Abington Heights School Board will look different by end of race

May 9—The two incumbents and nine other candidates running for five open seats on the Abington Heights School Board hope to address a variety of issues in the district, including upgrading facilities, enriching programs and adding full-day kindergarten.

In Region 1, long-serving school board member Michele Tierney, Glenburn Twp., is up for reelection, challenged by Christopher Evans, Clarks Green. . In Region 2, current board member Rod Azar, Clarks Summit, is running for a two-year seat against Gary Rozman, Clarks Summit; and Gretchen Henderson, Clarks Summit, and Stephanie Luciani, South Abington Twp., are running for a four-year seat. And vying for one open, at-large seat are Jeremy Morris, Newton Twp.; Jim McVety, Clarks Summit; Kellie A. Barrett, Clarks Summit; and Emily Karam, Waverly Twp.

Anthony Abdalla, South Abington Twp., also new to the board, is running unopposed for a Region 3 seat, which covers parts of South Abington Twp.

The makeup of the Abington Heights School Board will change after the election. Long-serving board members Louise Brzuchalski, current president, Jeanne Cadman and Michele Pusateri are not seeking reelection. The new board will be responsible for negotiating a new teachers contract; the current one expires Aug. 31, 2022.

The candidates agree on two issues: continuing a standard of excellence in the district and upgrading facilities districtwide in a cost-effective manner.

School directors are unpaid. All candidates are cross-filed on the Democratic and Republican tickets.

Region 1

In Region 1, which covers Waverly, North Abington and Glenburn townships and parts of Clarks Green and Clarks Summit, incumbent Tierney is seeking reelection because she is "committed to the fiscal responsibility and the academic excellence of Abington Heights."

The board is planning feasibility studies on all its facilities and an all-day kindergarten program, she said.

Tierney — who, if elected, would begin her 16th year on the board — said she's an advocate for fair negotiations. She's one of two board members who voted against the current teachers contract. At the time, Tierney did not agree with a five-year deal and felt the district was not given time to make a counteroffer. She said the district is starting to negotiate all of its contracts.

"I'm a veteran board director that really understands negotiations and balancing the budget," she said, noting she's proud of raising taxes only twice in the past 15 years.

While watching board meetings, Evans, a district parent and sixth grade science and math teacher at West Scranton Intermediate School, realized that the students need more representation on the board.

"We have eight out of nine directors who no longer have children in the district," he said. "They don't have that skin in the game as far as having to live every day with the decisions that they're making."

If elected, Evans said he would push to address preventive maintenance issues in the buildings — so the problems don't become much larger expenses down the road — and technology upgrades, since the district hasn't necessarily made sure teachers and students have the best tech.

Region 2

In Region 2, which covers all of Newton and Ransom townships, and parts of Clarks Summit and South Abington Twp., Luciani, Henderson, Azar, an incumbent, and Rozman all have children enrolled in the district.

"Over the course of the last year it was incredibly evident that not everyone on the board had creative solutions to tough problems," Luciani said. "I want to be involved and want to have a say in what happens for my children."

Luciani launched an online petition last summer demanding the district provide an in-person option to start the school year. Abington Heights students started the school year remote before moving to a hybrid schedule in October and a full-time, in-person option in March.

Luciani is a proponent of full-day kindergarten, fiscal balance and assessing staffing challenges that are plaguing not just Abington Heights but districts statewide.

Both Luciani and Henderson plan to foster community engagement with not only parents, but also stakeholders without children enrolled at Abington Heights.

"Strong communities and strong schools go hand in hand," Henderson said.

Henderson, who has a background in education and worked in both Baltimore- and Philadelphia-area schools, said, if elected, her top issue would be to push for additional support within the schools and to add more social/emotional learning, especially after the pandemic.

"My primary goal would be to make sure there's a full-time principal, nurse and full-time school counselor in all of the buildings," she said, noting it was an issue before the pandemic.

