13 candidates seek 6 seats on Boyertown Area School Board

This sprawling Boyertown Area School District is divided between Berks and Montgomery counties and divides its school board representation by region.

A redistricting of the three regions last year makes the election even more complex for voters. Six seats are open, one of them for a two-year term, and one incumbent is running in a different region than he currently represents due to the redistricting. Only one incumbent, Brian Hemingway, is not seeking reelection.

An article in The Mercury invited all candidates to respond to an online questionnaire that contained questions on five subjects — school masking, standardized tests, state school funding reform, school library content and choosing one guaranteed accomplishment while in office.

None of the Region 1 candidates responded to The Mercury’s online questionnaire by the May 5 deadline.

But several candidates did respond to questions posed by The Reading Eagle, which is owned by the same company that owns The Mercury. In an effort to offer as complete a picture as possible of the upcoming election, the answers to the Eagle’s questions will be reproduced here for the candidates who did not respond to The Mercury, as well as those who answered The Mercury’s questions in Region 2 and Region 3.

The Eagle asked the following two questions: “Why are you the best candidate for this position? What is the most pressing issue facing your school district and how would you address it?”

Region 1

Region 1 is located entirely in Berks County and includes the Boroughs of Bally, and Bechtelsville, Colebrookdale Township, Earl Township and Washington Township and as well as voting precinct 1 in Boyertown Borough. There is a seat with a full four-year term open which is currently held by Christine Neiman. She is opposed by Krista Elsye Arndt. Both will appear on the Republican and Democratic ballots.

Neiman did not respond to either questionnaire.

The other Region 1 seat carries a two-year term and has three candidates running for it. The incumbent is Marianne Scott, who was appointed in January 2022 to replace Kristin Lord, who resigned at her very first school board meeting after being elected last year.

The other two candidates are Lindsay Warmington and Michelle Sweisfort. All three candidates will appear on both the Republican and Democratic ballots. Scott did not respond to either questionnaire.

• Krista Elyse Arndt, 39, is a chief information security officer in national clinical health care/orthopedics.

Arndt wrote “I started my career as a high school teacher. Throughout my career I’ve been responsible for building educational programs catering to a wide array of learning styles and backgrounds. I serve on Neumann University’s Business Advisory Counsel, shaping curriculum and programs; WiCyS Delaware Valley STEM; and have served on BCT High School Advisory Committee. I have years of experience managing multimillion-dollar budgets and experience with federal, state and local laws. I’m a servant-leader, in the trenches, and working cooperatively with stakeholders to make progress on some of the most controversial issues, am not afraid to address tough subjects, to take ownership driving improvement, doing so with tight resources as to not increase taxes for our district,” she wrote.

“I’m a working mom, my husband is in the military/first responder, so I can relate to other parents who have the same time and resource management challenges, so understand the importance of supporting our community, family and putting the kids first,” Arndt wrote.

“Cohesion, cooperation and trust,” is the biggest challenge facing the Boyertown district, Arndt wrote. “I’m very aware of the other issues plaguing our districts right now, like book banning, socio-emotional learning debates, budgetary constraints, teaching resource attrition, political agendas, etc. I believe if we focus on electing board members who can put aside their political views, agree to disagree and work as a team, we can make ‘kid- and teacher-centric” decisions which will drastically improve things for all. Team is an important aspect here.”

“As a former athlete, I understand how working as a team and learning to trust each other, putting personal motives aside and being open to others’ views, results in success for everyone,” Arndt continued. “Diversity of ideas and backgrounds not only brings new ideas to problem-solving, but it provides a balance to the team. I’m focused on bringing back the values of teamwork, cooperative problem solving, professionalism and authenticity to the board, while focusing on what matters most, our community and kids.”

• Michelle Sweisfort, 45, is a commercial insurance account manager.

“My skill set stations in my extensive experience in helping businesses of all sizes and complexities manage risk within their budget,” Sweisfort wrote. Having years of exposure to both state and local regulations has given me a profound understanding of how such regulations impact businesses and nonprofits alike. I not only volunteer in the trenches of nonprofit work, I also assist in managing their community engagement and educational initiatives which gives me a holistic approach to the overall operations. Aside from my work and volunteer experience I understand the intricacies of our public school system.”

She continued, I am running because I want to create and contribute to effective change to both my community and to the education of our children. Valued public education lends itself in providing a thriving community. There is evidence that people who have a positive quality education are more likely to have more business, increased property values, better harmony and less crime.”

