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Saturday, July 25, 1998     Page:

Now is time for voters to look at school boards
   
Let’s face it. A recent heat wave and the summer slowdown have made
sluggards of most of usBut some of our school board members have been busy,
engaged in the annual summer ritual of lining up jobs for friends and
relatives.
    In the Northwest Area School District, the son of the school
superintendent- fresh out of college- was offered a one-year substitute’s
position at full pay. And, in Wilkes-Barre, the niece of a board member and
the son of an elementary principal were offered full-time jobs.
   
And, not just any jobs. Plum jobs with more pay and less work than the jobs
of most residents.
   
The average teaching job in Luzerne County pays $51,000- $4,913 more than
Pennsylvania’s average teaching job and $22,462 more than the state’s average
salary, according to a story last Tuesday.
   
Even beginning teachers, like the Northwest superintendent’s son, make as
much as the average worker.
   
And, Pennsylvania teachers take home all this pay for less time at work.
Teachers spend about 50 fewer days per year on the job than other workers.
   
Nepotism isn’t a new issue. Neither is the cost of high teacher salaries
nor the long teacher vacations.
   
And, that’s the problem.
   
We’ve written about these issues, and you’ve groused about them for far too
long.
   
How much teachers get paid is a contract issue subject to union
negotiations. How many days teachers work is subject to both state regulations
and society’s demands.
   
But, how teachers are hired is up to only the school board.
   
And, that’s where a little work now- in the heat of the summer- might pay
off for taxpayers next year.
   
Another statistic: The average teacher in Pennsylvania and Luzerne County
has 21 years experience. That puts a lot of teachers- potentially a few
hundred in Luzerne County- facing retirement during the next four-year school
board term.
   
In Hazleton alone, 27 teachers retired in June under a special incentive in
a new teachers’ contract. Another educator has given notice that she will
retire in August. Seven more teachers plan to retire next summer.
   
All of the turnover gives school directors even more power to hire.
   
One final statistic: At least half of the region’s school directors will be
up for election next year.
   
Now is the time for voters to begin to line up candidates who will make
anti-nepotism policies a cornerstone of their campaigns.
   
Find the candidates, and we’ll ask them to take a pledge not to hire their
friends and relatives.
   
It’s obvious from the latest round of teacher hirings that the current
school boards, as a whole, can’t be counted on to protect the public’s
interest.
   
Halting the practice of nepotism won’t fully restore public confidence in
public education. Toughening s