SUNBURY – Teacher relations is one of the key issues in the Selinsgrove Area School District, so say some of the candidates in this year’s school board election.
Valerie Allison says the authoritative role for teachers is slipping and she wants to see it restored, “That autonomy that teachers had has been eroded to the point where a lot of times, things are being dictated from beyond the classroom, which isn’t necessarily in the best interest of children, and it’s certainly not optimizing the teacher’s expertise.”
Fellow candidates Chanin Wendling and Nick Clark expressed their concern for a need to continue providing support for all teachers in the district.
Wendling says resources needed for teachers should be a top priority financially, “Maybe there’s some things I can do to ensure from a budget perspective we are allocating enough resources to have good teacher-student ratios, and that we’re paying competitive wages. We want good people to come in and be teaching in our schools.”
Clark stressed the importance of properly compensating substitute teachers, “I will say the district raised the sub pay going into this year, so it’s at about at the mean for the area. Beforehand we were below the mean. But one reason we have difficulty drawing is because Lewisburg pays so much more. So we definitely need to raise that rate. Not just to help those people who are substituting, but make sure we actually have a supply and that we’re not seeing detrimental effects on the other end.”
Hear more from each school board candidate at WKOK.com, these candidates were on a recent WKOK Sunrise interview, talking about this and other issues. (Matt Catrillo)
