What we believe

1. The role of the school board is to serve as a governing body over school policies and priorities, establish and manage a budget, ensuring fiscal responsibility, managing the staffing and role of the District Superintendent, maintain an open dialog with parents and the community, and support initiatives that promote quality education in a safe, supportive environment.

2. It is critical that the school board include a balance of viewpoints and perspectives to fully represent the student body and community.

3. As an all-Democratic progressive school board and administration, policies and priorities have become heavily focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), at the expense of the student experience, teacher safety, and academic performance. The board lacks a diversity of viewpoints, and has grown increasingly antagonistic to parental input, inquiries, or any other interaction that conflicts with their agenda.

4. While the schools of Wissahickon School District remain high in state and national rankings, they have also been falling in recent years. Wissahickon High School has dropped from 8th statewide in 2020 to 24th in 2023. This reflects the misguided priorities of the current school board and administration.

5. Addressing achievement gaps is an ongoing priority but cannot be solved with program solutions alone. Effectively addressing achievement gaps involves a combination of programs, support resources, and active engagement with parents and caregivers to consider cultural, socioeconomic, and circumstantial factors that can influence home support for students.

6. School books, materials, and curriculum should be subject to transparent and defined standards for age-appropriate content, with a clear and enforced process for questioning and evaluating content. The candidates do have concerns about the increased prevalence of promotion of materials with graphic and sexually explicit content, and feel that there should be transparency around setting content standards district-wide.

7. The school board and administration need to provide complete transparency with regard to school and teacher performance, and school staff with parents about their student’s experience. The board and school administrators have become increasingly antagonistic and uncommunicative with school parents, which must stop.

8. The district needs to address a variety of needs that have been regarded as secondary priorities for this school board, including:​

   • Retain math and language labs and add math specialists​

   • Quality staff in-services focused on teaching strategies and content-specific methodologies

   • More fulltime School Resource Officers (SROs)

   • Addressing aging facilities and other school infrastructure

   • Expanding financial literacy programs for students

9. Overwhelmingly, one of the district’s top priorities needs to be to take steps to stop the ongoing decline in school rankings, by refocusing on academic fundamentals, all student and teacher safety and support, and a balanced board agenda that is not dominated by inclusion initiatives at the expense of academic excellence. The board is there to serve the community, not to promote an agenda.