Leadership

Being a leader means listening to the community, asking hard questions, and having the courage to act boldly and with principle, especially where the well-being of our students are concerned.

Under my leadership, the Abington School Board has spoken up in support of our students’ first amendment rights, against bigotry and anti-semitism, and worked with the administration to develop a two-year plan to replenish our general fund balance and move the District out of deficit spending. Below are two of the public statements that I have issued as Board President.

Board Statement on Planned Student Walkout Protesting ICE

The Board has become aware of an organized walk-out by some of our High School students who wish to exercise their first amendment rights by protesting peacefully against recent ICE and CBP practices. We recognize that the Administration is legally obligated to accurately record attendance and has been working diligently to apprise students of this and other consequences participants may risk should they choose to participate. Having said that, the Board also wishes to take this opportunity make the following statement:  In accordance with the District’s mission, we celebrate the historical and culturally diverse roots of our community and its proud traditions. In concert with the District, we recognize and lift up the uniqueness of each student as they prepare for the challenges and opportunities of their futures. We further affirm and support the District’s commitment to inclusive and equitable practices that encourage students’ personal growth and cultivate their sense of belonging.  We acknowledge that among the proudest of this District’s traditions is its abiding commitment to educate future citizens who approach personal, local, national, and global challenges with serious knowledge, discerning minds, compassionate hearts, imaginative solutions, and a deep and abiding commitment to community. The Board recognizes that part of this education includes the vibrant traditions of communities, including our own, that have coalesced around matters of justice—emancipation, fair wages and working conditions, suffrage, voting rights, and civil rights—and that have expressed themselves through the most American and most Abington of traditions: non-violent protest. In the past, Abington students who have felt strongly about the injustice of school shootings, the many wrongs of institutional racism, and other injustices have also chosen to make themselves a part of this peaceful and eloquent legacy. We applaud our students’ embrace of their Constitutional rights and the rich American tradition of non-violent protest, though it may come at personal cost, on behalf communities everywhere who see who see friends and neighbors imperiled by ill-conceived and lethally executed immigration policies.