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Our Opinion: At 70, Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction remains a point of pride

Lior Yahalomi appointed Civitas Media CEO

<p>Well, the teachers showed them.</p><p>You furlough us, we&#8217;ll just take sabbaticals, or a year off with half pay and full benefits, after our three-month summer break. So there.</p><p>Did the myopic Wilkes-Barre Area School Board even see this coming on its path to cutting costs?</p><p>And in another WBA matter, the school district will release its plans and specifications for an estimated $75 million new consolidated high school &#8211; over its dead body. It took months for the state Office of Open Records to finally order the school district to make those blueprints public, but solicitor Ray Wendolowski said at last month&#8217;s school board meeting that the district will appeal that ruling.</p><p>But, school board members, didn&#8217;t we taxpayers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for those plans?</p><p>This school board is always good for a laugh or two. Otherwise, you&#8217;d cry. Just what is in those plans they are obsessively keeping under wraps?</p><p>This effort to keep information from the public is reminiscent of the PPL electric utility&#8217;s fighting to the bitter end to keep secret a tipster&#8217;s letter regarding a 2011 blizzard, when a crew was diverted from a higher-priority job to a lower one. After the ordered release of the letter, the public learned that an emergency crew headed to a PPL executive&#8217;s neighborhood to restore power, leaving around 1,500 other customers without it for four hours.</p><p>So why is the WBA School Board so hellbent on guarding these school plans, aside from making sure that al-Qaida or ISIS doesn&#8217;t find out how to get into the new high school, or learn where the security cameras are placed? (The district&#8217;s paperwork actually listed this as a reason.)</p><p>Thankfully, the school district has money to burn to appeal this matter in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.</p><p>Regarding the sabbaticals, in May, a school board majority eliminated several programs, costing about 35 teachers their jobs. But a funny thing happened on the way to the board&#8217;s &#8220;Pathway to the Future.&#8221; Eleven teachers upped the ante and decided to take sabbatical leaves of absence.</p><p>The district will have to pay them a combined $372,453, for no services rendered, according to a recent <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/561137/wilkes-barre-area-posts-new-position-grants-sabbaticals-amid-furloughs" target="_blank">Times Leader article</a>.</p><p>Teachers can take advantage of this cushy deal after they&#8217;ve worked in the state for 10 years, five of them in the district. They must promise to return for at least one year when the sabbatical expires.</p><p>You also need a good reason to take a sabbatical, such as education, health issues or an appearance on &#8220;The Bachelor.&#8221; The latter did happen once, but the school board took a lot of flak for it, so it&#8217;s unclear whether a teacher aspiring for a shot at the mirror ball on &#8220;Dancing with the Stars&#8221; would be granted a sabbatical.</p><p>Apparently, losing their jobs can make teachers sick enough to apply for a full-year health sabbatical. Or to go back to school and return, only to bump someone with less seniority. And then that teacher can ask for a sabbatical of his or her own.</p><p>This all came about when the school board voted to cut art, technology education, library services, and family and consumer science. Although in its latest flip-flop, the board reinstated art in each of the three high schools.</p><p>To those art students who protested peacefully outside the administration building, good for you. Civil disobedience paid off.</p><p>With all due respect to teachers, who without a doubt have really tough jobs, sabbaticals are a little bit of overkill. There are three months in the summer that provide ample time for self-improvement.</p><p>Few other professions have such guaranteed job security. Once teachers are on the job for three years, they get tenure. Try to fire an incompetent, lazy or unmotivated teacher after that, and see what happens. How fast can you say unfair labor practice?</p><p>So taxpayers are forced to pay for substandard teachers, who receive the same salaries as outstanding ones. And if teachers are furloughed because financial shortages necessitated program cuts, no biggie. They&#8217;ll just use their time off with half pay and take some courses, or become more well-rounded.</p><p>Don&#8217;t blame the teachers. Who wouldn&#8217;t take advantage of this? There are worse things for taxpayers than having to pay teachers for a year off with half pay and benefits for not working.</p><p>Like footing the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars for school plans and not even being allowed to see them.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Zeroing In</p><p>Betty Roccograndi</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Betty Roccograndi, a former Times Leader reporter and award-winning journalist, is a freelance columnist. Reach her by email at broccograndi@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Zeroing In: Nothing to show for Wilkes-Barre Area school taxes