The recent Pennsylvania primary election was one of the most unusual in modern history for a number of reasons. The biggest was the constitutional amendments that were proposed (and which all passed), but also the wide scale insurgence against local officials, particularly for school board directors. The number of candidates running for these positions must have set some kind of record.

This was largely driven by the unrest among parents over COVID-precautioned virtual schooling that was challenging for many students, from the academic standpoint but also the loss of social interactions and sports participation. It was also particularly difficult for working parents.

Even a few years back, it would have been doubtful if the in-home education could have happened in the magnitude that it was done in this past year and a half, were it not for broadband improvements and wide accessibility to computers and pads.

But the backlash that has been seen in Lycoming County and throughout the country, for that matter, is questioning whether the precautions were worth the hardships that the students and parents suffered in the process. In the 1993 film, Jurassic Park, there is a dialogue between John Hammond, who created the park with formally extinct dinosaurs, and Dr. Ian Malcolm who questions the legitimacy of this action. Hammond argued,” I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody’s ever done before… Dr. Malcolm interrupted, “Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

A good question for us to ponder, Dr. Malcolm. Should the schools have been closed, simply because we had the technology to make it possible? We will now have a wide swath of new school board members with fresh eyes to examine if this is the path of the future or whether it should be put in the storage bin of history. I am sure that these newly elected officials are anxious to sink their teeth into this issue.

However, my heart goes out to these school board newbies as well as for the new borough council members and township supervisors, because they all are in for a huge awakening — and that is the magnitude of government bureaucracy that squats itself on every single matter that comes before a local elected board.

I became a township supervisor in 2010 and did not think it would be such a big deal. After all, I considered myself responsibly intelligent and most of the business appeared fairly rudimentary. But to my surprise, a huge, gigantic, massive number of laws, regulations, statutes, and government agencies lurks behind every action or decision.

I felt like I was back in Russia listening to a foreign language. Seasoned board members use shorthand terms that are like Greek to the newcomer. A remember a man who came to a township meeting and wanted to build a small cottage on his property for his elderly mother. Suddenly we are talking about SALDO. What in the world is SALDO? It sounded like a dog’s name to me. (“Here, Saldo, Come here, boy”). I would learn it stood for Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances, which establishes rules, regulations and standards for the subdivision and development of land in Pennsylvania. The alphabet soup of agencies, certifications, permits, and laws seem to go on forever for even the most simple problem or issue.

I realized that all my education was not worth a squat because I was totally ignorant of all that was behind the decisions that were being made. PSATS (another alphabet salad, it stands for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors) conferences and training sessions became my lifeline. I attended as many as possible. I estimated I put in over 500 hours of training over the ten years I was a supervisor just to get my feet on the ground and keep up with new regs and rules to understand what I could and should do as a supervisor, and also what I could not and should not be doing.

The ballot questions on Pennsylvania Constitutional Amendments got the vast majority of attention, but the election of many new local officials may have just as much impact in our local area and maybe even more in the long run. For their sake, I plead with those who voted for them to not expect instant action. They have a long and bumpy road in front of them.