Council Rock Board Picks Wrightstown Republican To Fill Open Seat

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Meeting in special session on Tuesday, the Council Rock School Board voted 5 to 3 to appoint Stephen Nowmos to an open seat on the nine member board.

The Wrightstown Republican committeeman was one of three candidates who stepped forward to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Kristin Marcell who was elected state representative.

The board also interviewed Nicole Khan and Patricia Chandler for the Region 9 seat, which represents Wrightstown Township and two voting districts in Newtown Township. Khan lost to Marcell in 2021 by a narrow margin.

The appointment wasn’t without its controversy.

During the first round of public comment, Jennifer Igval called on the board to drop Nowmos from consideration after questioning a Facebook page with his name containing what she termed “offensive and hateful” memes.

“Based on posts provided to me this is not a person we want representing the Council Rock School District,” said Igval. “He shares several memes that I find offensive and hateful.”

During his interview, Nowmos flatly denied authoring or posting any memes.

“If I had a Bible here I would put my hand on it and I would tell you I have not opened a Facebook page in more than five years,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever posted to Facebook since its inception,” he said. “The Facebook page says Stephen Christine Nowmos on top. My name is Stephen Christopher Nowmos.”

He again denied the Facebook allegations while talking to members of the press after the meeting, but he did admit the page was being used by his wife and grown children.

“My wife and I have had an account for 15 years. On top it says Stephen Christine Nowmos. My kids are on it. My wife is on it. I don’t do it because I just think it’s worthless,” he said. "The only one I do is LinkedIn because I'm able to connect on a professional level with my colleagues. That's my only social media platform. I may have posted on Facebook when it first started, but I can say I haven't posted to it in 10 years."

Nowmos also denied knowledge of the memes brought up at the meeting. "Whatever they were talking about was not authored by me."

Nowmos is a graduate of Temple University and the University of Florida where he earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree. He has worked for the past 10 years as a medical liaison with Novartis.

Before moving to Wrightstown, Nowmos lived in Bensalem where he served on the Bensalem School Board from 2008 to 2010. He resigned from the board when he moved to Wrightstown.

During his interview with the board, Nowmos echoed the superintendent's mantra of "Students First."

"At the end of the day it's what's best for the students not for you, not for me, not the superintendent, not the administration," he said. "The kids come first. And I think most parents and most people can agree with that."

Board members, he said, also need to keep in mind that 70 percent of the school district's budget is paid for by taxpayers who don't have children in the district. "We need to be financially responsible and keep kids' best interest in mind."

Nowmos said he hadn't thought of serving on the school board until Kristin left.

"Being a committeeman in Wrightstown I door knocked with Kristin. I share many of her philosophies and her principles ... I think I can follow her footsteps and continue her philosophy going forward until November" when he said the voters will decide who sits in the seat.

In addition, Nowmos said he would bring previous experience serving on a school board to the interim position. "You need to learn the ropes. You need to understand the system. My learning curve will be small and I believe I represent many of the common philosophies and thoughts that Kristin had brought to the school board."

Nowmos won the support of five board members, which was enough to secure appointment to the board. Supporting Nowmos were board president Ed Salamon and members Dr. Michael Thorwart, Michael Roosevelt, Bob Hickey and Joe Hidalgo.

"This is my only opportunity to fill this seat for the Newtown and Wrightstown community and they voted for Kristin Marcell," said Salamon. "For me, I need somebody who is going to have the same type of thinking, the same type of ideology, the same type of fight that Kristin did. I've had that conversation with Mr. Nowmos and I'm comfortable in making him my number one pick."

Three board members - Mariann McKee, Yota Palli and Ed Tate - split with the majority supporting Khan for the vacancy.

Board member Yota Palli said she checked the Facebook page raised during public comment in real time during the meeting and found Nowmos' pictures "all over the place. When we asked him about that he said he has nothing to do with that, which is not easy for me to understand. I have real objections voting him on the board based on this."

Tate, in supporting Khan for the vacancy, referenced her strong showing in the last school board election. "This is an opportunity for us to honor the opinions of the voters of that region, so many of whom voted for Ms. Khan," he said.

"I also think qualification is really the key here. All three are terrifically qualified, very well spoken," said Tate. "Ms. Khan talked about being a listener and about listening to the community, which is a big part of it. The other thing she spoke about was listening to experts. Listening to experts and respecting expert opinion is really the key in doing this job well.

"The other thing I'll mention is dedication. After the election Ms. Khan could have gone on with her life. But I think it's absolutely remarkable the number of meetings and committee meetings that she has attended. She has a huge leg up in being here and understanding the issues. When you talk about picking up the ball and running with it, Nikki Khan is the best qualified person to do that."

Nowmos said he anticipates running in the primary for the seat provided he is able to secure enough signatures.