Volunteers step in to dress up grade school

From an article in Sunday's Courier Times . . .

PTO members helped decorate bulletin boards during a labor dispute.

Volunteers have stepped in to pick up the slack after a union labor dispute with the Neshaminy School District prompted teachers to work to the letter of their contract to show how much extra they usually do.

In the hallways of Lower Southampton Elementary School last week, members of the school's Parent Teacher Organization spent hours decorating 24 bulletin boards outside each classroom. The task is usually done by the teachers, but bulletin boards have remained bare since the work-to-contract action was put into effect by the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers at the end of the last school year.

"We just thought it was extremely necessary, especially in an elementary school," said PTO President Marlaena Potts. "We wanted the school to look like it always did for the start of classes. It was depressing to see nothing up on the walls."

The organization took action, Potts said, when she heard rumors that hallway bulletin board decorations would be one of the elements affected by the work-to-contract. "Normally, the PTO just decorates the bulletin board at the front of the school, while the teachers take care of the ones outside the classrooms," Potts said. "We heard there was a chance they were not going to be done, so we decided to do it ourselves."

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