Sweisfort said the biggest challenge facing the district is “a balance between fiscal responsibility and student achievement. With a diminishing portion of state funding over time, increased state unfunded mandates and skyrocketing costs in areas like special education, it has become extremely challenging to make decisions in the best interest of our students and community. Long-range strategic planning is necessary to identify risks, determine appropriate savings needed and make accurate spending decisions in order to maintain the high-quality education our community expects and deserves.”

Sweisfort continued “It is inherently important that we keep national political agendas out of our boardroom meetings. Political recklessness brought to our district by transplant agendas are infiltrating our school board. These candidates serve to execute their own best interest by book banning and attacking social-emotional learning support depriving us and our children of freedoms. We need to focus on the district’s vision, mission and goals and not on personal virtues that will limit our children’s education. Lastly, attracting and retaining talented school employees has become more of a challenge.”

• Lindsay Warmington, 36, is a banker.

“I believe I’m the best candidate for this position because, first, I am a parent of a student in the district, a graduate of this district and work within the district and community,” she wrote. “I also feel my experience and expertise make me a valuable team player with the ability to lead when needed. I’m an advocate for the children and believe all are entitled to the best education we can deliver, along with every opportunity to grow.”

“The most pressing issue I see is the quality of the education. I am enthusiastic to work with administration, the board, the parents and students to dive deep into the pain points we all feel as a community and I truly believe we can make great strides together,” wrote Warmington. “It is up to us all to make Boyertown a blue ribbon school.”

Region 2

Region 2 straddles Montgomery and Berks counties and is comprised of Borough of Boyertown’s Voting Precinct 2, all of Douglass (Berks) and all of Douglass (Mont.). There are two open seats, each carrying a four-year term and four candidates seeking them, three of them incumbents.

That’s because one of the incumbents, Roger Updegrove, who was elected four years ago to represent Region 3, now lives in Region 2 as a result of redistricting. The other two incumbents are James Brophy and Lisa Hogan. The fourth candidate is Joseph Piccione.

All four will appear on both the Republican and Democratic ballot lines. Brophy did not respond to The Mercury’s questionnaire, but he did respond to The Eagle’s.

Answers of those who responded to The Mercury questionnaire are presented here in the order in which they were received.

• Joe Piccione, 39, lives in Douglass (Mont.) holds a bachelor’s degree in history and has spent 17 years as a teacher and youth sports coach. He has never held elected public office before.

On the subject of whether school boards have the authority to require masking in a health emergency, Piccione wrote “Since 2020 this issue was litigated many times in state and federal courts with no court ruling that a school board did not have the authority to require masks nor did they find that boards could not make masking optional if they found that to be the right decision for their district. The courts have been clear that it is a local decision.”

Piccione wrote he places no value on standardized tests. “As an educator I recognize that they are a single data point gathered during one brief window of the year and cannot give a full and accurate picture of a student’s learning or ability. Coupled with the fact that students are often months into the following school year before we even get an opportunity to see results, they are not able to tell teachers anything they don’t already know about students. They are simply a way for private companies to make money off of education.”

The court decision declaring Pennsylvania’s school funding system to be unconstitutional “just makes clear what most already know,” Piccione wrote. “Most school districts in Pennsylvania are underfunded by the state and that has shifted an undue burden of taxation onto local property owners. The legislature needs to significantly increase funding and ensure that their formula for how that money is distributed is fair and equitable so that every district has the means to provide every student with the high-quality education they deserve.”

As for the content of school libraries, Piccione wrote “librarians and educators have the expertise and training to decide what is appropriate for students broadly. Boyertown already has policies in place for parents to make educational decisions on curriculum and books for their individual families. Parents have every right to decide what their child can or cannot check out of the school library. But that right ends at the point at which it infringes on the rights of other parents to make the same decision for their own family. Outside individuals or groups should not be making decisions on what is included in the library for all students.”

Given one guaranteed accomplishment in office, Piccione chose “the institution of a long-term financial plan that allows Boyertown to sustainably fund efforts to expand programs, reinstitute lost programs (middle school foreign language, FCS, etc.), and fully staff our schools so that our educators can use their collaboration time for planning and working together to ensure the high-quality education our students deserve.”

• Lisa Hogan, 45, lives in Douglass (Mont.) township and was elected to the board in 2019.

Hogan is “currently a student of social work at Millersville University. I have spent over 20 volunteering in my children’s schools. For the last four years, I have served on the BASD School Board and for the last year I have served as the board’s appointment to the Berks County Intermediate Unit Board.”

