Cannon Fodder

In a letter to editor, former Penn Delco School Board member, Carol Cannon takes issue my columns conerning the bussing of daycare students in the district.

In these difficult economic times, it is especially disconcerting when a member of the press maligns the good works of a non-compensated board that is trying to do right by the children and the taxpaying residents, aka community.

I didn't mean to disconcert, Ms. Cannon. But the focus of the original column was to point out the ridiculousness of a change in the district's bussing policy that did nothing but unnecessarily hurt working parents and their daycare providers.

In a follow-up column I praised the board for finally listening to the parents involved and changing the policy.

It was daycare provider Ann O'Connell who called me in August because she and the parents she served weren't getting anywhere with district officials to resolve the matter.

In her letter, Ms. Cannon cites the problem of parents living outside the district who illegally attempt to put their kids in Penn Delco schools. But that had nothing to do with this particular matter. Superintendent George Steinhoff didn't mention it once during our conversations about issue. He cited the need for "consistancy" as the primary reason for the policy change.

I suppose what rankled Ms. Cannon was after complimenting the school board, I wrote:

Next week, it will be back to your regularly scheduled programming of state-sponsored foolishness and bureaucratic buffoonery.

But let's face it, Penn Delco has a history and Ms. Cannon knows it better than most.

Just a few short years ago, she served on what was perhaps the most dysfunctional and wacky school board in the state of Pennsylvania, if not the country. Its randy and money-grubbing president went to jail, another board member was arrested and charged in a separate matter and its fired solicitor sued EVERYBODY.

A subsequent Penn Delco board acted stupidly in cancelling a long-term lease for a ballfield built by the volunteers of the Aston Valley Baseball League leading to another lawsuit. Then this.

It is hardly unreasonable to have low expectations of this particular school board. Uncompensated or not, it spends a lot of money and has a lot of power. Like other school boards in this county, it needs to be kept an eye on when its members don't do "good works."