School Board Candidates Return for Second Panel Discussion

The various home and school associations of the hosted its second “Meet the Candidates” event this year, in order to help school district residents make a more informed vote on the five open school district director seats.

The event was held, Oct. 19, in the l building, where the school board candidates gathered to answer questions in the same panel discussion format as the , held May 9.

Each candidate had the opportunity to answer questions as pre-determined by the home and school associations and submitted by the community. In what is known as a “Round-Robin,” candidates were allowed the opportunity to answer at least one question first. Each candidate had exactly 1 minute and 15 seconds to answer their questions.

Upper Moreland High School co-president of the home-and-school association Stacey Lieser, returned to host and ask the pre-determined questions.

Most of the candidates from the primary elections returned to vie for the five open positions within the school board, except for Nick Scull, who did attend, but as an audience member.

However, new to the Oct. 19 school board panel discussion was Al DerMovsesian, who was a write-in candidate, during the primaries. DerMovesian will run unopposed to the vacated, limited, two-year term position, currently occupied by April Stainback, who, in turn, is running for one of the open four-year term positions.

The candidates

The following lists the candidates' names in the order that they answered questions at the Oct. 19 “Meet the Candidates,” event, as well as gives their short bio, as they answered the quetion that evening.

*An extended bio is given to Al DerMovesian, as he was not profiled in the previous article of the first candidates meeting in May:

• Ron Slagle: Slagle has a background in finance, particularly in business, personal and real estate finance. He has three young children that are currently attending schools within the district.  “My vision is to find that balance of giving our absolute best to our students while minimizing the impact of our tax dollars,” Slagle said. “The community has been excellent to my family.”

• Lisa Berlin:  Is currently serving on the school board of directors, and is chairperson of the Human Resources Committee. She has three children going through the school district schools, with one child graduating from UMHS last year.  “The community has been good to the Berlins, and I so need to give back,” Berlin said. “I feel our work is not finished.”

• Roger Wolfman: A 36-year resident of Upper Moreland Township, with a background in commercial real estate. Wolfman said that he would scrutinize any cost to the school district not related to student-education. “I don’t like the chorus,” Wolfman said of majority votes conerning school district financial issues, including infrastructure maintenance. “I want to reduce the expenses.”

• Steve Hecht:  A 36-year resident of the township, Hecht also has a 38-year background of teaching at the high-school level. His now adult children went through the school district system, during which he was involved with coaching and H.S.A. “The consensus seems to be ‘How to make education better,” Hecht said. “The fact of the matter is, the school has to start it, and educate the parents to accept that the curriculum is going to be difficult.”

• Duval Doughtery: Moved to Upper Moreland Township in 1998, and has two children, one who graduated from, and the other currently attending, school within the district. Doughtery works as a systems analyst manager for a large pharmaceutical company. He also volunteered for Upper Moreland Little League as an umpire. “I want to help a student meet challenges in holistic and balanced ways,” Doughterty said, emphasizing technology as the key for student success in the school district, as well as for future careers. “With technology, comes great efficiency.”

• Mark Wenik: Wenik has 3 children in the school district, and coached district soccer teams. He is currently serving as the Policy/Programs chairperson for the school board. “I don’t necessarily think this election is going to be about taxes,” Wenik said, noting that taxes were not increased in the approved school district budget. “It will be about education today and tomorrow.”

• Al DerMovsesian: *DerMovesian learned of the vacated, unexpired 2-year term at the May “Meet the Candidates” event. DerMovsesian ran for school board 12 years before,  but was not elected. DerMovsesian’s father also served on the Upper Moreland School Board for 12 years. He has a son at the Middle School level. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity to give back to the community,” he said. DerMovsesian is a graduate of the Upper Moreland school system and went on to help create the . He is also on the board of directors for the , and has worked with the township’s Parks and Recreation Department. He currently works as a manager in the foods and services industry.

