their raucous meeting last Monday, $2 million isn’t nearly enough to dig us out of this hole. […]
I’ve had a lot of feedback from my previous post about saving money. Many of you have reached out with some wonderful ideas and clarifications about some things. I’ve been compiling them and will do a follow-up. I can’t go to tonight’s Board meeting and am not sure that speaking would help, anyway. Besides, I […]
