Public Comment Meeting

Residents of Bridgeton Township need you to attend the public comment meeting called by the Palisades school board. The Superindent of the district is proposing to "reorganize" the elementary schools in the district and close Bridgeton Elementary School in Upper Black Eddy.

• September 25 - Public comment meeting

Citizens for Quality Education, a group of Bridgeton parents and residents, has fought to keep their local school open for several years now. Not only have they responded to school board initiatives to close the school, but they have worked to upgrade the educational program and have implemented a creative plan to equip every student in the school with a computer -- in the student's home.

Ann Holby, a key member of the group, solicited donations from companies with excess or unused computer equipment. She recently added twenty seven 486s to the Bridgeton Elementary School inventory, and the school's Parent-Teacher Organization will help finance the purchase of new monitors for these computers.

This latest crisis follows the Superintendant's failed bid in June to move Bridgeton's kindergarten and first grades into Tinicum's and Durham-Nockamixon's schools. At that school board meeting, board member Bruce Doman tendentiously lectured the Bridgeton parents about their "lack of creativity" in fighting to preserve their school.. In our opinion, the parents have shown initiative and creativity in going beyond equipping classrooms with computers to equipping students, to making these machines (on which the kids will likely make their living as adult)s a part of life rather than just a part of school. Such creativity is what the charter school movement is all about and could be the basis for making Bridgeton a magnet school for the entire district.

Why fight for local schools rather than consolidated schools?

Parents and residents cite many reasons for holding on to their school. Among them:

• the school is a key institution for creating a community, and Bridgeton Elementary is one of the few institutions in Upper Black Eddy;
• they want smaller and more personal classes, in which teachers know not only all the children in their grade but all the children in the school;
• a local school promotes parental involvement in school and children's activities, such as being a Girl Scout leader for someone who works at home or nearby, difficult if the school is a half-hour away rather than five minutes;
• they don't believe that enrollments will fall over the long term, in a county that is one of the ten fastest growing counties in the country;
• class size will have to rise, with little leeway to add sections, since all the remaining buildings are already fully utilized;
• what happens to the teachers who've long served Bridgeton School?

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What does Bridgeton's struggle have to do with other districts?

Why should parents in other school districts care about Bridgeton's fight for their local school? Because it points up key educational issues, such as

• School funding (the property tax is not flexible or extensible enough to finance schools; especially given the shrinking of state and federal aid),
• The state funds cutbacks to the district equal the savings from closing an entire school; what gives (politics in Harrisburg is the key to restoring education funding; Election Day is coming, citizens)?
• Magnet schools and centralized administration (if Bridgeton could draw students from anywhere in the district, it could maintain or increase enrollment),
• Deferred maintenance and new construction (business accounts for capital investment differently than operating costs; how does local government finance new construction?);
• Need for all-day kindergarten (with more women working, kindergarteners cannot be picked up or delivered midday, especially to schools far from home), .

Talk back to us!

We want your opinions and experiences. Send us comments on the issues above and, especially, if you have gone through school closing battles in your own districts, tell us your stories. Send E-mail to community_voices@buckspolitics.org and snail-mail to 150 Woodland Drive, Upper Black Eddy, PA 18972.

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