5 school board seats up for grabs at SR
Five seats on the Slippery Rock Area School District school board are up for election on May 18: one in Region 1, three in Region 2 and one in Region 3.
School board president Sara Whitman, who is running unopposed for her seat in Region 3, said the board is comprised of three members from each district, and each term is four years.
In Region 1, which is made up of Mercer and Slippery Rock townships and Harrisville, incumbent Heather Scott is running against first-time challenger Debra Crum. Both cross-filed to run for the seat.Crum said she hopes to bring more transparency to the school board and its procedures if elected. She said she works as an assistant business manager at Wilmington Area School District in Lawrence County so she can bring more than one perspective to the board.“I feel a lot of parents don't see a lot of things in the public that should be,” Crum said. “I work at another school district, so I think I have some good information that can come from the perspective of a parent and from a school employee.”
Scott has been on the board for more than seven years and said she wants to continue to promote literacy and mental health aid in the district.“It is crucial that we ensure our students learn to read as early in their education as possible,” she said. “I have always been a strong proponent of the need for mental health support for our students, this past year has made the need for that support even stronger.”
All three seats are up for election in Region 2, which is made up of Muddy Creek and Franklin townships and Portersville and Prospect boroughs.Incumbents Diane Double and Vito Pilosi are running for reelection for another four-year term, and Greg Schiller, who was appointed to the board two years ago to fill an open seat, is running to complete another term.Angela Llamas-Butler is running to take a seat on the board. Llamas-Butler and Schiller are running on a Republican ticket, and Pilosi and Double cross-filed.
Llamas-Butler said she decided to run because of the educational methods the school district took on during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she said may not be in the best interest of the students.“We have to really prepare the next generation and do anything we can to help them,” Llamas-Butler said. “I was a little concerned from a community and employer perspective as to where does this leave students in terms of college readiness, job readiness.”Double was appointed to the board to fill an open seat in 2016, and was reelected to a four-year term the following year. She said she wants to continue her work on the board for the students of the district.“My goal is to maximize the education of all of our students,” Double said, “and help each child reach their potential while being responsible stewards of taxpayer money.”
Pilosi also said he wants to be fiscally responsible to taxpayers in the district, while also providing students with in-school and extracurricular opportunities.“This goal must be accomplished in a clean and safe environment for the students and staff,” Pilosi said.Schiller said he wants to continue initiatives started by the board in the pandemic by providing better virtual learning opportunities for students in the district.“This will include helping our students utilize new digital learning tools,” he said. “I have seen the numerous academic and extracurricular opportunities our students have. I hope to see as many of these opportunities preserved as possible, while recognizing the reality of a declining enrollment.”
