2019 general election: Lehighton Area School Board
Six candidates are vying for five seats on Lehighton Area School Board. They are:
Richard Beltz
Background: Lifelong resident of Lehighton; two kids; married for 25-plus years; aircraft mechanic/pilot.
Q: What are your top priorities if elected?
A: Negotiate a fair contract with the teachers union. Continue to participate in the decision making.
Q: How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it?
A: Financial health is poor. Our little school district is over $100 million in debt. We need to cut spending as much as possible. The damage is done though. Tax increases are inevitable now.
Jack Finnegan
Background: I am retired from a 34-year career with the Social Security Administration. I held nine different positions of increasing responsibility, in eight different locations. My last 17 years were spent as the district administrator for Allentown and Bethlehem offices. I have been a board member for the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission the last 15 years.
Q: What are your top priorities if elected?
A: I will continue my advocacy for our youth, specifically working to keep them physically and mentally healthy and keeping them chemically free. Vaping has emerged as a true epidemic, with national statistics indicating that one of four high school students is using electronic cigarettes. I also plan on continuing my support for our teachers, explaining them as the most important members of our community. Finally, collectively, we need to raise a better generation of parents.
Q: How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it?
A: I would rate the district’s financial health as — excellent! All of our facilities have been completely renovated, including the creation of a state of the art elementary center. We are positioned very well for the next 20 years or so. I am especially optimistic about the two new hospitals being built in our district, attracting professional families to our area. I do believe that long-term, we are in great financial shape.
Nathan Foeller
Background: I’ve spent the last 10 years as a business owner, and I’ve owned and operated the Minuteman Press in Stroudsburg for the last six years. As a business owner and lifelong learner, I have experience in a variety of areas will prove valuable as a board member. I have a bachelor’s degree and years of experience in ministry and teaching. I am a 15-year Lehighton resident with three children in the district.
Q: What are top priorities if elected?
A: With a goal of no tax increases, continue to make constant, incremental improvements in the education offered in our district; provide students with a well-rounded education, including electives and extracurriculars and ensuring that students planning to enter a career or trade have the opportunity to learn the skills they need; and provide growth opportunities for staff and foster an environment where our great teachers can thrive.
Q: How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it?
A: Our district’s largest asset in terms of value is our facilities — they are up-to-date, in good repair, and something to be proud of. This year has required some “belt-tightening” but I’m confident that we’ll get through this phase. I believe our situation can continue to improve as the administration and the board work together to spend money wisely, to reduce expenses where possible without cutting programs, and to ensure that the district is obtaining all the funding that is available to us.
Rita Spinelli
Background: Served six years as an LASD School Director from 1993 to 1999. She currently sits on the board after being appointed in 2018. A 39-year resident of Franklin Township, she attended Millersville University and received an AAS in Accounting from LCCC. She has two children who graduated from LASD. Rita has worked in all areas of bookkeeping, taught QuickBooks and Excel and retired in 2015 after 10 years as a Realtor.
Q: What are your top priorities if elected?
A: LASD has challenges and always will. I believe in public education and believe it should be a prerequisite for this office. I strongly support any means of education that meets a child’s needs but I am a public school director. I am neither an activist nor leader of a taxpayer advocate group. There is no doubt that education needs to and will change through patience and working within the system of the day.
Q: How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it?
A: All school districts face unfunded mandates and increased student needs. Financial challenges happen daily and without warning. A responsible board meets those challenges head-on and with respect. A comprehensive balance of wants and needs, correct budgeting, monitoring spending and advocating for funding for mandates will keep things at bay. Expenses rise for school districts as they do for individuals. No government functions for long without periodic tax increases. Meeting student needs is our job.
Larry Stern
Background: A resident of the Lehighton community since parents returned to the area in 1964. My family have all graduated from Lehighton Area and I earned a bachelor’s degree from Lycoming College. Currently employed in the information technology industry with a focus in human resources management. Served many years as a director and is currently board president; also served as Lehighton’s LCCC representative and remains committed to serving the community’s most valuable asset.
