Could it be that the Bethlehem Area School Board feels almost forced to destroy Broughal Middle School because of its policies in other areas? It's a thought that has occupied my mind since my attendance at the board's recent, nasty meeting on facilities.
Here's how I see it working.
At the meeting I attended last year--the one that was so clearly in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act--the board performed an amazing feat of contempt for public opinion. That is, having a vacancy to fill, they filled it with a man who had recently been rejected by voters of both the Republican and Democratic parties. I do not wish to say there is anything wrong with this gentleman; history is replete with examples of fine, civic-minded candidates for various offices being rejected by the electorate.
But as a rule these same people are not immediately returned to office. They must first convince voters that they are in line with public thinking. Mr. Joseph Heske,which as I recall is the name of the old-new board member, clearly did not go through this process. One can only wonder what indispensable contribution his board colleagues believed he could make, that would justify flying in the face of the citizenry.
At the meeting at which he was appointed, several other candidates made pleas for their own appointment. If memory serves, at least two or three were Latino leaders, with very fine credentials. I did not get the impression they were given serious consideration. There was at least one non-Latino candidate with excellent credentials--I believe it may have been a popular local businessman named Dave "Lump" Sanders. My apologies if I have left anyone out. I did not expect that, several months after this meeting, I would be aggravated enough over school affairs to be mentioning what transpired there in a blog.
My theory is this: that Broughal parents were implicitly promised a new school building, with all the latest bells and whistles, as a way of compensating for board guilt over failure to appoint a qualified Latino to the board.
I could be wrong about this, and maybe somebody can prove it to me. And it should be said that board members might be a little reluctant to appoint another Latino after the Uriel Trujillo appointment of a decade or so ago. Mr. Trujillo, a young and attractive lawyer, gave promise of becoming a charismatic leader of the community. Maybe he
is, somewhere; but not in Bethlehem. Once appointed to the board, he seems quickly to have lost interest, stopped showing up at meetings, and did not run for re-election.
Maybe it was just not his ideal venue for public service. That does not mean other Latinos might not thrive on the school board. Why not try one?
What troubles me is that the Broughal parents have been "sold a bill of goods" about old school buildings. I grew up in a small town where there were nothing BUT old schools. We had neighborhood schools, named after wards, in the town; one-room schools (where I spent most of my early education) in the country, and a big, gray granite high school building that, as far as I know, is still there. It looked as if it dated back to ancient Rome.
These old schools were not designed to degrade or demean us. We were not a minority, either; we were all there was.
We were expected to make do; and we did. Many of us succeeded in winning the oportunity to attend distinguished colleges whose campuses were absolutely strewn with fine old buildings--buildings like Broughal; or, if you like a different style of "old," buildings like those of the original Lehigh University campus, right across the street from the threatened middle school.
Our school district produced nurses, teachers, at least one Navy jet pilot, a manufacturer, a real rocket scientist (Dr. Lee Gaumer, a specialist in rocket fuels.) The famed abstract expressionist painter Franz Kline also spent a few years in our high school, and ilustrated our yearbook.
In short, our little district, without money for bells and whistles or modern buildings, did rather well for its children and their futures. I believe the Bethlehem Area School District, in a refurbished school, can do as well for the children of Broughal.