Henderson, an active community advocate, would improve on initiatives already in the district, including adding a fifth grade readiness class and expanding the middle school's resiliency class, which teaches mindfulness.

While the board has an obligation to be fiscally responsible, directors should think of creative ways to find cost-effective solutions to improve current programs and curriculum and to reduce mental health stigmas in school, she said.

Azar was appointed to fill a seat on the board in September 2020. Rozman, a district parent and former New York City park ranger, also sought that appointment.

Azar, a private investment manager, said that if reelected, he will make deeper investments in district facilities and improve athletics.

"Our buildings, the middle school and the high school, are both showing their age," he said. The district should make a focused effort on upgrading buildings and balancing fiscal responsibility, he said.

Azar, whose party affiliation is Independent, said his financial background is an asset when balancing the district's yearly budget. He'd also like to create a private organization within the district to help fund extracurriculars or other projects without burdening taxpayers.

Rozman, who began his career as a high school science teacher in New York City, and his husband, T.J. Luma, moved to the district after they adopted their son, Devon, who has special needs, and to be closer to family.

He describes himself as an immigrant, a member of the LGBTQA+ community and a Jew.

"I've existed in minority places for much of my life and I understand what it's like to be relegated to those fringes or worse," he said. "I'd like to proactively change those attitudes."

If elected, Rozman, who is working on his master's thesis on outdoor education, would like add an environmental focus to the classroom by using the outdoors during lessons.

"It comes down to being a public servant; that's all I ever had been for as long as I can remember," he said. "My primary motivation has been to give back to my community and to sort of do what I can, even in a small way, to make where I live a better place."

At large

Morris, who owns Fratelli's Pizza and Pasta House in Scranton, has two daughters who attend Abington Heights High School, and his wife is a teacher in the North Pocono School District.

He said he'd like to restore programs that have been cut, hire substitute teachers on a long-term basis and stop outsourcing paraprofessional and maintenance positions. He also would like to research full-day kindergarten and promote trade programs, like the automotive shop, already in place in the district.

McVety, who has a background in education said, if elected, it will be critically important to evaluate the district's approach to staffing and its organizational structure and to focus on technology, infrastructure and food insecurity.

"We have one principal across two elementary buildings ... I don't think we've structured that portion of administration in the best possible way," he said. "The schools need a day-to-day leader to be there for students, teachers and families."

He said the board needs to make sure the teaching staff has the equipment and training they need and to work with instructional and teaching aids to ensure the success of all students. Equipping administrators, teachers and staff with resources and vocabulary to engage in culturally competent instruction and empowering them to work against racism, misogyny and inequities, is also an issue for McVety.

"We have a strong legacy at Abington and I'm committed to elevating that legacy going forward," he said.

Barrett's only special interests are the students and the taxpayers, she said.

She has three things on her platform: full-day kindergarten, improving pathways to the trades, and introducing foreign language to students in elementary school.

For Barrett, the district could do a better job at educating students early that jobs in the trades exist. It's also important for her as a parent to have school board members whose children attend the district.

"You have to feel the consequences of the decisions you make," she said.

Karam, a parent of four boys, has a strong background in higher education.

A former candidate for the Rhodes scholarship, Karam, an Abington Heights graduate, while at the University of Pittsburgh, helped honors students apply for scholarships and fellowships. She also taught writing at Penn State University.

"I can have a great impact in how we are preparing our students for the next stage of their education," she said.

She said, for her, full-day kindergarten is a no-brainer and the district needs to ensure it employs enough teachers.

Karam said the district needs to work to close learning gaps from the past year.

"How are we going to make sure we don't lose the children in the system who fell through the cracks, and that we support them and we integrate them into the bigger school community?" she said.

She said there was a lack of communication over the past year and, if elected, she'd strive to be a compassionate communicator for the district.

Contact the writer: kbolus@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5114; @kbolusTT on Twitter