• April Stainback: Stainback was appointed to finish off the vacated 2-year term position on the school board this year, and has served on the board since. She is now running for a full term. She has several children within the school district system, and served on the home and school associations, where she held various positions. “I just want to give back, I’ve given back at the H.S.A. level and now I’m ready to give back at the school board level,” Stainback said.  

Questions

The initial questions were repeats from the last event, asking for a brief auto-biography and if any of their position toward the school board had changed since the primaries, which none had.

The third question dealt with positions on an issue:

What is Your Vision of Education in this Community?

Wolfman started off this question with a charge against the school district's current ranking against neighboring schools was lower, citing an online polling source. Wolfman also pointed out that the current PSSA scores in Math are lower than neighboring schools. However, Wenik, during his response, retorted that such online ranking systems come from an unsubstantiated source. He did recognize the comparatively lower test scores by those of neighboring districts. In his response, Wenik said that the school board is going in the right direction, and pointed out the unprecedented 85-percent high school students went on to college.

Hecht agreed with Wolfman, saying that standardized test scores do need to go up, especially at the high school level, but the school board must set policies that maximize the education given.

“You’re educating kids, not educating test scores,” Hecht said.

Dougherty’s response for this question, suggested that a focus on technology is the key.

“If we can leverage the technology in our schools,” Dougherty said. “We can prepare our students for what’s outside the school district.”

Slagle commented that the school board should also be conscious not to cut extra-curricular activities, while maintaining a minimal impact to resident taxpayers.

Berlin also pointed out that the coming school district budget did not increase taxes, and was also able to earmark expenditures for continuous improvement beyond the curriculum, including infrastructure maintenance.

“So we’re never in the position where we have four buildings that are crumbling at the same time,” she said.

How can UM improve Education and be more “en par” with Neighboring School Districts?

For this question, Lieser asked the candidates to be very specific, and noted that Upper Moreland sends fewer students to college than neighboring districts, as well as confirmed that the standardized test scores at the high school level are comparatively lower.

Hecht, who spoke first, said that students and their parents must be challenged to make academic improvements at the schools, and would demand more from the curriculum. He also noted that college may not be the best educational path for all students, and suggested that such students be encouraged to explore the .

Doughtery, on the other hand, suggested that comprehensive studies be taken out on the neighboring school districts, in order to find out where Upper Moreland competitively falls short.

“If we research what is successful there, we don’t have to re-invent the wheel in Upper Moreland,” Dougherty said. “We can implement the best of their education system and make sure that our children have the same technology and same opportunities as those school districts have.”

Wenik agreed with Hecht in that the solution to this question begins at home, however, he disagreed that it’s the school district’s responsibility to initiate that involvement.

“We have to make sure that our parents expectations are higher for their kids. The parents have to demand from the schools that their students have access to honors courses, AP courses,” Wenik said. “Don’t let the school or the counselor set a ceiling for a child, tell the child to do whatever they want, and then work with them to achieve their goal.”

DerMovsesian, whose son is in advanced classes, suggested having counselors speak with students at an early age prior to their high school experience about their goals and career interests, in a similar individualized manner that his so receives.

Wolfman agreed with Wenik that students must be encouraged to achieve, but commented that if a student does get into a more prestigious school, they would not be able to afford it, stating that the overall state of education at the High School would make it unlikely to receive a scholarship.

What kind of Relationship should the School Board have with the Community and Families?

This question, reiterated from the previous “Meet the Candidates” event, the strong encouragement from sitting school board member candidates about attending the Tuesday evening school board committee meetings every week, saying that residents can help directly influence discussion on taxes and student performance.

“I think it’s critical to have community involvement,” Wenik said. “The schools belong to the community.”

“At the committee level, the structure is open,” Berlin later added. “That’s where it gets interesting.”

Wenik also mentioned a more open relationship with the township board of commissioners in finding more ways to keep taxes down for residents.

DerMovsesian spoke first in stating with several other candidates that residents may not have a great deal of time to attend meetings, and suggested that even more electronic media information be sent out by the school district than what is already available. He also suggested that residents, who are without children in the district, be allowed more involvement with the schools, whether it be guest judging projects or volunteering service hours.

