Newark School Board has agreed to listen to taxpayers

Mike Hendershot made a statement on behalf of Newark City Schools that everyone should remember, especially parents of school-age children. Writing a guest column in The Advocate, the school board member said, "Things cannot continue like they were in the past. Newark has changed." First, the board is to be commended for coming to that conclusion, even though it was the unmistakable message delivered to them by voters at the last request for more money. Seems to me that in the past the schools, the parents, and school employees have tried to ignore messages from voters. We have seen various types of tricks (mostly threats to parents) and end-runs at the polling places (scheduling tax votes for non-general-election dates), but not this time. Parents and sports enthusiasts need to listen up because the school district is saying that it has to stop spending money on non-essentials. The school administration is, just now at least, listening to the people.