diff --git a/lib/scheduler/manager.rb b/lib/scheduler/manager.rb
index ec8e249e9b..3cbff459a4 100644
--- a/lib/scheduler/manager.rb
+++ b/lib/scheduler/manager.rb
@@ -34,16 +34,7 @@ module Scheduler
         end
         @thread = Thread.new do
           while !@stopped
-            if @manager.enable_stats
-              begin
-                RailsMultisite::ConnectionManagement.establish_connection(db: "default")
-                process_queue
-              ensure
-                ActiveRecord::Base.connection_handler.clear_active_connections!
-              end
-            else
-              process_queue
-            end
+            process_queue
           end
         end
       end
@@ -69,6 +60,7 @@ module Scheduler
       end
 
       def process_queue
+
         klass = @queue.deq
         return unless klass
 
@@ -83,15 +75,23 @@ module Scheduler
         begin
           info.prev_result = "RUNNING"
           @mutex.synchronize { info.write! }
+
           if @manager.enable_stats
-            stat = SchedulerStat.create!(
-              name: klass.to_s,
-              hostname: hostname,
-              pid: Process.pid,
-              started_at: Time.zone.now,
-              live_slots_start: GC.stat[:heap_live_slots]
-            )
+            begin
+              RailsMultisite::ConnectionManagement.establish_connection(db: "default")
+
+              stat = SchedulerStat.create!(
+                name: klass.to_s,
+                hostname: hostname,
+                pid: Process.pid,
+                started_at: Time.zone.now,
+                live_slots_start: GC.stat[:heap_live_slots]
+              )
+            ensure
+              ActiveRecord::Base.connection_handler.clear_active_connections!
+            end
           end
+
           klass.new.perform
         rescue => e
           if e.class != Jobs::HandledExceptionWrapper
@@ -120,6 +120,8 @@ module Scheduler
         Discourse.handle_job_exception(ex, {message: "Processing scheduled job queue"})
       ensure
         @running = false
+
+        ActiveRecord::Base.connection_handler.clear_active_connections!
       end
 
       def stop!
diff --git a/spec/components/demon/base_spec.rb b/spec/components/demon/base_spec.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 1f1615fc63..0000000000
--- a/spec/components/demon/base_spec.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-require 'rails_helper'
-require 'demon/base'
-
-describe Demon do
-
-  class RudeDemon < Demon::Base
-    def self.prefix
-      "rude"
-    end
-
-    def after_fork
-      Signal.trap("HUP"){}
-      Signal.trap("TERM"){}
-      sleep 999999
-    end
-  end
-
-  it "can terminate rude demons" do
-
-    skip("forking rspec has side effects")
-    # Forking rspec has all sorts of weird side effects
-    #  this spec works but we must skip it to keep rspec
-    #  state happy
-
-
-    RudeDemon.start
-    _,demon = RudeDemon.demons.first
-    pid = demon.pid
-    wait_for {
-      demon.alive?
-    }
-
-    demon.stop_timeout = 0.05
-    demon.stop
-    demon.start
-
-    running = !!(Process.kill(0, pid)) rescue false
-    expect(running).to eq(false)
-  end
-end
diff --git a/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb b/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
index 6175a1e120..5a5f91d38a 100644
--- a/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
@@ -16,11 +16,6 @@ describe PrettyText do
     n(PrettyText.cook(*args))
   end
 
-  # see: https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/issues/1173
-  skip 'allows html entities correctly' do
-    expect(PrettyText.cook("&aleph;&pound;&#162;")).to eq("<p>&aleph;&pound;&#162;</p>")
-  end
-
   let(:wrapped_image) { "<div class=\"lightbox-wrapper\"><a href=\"//localhost:3000/uploads/default/4399/33691397e78b4d75.png\" class=\"lightbox\" title=\"Screen Shot 2014-04-14 at 9.47.10 PM.png\"><img src=\"//localhost:3000/uploads/default/_optimized/bd9/b20/bbbcd6a0c0_655x500.png\" width=\"655\" height=\"500\"><div class=\"meta\">\n<span class=\"filename\">Screen Shot 2014-04-14 at 9.47.10 PM.png</span><span class=\"informations\">966x737 1.47 MB</span><span class=\"expand\"></span>\n</div></a></div>" }
   let(:wrapped_image_excerpt) {  }
 
diff --git a/spec/components/scheduler/manager_spec.rb b/spec/components/scheduler/manager_spec.rb
index 3dc699a1f6..a3de968893 100644
--- a/spec/components/scheduler/manager_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/scheduler/manager_spec.rb
@@ -59,11 +59,11 @@ describe Scheduler::Manager do
   }
 
   before {
-    expect(ActiveRecord::Base.connection_pool.connections.length).to eq(1)
+    expect(ActiveRecord::Base.connection_pool.connections.reject{|c| !c.in_use?}.length).to eq(1)
   }
 
   after {
-    expect(ActiveRecord::Base.connection_pool.connections.length).to eq(1)
+    expect(ActiveRecord::Base.connection_pool.connections.reject{|c| !c.in_use?}.length).to eq(1)
   }
 
   it 'can disable stats' do
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ describe Scheduler::Manager do
       expect($redis.zcard(Scheduler::Manager.queue_key)).to eq(0)
     end
 
-    skip 'should recover from crashed manager' do
+    it 'should recover from crashed manager' do
 
       info = manager.schedule_info(Testing::SuperLongJob)
       info.next_run = Time.now.to_i - 1
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ describe Scheduler::Manager do
     end
 
     # something about logging jobs causing a leak in connection pool in test
-    skip 'should log when job finishes running' do
+    it 'should log when job finishes running' do
 
       Testing::RandomJob.runs = 0