Dear
Friends,
Good morning. Diversity Day at
Palisades High School generated tremendous interest. I had a conflict and
couldn’t attend the January 18th session but Tat Moyer, a retired
Palisades teacher and present member of its school board, did and filled me in.
“We’ll do it again next year,” she
began, hoping that Palisades will repeat the diversity program. “It’s
especially important because in homogenous schools like Palisades, the student
body is 99 percent white, Christian.”
About 300 students participated. The
Call reported (Jan. 19), “Students chose one of three speakers: retired
Moravian College math professor Mohamed Bugaighis, who talked about Islam and
being Muslim after the Sept. 11 attacks; Patti Price of
To avoid criticism, Palisades insisted that parents
sign permission slips for their children to participate. “Only two slips said
‘no,’ ” Moyer continued. “Others didn’t fill them out. I think that about 100
kids opted to attend a separate session, where they read and wrote about
diversity.
“The day left the kids and faculty with lots to
think about,” Moyer added. “One teacher told me, ‘It was very moving. I have to
give money to
“I thought Planned Parenthood handled a sensitive
subject very deftly,” Moyer said. “Having a male and female presenter made all
the difference. And the subject about Islam was fascinating. The kids were
surprised and seemed interested.”
While speaking with Moyer, she mentioned that the
Director of the Vo Tech School, Robert Barlett, was leaving his post to join
the Secretary of Education, Francis Barnes, the immediate past superintendent
of Palisades schools. Barlett will head the Pennsylvania Vo Tech system.
Representatives from three school boards govern the
Upper Bucks Vo Tech school: Palisades, Pennridge, and Quakertown. Moyer is
worried that the three superintendents will conduct the screening of the
candidates to replace Barlett with insufficient participation from the various
constituencies. “If the superintendents only give us one candidate for
consideration, I’ll vote no,” she said. “There should be students, parents,
business people, and faculty members on the screening committee...the stake
holders from the community at large.”
I called Jim Scanlon for his thoughts. “Yes, the
three superintendents will conduct the initial screening,” the Quakertown
school superintendent said. “I don’t know how many candidates we’ll receive,
but we certainly will have many constituencies represented in the process.
We’ll want all the groups included.” He listed parents, teachers, school board
members, and student’s categories.
Scanlon expects that the position will be advertised
shortly after Barlett vacates his post, possibly as soon as next week. “We’ll
want input from lots of people,” Scanlon added. “The Joint Operating Committee
(JOC) will make the final decision.” The JOC is comprised of nine school board
members from the three schools. Quakertown school director, Linda Martin, is
the Chairman.
Meanwhile, Diversity Day continues to be the
exclusive property of Palisades High School. “We don’t have a formal diversity
program in Quakertown (schools),” Scanlon advised. “We teach different cultures
via the curriculum throughout the year. For example, we focus on Black history
month in February.”
Still, I’m not certain whether Quakertown may be too
cautious to tackle this sensitive subject any time soon. And my call to Dr.
Robert Kish, Pennridge’s Superintendent, went unanswered.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith