NPEA President: School Board President's Call for His Resignation 'A Smokescreen'

Vincent Sherpinsky, the president of the board of school directors for the North Penn School District, called for the resignation of teachers union President Alan Malachowski on Friday.

Sherpinsky, a business technology teacher at Council Rock High School North, said as much in press release issued the day after a contentious school board meeting at which a budget was passed that calls for demoting 36 full-time teachers to part-time status.

Sherpinsky claims that Malachowski intentionally omitted and failed “to deliver important information to his membership before their recent vote on a proposed wage freeze.”

Reached for comment Monday, Malachowski, head of the North Penn Education Association, said Sherpinsky’s statement “is an embarrassment,” as well as “a smokescreen.”

“It’s designed to divert questions on how the recent demotions are going to affect kids, or the influence the North Penn Republican Committee has on the school board and the recent gun flier that was mailed to the community,” Malachowski said.

At the June 23 meeting, teachers and parents denounced the board for putting politics over education, citing an NPRC mailer sent out prior to the recent primary that depicts a handgun pointed at a piggy bank and the message, “It's a Stick-Up! North Penn Teachers' Union Wants Total Control Over Your Money.”

During the meeting, teacher Chris Thompson said, based on records at the Montgomery County Courthouse, school district solicitor Frank Bartle and board member Rick Miniscalco are respectively president and treasurer of the North Penn Republican Club. Miniscalco declined to comment on the flier after the meeting. Bartle said he had nothing to do with the design or the mailing of the flier.

Meanwhile, in the press release issued the day after the meeting, Sherpinsky said the evidence against Malachowski of omitting information came to light “when several members of the NPEA made comments that were in direct contradiction to the district’s documented position as outlined in a June 7, 2011, e-mail from Superintendent (Curtis Dietrich) to Malachowski.”

“Upon being questioned about these claims,” Sherpinsky continued, “one NPEA member turned to union Vice President Erica Melbourne who admitted that the members of the union were never presented with this vital information before their vote on the proposed wage freeze - information they received 10 days before the vote.”

According to Sherpinsky, in the June 7 proposal, Dietrich promises no demotions or layoffs if the wage freeze is accepted by the general membership.

The union voted against a wage freeze for its members.

“Not allowing his own members to make an informed decision is the same as rigging an election; it’s simply wrong,” Sherpinsky concluded in his press release.

In a statement posted on the NPEA Web site, Malachowski says, “Anyone following this story knows that local papers have been printing this information in many different stories over the past two weeks.

“Mr. Sherpinsky also knows that NPEA members have been apprised of the board’s proposals throughout this three month process. He even has email evidence to that effect,” he continued. “Why then, the very public call for my resignation? It is obviously a desperate attempt to deflect criticism away from the board about their questionable decision making regarding campaign literature, budget preparation, staffing, and overall management of this school district.”

Malachowski told Lansdale.Patch.com that the union plans to challenge the board over the demotions, saying the district “has to prove economic hardships” for taking such austere measures.

“I’m not sure what the litmus test there is for such proof, but with a zero percent tax increase and $19 million in the general fund, it will be interesting to see what they come up with,” he said.