OP-ED
By Andrew Dell
For the past three years I have been attending the Pennsbury School Board meetings, with no initial intention of running for one of the seats. After many meetings, I began to see a pattern of half truths and misinformation being spoken by the administration. At first, I asked many questions about the DEI program and the person in charge of it, Dr. Charisa Gibson, and many other facilities issues. The response from the board and superintendent, Dr. Thomas Smith, were not acceptable to me. So, I took it upon myself to understand exactly what DEI was and how it affects the students at Pennsbury by reading many books on the subject, from the perspective of both sides.
I found Thomas Sowell seemed to have all the best answers on the subject. In summary, Sowell thinks DEI is unnecessary and even harmful to students. Pennsbury, at that point, had already hired a subcontractor on DEI, (Dr. Edward Fergus) for several hundred thousand dollars. I asked Dr. Smith if I could meet with Dr. Fergus and Dr. Charisa Gibson and was denied this opportunity. This program is very divisive and dangerous and must be cancelled. We have spent millions of dollars on this failing program. They are still trying to use DEI, which will cost us millions in lost federal funding, and the taxpayers will have to make up the difference. There is a constant attempt with the current board and administrators to indoctrinate the students into a socialist way of thinking. Politics has no place in the education of our students. They need to get back to the fundamentals of education, instead of trying to sway the students into a leftist agenda.
Soon after this, the school board and administration started pressing hard for the construction of a new high school and demolition of the existing buildings. They purposely kept the anticipated budget for this project below the requirements for a referendum vote by the public. Anyone who is familiar with Pennsbury and Falls Township knows they will have substantial overruns on this project. Recently, a new stadium has been constructed, at an estimated cost of $4,100,00.00. This project is now $21,000,000 and still incomplete. They seem to be playing games with the numbers to the point of having the entire finance staff quit. The CFO was the highest paid employee of the district, with a pay package worth $300,000.00 per year. The job was available to the next person in line; they also quit and went somewhere else. These were all very smart and capable professionals. Why would they all leave during the budgeting process for the proposed school? We cannot afford this new school! They will bankrupt the district if this new school gets pushed through. The senior citizens of Falls Township, on fixed incomes, will be hardest hit. Some will have to leave their homes due to the higher taxes, 20-25% increase, over the next five years.
Recently, I went on a tour of Pennsbury’s East and West campuses. I found the buildings solid, clean, and more than adequate for teaching our students well into the future. There are a few repairs and required maintenance to bring the facilities up to par, but this work should have been done over the past five years, had the board actually allocated funds for the necessary work. I believe the Pennsbury administration has neglected these buildings to justify building a new one. We had construction completed at Pennsbury West back in the early 2000’s for $40,000,000.00 and we have been servicing this debt for decades without knocking down any principal. They are now talking about paying it off, and soon after, bulldozing it into the ground. If you cannot afford $40,000,000.00, how are you going to pay back over $270,000,000.00 plus interest?
In closing, this upcoming election can be important for the future direction Pennsbury’s School District will be going. I encourage you to watch the meetings on Pennsburysd.org and make your decision based on the facts, not party lines or emotions. The choice couldn’t be clearer, the opposition will be more of the same, or you can decide to vote for someone that has business experience and has gone through Pennsbury (K-12). I have been a lifelong Falls Township resident and have no plans to ever leave. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: The article is an opinion piece. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of its editors or editorial position of DelawareValleyNews.com, we value open dialogue and encourage submissions representing a diversity of perspectives.