Cheers & Jeers
Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP
Taylor Swift concert is shown at Acrisure Stadium, Friday, June 16, in Pittsburgh.
Mark Hofmann | 缅北禁地
Uniontown Area School District Superintendent Charles Machesky has served in his post 鈥� without pay 鈥� since 2012.
Cheers: Most of us work for both love and money 鈥� we hope to be stimulated and engaged by the work we do and earn enough to pay the bills, purchase a few small luxuries along the way and retire with some security. Dr. Charles Machesky, the superintendent of the Uniontown Area School District, loves what he does and has been motivated enough to help the district he oversees that he has foregone a salary for the last 11 years. Machesky鈥檚 generosity has saved the Uniontown district, in which 87% of the students enrolled come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, more than $2 million over that time. The district has been able to use the extra money to purchase textbooks, upgrade equipment and more. Machesky also noted the costs school districts incur for security has escalated dramatically over the last 20 years. The superintendent plans on retiring next year, and had this to say about the 30 years he has spent in education: 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 view education as a job. It was a career, a vocation.鈥� Uniontown has benefited greatly from Machesky鈥檚 dedication.
Jeers: It鈥檚 widely acknowledged that students across the spectrum lost ground in academic and social development as a result of the pandemic, and that reality was borne out in test results released this week by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). On tests in math and reading administered to 13-year-olds, scores reverted back to 1990 levels, and reading scores returned to 2004 levels. The tests showed the lowest-performing students suffered the greatest losses, according to the test results. Another disturbing finding: 31% of students said they never or hardly ever read for their own enjoyment, a 9% jump in a four-year span. In-person learning was lost in the last three months of the 2019-20 school year and most of the 2020-21 school year in most of the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite its necessity, we鈥檙e finding that online learning was no substitute for in-person instruction. In response to the test results, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said it would take 鈥測ears of effort and investment鈥� to lift test scores, underscoring the long-range impact the pandemic will have.
Cheers: The two, much-ballyhooed concerts by Taylor Swift at Pittsburgh鈥檚 Acrisure Stadium have come and gone, leaving a little more than 140,000 fans who were able to score tickets very happy. Many out-of-town visitors who came to Pittsburgh for the concerts left positive reviews of the city on social media, and those tourists spent millions of dollars here on hotel rooms, meals, shopping and more. Swift herself made what was described as a 鈥済enerous鈥� donation to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. And despite their large numbers, the fans were very well-behaved from all indications. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported this week that there were only three reports of drunkenness, and medical personnel were called to a handful of cases of dehydration, weakness or trip-and-fall accidents, which are par for the course hen you gather together thousands of people over a couple of summer nights. Also, municipal personnel told the Post-Gazette that concertgoers did not leave behind the kind of refuse that typically follows a Steelers game or concerts by other artists. According to the P-G, 鈥淪ome Swifties without tickets spread picnic blankets in parking areas and plots and generally bagged leftovers when they left.鈥� It speaks well of Swift鈥檚 fans that they probably comported themselves better than their parents 鈥� or grandparents 鈥� did when they were in their concert-going prime.