Allentown School Board hopefuls talk teacher retention, taxes and artificial intelligence in candidate forum

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School Board candidates talked about teacher retention, taxes and artificial intelligence’s role in the classroom at a candidate forum Monday.

Seven of the eight candidates who will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot attended the event, which was moderated by the League of Women Voters of Lehigh County.

The forum was held at the Univest Public Media Center, home to Lehigh Valley Public Media, which includes LehighValleyNews.com, television station PBS39 and 91.3 WLVR-FM radio.

PBS39 broadcast and livestreamed the event, the first of four school board candidate forums put on by the League of Women Voters of Lehigh County.

The next is scheduled for at 7 p.m. today in the same location, featuring East Penn school board hopefuls.

Allentown candidates

Allentown School Board has five seats up for grabs this election cycle. All are four-year terms, except for one two-year term.

School Director Nick Nicholoff, an independent on the Democratic ticket, is running for the two-year term against former school Director Robert Smith Jr., a Republican.

Smith is competing for one of the four-year terms, as well.

The remaining candidates competing for four-year terms are Evette D’Amore, Thomas Houck, Cereta Johnson, Dianne Michels, Denzel Morris and David Zimmerman.

D’Amore, Johnson, Michels and Morris will appear on the Democratic ticket. Houck, Michels, Smith and Zimmerman will appear on the Republican ticket.

Michels, a registered Republican, is a candidate for both parties in November because she cross-filed in the May primary and was successful in each race.

Zimmerman did not attend Monday's forum.

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PBS39 Livestream

Teacher retention

Multiple candidates brought up the topic of financial incentives for attracting and retaining teachers.

Houck, an Air Force veteran and retired Allentown police officer, suggested a housing rebate or sign-on bonus for highly qualified teachers.

Smith, a program specialist for people with disabilities, called for a grow-your-own initiative that would pay for ASD students’ college tuition if they agree to teach in Allentown for five years.

Nicholoff, a human resources professional, pushed back against Smith’s idea.

“I think I was a much different person when I graduated college than when I walked in the door,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to handcuff any student with a bunch of college debt if they decided to change their mind that they don’t want to come back and teach here."

Nicholoff said the district doesn’t struggle to hire staff.

ASD just hired 44 new teachers and 36 paraprofessionals at its last board meeting, along with other key administrative roles.

The “issue” is retention, he said.

Nicholoff said it’s important there are clear avenues for staff to file complaints so their concerns are addressed and they want to stay in ASD.

Cereta Johnson, an entrepreneur and owner of an early childhood education program, said teachers care about safety, accountability and transparency.

But she agreed that financial incentives could help, such as a college tuition reimbursement program.

“You want to come into work feeling great so you can be great for your students,” Johnson said.

“If you have debt, and you are stressed out, it is kind of hard for you to educate your students.”

Johnson also said staff members in other departments should be encouraged to go back to school to earn teaching degrees.

D’Amore, an office manager for an electrician and a district parent, said ASD needs to have conversations with its teachers to find out why they’re leaving for other districts.

“We’ve lost so many teachers, and friends of mine that are teachers are saying they want to leave as well because they don’t have the support they need from the administration, from their principals,” she said.

D’Amore also said the district should focus on making sure teachers have what they need instead of adding new positions in the central administration.

Michels, a counselor and former teacher, agreed. She said, “We need more on the bottom than let's say on the top.”

Smith also criticized the number of administrators in ASD, saying it doubled from his time on the board. He last served as a school director in 2019.

“The increase in administrators is out of control,” he said.

Taxes

Smith also said school directors won’t have to worry about increasing taxes if the district watches its “outlandish spending.”

“We can’t afford all these new administrators,” he said.

He said many of the six-figure salaries approved for new administrators are “ridiculous for this area.”

Denzel Morris, who works for Meta on generative AI, said the school board should do what the majority of residents want when it comes to whether to raise school property taxes each year.

That may mean managing negative consequences from keeping taxes flat.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think we should force a burden upon people that they don’t want,” he said.

ASD has held the line on taxes for the past three years.

Nicholoff said the district was able to forgo a tax increase in June because it's in a good financial position. He said that could change.

Houck said taxes already are too high, especially for seniors and retirees. He said he supports exploring the potential for a rebate program for seniors in ASD.

“When you have no students in the school district anymore, and your neighbor has four and you're paying the same taxes, that doesn’t seem fair or right,” Houck said.

Artificial Intelligence

When asked about AI, the candidates seemed largely skeptical of artificial intelligence and its role in schools, or uninterested on the subject altogether.

Still, the district has prioritized AI over the past year.

ASD adopted an AI policy, created a summer camp with DeSales University dedicated to AI learning, and has plans to open a new theme-based school, focused in part on preparing students for AI careers.

Houck said it’s important for students to be savvy with technology but not dependent on it.

“[Students] get used to using the AI to do their thinking for them and that is something we definitely need to avoid,” he said.

He said he believes AI should only be used by older students and not incorporated at the elementary schools.

Similarly, Michels said students should be allowed to use AI, but must be able to do their own work.

“We want them to be able to access things and be well trained to do that,” she said.

“On the flip side of the coin, we want them to use their own intelligence to do homework and things like that.”

Morris said AI should be viewed as a tool.

“At the end of the day, Google search didn’t make people dumber,” he said. “In fact I think it made people a lot smarter. Everyone uses that every day, I think it’s going to be the same with AI.”

Still, Morris said ASD should be more focused on reducing absenteeism than pushing AI.

Johnson agreed AI’s use in the district is not a big priority.

“Safety is our No. 1 concern, getting kids back into school is also a No. 1 concern,” she said.

Nicholoff said he’s “not a big proponent” of AI being used by students.

“I think it very often it can become a crutch or a replacement for doing actual work,” he said.

Nicholoff said ASD should focus its energy instead on improving reading, writing and math scores, as well as hiring and retaining teachers.

Smith said there are pros and cons to AI, and students should be taught how to use it as a tool.

But before students can learn about AI, they need laptops, he said.

Smith said some students haven’t received their laptops yet.

“Before we start embracing the new technology in our district, I think we got to take care of the old technology and make sure all our students have the tools they need to even do their homework right now — and that’s with laptops,” he said.

D’Amore, whose sons attend Dieruff High School, just received their school-issued laptops last week — about a month into the school year.

She said they used personal laptops to do work before then.

On AI, D’Amore pivoted back to teacher retention.

“If you don't have the teachers and the staff to be able to implement using [AI], what’s the point?” she said.