Beautiful new math: When 6 is actually less than 3

It was a very bitter pill for the community to swallow.

A deeply ick four-year extension to the Saucon Valley School District superintendent’s contract passed at last night’s standing-room-only meeting at the Saucon High School Audion.

It could have been worse. A five-year extension was initially hatched last week, it seems.

As the Morning Call reports, the vote passed six to three with massive community opposition.

Shamim Pakzad, Cedric Dettmar, Donald Carpenter and Laurel Erickson-Parsons joined outgoing board members John Conte and Tracy Magnotta in, as I and many others see it, jamming the contract through.

No one and no law forced them to do that when and how they chose to do it. They own it now, 100%.

As of December, Conte and Magnotta won’t be on the board to witness the consequences of their votes.

The community will have to live with it all.

There were heroic and inspiring efforts by the community last night to speak up in opposition to this extension.

“I see teachers every day that are upset with their jobs,” junior Donald Flores said during public comment.

Fellow junior Gavin Murphy told The Morning Call that the district has great teachers who are overwhelmed, often due to new class assignments.

“They need consistency,” Murphy said. “They need to stop getting moved around.”

Still, all is not lost—not even close.

Three-quarters of the original Saucon Choices for Change ticket held their nerve and voted against the contract extension.

In a matter of weeks, they’ll be joined by the newly elected Meghan Lomingino and Christian Tatu. They’re their own people with their own opinions and perspectives.

But I’m convinced, based on their excellent campaigns, that massive positive changes are in store the school district.

There will almost certainly be a sea change in leadership style and tone and priorities. Expect that.

Personally, in my own view, I hope that an era of rampant mansplaining, siloed dealmaking and “voices in love with he sounds of their voices” will be shuddering to an overdue end.

I myself welcome a day when educated community members aren’t, at board meetings, tutored in things most of them already know.

And a balanced, sensible school budget—something all the Saucon Choices for Change candidates have demonstrably supported—isn’t a magical potion that only certain people know how to formulate. That’s utter nonsense.

In the case of last night’s vote, the six votes will soon be four votes.

And five, according to my exhaustive study of classical mathematics, is still more than four. But what do I know?