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Letter: Running to serve

Joe Shane | The Sentinel

Aug 23, 2023

I view service on the school board as part of my professional responsibility. I owe much of my success to public education, and I have devoted the past 26 years of my career to it...

As a teacher educator, I was inspired by the video, produced by Gavin Russell, a student at Carlisle High School. Such respect for teachers makes a real difference, especially with declining numbers of college students pursuing teaching and destructive attacks on public education.


I intend to do my part by running for the Carlisle school board on Nov. 7 alongside Paula Bussard, Bruce Clash and Jon Tarrant, fellow members of the Citizens for Carlisle Schools, a nonpartisan coalition of parents, teachers, coaches and taxpayers who care deeply about the reputation of and quality of education in Carlisle Schools.


I view service on the school board as part of my professional responsibility. I owe much of my success to public education, and I have devoted the past 26 years of my career to it, eight as a high school chemistry teacher and 18 as a professor at Shippensburg University. Two of my students are part of the incoming corps of 42 new teachers in our district.


I am also driven by one particular incident from 2005, my first year at Shippensburg. Two school board members in Dover (Pennsylvania) pushed blatantly religious and, thus, unconstitutional concepts into the high school science curriculum. A group of parents successfully sued the district in federal court, and the presiding judge noted the board’s “breathtaking inanity.”


The trial cost Dover taxpayers $1 million in penalties and widespread humiliation. This shows what can happen to a district and community when a school board ignores teachers’ expertise, historical precedent and the law in favor of narrowminded, personal ideologies. One tragic consequence is that teachers often leave these districts or the profession.


I respectfully request your support on Nov. 7 to help maintain a welcoming environment for all students and educators in the Carlisle Area School District.


Joseph Shane

Candidate for Carlisle Area School Board

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