Q: What are your top priorities if elected?
A: Priorities are to maintain programs, increase curriculum rigor while improving opportunities for our students, staff and fiscal responsibility to our community. Student safety and overall well-being is a major concern. Our educational environment must evolve to provide support in all areas of student life. Facility upgrades completed, the district is now positioned for the future, to allow an even keener focus on educational advancement and as with any business, an emphasis on the bottom line.
Q: How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it?
A: Challenges arise on a yearly basis whether planned or unplanned, same as in business. The realization of the issue, including the severity, is first and foremost. Next steps are the building of a plan to resolve the challenge with minimal impact to the reason why we are here: education. With a realistic budgeting process, monthly review of expense to budget, critiquing of expenditures, the district will be able to overcome financial challenges, present or future.
Wayne Wentz
Background: I was born and raised in Lehighton. After graduation I joined the military and spent 13 months in Vietnam. Upon discharge I was employed by Norfolk Southern railroad. I have volunteered 36 years with Franklin Township Athletic Association, 27 of those years as president of the organization. I have served on the Lehighton school board for 12 years as the CLIU rep, building and grounds committee and serving as athletic committee chairperson.
Q: What are your top priorities if elected?
A: My top priority is always serving and protecting the children of LASD. I also wish to keep the taxpayers in mind when making financial decisions. I am proud to be part of the Hometown Team in making children, community and this district a top priority. Great things can only be accomplished when we all work together.
Q: How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve
A: I believe our financial health is improving and we are in very capable hands. We need to work with our staff, administration and taxpayers to continue to do what is best for our students … our number one priority.
Comments
Larry Stern - Raised taxes, raised budgets, failed to protect the children by implementing proper policy, plead immunity (twice), abdicated authority to the very people he was elected to oversee, failed to keep budget in line. He was kicked to the curb by voters in the past, keeps running anyway. His wife is a district employees. Rubber stamps the administration, abdicating his authority. The administration happens to oversee his wife's employment. Acts as a total hot head when given power.
Wayne Wentz - Raised taxes, raised budgets, failed to protect the students with proper policies, failed to save the community, uses cronyism and selective enforcement to leverage advantages for his 'friends' at the taxpayers expense. Great person but, a very bad public servant. As a volunteer board member Wayne has failed to manage the district into a sustainable agency. We are not even sure if that is a goal of his.
Rita Spinelli - suggests downsize yet voted to raise the spending budgets and raise the taxes on our community. Blocks transparency, fails to protect the students with proper policy, votes with the block five giving her blind trust and rubber stamp to the administration. Just a stubborn old woman that fails to realize the students need a sustainable district. Taxing grandparents out of the community is just bad, all the way around bad.
Jack Finnegan - was on the board when the LASD board was raising taxes and banking the funds in the general fund that exploded to $13M+. He was also part of the Slumlord board that failed to maintain the safety items in the four district elementary schools (feasibility studies). Sits curb side, didn't even run in the primary. Democrats ignored votes when the hand pick this guy with his history of being a fan of tax and tax some more. A bad public servant that silenced the community by not voting to implement a referendum vote prior to construction or plans for increases in debt. List goes on for this guy. Don't repeat the mistakes of giving this guy power.
Write in new people, these incumbents and past incumbents were all proven to be bad public servants.
Write in new people. Write in:
Barb Bowes
Byron Schnell
Kerry L. Sittler
Protect the students and save the community. Read their profiles online.
Hate me all you like, but the truth is only painful to those hiding it.
The people that lied about the savings, lied about the tax increases, buried our children in debt and failed to transparently provide the financial documents to the public should not be voted back into power.
Three times this community sought proper governance, and now they will have to write in their own to combat the money machines behind the Hometown Tax team. End the corruption and waste, write in a clean slate.
Sincerely,
You friendly neighborhood public servant.
