There is an exciting citizen-led, bipartisan movement in our community to establish a more direct and representational form of government for the Pennridge School District. This effort is led by a nonprofit association called Pennridge Citizens for Direct Representation.
As a former three-term Perkasie Borough councilman and past president, I believe shifting to a regional model for elections makes good, practical sense. This style of government provides greater accountability from our elected officials versus the present day at-large system.
If successful, our school district would have three voting regions, each one being represented by three individual board members. Each region would have approximately 17,000 citizens residing in it. The proposed map can be viewed on our Facebook page. Additionally, this model has a balanced distribution of school buildings, with each region containing at least two elementary schools and one of our three middle schools.
Pennridge school district covers eight municipalities: Hilltown, Bedminster, West Rockhill, East Rockhill townships and Sellersville, Perkasie, Silverdale, and Dublin boroughs. We are the only district in Bucks County (except New Hope-Solebury) that has more than one municipality in it and is represented with “at-large” representation. The problem that this creates is an extreme imbalance. At this point in time, we have no current board member living in any of our boroughs. A geographically dispersed electorate would benefit from more localized representation to ensure community needs are being met.
A regional representation of school district government would be similar to the three wards in Perkasie Borough, where three council members are elected from each ward. As an experienced elected official, the constituents in my ward depended upon their three elected neighbors to represent them and listen to their concerns. My peers and I fielded phone calls and emails from neighbors, and it was our responsibility to provide a response.
In an at-large model, it is more difficult for taxpayers and current board members to actually get to know one another, leading at times to considerable lags of time in getting concerns to be addressed. Further, Pennridge-wide campaigns are costly and time consuming for potential candidates because of the immense size of the district, spanning almost 100 square miles.
Most important to understand is that this movement does not affect current directors, no one would be displaced and each of the political parties would retain their registration numbers.
I respect all elected officials, especially school board directors. It is a tough job with long hours and no pay. Our effort to transform how these directors are elected should make the job a bit more rewarding and worthwhile.
To get involved, send an email to pennridgevoters@gmail.com to sign or get a petition and become a circulator. Together we can bring representational change to Pennridge.
Matt Aigeldinger is a Perkasie resident and former Perkasie Council president.
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