Frank Pintabone to Hold Constituent Meeting

Easton Area School Board member will give public chance to ask question, air concerns.

Board Member: Easton Bus Stop Will Be Moved

Parents worried about safety of West Ward bus stop have their wishes granted.

On Thursday, we ran a story about a group of parents in the West Ward who are worried about the safety of their children's bus stop. Basically, they're concerned that the stop at 14th and Lehigh Street is unsafe because the bus drops off students at a place on 14th Street where cars -- which they say are already going too fast -- can't see them. To make matters worse, there's no crossing guard, so some parents have taken to halting cars on their own while kids unload. That story went on our site just before 6 a.m. Thursday. A little more than four hours later, Easton Area School Board member Frank Pintabone contacted us, asking to reach out to the Godshalk family quoted in the story. And then just before 1 p.m., he called again, saying he …

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Poll: Should Easton Coaches Access Grades?

Would you want your child's coach to have access to their grades?

Last week, Easton Area School Board member Frank Pintabone proposed allowing coaches to have acccess to student's grades. That's a practice the school district used to allow, but has dropped due to privacy. Pintabone thinks reintroducing it would allow coaches to keep track of how their students were performing in the classroom. What do you think? Do coaches need to stay on top of how their students are doing in class? Is this a job for parents? Or for both? Take our poll, and tell us in the comments.

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Should Easton Coaches Have Access to Grades?

Easton Area School Board member wants coaches more involved with player academics.

Frank Pintabone had planned to bring guests to Tuesday night's board meeting -- former Easton Area High School athletes whose lives stalled after graduation. Some of them had scholarship offers, but their grades just weren't there. "They did what we asked athletically, but we didn’t do what we should have forced them to do academically," Pintabone told his school board colleagues as he proposed a new policy for student athletes. It would require all athletes with a C-average or lower to take mandatory tutoring sessions with their coaches -- if those coaches are teachers -- after school. It would also allow those coaches to access players' grades. That's a practice the district used to allow, but has since dropped out of confidentiality …

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R.D. Frable

11:09 am on Wednesday, September 12, 2012

It's a tricky proposition; as you reported, a coach or assistant might not be a teacher of whatever the student is having issues with. Meanwhile, nobody knows how parents will handle such a sitch, if they even choose to.   more ›

Easton Anti-Violence Rally Happening Saturday

School board member plans march from West Ward, South Side, to Centre Square.

Growing up in Easton, Frank Pintabone knew that if he got into trouble, his father would hear about it from their neighbors. "You don't have that anymore," said Pintabone, who serves on the Easton Area School Board. "Too many people close the door." He's hoping that attitude can change this weekend. That's when Pintabone has planned an anti-violence march/rally, in response to a recent rash of violent crime that has struck Easton's South Side and West Ward neighborhoods, including shootings, robberies, and a homicide. "The community needs to come together," Pintabone said.  Easton Mayor Sal Panto addressed the march at a news conference Thursday, saying that a large turnout would demonstrate residents' committment to improving their …

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Easton Shootings Prompt Anti-Violence March

Easton school board's Frank Pintabone plans anti-violence march April 21.

Prompted by a series of recent shootings in Easton -- one of which left a man dead -- an Easton Area School Board member is putting together a "Stop the Violence" rally and march across the city. Frank Pintabone, who was elected last year, says march will happen in two parts: South Side residents will depart from the Easton Area Neighborhood Center and head to Centre Square. People in the West Ward will start at Centennial Park, and also end up at the square. Once in the square, a rally will begin around 2 p.m. "I decided to put this event together after seeing the recent rash of violence in OUR community, we as residents must get involved and stand united," Pintabone said in a news release. Four people have been shot in Easton in the …

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Easton NAACP Meets With School Board Members

Community forum with Easton Area School Board members deals with new scheduling.

Easton Area School Board members met with the city's NAACP chapter Monday night to talk about issues concerning the community. But most of the discussion with board members Janet Matthews and Frank Pintabone was dominated by a single issue: the board's vote last week to switch to a new "flexible" schedule at Easton Area High School. Starting with the 2012/2013 school year, the high school will switch from nine 41-minute periods to five 80-minute periods.  The schedule would include a mix of classes that met 90 days out of every semester, and those that would meet every other day. School officials say it will allow students more time to put what they've learned into practice. But community members gathered in Trinity Episcopal Church had …

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Easton School Board Extends Public Comment

Starting this month, visitors to meetings can speak for two extra minutes.

Got something to say to the Easton Area School Board? Starting this month, you'll have more time to say it. The board voted Tuesday to extend the amount of time a member of the public can speak during the meeting's public comment section from three minutes to five minutes. Board member Frank Pintabone -- who had campaigned partially on the idea of adding to the public comment period -- told the Express-Times he thinks extending the comment period will expose the board to new ideas and "start to put a little more trust in this new board." In a poll last month, a majority of our readers said the board should extend the comment period.

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Ronnie DelBacco

9:06 am on Friday, March 2, 2012

Credit where credit is due. Good job Frank. Thanks form standing behind this idea.   more ›

Democrats Sweep Easton Area School Board Race

Voters choose newcomers Frank Pintabone and Janet Matthews, and existing board members Kerri Leonard Ellison and Robert Moskaitis.

Voters in the Easton Area School District have chosen four Democrats to serve on the school board. In the district's Region Two, Frank Pintabone defeated Republican challenger Ronnie DelBacco by a huge margin, earning 1,200 votes to DelBacco's 371. Pintabone replaces board member Kerry Myers, who'll step down at the end of the year. In Region Three, incumbent Kerri Leonard Ellison won re-election with nearly 80 percent of the vote, fending off a challenge from independent candidate Cathy McIntyre to win another four year term. Also in Region Three, Robert Moskaitis -- appointed to the board to fill a vacancy earlier this year -- and newcomer Janet Matthews. Meanwhile, the district's Region One featured an uncontested race, with three …

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