Upper Adams School Board Pursues Detrimental Actions

Editor’s note: This letter was presented to the Upper Adams School District Board of Directors at this month’s board meeting.

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to address the school board and the public. My name is Christian Parker, Upper Adams taxpayer of over 20 years and parent of 3 recent BHS graduates; although many of you may recognize me from remarks I made at last month’s school board meeting. Honestly, I never anticipated speaking so soon, however when I watched the recent Policy Committee meeting, I felt that I needed to.

Frankly, I am appalled, (although I suppose I shouldn’t be) that the current majority board continues to pursue actions that are detrimental to the education of those at the Upper Adams School District, but also detrimental to the staff, administration and educators. It’s not enough that they are pursuing book bans and ways to control access to books as well as planning on appointing themselves to be the gatekeeper for access to books in the future. These books have already been carefully screened by the librarian, under advisement from their professional organization, the School Library Association through the School Library Bill of Rights. These are books that hold clear literary value and in addition may have been chosen by a teacher to provide additional reading material to their students. Teachers and staff are approved by the board. They have qualifications; in fact more significant and education-ready qualifications than the majority of the school board members here.

The Majority board now seeks to undermine how policy has been processed for years at the UASD. A process that has been developed by the PSBA (Pennsylvania School Board Association): a professional, non-partisan organization that serves nearly 100% of the school boards in PA and has been doing so for over 100 years (that’s directly from their site). By Dr. Doll’s historical context, the PSBA process for creating and managing policy revisions has been used prior to his arrival, at least for the last 20 years and ostensibly at many other school districts across the state with success. This success evidenced by the efficient manner that policies are updated and changed to the needs of the school district, by the administrators and staff that know the district and its needs the best. I really cannot fathom why anyone would choose to NOT use the PSBA’s expertise, unless it makes it more cumbersome to push through policy changes that are partisan or seek to support an ideology. This is exactly why the PSBA urges school administrators to lead the policy change initiative and research what is being done and ensure they can administer the policy change. Not initiated by school boards who have little in-depth knowledge of the day to day operations of the school and its students’ needs. Again, this appears to be an over-reach by the majority school board…does any of this sound familiar. And, if we think this is the end of the slash and burn techniques by the majority, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Again, I question what the motive is. It’s not in response to complaints to either books or unsuccessful policies as there haven’t been any of those. It’s not in response to an administration who is not keeping up to date with what needs to be done to provide a quality educational framework, we’ve heard these same majority school board members commend the administration for their leadership. It’s not in response to educators complaining that they can’t educate effectively. To the contrary, I can only assume that it’s because there is a specific action they are pursuing. Some sort of ulterior motive. Is it to get teachers to quit? Is it to replace the administration? Is it to re-write policies, specifically 100-level policies with their particular ideology – in fact–I will remind listeners that when board members were asked in the last 3 months what policies they felt need revised, there were few specifics). So much for transparency. It appears the word “Transparency” is just another buzz word to get elected or to provide cover.

I realize that the public comment period is not one in which the school board members respond to questions, but I’m hoping that they will be more honest with all of us to what their end game is”