Dear Friend,
We hope this email finds you doing well. We would like to take a moment of your time to tell you about Allentown School Board candidates Elizabeth Martinez, Audrey Mathison, Charlie Thiel and Marc Telesha and their plans to restore the community’s confidence in the Allentown School District.
Allentown is becoming a better place to live and work every day, but the community has lost faith in the city’s school district. The staff has been reduced to less than bare bones, school buildings are not as safe as they should be and the quality of education is suffering.
We aim to restore the community’s pride and confidence. With the right leadership, we believe we can make this once-great district the best in the Lehigh Valley.
To restore the community’s confidence in the district, Elizabeth, Audrey, Charlie and Marc will do the following:
Work to restore proper student to staff ratios
Work to improve the safety and security of our students and staff
Hire a more diverse staff that reflects the community
Partner with business and other government entities to promote programs in the best interests of our students
Provide support for school athletics, which drives school pride
For more information on Elizabeth, Audrey, Charlie and Marc and the rest of Citizens for a Better Allentown slate of candidates, please visit www.citizensforabetterallentown.com.
Thank you for your time and consideration and please don’t forget to vote for Elizabeth Martinez, Audrey Mathison, Charlie Thiel and Marc Telesha on May 19.
Citizens for a Better Allentown
Mayor Pawlowski, your letter begs a few questions. You do realize that two of the four candidates that you're promoting are already on the school board, which you apparently find deficient? How will electing your chosen candidates achieve these goals without significantly increasing taxes? Do you honestly feel that these goals are not shared by the existing board, and the other candidates that are running? Do you understand that democracy and the city is better served if not all candidates, on every board and council, are chosen by you? Please stop confusing Reilly's new buildings with a better city. As mayor, please stop saying that quality education is lacking in Allentown.
Let Mr. Ed say that quality education is lacking in Allentown- it is. It's one of the worst school districts in the state of Pennsylvania, which in turn is hardly a beacon among other states. Mr. Ed OUGHT to own the lousy school system, and in turn voters need to remember that the lousy school system festered under his watch.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteI have said this before, the biggest problem facing the Allentown school district is that it is located in Allentown, a city with an annually rising rate of poverty. Whose fault is that? Yet ED Pawlowski and his minions have the temerity to say the ASD needs his help. Those siding with the mayor and his team should be ashamed of themselves for they are participating in the political fraud. Ed wants control of the district for his own ends, if he wanted to help the district he could do that as mayor by paying some attention to the city's many blighted neighborhoods.
Scott Armstrong
Unbelievable. He has the audacity to run for Senator and strong-arm a school board election.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that fancy buildings do not a city make.
Although we are at opposite ends of the political belief spectrum, I agree with Scott Armstrong..a half billion dollars was used to "dress up" downtown. It pains me to watch the city crumble like it is.
ReplyDeleteThe city is quaint, historic, interesting, with good restaurants, museums and public parks and yet look at it. It's a textbook case on "How Not To Revitalize A City". There are many ways to achieve a rejuvenation..homesteading loans and programs for small businesses..and the rotting gas lines and water lines should have been replaced much more quickly-before the loss of life at 13th Street. There is no political branding when it comes to tackling such pervasive issues, we are all in this together.
"Work to restore proper student to staff ratios"
ReplyDeletePresumably that means hiring more teachers. We had about 35 or so in each class when I was at central/Trexler and Allen.. About 50 or so when I was in elementary school. And my teachers didn't have non-teaching aides and other staff that performs non-teaching duties. So yes, the answer here is to hire more people and spend more money
"Work to improve the safety and security of our students and staff"
Other than bringing in the TSA and installing full body scans to insure weapons aren't brought into Allen or Dieruff, that means more rent-a-cops walking the halls and other muscle to insure that gang members don't run wild in the cafeteria and outside the buildings? So yes, the answer here is to hire more people and spend more money
"Hire a more diverse staff that reflects the community"
Well we all know that a black kid can't learn from a white teacher; a Puerto Rican kid can't learn from a black teacher, a Dominican kid can't learn from an Asian Teacher. so we have to go out and hire more teachers so the kids learn from teachers of their same ethnic group. So yes, the answer here is to hire more people and spend more money.
