I'm shocked, shocked that the Feds are investigating the way teachers are hired in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District.
CV: The FBI has subpoenaed school board meeting minutes and other documents from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District... FBI agents have visited district offices several times...
TL: The FBI on Thursday requested a list of the Wilkes-Barre Area Vocational-Technical Joint Operating Committee board members since 2005...
While the rest of the country is screaming for qualified teachers around here you can't even get an interview unless you have a relative on the School Board. It's not just Wilkes-Barre but every school district in NEPA. I hope they look at them all. Nepotism Queen Barbara Youngblood landed jobs for around 20+ members of her family before the voters finally caught on and booted her out a few years back. How many stories have you read over the years that relative xxx of school board member yyy was hired. Usually the uncle/aunt, etc. would not vote on the hiring to make it look good but you know the rest of the board was involved in back scratching so when their nephew/cousin came up for a vote they would get hired.
Sometimes there is shortage of relatives to fill the open positions so the squeeze is put on the long time substitute teachers to cough up a few bucks to land a permanent position. I have no direct evidence of bribes being demanded or paid but like you I have heard the stories for years.
Yonk was right. Maybe the whole county needs to start over.
ReplyDeleteHow did the property in wilkes barre change hands with so much tax liens who did the closing ?????
ReplyDeleteThere are bad title companies out there
ReplyDeleteCan we get Tim Grier to come back now?
ReplyDeleteYesp.. It's all over. Look at Hanover Twp... it's the same way. All corrupt from the schools to the police/magistrate. It's a nepotism melting pot.
ReplyDeleteIf one of their friends does something wrong, they (police) look the other way but if I go through a yellow light, I'm forced to pay a fine as if I went through a red light.
I know of a teacher at Hanover that should have been the last person on the totem poll but because his grandmother knew somebody, he was hired instantly.
Same goes with Northwest... How does a msuic teacher (not there now) get put right into a music teaching position when all he knew was how to play the drums! he was not skilled in any other instrument. Again.. its the I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine mentality.....
It goes beyond that though... Blue Cross of NEPA is the same way. They only know compassion when it comes to their own famnily and friends. Anybody working with BCNEPA knows it's the truth but they are afraid to speak their minds in fear of retaliation.... right RW? Right KB? Right DC?!
Funny thing though .... doctor's children become doctors and lawyer's children become lawyers. Yet, no one complains. A politician's child becomes a politician and we elect them royalty. So why is it so unusual that a teacher's child becomes a teacher and is hired ASAP? Apples don't fall far from the tree, so why not hire a known quantity than some unknown. Sadly however, while some new hires are enjoy their time at the fraternity party, their classmate put their education and careers on hold to serve in Iraq. Why don't the districts follow the law and give the veteran preference from crossing guards to custodians to teachers to superintendents? I would guess because the draft-dodging hippies are now superintendents and board members.
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