The Pennsylvania State Education Association will provide financial backing to a push aimed at changing the make-up of the Pennsbury school board, a PSEA spokesman said Friday.
George Miller, president of the Pennsbury Education Association, called on the state labor union for its assistance in June as PEA representatives and district residents gathered signatures for a petition backing the change.
It would make it ?virtually impossible? for Simon Campbell, the board vice president and founder of stopteacherstrikes.org, to maintain a majority of supporters on the district?s governing body, Miller said in his letter to PSEA Legal Field Manager Richard Burridge.
?It is very much to our political advantage to pursue this effort,? Miller said in the letter.
The ?Citizen 1? effort, proposed by Concerned Residents of Pennsbury, would split the board?s three regions into nine regions, according to a challenge filed in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas earlier this month. CROP filed the challenge shortly after the board asked the court to approve a realignment of the district?s governing body.
The realignment, authorized by the school board in June, moves a few voting districts around to balance its representation of Pennsbury?s 71,000-plus residents. The court has to approve any changes.
President Judge Susan Devlin Scott will consider both plans during an Aug. 17 hearing, according to David Truelove, a Pennsbury resident and attorney representing CROP.
?In the end the judge will decide what is best,? Miller told the newspaper Friday afternoon. ?We just want to make sure the judge gets an opportunity to see the plan because we think it?s a better plan.?
Making sure Pennsbury has the best representative model in place is the primary reason PEA is supporting CROP, Miller said.
"If it turns out to be a better piece and removes Campbell from the board at least for a brief period of time that is fine with me. However, Campbell is not the primary reason we are trying to pursue this," Miller said.
Wythe Keever, a PSEA spokesman, confirmed Friday that the state teachers union received Miller?s request on behalf of CROP to support the initiative.
?PSEA has not provided any financial assistance to either the PEA or the Concerned Residents of Pennsbury to date. However, we plan to do so. The amount and timing has not been determined,? Keever said. ?PSEA often receives requests from our local associations for some type of financial assistance.?
The support is needed to help secure the needed changes in the board's make-up before the 2013 elections, Miller, the PEA president, said.
?We were unsuccessful (in 2011) in keeping Campbell from achieving majority status on the board largely due to substantial amounts of money flowing into the district from out of district organizations at Campbell?s direction,? Miller said in the letter. ?The Harrisburg-based Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania funded massive mailings and a TV commercial anti-union campaign.?
The nine-region plan would make school directors more accessible and accountable to district residents they represent, the PEA president said.
It also ?negates the influence of out-of-district funding, prevents one area of the district from dominating the entire district and in general better fulfills the idea of representational democracy,? he said.
A disc of correspondence between CROP and PEA members was ?inadvertently included with the CROP court filing,? Truelove said Friday. Miller's letter was on the disc. Copies of it and the rest of the court filing were sent to each Pennsbury school board member.
Campbell forwarded portions of the court filing, including Miller?s letter, to local newspapers.
In a series of emails to the newspaper, Campbell said ?it?s almost comical? that the district and state teacher unions are supporting the alternative school board model.
?I haven't even decided if I even want to seek re-election next year for heaven's sake. But I drive these people so crazy with what I stand for, that they can't take it,? Campbell said in an e-mail. ?The almighty powerful PSEA state teachers' union wants to pour money into stopping ONE of 4,500 school board directors in Pennsylvania. And it's because they fear the public wants me to remain in office??
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48180623/ns/local_news-delaware_valley_pa_nj/
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