School Board Ugly Interaction
An interesting exchange occurred at the April 17, 2023 PR School Board meeting. The exchange for most of you reading this will come as a surprise. However, for those of us who are familiar with the board inter-workings, this is not a surprise. It is in fact a common occurrence that is honestly very unfortunate. Let me explain.
I need to back up a little bit. Earlier in April, Christina Brussalis, PR Board Director, spoke at the PA Leadership Conference in Harrisburg, PA. She was asked to be on a panel discussing Empowering Parents and Students. Here is an excerpt of the panel where Mrs Brussalis spoke. Click link below to listen to her 6 min video on her comments.
Link: Mrs Brussalis panel comments
You be the judge of what she said. In her comments she used publicly available information to describe the decline on PSSA test scores for Pine-Richland that Covid lockdown had on our younger students. Prior to Covid lockdown 8th grade students in PR were at 67% proficiency in mathematics. In 2021 and 2022 mathematics proficiency had dropped to 48%. That’s a 20% decline and not showing signs of improving. Mrs Brussalis was sharing data and her concerns that actions needed to be taken to get back on track to our historical performance levels for our students. She was confident that our great school system would rebound but was asking parents and local residents to take action and let the school board know that we cannot continue at this level and must take focused steps to help our students achieve far better performance levels.
Now, lets move to April 27 PR Board Meeting and the exchange that occurred between Peter Lyons, Matt Mehalik and Mrs Brussalis. Again, you be the judge on how you think this exchange went. Click this link below to listen. This board meeting video link has been fast forwarded to point that the ugly exchange occurred.
Link: PR School Board Inappropriate actions of Mr Lyons and Mr Mehalik.
This type of exchange at the board meetings occurs more frequently than you suspect. I understand that there will be disagreements between board directors. However, to listen and see this outright mean spirited, blatant lies by twisting the truth from both Mr Lyons and Mr Mehalik is beyond decency. This is totally unacceptable and should not be allowed to continue on the PR School Board.
Here is what we can do. Get out and VOTE !! May 16 is Primary Day and you need to vote these characters off the school board. We need respectful, decent parents on the board who will work to improve our students lives at school, who will give parents a voice and allow our great school system to get back to the levels we have achieved histrionically.
For Commonsense, Honest and Respectable Leadership Vote for………..
Mike Wiethorn - District 3
Phil Morrissette - District 3
Leslie Miller - District 2