Budget increases
Selective enforcement issues
Blocked from financial records
Student scheduling issue
Bus issues
End the corruption and waste and write in a clean slate. Write in:
Barb Bowes
Byron Schnell
Kerry L. Sittler
Ask Matt Stevens who was banned from the district for protecting students rights?
Ask Christina Haupt if directors should see the bills before they are approved for payment?
Ask Cale Kresge if board oversight is a good thing?
Ask the neighbors if the administration should be the ones negotiating the contracts?
The taxpayers are going to be paying for the contracts, who is representing them at the begining table?
Is it Larry? Wayne? Rita?
Ask if teachers should be drug screened.
Ask your friends if criminally bad teachers should be fired or allowed to resign? Ask the candidates to take your own morality test. These people all failed mine. They may be good people but their actions prove they are bad public servants. I wouldn't let them hold my wallet.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
Town: Lehighton
Background: (75 word maximum) I grew up in Pt. Pleasant Beach, NJ. I’ve been a resident of Lehighton for 15 years. I picked Lehighton in which to retire. I have 2 children, a son and a daughter and 3 grandchildren, all boys. I’m the President of East Penn Pyr Rescue and President of Penn-Dutch Great Pyrenees Club.
How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it? Struggling. We need to cut wasteful spending, focus on needs rather than wants, adopt a budget we can live within, and stop spending more than what we take in from taxes, subsidies, and grants. We are faced with huge debt and other challenges and need to address it in a fiscally responsible manner. We need to come together to solve these issues without asking the community to keep paying more over and over again.
How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it? Struggling. We need to cut wasteful spending, focus on needs rather than wants, adopt a budget we can live within, and stop spending more than what we take in from taxes, subsidies and grants. We are faced with huge debt and other challenges and need to address it in a fiscally responsible manner. We need to come together to solve these issues without asking the community to keep paying more over and over again.
Who am I and why am I running for the Lehighton School Board?
BACKGROUND: I am a wife and mother of two girls. An elementary student and a middle school student. I lived in Lehighton for most of my life; but I also lived in Providence, RI for 4 years. I have a BS in Management and an AD in Recreation and Leisure Management from Johnson & Wales University, a Liberal Arts degree from Lehigh Carbon Community College and AD Registered Nurse from Northampton Community College. I am active in the PTO and also was a booster club assistant track coach for 5 years. I am running for School Board Director because I realized I am the change I want to see!
If elected I will fight for those with no voice, for the single Moms and Dads, the elderly living on social security, and those two income families struggling to survive. I will fight to get our teachers the much needed supplies for their classrooms so they don’t have to beg for them and they can concentrate on teaching. I will use common sense to make decisions and take the communities best interest into consideration. I want to work together with the other school board members, administrators, and community to improve our situation and get Lehighton back to the great district we once were.
How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it?
The financial health for our district is dismal at best. It is hard enough being a Title One school district (which means we are a poor district) without the tax increases we will incur. We have no money for new books to replace the outdated books and no money for supplies for our teacher’s classrooms. We as a district are essentially broke. There is a huge lack of insight and many missed opportunities by the district in ways of spending and saving money. We need to pinpoint those opportunities and capture any missed monies to the fullest extent possible. We need to be more cautious with our spending and work smarter not harder. We need to ask ourselves is this a necessity or a want? We need to think and spend responsibly for this is NOT our money; it is the taxpayers and communities money. We all want to give the kids the world but we simply cannot bankrupt the community doing it! Today’s children are tomorrow taxpayers. We need to ask ourselves do we really want to leave that kind of burden on our futures shoulders? If we fail our kids today they will fail us tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Kerry L. Sittler
> Create an atmosphere of progressive ethical motivation.
> Develop a budget that promotes good will among our constituents.
> Vouch our educational values and goals align with the districts demographics.
> Make a positive impact in the halls and classrooms throughout the district.
> Ensure the Administration is on the same page as the Board of Directors.
I think these goals will set the pace for a positive educational tool.
I will be the difference. VOTE FOR THE BUILD A BOARD TEAM, on November 5th.
