Profiling Self-Funded Schoolboard Director Candidate, Richard Lester

Democrat candidate Richard Lester is vying for one of four openings on the Lower Merion School Board. He is running in the Democrat primaries; which take place Tuesday, May 20.

Serving on boards is nothing new for Lester.He is currently serving on Gracent, the Autism Services Company Board. Another is clinical research organization’s board, Curavit. To see the other boards that Lester served on and is currently part of, along with his extensive business background, log onto https://www.rich-lester.com/.

Lester is funding his own campaign because the Democratic Committee of

Lower Merion Township and Narberth (DCLMN) refused to endorse him. The refusal was not based on his ability, considerable financial background and his experience as a fiduciary of many boards.

Instead, the DCLMN's refusal to endorse him was focused solely on his phrasing of his answer to one of many questions Lester answered posed by the DCLMN.

Specifically, he was asked:

The school district is facing a challenging financial year and there may be

more state and federal cuts to programs, including special education. What

immediate next steps would you initiate if there was a sudden decrease in

funding? What would your top priorities be?

Lester told this Patch writer:

“I provided a framework of how I think about things. Look at the major

costs, the employee benefits, the cost of labor, figure out what’s essential and non-essential. You have to make hard decisions. My mistake was I was very pecific about the framework. … I said you have to look at who is union and nonunion because you’re cutting costs. … when looking at budget cuts, you need to establish essential and nonessential functions. Once you have done that, you need to look at

labor costs. I had in parentheses union versus nonunion.”

To read Lester’s answer along with some of the endorsed candidates

responses to this question, go to:

https://thisislowermerion.com/compare-rich-lesters-problematic-answer-

to-those-of-two-endorsed-candidates/

Adrian Seltzer of the DCLMN inexplicably found his response to be antiunion. As a result, the DCLMN refused to endorse him.

Lester said he is a loyal Democrat and most certainly not anti-union.

This writer texted Seltzer a direct question: Why did the DCLMN refuse to

endorse Lester?

Seltzer provided a prompt response. She said:

“The bottom line is that a majority of the democratic committee thought the

four candidates we voted for were the most qualified and had the best

temperament, and time for the position. His position on that question was

viewed as antiunion, but instead of spending his two minutes at the

endorsement meeting clarifying his position, he chose to use it to attack me

for resharing his words.”

Lester concluded the interview by sharing two problems that the LM school

district needs to fix:

First, the Lower Merion School District is reported to have a $5 million deficit in its budget.

Second, Anti-Semitism and racism are still present in LM area schools.

“If we don’t make Anti-Semitic and racist issues a priority, each principal will do what they think is necessary just tackling the current fire, but not putting out the big one (the overall underlying reasons for racism and Anti-Semitism),” said Lester. He

said that data needs to be used to track such incidences along with putting

educational programs into place.