The question of how Quakertown school board members will be elected has united former political opponents, and torn apart former allies. The result should be a win for district taxpayers.
The controversy is well known - school taxes up 50% in five years, teacher salaries in the top 10 in the entire state, SAT scores the lowest in the area, and resignations and infighting to rival a third-world nation. The nine-member board represents 38,000 residents spread over six municipalities. Three members elected from each of three districts. But there are really no differences between the schooling needs of families in Quakertown, Richland, Milford, Haycock, Richlandtown, or Trumbauersville.
Everyone pays the same high taxes. Many kids attend schools located outside of their own towns. Everyone ends up at the same high school. There are well-to-do residents, and seniors on fixed incomes, everywhere. There isn't a single issue that applies to only one municipality.
But there is an issue that is very important to many members of the current board - protecting their positions! Elected officials are rarely willing to give up power once they have tasted it. So, not surprisingly, the board voted to keep the same three-district representation.
Angry parents and residents, who pay the huge taxes whether or not they have students in the system, adopted the movie battlecry I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more! And, after 1500 citizens packed the meeting in May to protest the problems, they found three champions: new board members Manuel Alfonso and Paul Stepanoff, and Richland Supervisor Rick Orloff.
Orloff, Alfonso, and Stepanoff spearheaded a drive to challenge the three-district format by circulating a petition to elect all nine members at-large. Give every citizen a say in each board member. They needed 529 signatures to ask the court to consider their plan. In less than four weeks they had 1400, from all six towns, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. The mayor and tax collector of Trumbauersville, president of Richlandtown council, two of three Richland supervisors, all three Haycock supes, former District Justice Kathryn Stump, two former school directors, and Milford GOP Committee members. Over 90% of those who read the petition signed it!
Orloff is a CPA who specializes in operational management. He was Controller for a special education school, and sits on the CPA's state advisory board that oversees municipal and school district affairs. Stepanoff is an engineer who never met a spread sheet he didn't like. Alfonso is a retired Army auditor. They gathered reams of statistics about salaries, test scores, staff ratios, and operating costs, and how those numbers correlated in QCSD, and in other districts around the state.
And they found that teacher salaries, and school spending, had no relation to test scores. Quakertown's ratio of staff to students is way up, but the district has the lowest SAT's and the highest salaries. And, while most of the surrounding districts improved scores between 2001-2005, Quakertown's remained absolutely flat. During the same period, per student spending increased close to 50%!! They asked where all of that money went, and what it was used for.
The petition was presented to the board on September 28, with both factions accusing the other of distortions. But the handwriting was on the wall. Even former opponent Qtown councilman Dave Zaiser, gave in: "If a compromise can be reached that the regions gets two seats each and then there are three at large, I will support it".
Seeing their positions in jeopardy, the board is now willing to discuss some at-large elections in an effort to head off litigation that could result in total at-large representation. Attorneys for the two sides will be meeting. With a 1400-calibre gun pointed at their heads, expect the board to accept big changes. Much of the credit will be due to Orloff, Stepanoff, and Alfonso. But despite the overwhelming popularity of the petition, and the at-large movement, there are still certain rabble rousers who have an agenda of opposition solely for politics. People like Richland Democratic Committeeman Brian Kline.
Remember Brian Kline? Not many people do. He ran unsuccessfully for Richland supervisor in 1995 and 1999, then disappeared to Virginia. But he resurfaced a few weeks ago with a letter to The Free Press, attacking the at-large movement, calling it "cover for extremists bent on taking over the school board in 2007....Orloff and his religious right-wing allies see the opportunity to set the playing field". Kline then publicly declared that the Democratic Party would be challenging the petition and the at-large system.
In his Virginia dreams. Neil Samuels, the Assistant Bucks County Democratic Party Chairman, told me that the county Dems see this as strictly a local issue, and have no intention of pursuing any legal action. He also stated that Kline has no standing with the county party, and does not speak for them.
What he did not say outright is that Kline is embarrassing them. But Democratic candidate for state legislature John Norvaisas did. The Richlandtown councilman has reversed both his opposition to at-large, and his support of Kline. He now rejects "Brian Kline and his negative politics and law suits. It's time for me to lead and stop all this crap going on! I want to compromise on the school board issue. I just want what is best for the taxpayers of Upper Bucks".
"I called Richard Orloff, and wanted him to know that a lot of Democrats are not happy with what is going on with (opposition to) the at-large issue. I also have a lot of people in Richlandtown asking me to change my mind on the issue. I think we need a compromise and hope we can all work something out. I want to move forward doing what's best for the taxpayers of the 145th district".
Republicans and (responsible) Democrats working together! A win for QCSD.