"Partner with business and other government entities to promote programs in the best interests of our students"
Well, finally, an idea to support vocational education. Perhaps senior internships at companies so kids get the idea of what it's like to work for a few hours in the afternoons. This, of course, is the legacy when Allentown had retail stores, McDonalds, Gas Stations, and other places that used to hire part-time students after school for walking-around money. But then, minimum wage wasn't $10.10 an hour like it is today. I suspect this is also going to cost money to the taxpayer as well...
"Provide support for school athletics"
Athletic departments have been stripped of money, along with a lot of the other extracurricular activities in order to fund pensions and other union salaries. Is this going to be a pay for play kind of thing? If that's the case, and my son or daughter wants to play football or be a cheerleader, Am I going to get my money back if the coach decides they can't make the squad and are cut? Again, more money is needed.
If more money is needed to solve the problems of the ASD, honestly, don't you think the problem would have already been solved by now?
Armstrong is exactly right - the ASD's main problem is that it is located in Allentown. And what is the problem with Allentown? Poverty. Plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is not considered politically correct to say so, the problem is the kids themselves. It's the not the fault of the children, but how can students learn when home life is a complete and total wreck?
A typical ASD kid deals with the following: No dad. Moving to a different apartment every few months. Switching schools and neighborhoods frequently. Drugs. Violence. Social pressure to do the wrong thing, including make babies at a young age. No priority put on school work. Hunger. Racial tension. It's a nightmare, every day, for so many kids.
The schools will never be put in order unless family life is put in order. And that, my friends, is not in the realm of political service. Our elected officials serve a foundation of people who DO NOT CARE about their community. The people who work downtown who care do not LIVE downtown, so they cannot vote. That is why Allentown gets leaders who only care about themselves. And that is why the underlying issues of Allentown and the ASD will never be solved in our current environment.
Honestly, the only thing that can save the ASD is if girls and women in Allentown start insisting that marriage come before sex and babies.
momma@7:01, talking of politically incorrect, i pointed out many of the same problems as a candidate for mayor in 2005. as a property manager, i had insight to these dynamics. ironically, pawlowski still continues to push for more apartments downtown.
ReplyDeletemonkey momma said... April 22, 2015 at 7:01 AM...
ReplyDeleteI couldn't have said it any better then they way you presented the problem. Rather then build a bunch of new apartments for drifters this city should encourage homeownership (Millennials or otherwise). Visitors blowing in and out of downtown nor renters who have no long term stake are not where we need to go.
As Scott Armstrong said, "If he [Ed] wanted to help the district he could do that as mayor by paying some attention to the city's many blighted neighborhoods." The best way of doing that is by encouraging new residents and business owners to have a vested interest in what transpires. Anyone who's been around here a long time readily understand most of the store owners (in Allentown's heyday) once lived right here within the city. Such is not the case today. Nor seem to be even a part of the what these city planners have in mind. Building a bunch of new apartments (at 7th & Linden), hotels, a bunch of restaurants, office buildings and other entertainment venues do little towards such a ideology.
ASD is only a reflection, not the cause of these problems. Today we expect the education system to feed, provide social services, provide after hour activities, day care for students' illegitimate offspring, juvenile delinquents a remedial education & counseling. These other services that takes away from the core mission. And that's to provide a basic education.
The city of Allentown cannot simply wash it's hands and point the finger at the school district when they incentivized and encouraged through these poor planning policy decisions. The city needs to own up and help out ASD. Not just pretend the city had nothing to do with the problems ASD faces.
Way back when I went to "Central Jr. H.S." every blackboard (under principle Carroll Parks) had a red & white logo above them that proclaimed "Personal Responsibility" as the school motto. Today's residents, could sure use a lot more of it. That's what's missing today.
So where are the residents when we at the Allentown Tenant Association started exposing the blight issue in the city? We have tried to get people out to city council meetings for the past three years with little success because too many residents don't speak up. I go to just about every meeting and all I see is the same people there each time.
ReplyDeleteJulian,
ReplyDeleteBeen there done that, so has Mike. One might as well address a vacant lot or a brick wall. The city council will do as they are told so speaking to them is merely an exercise in frustration. If the voters want the school board to operate in the same fashion they merely need to vote for Ed Pawlowski's slate of candidates.
By the way, Rental Inspections, the real bill would be a good message to run on.
Scott Armstrong
@Scott Armstrong Yes the rental inspection system needs to be fixed.
ReplyDelete