On the subject of school masking, Hogan wrote “I believe that school boards should follow expert guidance when faced with such decisions.”

“I do not place a great deal of importance on standardized tests,” Hogan wrote. “They can be helpful for tracking state trends, however BASD students are already taking similar tests throughout the year that track their individual progress. I think that these tests provide data to our district that is more valuable in tracking our students’ progress and in helping us designate areas of growth and deficits.”

On the subject of school funding reform, Hogan wrote “it will be imperative for the legislature to create reform that equitably funds all of the Commonwealth’s public schools. The state needs to reform the funding formula that they currently use, and fund the mandates that they pass on to school districts for local taxpayers to fund. Additionally, they must make a commitment to funding public education instead of attempting to pass legislation that allows the use of public funds to fund private education.”

“I feel that reading is a fundamental part of education and that children should have well-funded libraries in their schools that offer them a variety of books on topics that are relevant to their lives,” Hogan wrote.

Given one guaranteed accomplishment if reelected, Hogan chose “BASD does not offer full-day kindergarten. In my opinion, implementing a full-day kindergarten program in BASD should be a high priority. This would help both kids and families and it would bring our program up to the full-day standard that the wide majority of the state’s public school districts employ.”

• Roger Updegrove, 72, lives in Douglass (Mont.) is running for a second four-year term on the school board.

He is a Boyertown High School graduate and a graduate of the Berks County Technical Center.

He worked as a machinist tool and die maker for 25 years, a business owner and van/special education and bus driver.

Updegrove said he belies school boards have the authority to require masking during a medical crisis, “for the safety of all.”

He believes that the state should reform the way that it funds public education but did not offer any specifics.

“No pornography in libraries,” is how Updegrove responded to the question about the content of school libraries.

Given one guaranteed accomplishment in office, he chose “keep the proficiency rate on the rise.”

• James Brophy, 72 is retired from Exelon Power’s nuclear division and his answers here are to the two questions posed by The Eagle: “Why are you the best candidate for this position? What is the most pressing issue facing your school district and how would you address it?”

“I ran initially in 2019 because I believed our schools were on the wrong path. Taxes being raised at the maximum rate without any corresponding rate of return. Our debt continued to rise and our statewide scholastic rating, while still in the top 20 percent, was slipping. Our board appeared to focus more on ideological issues than education,” Brophy wrote.

“When I came onboard, I insisted that our bonds be refinanced to the tune of $2 million in savings. Also, we bought on a new CFO and superintendent who understood both education and the responsibility to the residents. I believe now we need to bring common sense back to education and with my background along with my past three years of service I am best qualified to make that happen. I continue to strive to represent everyone in the district and will continue doing that in my next term. That commitment is why I believe I am the best candidate,” wrote Brophy.

“The most pressing issue facing education today is reversing the decline caused by the pandemic-related governmental shutdowns and restrictions. To get students back to at least pre-pandemic levels we are going to have to address specific issues,” Brophy wrote.

“First, as always, is funding. Money currently being used to fund extra classes to help students most affected runs out by 2025. I believe additional funding will be required to continue these classes. However, money is not all that is necessary,” wrote Brophy. “Continued teacher and parent commitment will also be part of the mix. Parents will need to work closely with both teachers and their children to regain the lost ground. Individual schools need to look at their own issues and deal with them in their own district. Stop letting national headlines be the guide.”

Region 3

Region 3 is located entirely in Montgomery County and is comprised of the townships of New Hanover and Upper Frederick. It has two open seats, each carrying a four-year term and four candidates seeking them. None of them are incumbents.

The four candidates are Matt Hook, Wendy Kratz, Brad Updegrove and Jessica Skelton. All but Skelton, who will only appear on the Republican ballot line, are cross-filed to appear on both Democratic and Republican ballot lines. All responded to the Mercury’s questions and their answers appear in the order they were received.

In response to a Mercury query regarding two candidates named Updegrove on the ballot, Brad Updegrove wrote “I am related to Roger, but we do not know each other. I believe his father and my grandfather were brothers. My grandfather had 7 brothers and one sister.”

• Matt Hook, 40, lives in New Hanover and has never held elected public office.

Hook wrote “I have an M.S.Ed. I hold a BCBA, PA-LBS, and am a PA State dual-certified teacher in general and special education. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the field of special education in several roles and with many populations/ages as a teacher, program manager, staff trainer, behavior analyst and program consultant.”

