Primary election: What’s the job of Butler County’s school board members?
If you want to impact the future and shape the formative years of hundreds of youths, become a school board member.
“Great school boards understand they have (a) profound role in protecting democracy,” Brian White, superintendent at Butler Area School District which serves over 5,000 students. “Not one person, not the governor, the legislature, can enact things saying students must learn any specific thing, it’s why school boards have the authority to enact certain things. They protect democracy at a local level.”
The nine public school districts in Butler County are among 500 in the state and have around 4,500 community residents serving as school board members, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
“Our job is to set policy, not micromanage the way things are done,” said Eric DiTullio, Seneca Valley school board president. The district has upwards of 7,400 students. “People may think, ‘If I call a school board rep. they’ll get someone hired,’ we don’t do that. We oversee and approve things, but we’re not the experts.”
“We work with the superintendent and the administration. Successful school boards realize that.”
Across Butler County a combined 22 candidates are competing for 14 contested school board seats in the May 20 primary. Six candidates are competing for four Butler Area School seats; five candidates are competing for four Karns City Area seats; seven candidates are competing for four seats in Moniteau; and a combined four candidates are competing for two different seats in Seneca Valley.
Contested school board races in Butler County
Butler Area School District - 4 contested seats
Candidates include: Al Vavro, Nina Teff, John Conrad, Gary Shingleton, Leland Clark and Eric Reffert
Karns City Area School District - 4 contested seats
Candidates include: William Weibel, Donald Scherer, Zach Scherer, Cari M. Harmon and Robert Ken Bray
Moniteau School District - 4 contested seats
Candidates include: Michael A. Panza, Janeen Beatty, Linda Dillaman, Kelly Rugg, Celina Karnes, Nicole Rosetti-Sadler and Michael Baptiste
Seneca Valley School District - Region 1 - 1 contested seat
Candidates include: Allyson Mazzoni and Nashid Ibn Ali
Seneca Valley School District - Region 4 - 1 contested seat
Candidates include: Travis Savitt-Kraft and Mark Ruston
In total, 42 people are running in contested and uncontested races within all nine of the districts situated in Butler County’s borders.
School board members elected in November, following the May 20 primary election go on to — regardless of official title name, term length or board size — serve their community overseeing the local education system.
The school boards association, made up of board members from all districts across the state, said in its school board candidate guide a board’s role includes governing the district and setting policies, while the superintendent manages day-to-day operations.
“As the governing authority, a school board plays a crucial role in steering the strategic direction of a school district, ensuring that all actions and decisions align with and advance the district’s mission, vision and goals,” the association’s candidate guide states.
Individual duties may include adopting and monitoring district budgets, monitoring student scores and data and evaluating the superintendent yearly.
In their roles, the school boards meet once or twice a month. They listen to comments from the public, as well as presentations from school administration and faculty, and they vote on agenda items related to various district policies.
In an at-large school board plan, as in Butler Area School District, members must be residents of the school district, but they can live anywhere within the district. These members are elected by all voters within the district.
Under a regional plan, such as Seneca Valley, the school district is divided into regions, and each region elects school board directors who reside within that region.
Within a school board, there are individual committees that hold committee meetings on delegated topics, such as finances, facilities, athletics and other school operations; and committee of the whole meetings including all board members.
These actions take place in meetings open to the public thanks to the Sunshine Act, Pennsylvania’s open meetings law. The law requires most official actions and deliberations by a school board and most board committees take place at a meeting open to the public.
School boards also must announce to the public, in advance, when and where meetings will be held in order for the public to attend. Boards must publicly post meeting agendas and provide the opportunity for members of the school community to comment before the board takes official action.
While a majority of the school board cannot discuss official business as a group outside of official meetings, board members will attest more work gets done behind the scenes than people may realize. This includes creating policy, budgets, listening to the concerns of community members and working with school administrators to accomplish goals.
For example, DiTullio said board members have to be responsive to the community. He said, a lot of what he hears from people happens out in the community, not so much in the monthly meetings that residents can’t always attend.
Kathy McBride, vice president of Moniteau’s school board, said it’s important for school board members to have a wide range of knowledge on the ins and outs of creating school policy. It’s also important to be accessible to the community.
“I don’t think a lot of people even understand what goes into it. Probably the biggest thing is the information you need to get, read up on, become informed, and know how the school laws even work,” McBride said. “There’s a lot of reading, and, of course, now they have mandated training for new members which is helpful because you need to know about budgets, writing policy, belonging to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and knowing laws, if our policies align with the law.”
School board responsibilities McBride listed include being accessible to taxpayers, paying attention to the needs of district and balancing what you want for your school versus what you need now for your district.
Board members and administrators alike also acknowledge the importance of having a good relationship with each other, creating district policy and developing a common vision on a school district’s future.
White said having a highly functioning board that works with the superintendent is very rewarding. He said in his position, it’s good to work with others who keep themselves well informed and listen to the community.
“We’ve been very blessed to have board members that focus on the children, the students, the staff they serve. They really want to see our district put in a situation where it can succeed,” White said.
Eric Ritzert, Karns City Area superintendent, said his role includes handling day-to-day operations of a school system and providing information to the board, so it can make good, informed decisions on a wide range of issues.
This encompasses how to spend money in the budget, potential tax increases or decreases if they are warranted, approving curriculum and more.
“We all strive to do what is right by our communities. I live in the community I’m employed in,” he said. “My children have attended this school. I have a vested interest in this system.
“Decisions are made to try and make sure it’s doing well today and tomorrow.”
Regardless of how many members a board has, or what issues are most important to a district, it’s clear not everyone will agree on everything.
“One thing I have always enjoyed about (a) nine member board — you are not going to agree,” McBride said. “If everyone agrees, you’re doing something wrong. It takes different opinions and backgrounds coming into a room and problem solving.”
For DiTullio, it’s important for school boards to not simply compromise on matters, but to talk it out and reach a consensus.
“A board of nine can’t do anything without a consensus,” DiTullio said. “Nine people need to work together, not fight each other.
“I think the party system has devolved into more of an ‘us vs them’ mentality, and a school board works to achieve a consensus and get along. There are disagreements, but at the end of day, nine people on the board are there trying to do the right things for (the) right reasons.”
Various school board members and superintendents said there are many reasons for why school boards play an important role. This is why it’s important to have people who are well-intentioned, able to represent the community at large and not worry about an individual agenda.
“We can accuse others of getting on the board for their own agendas. And maybe some are more in tune with various things like academics or extracurriculars or finances, but encompassing all of that, meeting (the) needs of all the kids in the district is most important,” McBride said.