Considering the Diverse Views of Constituents with Personal Interests.

Wenik was the first to answer and explained that every decision the school board makes is based off requirements from the state and federal laws, and reiterated that direct input from the community helps maintain impartiality.

DerMovsesian added that some decisions the board will make will be tough on certain members of the school community, but impartiality may be maintained through open communication.

“The decision may not go one group’s way, but we should take the time to educate why we made the decision that we made, and how it does benefit the district overall,” DerMovesian said.

Stainback, as a sitting board member, pointed out that the current board members have differing backgrounds, which helps to maintain the balance of judgment.

“When you hear everybody’s different opinions, you are able to weigh that,” she said. “The more information you get, helps to be more impartial.”

Slagle added that by working with the board toward the common goal of maintaining balance between what’s best for the students while minimizing the impact on taxpayers is the answer.

“And, if we keep that in mind with a lot of the decisions, I don’t think it would be very hard to be impartial, if we’re working towards one common goal in the decisions that we’re making,” Slagle said.

In Light of Budget Cuts by the Governor, What should the School District’s Priorities be?

DerMovsesian started off the question, adding to Wenik’s response of bettering township relations, with improving county and state relationships, as well.

“While we are never going to get that money back,” he said. “It is imperative that we stop this erosion that is going on.”

DerMovsesian commented that the success of the no-tax increase school district budget came with some tough sacrifices for teachers, and that such sacrifices across the board may have to come again in the future, and will only be able to keep what’s necessary to function in the district.

Stainback responded with praise for the district’s current business manager Michael Bruan.

“He is really gifted at finding ways to cut spending but to not cut our programming from our curriculum, and if he can just keep plugging away at that, that would be great,” she said. “But, I’m sure that there’s going to come a year where taxes will have to be raised, and we can trust our board that it’s for the good of the kids and the good of the community.”

Slagle also recognized the progress in graduation and budgeting success of the school district.

“We need to keep that progress up and not cut the programs that set us on that progress,” he said. “And, we should really focus on planning for the future, as well as deal with the limitations of the current budget crisis.”

Berlin said that the current board does plan for future budget limits while tackling the statewide budget cuts.

She said that the succes of the approved budget was based on scrutinizing line items, and findomg ways of reducing those costs, such as consolidating the scheduling and pick-up/drop off locations for transportation costs.

“We don’t want to see things like our co-curriculars and extra-curricular programs go away,” she said. “Because, programs matter more than anything.”

Wolfman suggested that more drastic steps were needed, and any cost-expense to the district would be, “on the table.”

“The bottom line is, if it’s for the education of the students and the safety of the students, you will hear me say 'yes,'” he said. “If it is for ridiculous, uncessary spending, I will say 'no.'”

Wolfman provided fuel, food, re-paving parking lots, rebuilding garages, as examples of cost expenses that he would be against.

Hecht agreed with Wolfman on scrutinizing any cost expenditure for savings, but also described the governor’s cuts as tragic.

Dougherty suggested that not total emphasis should be given on keeping up with neighboring districts, who may have more or different resources that Upper Moreland; rather, he suggests on working with what resouces the district has.

Wenik explained that 75-percent of the budget are labor costs, including teachers, bus drivers and custodians. He said that the remaining pieces of the approved budget undergone cost-saving actions, including the increasing of class sizes.

Other Questions

The remaining questions asked by Liesner, seemed to have a more general consensus in the spirit of the answers, with few variations. One such question found that none of the candidates approved of school vouchers.

While there were well-over 80 residents that attended the first “Meet the Candidates” event in May, the Oct. 19 drew less than 60 people in attendance.

According to Leiser, the second candidates’ event , however, she was disappointed by the unexpectedly low turnout.

“I thought it went well,” Leisner said, adding that she thought the candidates gave fuller answers as compared to the previous “Meet the candidates event. “This was a service to the community.”

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Election day is Nov. 8.

Patch will have further election coverage, closer to the date.

For more information, visit www.umtsd.org.

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