Election 2023: Republican Ed Salamon For Council Rock School Board

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.

NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP, PA — Incumbent Ed Salamon is running for re-election in Region 5. He is seeking another four years on the Council Rock School Board. He is facing a challenge from Linda Stone who is running on the Democratic ticket.

Biological Information

Name: Ed Salamon
Age: 52

Town of residence: Holland
Position sought: Council Rock School Board director

Are you an incumbent? Yes
What Towns Does Your Position Cover? Northampton Township; Holland, Upper Holland.

Party affiliation: Republican
Family: Married, 3 girls and a Golden Doodle, Lucy
Education: Associate's Degree - Criminal Justice
Occupation: Retired Philadelphia police officer, currently working in public education

Questions

Why are you running?

After hundreds of meetings, thousands of hours and countless emails, it is the students that motivate me to run for re-election to be a Council Rock School Board Director. As an incumbent with more than five years of experience – including during the pandemic, I believe I still have plenty of work left to do to ensure our focus remains on the students and their educational experience at Council Rock. With two daughters in the district, I know firsthand how the pandemic affected all of us personally. But I also saw how it impacted public education and demonstrated improvements that need to occur to improve and modernize public schools for our kids. We should be focused on our students first, always. I'm committed to the district now and for many years in the future because the next great generation needs us.

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

The students have to be the main focus at all times. What’s best for the kids has always been my number one issue. With that being said, the budget fuels everything for the students. I truly believe our budget is the foundation that makes everything else work. Good, quality, conservative budgets with attention to detail is a must. The budget has to be right in order to make the decision that affects 10,000 students, failure on this end could be catastrophic. Digging down, reviewing expenditures and finding new revenue streams has to be a priority. In addition, it’s time for a full curriculum review and conduct an in depth analysis on how we can find some efficiencies within the budget without affecting the quality of education. It is going to be a tough but needed balance. Taxes are a key revenue stream but we have to be careful at taxing near the Act 1 index, this would directly affect the largest percentage of our taxpayers, those taxpayers without kids in our schools.

What policies would you change, revise, delete or retain and why?

Our policies are current and have been reviewed recently. We have been very proactive in addressing any issues with current policies quickly especially when an issue or law changes. As we start the process of reviewing curriculum I expect to see some changes in that process. Nothing is perfect but I trust that our administrative team will bring policy changes to the board as needed for review, update or deletion.

If elected, what would you fight to change or keep the same?

Serving in this role for the last 5 years and especially during the pandemic years, has positioned me well to continue serving the community but I never forget it has to be about the kids. If elected, I would want to continue my work to help bring our community back together from the divisive pandemic times. The nonsense we have seen since the pandemic has made many people in the community not want to run for school board. Unfortunately, those advocating for bringing people “together for CR” have demonstrated that anyone running for school board will not be judged on their dedication to our community or the hours they spend on being a director or running for office by talking to their neighbors in their areas. Instead they only judge the candidates by the party they are registered as. At the end of the day, unfortunately our kids will be the collateral damage to this nonsense. That needs to stop and the culture of CR needs to be restored.