Discussion on an agenda item near the end of the Council Rock School Board Oct. 20 meeting was a brief reminder of the bitter debate over how the coronavirus pandemic was handled in the nation’s schools.
When a motion came up to approve an endorsed, unopposed slate of candidates for president, vice president and Section E4 advisor of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Council Rock board President Ed Salamon, Vice President Dr. Michael Thorwart and other members objected.
They said two of the three PSBA candidates were among many school board members across the state and country who “kept kids out of school and masked for two years” to the detriment of learning.
Many Council Rock board members did not agree with what they felt was an overly cautious approach to pandemic protocols by former Superintendent Robert Fraser, a factor that likely contributed to his departure from the district several months ago.
While all board members did not agree, they all ended up voting unanimously at the Oct. 20 meeting to authorize Salamon and Thorwart – Council Rock’s two delegates to the PSBA – to vote the way they feel is appropriate on the slate of PSBA candidates.
“This might be a way to send a message that what those people stood for and what they did was wrong,” board member Bob Hickey said.
Like Hickey, many of his colleagues in Pennsylvania and other states across the country feel that an unnecessarily long period of remote learning and mandatory masking will have negative impacts on the educational development of many children for years to come. Many others feel that pandemic protocols were handled appropriately given the deadly nature of the virus.
In other actions from the Oct. 20 meeting, the board approved furniture purchases from PEMCO of $27,252 for Hillcrest Elementary School in Northampton Township and $54,292 for Sol Feinstone Elementary School in Upper Makefield Township.
Both schools are undergoing major renovations – additions costing well over $20 million apiece. The work at Hillcrest is substantially completed, and staff and students are back at the school after being temporarily relocated last school year to the closed Richboro Middle School in Northampton.
The work at Feinstone is about a year away from completion, Council Rock Superintendent Andrew Sanko estimated. Students and staff have remained there during the work because of the difficult logistics involved in a temporary relocation from Feinstone to Richboro Middle School, district officials have said.
The board also voted to reject a bid and re-bid once the scope of work is adjusted on an auditorium lighting project at Council Rock High School South in Northampton. The action came after the only bid received came in at $2.35 million, more than twice the estimated and budgeted cost of $750,000.
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