It has now been more than a year since the school board has taken office. I have loved being able to serve the community in this fashion, but it has come with many highs and lows.
The board was put in one of the worst situations one can ever experience as newly elected members. We had to make deep cuts to a school district that had already had closed five schools and let go more than 300 teachers.
This was a very tough task. How do you explain to a community that had to cut its pre-K program a year earlier that now we can’t afford kindergarten or a sports program that was the source of so much pride? After all the cuts were made, I felt that we didn’t need a tax increase so I voted no, because I believed there were still areas that could have been cut.
Another problem facing the board was the revolving door of members. It seemed that we were always down a member. This left the board in a state of flux. Decision-making was made harder because of the lack of understanding between board members.
The great moments always involved being able to interact with the students. The part of school board meetings I looked forward to most was when students received awards or acknowledgments for the good works they have done. Rewarding the students is a great way to set an example for younger children.
As an avid sports fan, I got great joy out of watching our young men turn around a great football tradition. Becoming a band booster allowed me to understand why this community has so much pride in its musical tradition. Attending concerts that showed off our students’ great talent for the arts is something I will continue to do long after I have left the board.
There is one moment I hold above all else—graduation, the culmination of so many years of hard work to get students to this one goal. Nothing gave me more happiness as a board member than to be able to shake their hands as they received their diplomas.
Graduation is the end result that I wish for all of our students. However, in too many cases, our students are not reaching it. We have to be realistic about how big the district’s task is. Turning it around will be a monumental objective. We cannot run from it. We need to dive in and take this challenge on headfirst. We must succeed because it is our future that depends on it.
We have accomplished some of the things that I believe will lead us in the right direction. The comprehensive plan laid out by Dr. Knight-Burney, our superintendent, is a very good start. I do understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I believe we can do more. That is why I wanted to put a focus on mentoring. Our community, especially the young professionals, needs to see the connection between the school district and bringing Harrisburg back to prominence.
The connection needs to be forged between people just like me and the district to show how important the school district really is to someone who is single and has no children in the district. They need to see that the money they spend on education is not just another tax. It is very important to the future. The one way this can happen is by getting them involved in the mentoring of these students.
This is why I urge my fellow 20- to 30-somethings to join the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. We need to stop pointing fingers in the community to show where the problem comes from. It comes from all of us. I know this is a bitter pill to take, but it is the truth. We have been pointing fingers for more than 30 years, and it hasn’t changed anything.
Not so long ago in the history of Harrisburg, people used to look to us as one of the better places to get an education. I firmly believe we can get back there if we make the commitment as a community to make the right choices. Democracy is predicated on an educated electorate. The future of our city depends on students receiving the best education they can receive. That should be our mutual goal.
Brendan Murray is a member of the Harrisburg School Board.
