SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — After a tense debate, the Parkland School Board on Tuesday appointed longtime former board member Robert Bold to fill the unexpired term of new state Sen. Jarrett Coleman.
The board voted 7-1 to appoint Bold. Patrick Foose was the only school board member to vote against Bold’s appointment.
- The Parkland School Board voted 7-1 to appoint longtime former board member Robert Bold
- The lone dissenting vote was from Patrick Foose, who said the board violated transparency laws by making a decision to appoint Bold behind closed doors
- Board President Carol Facchiano said during the meeting that the board did not make any decisions nor deliberate behind closed doors
Foose said he respects Bold, but as he said at a previous board meeting, he thinks the board should have advertised the position and interviewed candidates to be more transparent.
“After all, while it is our duty to fill the vacancy, the seat does not belong to the eight of us; it belongs to all Parkland electors,” Foose said in a statement to the board.
Foose also said he thinks the board violated Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act, which requires boards to deliberate and take official action in open and public meetings. He said the board made the decision to appoint Bold during an executive session.
Board President Carol Facchiano said during the meeting that the board did not make any decisions nor deliberate during their executive sessions.
“Although Bold’s name appears on the agenda, there has been no deliberation or official action taken prior to the special meeting on his appointment or the appointment of any other person for the vacant position,” Facchiano said.
Foose laughed when Facchiano said that.
Who is Robert Bold?
Bold served on the Parkland School Board starting in December 1999 after retiring from a 30-year teaching career in the Allentown School District.
During Bold’s tenure, he was board president five times and vice president three times. He was designated a Master School Board Director by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in 2009. He retired from the board in 2019.
Bold is filling the vacant seat left by Coleman's resignation. Coleman resigned because he was elected to the state Senate, although he had previously said after being elected that he would not resign his school board seat.
Bold has filled a vacancy on the school board before. He was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Director Marie Maritch resigned in 2021. At that time, Foose voted in favor of Bold filling the vacancy.
Foose said in his statement to the board that while Bold has filled a vacant seat before, this time is different because many people expressed interest in applying.
The decision to appoint Bold
Facchiano said at the Dec. 20 school board meeting that the board needed to discuss all of the possibilities for filling the vacancy. The board had executive sessions before and after that meeting to discuss different ways to fill that vacancy.
Foose did not attend the second executive session. He said he chose to not attend because he felt the board already had made the decision to appoint Bold at the first executive session.
Board Directors David Hein and Marisa Ziegler said a decision had not been made during the first executive session.
The school district then sent out a news release on Dec. 27 announcing the school board would hold the Jan. 3 special meeting to fill the vacancy, saying the board “intends to appoint former School Board Director Robert Bold to fill the vacancy.”
School Board Vacancy Meeting Jan 3 2023 by LVNewsdotcom on Scribd
In the release, Facchiano said Bold would serve until the 2023 elections, when he would let another candidate run for his seat.
There was no discussion about the intent to appoint Bold during a school board meeting. Foose said because of this, the board violated the Sunshine Act.
“That decision was never made in public session. It should have been raised and debated in the sunshine and not behind closed doors.”Patrick Foose, Parkland School Board Director
“That decision was never made in public session,” Foose said in his statement. “It should have been raised and debated in the sunshine and not behind closed doors.”
According to the Sunshine Act, school boards can hold executive sessions to discuss personnel matters. However, there is no exception for filling a vacant elective office.
Facchiano said no decision about Bold’s appointment had been made prior to the special meeting. She said the board’s solicitor, attorney Steven Miller, was involved in the discussion of the process.
Bold as a nonpartisan appointee
In the news release about Bold’s appointment, Facchiano’s statement said that appointing Bold would allow the board to stay nonpartisan.
“By doing this [appointing Bold], the School Board stays nonpartisan and stands to benefit from Mr. Bold’s knowledge as a result of his long and dedicated history on the Parkland School Board,” Facchiano said in the release.
Foose said in an interview that Bold’s appointment was partisan in nature. Foose said he admires Bold’s past service to the district, but he thinks the rest of the board decided to appoint Bold because he is a “yes man” who will go along with what the rest of the board wants.
“They [the rest of the board] wanted an institutional person who will not ask questions or keep the administration on their feet,” Foose said.
Vice President Marisa Ziegler said that because directors of different political parties voted for Bold, his appointment was not partisan.
“Please look up the meaning of ‘partisan,’” Ziegler said to Foose. “We have people from different political parties, backgrounds and walks of life who are almost all voting for the same person to build a team.”
Transparency on the board
Foose has previously argued that the Parkland School Board lacks transparency, including when the board voted to pay about $80,000 for a new scoreboard.
Foose said the issue of transparency on the board has been a recurring one that he thinks will not go away anytime soon. He thinks this is the perfect case to show the lack of transparency on the board.
“I’m frustrated beyond belief. We need to change this board,” Foose said. “That’s why we have elections.”
Director David Hein, who was formerly board president, said that he believes the board is transparent and that he is angered the integrity of the board and its members continues to be questioned.
"If there's anything rotten in the state of the Parkland School District, as Mr. Foose wrote in his letter to the editor, it is the attitude of certain board members who don't avail themselves of all of the information available to them, don't properly prepare for meetings, to bring politics into a nonpartisan board and constantly look for ways to undermine the district administration and board instead of trying to work in a constructive manner to move the district forward for the betterment of the students," Hein said.
Six seats on the school board will be on the ballot in 2023. Facchiano and Ziegler’s terms will expire next year, along with the terms of directors Jay Rohatgi, Lisa Roth, Bold and Foose.
Foose said he intends to run to keep his seat in 2023.
