Incoming Democratic Majority Poised To Take Control In Central Bucks

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Two weeks from today, the new school board majority will take office in the Central Bucks School District. And even before they cast their first vote, they will be making history as the first Central Bucks board led by Democrats.

During a reorganization meeting on Dec. 4, five Democrats will be sworn into office after flipping the board from red to blue on Election Day.

Taking office will be Heather Reynolds, Dana Foley, Rick Haring, Susan Gibson, and returning board member Karen Smith who will begin her third four-year term on the board. They will be joined on the board by sitting Democratic board member Dr. Mariam Mahmud.

Over the past several years, the school district had became ground zero in the culture war as the Republican majority implemented policies to protect parental rights, to shield students from sexually graphic library material, take politics out of the classroom and to ensure female athletes were protected on and off the field.

The Democrats fought back accusing the board majority of banning books and pride flags, stifling social and political discussion in the classroom, marginalizing the district’s LGBTQ+ population and costing the district more than a million dollars as it defended itself against accusations by the ACLU-PA of discrimination against the district’s LGBTQ+ students.

“Clearly our community was pretty tired of what has been happening the past four years,” said Smith. “We won by fairly significant margins. It was a referendum on what was happening and a
very clear rejection of the past couple of years.”

As the new board prepares to take office, it has a full plate of issues to address. Chief among them is a recently passed separation and release agreement with the former superintendent of schools Abram Lucabaugh.

At its final public board meeting last week the outgoing Republican-controlled board voted along party lines to give the superintendent a $700,000 severance package, which many have decried as excessive and outrageous.

Smith, along with her two Democratic colleagues on the board - Dr. Mahmud and Dr. Tabitha Dell'Angelo - said they were taken by surprise by the agreement, which appeared on the agenda just 24 hours before the meeting.

“I was very shocked, very surprised, and very angry for our community,” said Smith. “The amount of money that has been handed to him is just grotesque. And the language at the end that said he wanted to leave to pursue other opportunities bothers me. I don’t see why we have to pay him $700,000 to do that. And I’m not sure we’re going to.

“We’re going to be working on this from every possible angle and seeing if there are any steps to be taken to get some of that money back,” said Smith.

That’s not the only issue on the agenda for the new board. They have also pledged to reconsider several policies implemented by the prior board including one passed at the November meeting that would separate athletic teams “on the basis of sex to preserve fairness, provide increased opportunity for girls, and are safer.”

Two other policies passed by the previous board will likely be reviewed and revised, including a library book and a neutrality policy.

The neutrality policy, said Smith, not only banned pride flags from the school it stifled social and political discussion in the classroom unless it was part of the curriculum.

“Kids have questions,” said Smith. “If it’s a social or political question, now teachers are afraid, wondering whether they should answer a question or not. That’s not the best way to ensure learning is taking place.

"Our teachers are professionally trained," said Smith. "They know about keeping things neutral and keeping their personal opinions out of a discussion. Some folks on the right pointed to some examples from around the country where maybe a teacher made a mistake. Teachers are human. They make mistakes. In those cases we need to talk to the teacher and provide some professional development ... The answer is not to put a policy in place that stifles discussion for all.”

Regarding the book policy, Smith said the vast majority of the community is not in favor of banning books. “We already had procedures in place to help families protect their children from certain books if they wanted to,” she said.

The policies, she said, have been flagged and are part of a complaint filed against the school district by the ACLU-Pennsylvania and are under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights.

"The current board majority, at no point did they say, 'What can they do to fix the situation?' They just went on the defensive and hired Duane Morris. There are steps we can take to begin to work with the OCR in a collegial manner instead of an adversarial manner."

Smith said the incoming board has also pledged to conduct meetings that are "civil" and that "engage all of the community’s stakeholders" in its decision-making process

“People were fed up with the tenor of board meetings - people calling each other names,” said Smith. “People told us that was embarrassing for the school district. They also didn’t like the fact
that the board majority seemed to be following an agenda from national organizations like Moms for Liberty.

“And at times when we were negotiating these policies people came out in droves saying no we don’t want this policy or don’t make revisions and the board majority didn’t appear to consider it,” Smith continued. “They just moved forward with their plans regardless of the opposition. The community felt like they weren’t being represented.”

Another issue of concern to the incoming board members is an ongoing shortage of support staff, substitute teachers, and bus drivers.

“The administration tried to look at this but maybe if we’re not arguing about library books we can have more time and resources to focus on services that kids really need,” said Smith.

The reorganization meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 4. The meeting is open to the public.