Issues

We believe that the district can do much more to engage with our community - parents, taxpayers, residents, and staff. Not everyone can attend an in-person board meeting and not everyone is comfortable speaking in public. 

Many other school boards make better use of community and staff surveys, YouTube channels, and social media. The board should be more accessible to the community and use the community’s input to develop a forward-looking vision for the district. 

We believe the district should be run like a school, not a business. Our children are not products on an assembly line. We will scrutinize the district’s budget and question spending that does not benefit the students. Both students and taxpayers will benefit from a fresh set of eyes, rather than the status quo. 

We support parents as key contributors to their children’s education. Parents are the experts on the needs of their own children. 

While there is always room for improvement, Souderton has made progress in the level of parental involvement over the years. Communication has gotten better from schools. Parents have many options to go into schools to volunteer, especially in the elementary and middle schools. Parents also have direct access to grades in the Home Access Center and assignment submissions through Schoology in the upper grades.

Souderton also already offers parents the ability to review curriculum and request alternatives for their children if they object to a specific book or assignment. We support this policy. One or several parents, however, should not have the right to decide what curriculum and books are appropriate for all students - this would be infringing on the rights of all other families in the SASD community.

The process for challenging curriculum materials should be easily accessible, transparent, and robust. An appropriate team that is a cross-section of roles and backgrounds should thoroughly review any challenged materials to make a decision.

Kristina Bertzos: 

Most would agree that books in schools should be age and developmentally appropriate. In terms of defining what is age and developmentally appropriate, our school librarians and educational professionals are the experts. Limiting access to books based on non-educational agendas is a slippery slope. In addition to educational content (e.g., textbooks), books provide youth a glimpse into a world beyond what they see every day – different places, people, methods of interacting, cultures, and so on. 

By categorically removing books from our school libraries, we are at risk for creating knowledge gaps that could leave our children less prepared for our global society as adults. While we should certainly respect individual parent and student decisions to refrain from reading specific content, it is not appropriate or responsible to impose these same restrictions on all students and families.

Elise Bowers:

Author Jodi Picoult says my philosophy better than I can express: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with a parent deciding a certain book is not right for her child. There is a colossal problem with a parent deciding that, therefore, no child should be allowed to read that book.”

Books allow us to understand, not only ourselves, but others….  Books allow us to see the world within the safety of our own home.  They open our world to others' lives, realities, experiences.  Books grow our empathy and emotional intelligence.  Books expand our horizons.

Rosemary Buetikofer:

Let the experts decide what appropriate literature is for students. Our district librarians are highly qualified professionals who hold Masters degrees in Library Science. Teachers are trained to differentiate learning. If a parent has concerns about a particular book or assignment for their child, they can request an alternative assignment. 

It is my own experience as a teacher that such requests are listened to carefully and are usually honored. 

I support the right of parents to express their concerns over specific assignments given to their child.  A parent may take a book out of their own child’s hands, but I do not believe the parent has the right to take the book away from any other child.

Andrew Souchet:

I’ve spent most of my adult life in the service of our country as a member of the US military. Our great nation is built on the principles of free speech, liberty, and independent thinking. Existing policies balance our American principles with the goals of age-appropriate content and analytical thinking.

Scott Swindells:

Sadly, a well-funded and carefully choreographed attack on public education has been masquerading as a group of concerned parents. While many well-intentioned people may have been misled into believing they are removing dangerous content from schools and libraries, the fact is that these measures are already in place, and students are not being exposed to inappropriate content. This is an Astro-turf campaign, and school directors who prioritize the health and wellbeing of their students, teachers, and families need to call it out as such, and stand up to the bullies. 

Books that teach real history and show our diversity are nothing to fear. Our district has policies in place for curriculum review, and a good school director needs to make sure these policies and procedures are transparent by communicating with community members to make sure they know the appropriate avenues to pursue to question curricular materials. 

Parents have the right to read curriculum at the district office, and a parent may choose to request alternative assignments for their children when they object to a specific book or assignment. In my decades of experience in public education, I’ve found that schools go to great lengths to meet these requests. While parents may decide for their own children, they do not have the right to decide for all of us, nor can they infringe on the rights of all students in the community to a diverse, inclusive, safe, and robust education. 

Kristina Bertzos: 

In my current employment, I am responsible for ensuring we gather and incorporate patient feedback when developing new medications for deadly diseases. As part of this work I am tasked with hiring and overseeing vendors who conduct interviews with patients. In this role I review and manage multi-million dollar budgets, ensure we do not exceed our budget limit, and provide status updates to leaders and stockholders. This work positions me well to review and offer suggestions for streamlining the SASD district budget. 

The SASD budget is currently in a significant deficit. My top priority related to the budget would be to have a deep dive review, line by line, of the budget and ensure all spending is necessary for the benefit of the students. 

Elise Bowers:

A major professional role I held for 15 years was as a financial planner.  I helped individuals plan their financial security. In addition to personal financial planning, I worked with my church in various leadership roles which grew into larger responsibilities in the broader diocesan community.  

Rosemary Buetikofer:

As a department leader in my teaching career, I prepared budget requests for over 25 years. I am experienced in the school district budget process. I also know that in Pennsylvania, school boards are faced with mandates and fixed expenses that leave little room for discretionary spending. Approximately 85% of the costs are beyond the control of local school boards and Act 1 restricts the ability of school boards to raise taxes beyond a set percentage each year. 

My top priority is student centered spending. I believe it is prudent for me to wait to make suggestions on the actual Souderton budget until I am on the Board and go through the process. I will count on the administration, the business manager and the incumbent board members to assist me in my learning process.  

Andrew Souchet:

I have public and private sector experience overseeing budgets valued in the millions of dollars. 

Better budget deliberation clarity would be a priority. The format, board meeting structure, and materials presently available to constituents are ambiguous at best.

The budget meeting atmosphere and content must change. Too much energy is spent on discussions that do little to further the interests of our community and are best addressed in Harrisburg. I want to keep the conversation on relevant matters.  

In addition, I am acquainted with more than just the financial implications of leadership; previous responsibilities have required me to assess and balance non-monetary considerations such as at-risk human life and liberty.

Scott Swindells:

During the years I spent as Learning Coordinator for English 7-12 and Technology Education, I oversaw very large budget lines for these departments at five different schools. Part of the job of coordinating these areas for such a large school district involved crafting a budget that would meet the needs of the department chairs while staying in line with the overall goals of the Chief Financial Officer and the business department. 

Creating a responsible and responsive budget is heavily rooted in listening. I will make it a priority to listen to our community. I will push for accountability, particularly in areas where health and safety are concerned. In a district that receives as much state and federal funding as we have over the past two years, it is inexcusable how frequently our bathrooms have no soap or paper towels (or are closed altogether), how often the hand sanitizing stations are empty, or how regularly students report unsatisfactory conditions with the school food. 

These are issues we can solve by working together and taking the honest input from our students and the families. Also among my top priorities are attracting and maintaining a diverse and talented workforce and supporting district administration to bring our district’s academic ratings back.