ITS TIME TO BE PROUD AGAIN‼️‼️
Town: Lehighton
Background: (75 word maximum) I grew up in Pt. Pleasant Beach, NJ. I’ve been a resident of Lehighton for 15 years. I picked Lehighton in which to retire. I have 2 children, a son and a daughter and 3 grandchildren, all boys. I’m the President of East Penn Pyr Rescue and President of Penn-Dutch Great Pyrenees Club.
What are your top priorities if elected? 75 word maximum) To provide the students with an excellent education, provide the educators with the tools they need to deliver that education, balance the budget and give the community a real voice in their district. In order to accomplish these goals and restore the faith of the community in their elected officials we need to rebuild the trust, heal the divide and make commonsense decisions that consider the impact those decisions have on everyone in the community.
How would you rate the financial health of the district and what do you think can be done to improve it? Struggling. We need to cut wasteful spending, focus on needs rather than wants, adopt a budget we can live within, and stop spending more than what we take in from taxes, subsidies, and grants. We are faced with huge debt and other challenges and need to address it in a fiscally responsible manner. We need to come together to solve these issues without asking the community to keep paying more over and over again.
Please take the time to check Mr. Bradley’s voting record: not paying bills, refusing monies from the state and federal government, hiring of qualified personnel recommended by interview committees—the last hire has worked in the district for six years which he did not know. I would think as a board member you would want to know who the people are in the district.
Also, ask Ms. Bowes, Mr. Schnell, and Ms. Sittler where they got their facts. How can they state that the budget increased by 10% in two years and in three years it was23%? Was this information from Mr. Bradley who had more access to bills and invoices when he met with the former business manager taking photos of the bills/ invoices the past year and a half? In reality, over three years, the budget has increased about 12%. Ask yourself how much has your household budget increased over the last three years for costs out of one’s control? Yes, The Hometown Team did say that everyday costs would increase down the road and taxes would go up within reason but not because of the debt service. Over the past six years, there has been a 1.5 mill increase. That is truly a remarkable feat for ANY school board. It is also noted that under the new business manager, the board and public are receiving well documented financial records each month detailing budget codes and in various formats. Also, revenue reports provided give each member a full cash flow picture. Is this not more transparent for all and a better reporting picture than in the past?
As for the deficit, It is true that that the deficit has increased due to new facilities and renovations. If nothing had been done with all of the facilities, this community would be looking at even higher costs down the road. As for textbooks, there is a curriculum textbook cycle in place. Perhaps, Mr. Bradley would know that if he attended the academic affairs meetings which he is a member of but had no idea that he was even on this committee.
The general statements being made by the write in candidates and Mr. Beltz like “wasteful spending”, " longer bus rides”,” harassment of employees”, the “community being harmed by the Board decisions”, are all generalities, a tactic that Mr. Bradley uses all of the time. So, how are the issues going to be fixed with no specifics given? Will saving tax dollars mean cutting those HS credits and furloughing staff? How will you determine where there is wasteful spending if any? Another statement made by write in candidate Ms. Sittler, “It is hard enough being a Title school which means we are a poor district” is another general statement and an indicator of lack of knowledge regarding education. Did you know that most schools in the state of Pa are Title schools, as title school funding is based upon free and reduced lunches? Are most of the schools in PA then considered poor?
The doom and gloom need to stop. Voting for the write ins and Mr. Beltz will only continue this pattern of negativity and a vote for David Bradley. We don’t need more negativity on the School board or those who think they have all the answers to the issues. It takes team work and a positive, encouraging environment to work together to make things better. I know I will be voting for those candidates who support those ideals.
AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE A BOARD OF VOLUNTEER DIRECTORS
The root of this evil extenda to a corrupt board that echos those living in their own world, and fails to listen to those paying.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
Vote out those that raised the taxes when the district had a surplus.
Vote out those that fail to provide oversight or abdicate their authority to the very people they were elected to oversee.
Times should change. The corruption and waste needs to be elected out of office. I have two more years and could use some moral reinforcements.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.