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Municipalities Not Happy with School District

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In terms of number of municipalities in a school district, Woodland Hills is the County’s largest with twelve municipalities comprising it (Quaker Valley is the next largest with eleven).  So the fact that the officials of the municipalities joined together to draft a letter expressing a “vote of no confidence” in the school board and ask for state intervention is no small feat. 

Of course, the municipalities and the district are separate governing bodies with differing functions (municipalities are general purpose with responsibilities of public safety, public works, sanitation, planning, recreation, etc.) while the school district is a special purpose entity charged with K-12 public education.  However, as noted in the Department of Community and Economic Development’s publication on local government the two entities have an considerable effect on one another.

According to the same publication local elected officials (city, borough, township) are not permitted to serve as a school director.  So that means officials of the municipalities that signed the letter can’t run for Woodland Hills School Board unless they no longer serve in their municipal capacity.  That leaves public pressure (showing up to board meetings to speak) communicating as they did through the letter, or asking the state to intervene, in a manner that is presently unclear, unless financial mismanagement would lead to an Act 141 action.

Do the officials want the state to break up the district?  Introduce more charter school options (based on a 2014 article the district had more than 20% of their total enrollment in charters)?  Have a turnover in the members sitting on the board?  Change it to an appointed board like Pittsburgh flirted with briefly in 2002?  Is there a unified outcome that the municipal officials hope to see?

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Allegheny Institute
Allegheny Institute

The Allegheny Institute is a non-profit research and education organization. Our mission is to defend the interests of taxpayers, citizens and businesses against an increasingly burdensome and intrusive government.

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