On Tuesday, November 7th, The Parkland School Board held an election to fill the available seats. Five seats with four-year terms were available, as well as one seat with a two-year term, making a whopping six empty spaces up for grabs. The Democratic candidates included Carol Facchiano, Chris Pirrotta, Jay Rohatgi, Lisa Roth, and Marisa Ziegler. All but Pirrotta are current members. Rohatgi is vying for both the four-year and two-year seats. The Republican options included Mike Deering, Beth Finch, Natalie Janotka, Bobby Lanyon, and George Rivera. Mike Millo, another Republican, ran for the two-year seat. The majority of the candidates are incumbents (The Morning Call).
The winners included Marisa Ziegler (D), Jay Rohatgi (D), Chris Pirrotta (D), Lisa Roth (R), and Carol Facchiano (R). This group called themselves Proud of Parkland and campaigned with the principles of non-partisanship and fiscal responsibility. