The formal process is underway to replace Michael Rock on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board. Rock resigned from the board earlier this month, citing a lack of diversity and tolerance toward minorities in the district.
Board members publicly interviewed four people during their Jan. 23 meeting. Those four included Scott Bosch, Robert Smith, Lisa Tascione and Tom Day. All live within Region B of the district. That region includes Birmingham, Pocopson, and Newlin townships.
Bosch is a social studies teacher at Upper Darby High School; Smith is an attorney, Tascione is an optometrist who was also the president of the CF Patton PTO, and Day is a finance executive who is also a Cub Scout leader and a Sunday school teacher.
The board will appoint Rock’s replacement during its Feb. 13 meeting.
Whoever is selected would serve through November of this year, when Rock’s term would have expired. All four told the board they would run for election so they could serve on the board for a full term.
The candidates were interviewed individually, with the others in a separate room, but all four were asked the same questions: could they support a board decision with which they disagreed, what were their thoughts on advocacy, where does the budget reflect too much or too little spending, are there any issues within the district they think warrants the board’s attention, how they network within their respective communities and whether they’ve watched any videos of the board’s meetings.
None of the candidates were critical of the board’s meetings or any of its policies. All said they could support board decisions, even if they disagreed, so long as those decisions did not violate core beliefs and ethics.
All said they were advocates of fiscal responsibility, but none went into specifics on the district’s current budget, except for Smith who said all budgets are collaborative and decided upon with compromise. He added that much of the debate seemed to center upon about 6 percent of spending.
When asked about advocacy, three said a school board director should be an advocate for the students, but Smith went beyond that.
“There are many different kinds of advocacy. There is advocacy for an individual student. If a board member were to advocate for an individual student, that may not be appropriate. If a board member were to advocate for a position, or a policy to be adopted, that’s different,” Smith said.
Smith was the only candidate to bring up the reason for open board seat. He said he was surprised at the reason for Rock’s resignation and that resigning might not have been the best move.
“I was concerned over the reasons why he resigned,” Smith said. “I was concerned because it wasn’t my experience, but we did have a personal experience of bullying.”
Smith went on to say there was a bullying incident involving his son at Pocopson Elementary, a situation that school personnel handled well.
“The response that the school took was not reflective of the comments that were discussed in the resignation,” he said. “It was quite the opposite.”
He said the teachers, school counselor and the principal got involved and agreed to his requests on how to handle things.
“It was so reflexive, the school’s response, that I was surprised at the reason for the resignation…If he felt strongly about it, maybe he should have stayed and tried to make an impact,” Smith said. “The resignation was out of place.”
Day said one of his primary concerns was the overall wellbeing of students, while Bosch and Tascione said they were very interested in learning more about the possibility of a later school start time.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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