The mayor attended Tuesday’s board meeting to discuss gun crimes in light of last week’s alleged sighting of a gunman outside Price Elementary School.

A student said he saw a man with a gun near Lancaster Recreation Commission before school Oct. 10. Price Elementary went into immediate lockdown as police scoured the area.

The police never found a gunman.

A Price fifth-grader last week told the Intelligencer Journal she and three others heard two gunshots that morning.

But at Tuesday’s meeting, Lancaster city police Capt. Pete Anders said, “I feel comfortable saying there was no gunfire.”

Gray reiterated his plan to be tougher — with minimum state prison sentences — on those in possession of illegal firearms, even if the gun is never used.

He said someone suggested to him via e-mail that students should bring all their toy guns into school to be thrown away as a sign of solidarity against violence. The students would then encourage their parents to get rid of their real guns, Gray said.

While he said students bringing toy guns to school in droves probably wasn’t a good idea, its message of teaching students to reject weapons is important.

“Just because someone possesses a gun doesn’t make them any smarter or stronger,” Gray said. “If they’re an idiot, it just makes them an idiot with a deadly weapon.”

•••

During the meeting’s public-comment section, city resident Jonathan Davis said not educating children is as tragic as the recent West Nickel Mines School shooting in Bart Township.

“An uneducated child is a child at risk in all aspects of life,” he said.

He also asked why many people who addressed various concerns at last month’s board meeting were not contacted.

More than 30 residents spoke at that meeting on subjects ranging from personal problems to general observations.

The district’s public-comment procedure states, “The superintendent is then responsible for replying to the questioner and answering the question(s) in a timely matter.”

“We as concerned citizens have come before this board ...,” Davis said. “You must fulfill your obligation to us as taxpayers.”

Superintendent Rita Bishop said after the meeting she replies to as many people as she can within 24 hours, but some comments require deeper investigation.

•••

Board member Nenita Faller-Miller said during the education committee report she is concerned teachers don’t have adequate support staff in the classroom.

She said teachers have come to her with complaints, but they don’t want to appear in front of the whole board.

“Teachers are scared to speak out,” she said. “I’m concerned. I just think we need to build trust.”

Teachers say, “I can’t go before the committee. I’ll be a target,’ ” Faller-Miller said.

Veronica Urdaneta, SDL’s education committee chairwoman, said no teacher would ever be a target, and more people should come to the education meetings with curriculum concerns.

Also during the education committee report, Pat Schreibeis, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, gave an “instructional update.”

“If you hear a sense of urgency, its because the AYP targets continue to rise,” she said.

No Child Left Behind’s AYP, or adequate yearly progress, is education jargon for meeting state benchmarks on standardized tests.

To help meet the targets, the district has created a districtwide curriculum to replace the site-based curriculum it had for more than 20 years.

Schreibeis said the curriculum also should be paced so if a student switches schools within the district, teachers at the new school will be at the same place in their lessons.

Because the district did not meet AYP requirements last year, it was required to submit an improvement plan to the state.

The board approved an updated plan Tuesday that includes stronger emphasis on science curriculum to prepare students for 2008, when the state will test students in science as well as reading and math. blog comments powered by Disqus