Moon Area School Board Candidates Host Fundraiser

Candidates vying for a position on the Moon Area School Board hosted a meet-and-greet event Wednesday night to discuss school district issues with residents. 

Although the Sonoma Clubhouse was full of laughter and plenty of food, the six school board candidates discussed budget issues, transparency of school board information and property taxes with community members at their last scheduled fund-raising event before the May 17 election.

Guest speaker and radio host Rose Tennent from “America’s Morning Show with Quinn and Rose” commended school board candidates Ron Steele, Gia Tatone, Sam Tranter, Danny Harbaugh, Mike Olszewski and Laura Schisler for “answering their call to serve their community.”

Tennent referred to the candidates and their supporters as people who make sacrifices for the well-being of America, as the nation's founding fathers did. Those who want to see change in the country must start at the grassroots level and take responsibility for events in their own communities, she said.

“We can look at the situation of the school board and say, ‘This is not right,’ and do something about it,' ” Tennent said.

School board candidates on the “Citizens for Education” ticket said they were running for that reason.

The ticket focuses primarily on ensuring that school board committees are transparent; ensuring students are exposed to age-appropriate material; and making sure that the board is fiscally responsible.  Some candidates said they felt particularly strongly about certain issues that affect their families or reflect their personal beliefs.

Denny Harbaugh, father of two young children, said he was convinced that the Moon Area School District has exposed students to inappropriate material. He said he wanted to make sure this did not continue.

Harbaugh cited an assembly on Internet safety  in which a woman spoke to students about being abducted and raped.

“She laid everything out there” for sixth-graders, he said.

“You have to educate students, I realize that,” Harbaugh said, but he added that he believes students in that grade are too young to hear about those issues.

Laura Schisler and Ron Steele said they both have grown children who attended school in the district,  and that the two candidates are concerned about the district's fiscal problems.

Schisler said she also wanted Moon Area residents to know that the “Citizens for Education” candidates have no intention of working to stop the renovation project at  the old high school. 

Steele said new board members cannot reverse what already has been decided and is under way, but he said he believes renovation of the old high school and construction of the new school could have been completed for less money.

Mike Olszewski, who has three children in the district, also criticized the current board's spending and said he is running for the board to represent the community's wishes.

Candidate Gia Tatone, the mother of a seventh-grader in the district, said she was alarmed by the academic performance of some Moon Area students.

“I see schools nearby like Hampton School District as being rated in the top five percent in the nation and ask myself, ‘Why doesn’t our school have these high-quality standards and instead are only in the news for having new facilities?’ ” Tatone said.

Sam Tranter, who seeks to return to the board after serving on it in the 1990s, said everyone in Moon Township is  affected by the school district and the decisions of its officials.  He said he feels strongly about the issue of property taxes and their impact on senior citizens and others in the community.

“I can’t stand to hear seniors saying that they might have to leave their homes after living here for 40 or 50 years because the property taxes are too high,” he said. 

As Tranter spoke, Tatone listened and nodded before mentioning that the most important thing about the “Citizens for Education” ticket is that its members respect each other and work as a team.

“As community members and really, as Americans, we all have to come together with a mutual respect for one another in order to work these issues out,” Tranter said.