Students pack ASD board meeting in protest

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The action during Thursday night's Allentown School District's board of directors meeting happened on Penn Street. That's not news. What is news is that the action literally took place on Penn Street. Roughly 100 students and teachers decided to express their anger at the state of the school district in a loud and dissident tone outside the administration's headquarters after being denied entry into the building to attend the meeting. Superintendent C. Russell Mayo was the target of their displeasure. "He Must Go," the group shouted in a cadence that resembled a Friday night pep rally before Saturday's big game. The student group also showed up at a city council committee meeting earlier in the night to voice concerns. Mike Frassetto with the group United Youth, who is also a teacher at Medical Academy Charter School, said, "We have a complete disconnect in our city between the systems of the city and the people of the city. All we want is for the people of the city to be heard." He added, "We've been asking for change for the last three to five years and it's not happening." Meantime, teachers have been working since August 31 without a pact and are not very happy about it. "We knew the district would find a way to freeze our salaries," Debra Tretter, president of the Allentown Education Association, told directors during a public comment session. She portrayed the teachers as victims at the hands of an administration who articulate words of praise for them in public, but harbor hearts of contempt in private.

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Students pack ASD board meeting in protest