SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — Parkland School Board has a new director.
After interviewing five candidates Tuesday, the board appointed David Ellowitch to fill the vacant two-year seat left by state Sen. Jarrett Coleman’s resignation.
That seat was up for election this year, but board member Jay Rohatgi won the nomination for both a four-year seat and a two-year seat, and he chose to serve the four-year term.
“I hope that I can help add to the conversation,” Ellowitch said during his interview. “I think each of you are incredibly strong and amazing people; I've come to know most of you.
“So I think it would be really incumbent on me, or whoever it is, to spend a lot of time learning, but hopefully come to a point where I could add value to that discussion.”
Ellowitch’s appointment comes after a contentious election. A slate of mostly incumbent candidates won against a slate of Republican challengers.
Who is David Ellowitch?
Ellowitch has lived in the area since he started attending Muhlenberg College in 1994. He has two children in the school district, a seventh-grader and a third-grader.
Ellowitch is a representative to the executive board of the Lehigh County Democratic Committee. He works as a wealth advisor at IronBridge Wealth Counsel.
“It’s about making strategic decisions with limited resources and competing priorities,” Ellowitch said. “So in a smaller way, the work that the board does.”
When asked how the role of the school board differs from that of the superintendent and school administration, Ellowitch said he thinks of the superintendent’s office as the executive branch and the board as the governing body.
“They do that work to make sure… that the resources that are needed to be successful for our students and teachers are there, and that we are careful stewards of the tax dollars that our communities work so hard for,” Ellowitch said.
“We're fortunate there's a pretty strong tax base. So we have resources to work with. But we have to be very careful. We can't be frivolous with those.”David Ellowitch, the newly-appointed Parkland School Board director
When asked about the strengths and weaknesses of the district, Ellowitch said the desirability of the district is positive but brings challenges, such as the projected overcrowding of the middle and high schools.
“Everyone wants to come to Parkland,” Ellowitch said. “We know there's this massive growth, we know there's this influx, so how do you prepare for that?
“We're fortunate there's a pretty strong tax base. So we have resources to work with. But we have to be very careful. We can't be frivolous with those.”
Comments from other candidates
Other candidates for the vacancy were Michele Fedorov, Brad Maier, John Pfeiffer and Fatima Wakeel.
Director David Hein voted for Maier, and Director Annette Wilcox voted for Wakeel.
All the candidates said the strengths of the district outweighed the weaknesses, but pointed out some areas of potential improvement.
“Making sure that you have a culture that is inclusive and supportive to students — it gets harder as the growth of the district continues."Brad Maier, who applied for a vacancy on the Parkland School Board.
Maier said the growth of the district will bring new challenges to maintaining the culture of the schools.
“Making sure that you have a culture that is inclusive and supportive to students — it gets harder as the growth of the district continues,” Maier said.
Fedorov said, “I think it's difficult sometimes for everyone to flourish because of the size of the school. In a smaller school, you really need everyone for everything, whereas here you really need to be top-notch as far as sports is concerned.
“But you know, it inspires a lot of competitiveness for kids, which I think is a healthy thing for them.”
Pfeiffer, a retired teacher who used to work in the district, said, “I think we need to have teachers more involved with decision-making. I think that you need that collaboration between teachers and administrators across the board.”
Wakeel said she thinks many of the problems the district faces, such as workforce shortages, are not unique to it.
“Just anecdotally, thinking about the bus drivers and the shortage of them, for example,” Wakeel said. “I know we've experienced that, but again, I think that's sort of a larger problem that’s not just unique to Parkland.”
Other news
In other business Tuesday, the school board honored Parkland High School senior Maggie Smith for being chosen the MaxPreps Pennsylvania girls' volleyball player of the year.
Smith was also chosen a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Girls High School All-America Teams.
The directors also approved an agreement with construction company Alvin H. Butz Inc. to be the construction manager for the upcoming high school expansion project.
The agreement cites the total project cost as $53 million. The board selected Alloy5 to provide architectural services.
The board certified that it will not increase taxes beyond the state’s Act 1 index, the maximum allowable yearly increase allowed by the state.
The index for the next school year is 5.3%. In May, the board approved a budget with a 2.5% tax increase.
The Act 1 index then was 4.1%.
