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The League of Women Voters asked the School Board
candidates to "choose what you feel are the most
important issues facing the Lower Merion School
Directors today, and to explain how you would deal
with these issues," within the space of one side of
an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.
This is what Democratic candidate David Ebby
wrote:
The following are what I believe are the most
important issues facing the Lower Merion School
Directors during the next four years:
1. Construction of Lower Merion High School
and Harriton High School. The construction of
the new Harriton High School is underway.
Construction of the new Lower Merion High School is
also critical. Both High Schools need to be
replaced and it would be grossly unfair to replace
only one of them. These projects need to be
carefully managed. The School Directors need to
work closely with the District’s construction
manager to ensure that the buildings are completed
as designed, on budget and on time. As a real
estate attorney with almost 20 years of experience,
I am accustomed to working on a large construction
contracts and this expertise would be helpful in
managing these projects.
2. Annual Budget/Taxes. Like any other
Township resident, I want to keep our school taxes
as low as possible, while continuing the tradition
of providing the finest public education in the
Commonwealth. Under the recent state law commonly
known as Act 1, if the percentage increase in a
school district’s annual budget exceeds a certain
amount over the prior year’s budget, the school
district must either reduce spending or subject the
proposed budget to a referendum. Submitting the
annual budget to a referendum on an annual basis is
time consuming and inefficient. This places
pressure on School Boards to keep their annual
budgets within the confines of Act 1 and reserve
referenda for limited cases. This will result in
difficult choices for the School Board Directors. I
believe that we must continually review and analyze
existing programs now, rather than in the future, so
that when the Board is confronted with a difficult
choice to stay within the confines of Act 1, the
Board will have information to make an informed
decision.
3. Redistricting. As part of the
construction of two High Schools of equal
population, it will be necessary to alter the areas
from which students to the two new schools will be
drawn. We must also discuss whether any areas would
continue to have a choice as to which high school
the students will attend and whether the two middle
schools will be single feeder schools.
Additionally, redistricting must target the
overcrowding at certain of our elementary schools.
The community must be included in this process so
that everyone will have a chance to be heard.
4. Curriculum. Act 1 puts increased
pressure on School Board Directors to use the
resources of the District wisely and efficiently.
Lower Merion is known throughout the State by
educators, parents and students, as being one of the
finest school districts in the state. It is
important to continue to provide the highest quality
education possible to our students and I believe
that in order to do so, we need to continually
evaluate the curriculum, how we deliver the
education to the students and the educators
themselves. Critical self analysis is very
important to continuing to improve; the District
should not be satisfied with resting on its laurels
and should continue to strive for excellence.
5. Achievement Gap. Although we pride
ourselves as being one of the best school districts
in the country, we are not immune to the achievement
gap being discovered in schools across the nation.
The District has implemented a number of programs
designed to reduce the gap including its efforts
working with the Committee to Address Race in
Education, the training of all district teachers in
differentiated instruction and the hiring and
mentoring of minority faculty. We need to continue
these programs and continue to reach out to the
affected members of our community so that we
continue to reduce and hopefully one day, eliminate
the achievement gap.
Click here for David Ebby's Bio... |
