Pennsylvania’s Doylestown is a town. The commencement of the November school board meeting featured a few farewell speeches from leaving members who discussed the issues that still need to be resolved: additional special education programmes, mental health initiatives, and high school students enrolling in college courses.
There was a lengthy list, but over the last two years, other things had taken precedence.
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While Politics Consume School Board Meetings, a Very Different Crisis Festers
As soon as the meeting was opened to the public for comments, a hint was presented. Parents and community members spoke in front of the school board about a variety of topics, including anti-Semitic racial stereotypes, the illegality of mask requirements, and the widely dispersed idea that transgender kids were raping people in the restrooms.
One mother declared, “I fight here week in and week out to guarantee that my children’s freedom will never be snatched from them.”
There has been a noticeable gap between the issues that have dominated school board meetings and the issues that teachers, healthcare workers, maintenance workers, and others face every day when they report to work for more than a year in the Central Buckland District, a battleground for school board members across the nation.
This year, schools around the nation are dealing with a variety of urgent concerns, and Central Bucks School District in Pennsylvania is no different. In almost two dozen interviews, it was revealed that there were shortages of everything, including milk, substitute instructors, bus drivers, and support staff.
Nurses are Under Pressure From Covid-19
Nurses are under pressure from Covid-19 contact tracing and paperwork requests for hundreds of exemptions from a school mask requirement.
More than a year has passed since the TikTok challenges, which were popular social media dares that caused so much vandalism at certain schools that the restrooms had to be closed almost entirely. Custodians are currently cleaning up filthy messes and damaged sinks.
Additionally, there is growing concern regarding students’ mental health as a result of the decline in the number of classroom helpers, a concern that predates Covid-19.
Many pupils seem to be distant and unable to interact with one another when asked to perform something as straightforward as form a group.
Elizabeth Coyne, a teacher of family and consumer sciences, declared that because her teaching partner had taken a leave of absence and no suitable replacements had shown up, “We are in triage mode.”
However, school staff claim that despite the ongoing public discussions about schools, the truth of what actually occurs inside of them has largely gone unnoticed.
Instead of focusing on what’s best for the students, the fight between parents and school board members has become self-perpetuating, with parents taking to social media to criticise their opponents’ posts or count the insults aimed at them.
Last Words
You want to stand up and exclaim, “This is not really what we need to be talking about!” in the words of science instructor Deborah Wysocki.
There needs to be a discussion about why there are 29 students in a space that can only accommodate 24.
In order to free up the education assistants to watch over children in the auditorium who require a babysitter, it’s also feasible that we should address the issue of pupils who need the help of education assistants but aren’t receiving it.
