East Penn, don’t make the same mistake again
On Nov. 7, we have a very important election — and, no, it’s not the presidential election. It has a far greater impact on our day-to-day lives
than that one.
School board elections! If you think that school board elections don’t matter, please consider what happened 30-plus years ago in East Penn School District.
In the early 1990s, East Penn School District was growing exponentially, and the schools were overcrowded and old. The high school, for example, had buckets in the halls to catch the rainwater that dripped through the ceiling. So, the school board members at that time proposed a building project — a new high school would be built in Lower Macungie Township, providing lots of room for our growing community, playing fields, a stadium, etc.
The existing high school would be renovated and become the junior high, and the existing junior high would be renovated to become an elementary school. The old elementary school in Emmaus, built in the early 1900s, would be razed. The total cost was estimated to be $65 million.
Unfortunately, a group claiming to protect taxpayers, supported by an outside, national, far-right, religious group, formed to oppose the building project. “Books not Bricks” was the group’s slogan but it wanted much more. The group wanted to ban books and put prayer in schools, creating havoc and distrust in the community. This group ran a slate of school board candidates that wanted to stop the building program and to comply with the agenda of the religious group.
I lived through this turmoil with four children in the district. There were threats against children of school board candidates — including a phone message to one of the non-slate candidates that
said, “I know where your daughter gets on the bus.” Consequently, that candidate dropped out of the race, unwilling to risk it. As a candidate myself, my mailbox was blown up three times, trees in our backyard were run over, and I got hate-filled phone calls and mail. Hostility was everywhere.
Election Day that year was rainy and cold. No one thought the “Books not Bricks” group had a chance of winning so very few voters came out to the polls. As a result, unfortunately, the slate did win and took complete control of the school board.
They immediately stopped the building program and fired the superintendent. There was anger and hatred everywhere. Parents stopped shopping in Emmaus stores because they were often confronted by angry
members of the taxpayer group. Some Emmaus businesses were forced to close or relocate. Realtors stopped promoting East Penn as the best school district in the Lehigh Valley, citing the unrest and turmoil created by the new school board members. As a result, housing prices dropped.
Instead, Realtors started promoting Parkland — and you can see for yourself what happened. Our school buildings continued to deteriorate, and trailers (i.e., portable classrooms) had to be used at multiple schools to fulfill the need for additional space.
Sadly, I fear this may be happening again, and now my grandchildren will be affected. As before, there are two slates of candidates in the East Penn School Board race, one strongly
promoting quality education and the other being supported by Moms for Liberty, a far-right group determined to ban books that they don’t like and to sow distrust in our great public schools that we are so proud of. They tell lies about what’s taught in school, and they have a national agenda that wants to control our kids’ education according to their narrow views — including deciding what all kids can or cannot read.
In the 1990s, it took four long years to regain a pro-education school board. In the meantime, a lot of damage was done. Schools still had to be updated, and the cost had now skyrocketed to more than double the original cost of the building program. We cannot let this happen again.
As your favorite teacher might
have said, “Do your Homework!” Find out about the candidates and their positions. Look up Moms for Liberty and look at its agenda and the damage it has done in other school districts. See which candidates support our kids and our community.
Don’t let our school district dissolve into anger, controversy and lawsuits like it did many years ago and like what is happening in neighboring communities. Please get out and vote for school board candidates who support our kids and our community.