9 Years Later At Allen High

Margie Peterson did an excellent profile this summer(2010) on the Allentown School Superintendent applicants. Who finally got the job, John Zahorchak, would have been my third choice, out of the four candidates. Zahorchak impressed the School Board because he was the Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education. Two other candidates had experience in running large inner city school districts; Zahorchak's previous hands on experience was in little Johnstown. Although we're not a large city, we have the large "inner city" problems. Zahorchak's Harrisburg position was a political appointment by Rendell. I suspect the Board thought he would know the ropes in terms of grants; Apparently he does. Allentown is getting a grant of $2.5 million for a few years. To qualify for the grant, the school district must "fire" principals, either in underperforming schools or those who had a position more than two years. One of those to be "fired" is Allen's principal, Keith Falco. Falco is the glue which keeps the lid on Allen. Falco would be charged with organizing a special school for over-achievers. Zahorchak also wants a special school for disruptive students; that better be a big building......

..... I do know that Falco does an excellent job in discipline at Allen High, which needs it. To relocate him to a gifted honors environment seems to be wasting his talent. To do this, to chase a $2.5 million grant for a few years, suggests a bureaucrat who spends too much time reading the Professional Educator Journal.

Zahorchak said if he doesn't raise the test scores in three years, fire him. John (Zahorchak), we don't really want to fire you now, but we don't care that much about the standardized test scores. What we care about is kids walking home from school and not beating each other up. We care about kids being respectful to the neighborhood as they walk. We care about long term taxes, not short term grants.

above reprinted from October of 2010.  A few years later the school board would end up buying out the underperforming Zahorchak's contract.

GUEST UPDATE BY SCOTT ARMSTRONG NOVEMBER 18, 2019: Who could believe the city of Allentown could become more dysfunctional than it already was? Thanks to ASD Superintendent Thomas Parker and the board, it has. They instituted "Restorative Practices" (a policy in which traditional discipline is replaced with empathy and smiles) in the face of a dismal nationwide track record. The result - - in the words of two Allen teachers I spoke to -- has been chaos. And recently, that chaos has been spilling out into the surrounding neighborhoods on a daily basis. Residents are now constantly disrupted by large groups of loud and unruly students. There is daily hookah pipe smoking on the streets, alleys and park; students lounge on our porches, casting litter about and vandalizing property. In the past few months, this disorder has compounded, resulting in more dysfunction. Cars roaring their engines and racing on our streets; drugs bought and sold in plain sight. Dismissals have gone from bad to worse and often every available police patrol in the city is needed just to break up fights and other mob actions. The result is a community with almost zero quality of life during school hours. This new situation is exhausting and frightening residents, becoming an unnecessary drain on police resources, and degrading the students' educational environment.     Scott Armstrong