Central Bucks School Board Primary Election: Rick Haring, Region 6

Candidates running in contested races in the May 16 primary election have been invited to provide background about themselves and their positions on the issues to voters in these profiles, which will run in Patch individually for each candidate.

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Rick Haring is running as a cross-filed candidate and seeking the nomination for an open four-year-seat on the Central Bucks School Board in Region 6. He is in two-way race with Aarati P. Martino, who is also cross-filed and also seeking the nomination.

Biographical Information

Name: Rick Haring

Age: 48
Town of residence: Doylestown Twp
Position sought: School Board Director - Region 6
Are you an incumbent? No
What Towns Does Your Position Cover? Doylestown Twp
Party affiliation: Democrat
Family: Wife, Rebecca Cartee-Haring (English teacher at CB West), daughter, Emma (junior at Towson University), daughter, Margot (senior at CB West) and four dogs (Mojo, Booker, Wilbur and Bing-Bong).
Education: BS, Economics from Rutgers University. MBA, Marketing from Villanova University
Occupation: Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications at International SOS

Questions

1. Why are you running?

For me this is kinda personal. My childhood growing up was not the best. I was raised by a single mom. Father was an alcoholic and not present at all. So school for me was not just a place for education & intellectual curiosity, but it filled a gap. I really wish that all kids in CB were getting the support they need at home, whether it’s 3 meals a day, a bed to sleep in, or a safe place to go home to. I hope we can all agree, that’s the ideal. But the thing is, schools need to be there for kids when they’re not getting that at home — our schools should fill that gap.For a lot of kids, school is maybe the only place they feel safe and nurtured and understood. That’s what our schools in CB have done, that’s why they were great … until we started creating policies that disrupt how we operate and sending messages to our teachers and support staff that they are no longer trusted or capable of doing their jobs and providing this to students without fear. That needs to change. We need to in

2. What are your top issues and how do you plan to address them?

The three biggest issues are:

• Reckless spending. The board has spend close to $144K on a PR agency to address public outcry and spent well over $1M on a politically connected law firm to defend their actions on bad policy decisions. That is money that could have been spent on students.

• Policies being created to push a political agenda vs. to improve students experience. The reality of it is, measures were already in place to ensure if a parent didn’t want their child to read a book from the library it wouldn’t happen.

• Teacher & staff shortages. The number of students studying education keeps dropping. So, in order to maintain the high quality of education we’ve come to expect at CBSD, we have to work even harder at attracting and retaining qualified educators. Currently we are doing just the opposite. Teachers are leaving our district at an alarming rate. It’s time to turn the tide and make CBSD an appealing environment for skilled educators.

3. Identify specific goals/ideas you have to enhance the district?

School boards can have a profound effect on school culture. When you have a school board like CBSD that is actively undermining teachers’ and librarians’ expertise, the entire school community is impacted. The vague policies make teachers afraid to cover certain topics, to include relevant books and media, to support students with their mental health. Beyond policy, school boards can make the work environment uncomfortable for teachers by using retaliatory methods such as unnecessary suspensions and moves to different schools, which we’ve also seen in CBSD. This is clearly impacting the education and learning environment for students. As school board director, I will treat teachers & support staff with the respect they deserve by consulting with them in determining if policies need to be changed or revamped, by ensuring that we are paying all teachers and staff competitive wages, and by truly listening to their concerns about how our district is being run