MORE BASEBALL PROGRAM CONTROVERSY
ENROLLMENT DECLINES
The Northwestern Lehigh School Board welcomed the new teachers hired for this school year. Many are former Northwestern Lehigh Students. There also was a vote on the hiring of Bob Fatzinger as the new baseball coach, which seems to have raised questions of favoritism and nepotism in the hiring practices at Northwestern Lehigh. There was a prepared statement from Frank L. Rauscher, who was representing other parents regarding this matter. I will include a statement by Mr. Rauscher at the bottom . There was some earlier controversy when the Baseball Booster Club was disbanded by the board. This action was recommended by Mr. Zimmerman the athletic director and Mrs. Yadush. The board did vote to disband the baseball booster club. Mr. Zimmerman claimed there were irregularities with the booster club, but they were never disclosed. The vote to approve Bob Fatzinger was 6-2 with Darryl Schafer and Charlene Rauscher opposing the appointment. Former director Ron Morrison, brought out that the School district does not have a formal policy on Nepotism and that such a policy is long overdue. It is reported that in some instances there are as many as 4 members of the same family working at the district and many multiple related employees.
The enrollment for the new year is 2156, this is down from 2203 in September of last year. No explanation was available for why the decline. Enrollment was at its peak in Sept. 2006 at 2404. There has been some speculation that public school enrollment has declined due to the emphasis on controversial social positions being forced on the schools, with some opting for home schooling and private and parochial schools. This is of course not necessarily the fault of local schools districts.
The final vote to approve the charter for the Circle of Seasons Charter School is now being set for October 19.
Below is a statement by Frank L. Rauscher:
“When administrators in a public school system do things to
benefit themselves or their friends by way of cronyism - or their family
members by way of nepotism – that will inevitably begin to bring down the
perception that people have of those administrators and the school district as
a whole. When people lose faith in our system then cynicism increases and
the system becomes dysfunctional. We
need strong board members who do not compromise on the basic principals
concerning ethics and conflicts of interest - and who are willing to stand up
and do the right thing. We must take a retrospective look at the hiring
practices of not just our coaching staffs - but all paid district positions to
ensure that hiring decisions are not made based on nepotism or cronyism but
that the very best and most qualified candidates are offered employment.”
Frank Rauscher
"There has been some speculation that public school enrollment has declined due to the emphasis on controversial social positions being forced on the schools,"
ReplyDeletewhat social positions are being forced upon Northwestern?
and who is complaining?
people are just moving to other venues without opening their mouth?
Pay to play is the standard at NWL. Parents are afraid to complain. Why is NWL so bad? We think State and Fed. Gov't is corrupt, it all starts in our school district.
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