On the issue of school masking, Hook wrote, “as a layperson, I’m not in a position that I can easily question the decision-making process of the CDC. Whether I like it or not, they are in a better position to make these kinds of decisions than I am. That said, I know from experience, leaders in every vocation are still human and fallible. I refuse to be blinded or snowed by any one scientist over another, especially when politics are clearly involved and money is clearly at stake. What we treat as “established” science is never fixed, sometimes it’s not even actually fully established. Also, sometimes I wonder, is it only more established because of who has funded it? Scientists themselves would agree that the scientific method is used by scientists to disprove other scientists all the time. Luckily, this has been true since the dawn of the process. In the event of a public health emergency, threatening the lives of many people in our society then I would accept whatever responsibility I would have, within the parameters of my position, to help our students. I’d also be in a position to represent the needs of my community and to help the Boyertown School District make responsible decisions. I would treat all these responsibilities with similar seriousness and gravity.”

Hook wrote that “I think that standardized test scores can provide valuable data on progress but they are not the only measure of a school. The validity of any measure should always be considered. Also, neither should we consider standardized tests as the only outcome measure sufficient to indicate a school’s overall progress.”

According to Hook, “public education is a long-standing institution in our country and it’s been failing too many of our children for too long. Federal, state, and local government all have a responsibility to do better for all our children. Year after year, children are short-shrifted at the expense of other public institutions that don’t need the resources nearly as much. But two things can be true. We absolutely cannot continue pumping money into the wrong solutions year after year, continuing to think that the dollar amount of our budget is the problem. If we are investing in our children— and we should be— then we also should be investing in better ideas. We can’t keep ignoring what works and why it works. For example, what schools—public and private—are getting the best learner outcomes? We shouldn’t keep ignoring our country’s most accomplished private schools. Also — at a state level— how well are we considering other states’ funding models, their successes and failures, particularly with improving the situations in districts considered “failing”? I wonder too — which schools and which curriculum are improving outcomes most quickly and for the learners with greatest needs and challenges? There is a science of education — these answers are out there but our people in charge have continued to overlook them. Are all learners learning best with a one-size-fits-all approach? What curriculum and teacher training should we be considering given the context of the learners, their academic deficits, strengths, needs? Unfortunately, our country’s public school system is failing too many of our students. It’s time to go back to the drawing board and get more flexible. We are supposed to be helping our children.”

On the subject of school libraries, Hook wrote: “I’m the kind of person, I always believe a path forward is working together and through instead of divided and apart. I hate politics and am an educator and a parent — not a politician. To be honest, I don’t buy into a two-party system even a little bit. It’s a false dichotomy. But look at schools right now. Like most of the rest of our country, schools have become divisive political hotbeds. School board meetings have become shouting matches, like tiny little horrible governments, all grinding good decision-making to a halt. I don’t like it, not for us as a society and not for our kids. History has taught us that more information is always the answer— never less. Censorship has never led to good solutions, not for any citizens of any country at any time in human history. As a parent, I think we all should absolutely have the right to know and care about what our children are and are not being taught. Schools should not be political institutions and they need to be more transparent. Teachers should be unbiased, objective presenters of history, content, and perspectives. As an educator, I have always believed parents need to be calling me, and I also need to be calling them. We have to be working together. When I’m a teacher, I’m nobody’s parent. But I had better consider those parents of the students I’m teaching. And we parents had better we working to support our teachers, listening to them, and working to understand one another. Public schools need our help and support because that’s where most of us are sending our kids to learn and grow. They aren’t parents but obviously many of us need to entrust our children to them for 6-7 hours a day. If we keep demonizing each other then we stop working together for our kids. This isn’t “us vs. them”. This is just us, all together.”

Given one guaranteed accomplishment in officer, Hook wrote “I would like to be a school board director while Boyertown School District as it becomes one of the highest achieving districts in the state.”

• Jessica Skelton, 52, lives in New Hanover Township and holds a bachelor’s degree and has worked for  more than 30 years in the financial services sector.

She has never before held elected public office.

On the subject of masking in school, Skelton wrote “the school board has the responsibility of assessing all facets of any health emergency, including but not limited to, any government mandates, when determining what actions are needed to keep our students, faculty and staff safe. If the government mandates masking in school, the school board must follow the law. If there is no mandate, the school board should make masking optional. The parents in the district know what is best for their families and should maintain the right to decide for their own unique family needs.”

