General Election 2019: Panther Valley School Board

Panther Valley area voters will fill six of the nine seats on the district board of education.

The voters will also decide vote for candidates for five four-year terms: William J. Mansberry Jr., Gary Porembo, Renee DeMelfi, Marco R. D’Ancona and Joseph J. Faenza and Daniel Matika.

Two candidates are running for the two-year position on the board. They are Steven Foster and D’Ancona. The Times News asked candidates for their platform. One responded.

Renee DeMelfi

Background: I reside in Nesquehoning with my husband and our youngest daughter, who is a student at Panther Valley. I am a retired business owner. Since 2015, I’ve held the positions of board secretary, education committee and the policy committee. I’ve assisted in negotiating several contracts successfully, volunteer for PV functions, Child Evangelical Fellowship and our Carbon County Good News Bible Clubs. I want people to know that I aim to make a positive difference.

Q: What are your top priorities if elected?

A: I will continue to support the fight for an Equal Funding Formula. Our students and teachers should not be penalized financially due to demographics. We deserve the same funding as wealthier school districts. I remain vigilant on cyber charter school reform. Their advertisements are misleading; they’re not free. Taxpayers foot the bill. Panther Valley is forced to pay out over $1 million dollars a year to charter schools. This is not isolated to Panther Valley.

Q: Staffing turnover has become an issue in Panther Valley. What is the solution?

A: I strongly believe that if state legislators would work to create an Equal Funding Formula as well as support Cyber Charter School Reform, we would be in a much better position financially. In turn, we would most likely retain staff that didn’t want to leave in the first place. I applaud our staff that choose to stay at Panther Valley despite our financial woes.