“Standardized testing is designed to measure student achievement in classroom subjects (mathematics, language arts, science) and serve as an accountability measurement for teachers and schools in the district,” wrote Skelton. “However, they may not adequately reveal the intelligence and performance level of each student. These tests do not measure important skill sets necessary for successful learning such as creativity, problem-solving skills, critical thinking, etc. While it is important to have a measure of what is being taught and retained, it should not be the only measurement of student educational success. Not all students are successful ‘test takers’ regardless of the knowledge they have gained in the classroom.”

“Not being a politician in our state and without knowing all of the statistical information about each school district in Pennsylvania, I humbly admit I am not able to conjecture as to how our legislature should reform the state’s school funding in the wake of the court decision that found the current method unconstitutional,” wrote Skelton. “However, it would be important for those who are developing the state’s education budget to consider each district and its demographics. As with other issues within our education system, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach with the varying needs of the individual districts.”

On the subject of the content of school libraries, Sklton wrote “transparency is very important in our district and that includes our school libraries. When requested, parents should be granted a list of books in the school library so to assess if they would like to restrict their child/children’s access to specific books. Parents are their children’s primary advocates and know best what their children should and shouldn’t be exposed to in the school library. We are a community of different cultures, religions and lifestyles. This shouldn’t be a ‘one size fits all’ approach. We should allow parents to decide what best meets their beliefs and values.”

“If I could have just one guaranteed accomplishment (albeit I would want a lot more than one), it would be to bring common sense, transparency and innovative solutions that are equitable for all,” wrote Skelton. “We are a community of people who have the same goal; that of providing our children with a good education in a safe environment… one in which they can be kids, teachers get to teach and the administration works together to set the stage and direct education for the needs of everyone in our district.”

• Wendy Kratz, 50, lives in New Hanover and holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and has also taken master’s level courses in middle school education.

“My professional experience includes teaching 5th grade and preschool. More recently, I worked as a 6th-grade learning support paraprofessional at Middle School East in Boyertown. I currently work as an administrative assistant/director of client services at a local non-profit,” Katz wrote.

Katz does not believe school boards have the authority to require masking in a health emergency. She did not elaborate on why she believes this.

“Standardized test scores provide a measure of accountability and can be helpful in assessing the effectiveness of curricula,” Katz said in response to a question about the importance of those tests. “That being said, standardized test scores should be part of a broader and more comprehensive method to evaluate how well schools are serving their students and communities.”

In response to a question about reforming state funding of education, Katz wrote “Having an educated citizenry is vital to the future of our nation and our federal and state budgets should reflect that priority. School boards have a responsibility to spend wisely to give our students the best education possible without placing an undue burden on taxpayers.”

“Graphic images of sexual content are not age-appropriate for school libraries,” Katz wrote in response to a question about the content of school libraries. “Some of the books challenged in other districts include graphic depictions of sex involving minors, violence, and incest. According to the guidelines for movie ratings, most parents would deem this material ‘off-limits’ for their children.”

Given one guaranteed accomplishment in office, Katz replied, “Teachers are the heart and soul of every school, so if I could guarantee one accomplishment, it would be to work with other board members to enact policies to attract highly qualified teachers and to keep the wonderful teachers we already have in Boyertown.”

• Brad Updegrove, 47, lives in New Hanover and has never held elected public office

He has a master’s degree in communication management.

Updegrove wrote that he does not believe school boards have the authority to require masks during a health emergency. “We should follow the guidance of professionals such as doctors and scientists.”

“Standardized tests can help to identify learning gaps and to some extent evaluate teacher performance,” Updegrove wrote. “But in many cases there is too much focus on the tests. Which can lead to low self-esteem for students and also cuts into the time spent on other subjects that are just as important.”

On the subject of reforming state funding for education, Updegrove wrote “I think a great way to reform the state’s school funding would be to greatly reduce the state’s calculated cost applied to each charter school student. The percentage now is outrageously high. It has been crippling public school budgets for years. By lowering the charter school cost applied to public schools, Pennsylvania could easily find additional money.”

“I believe the policies that are now in place are sufficient,” Updegrove wrote about the subject of the content of school libraries. “If a parent does not want their child to read a certain book, they can make that request. It is a small group of people that seem to want to make decisions for all parents.”

Given one guaranteed accomplishment in office, Updegrove chose “I would want our public schools to be safe. Safe from outside threats, safe from bullies, and safe to be yourself.”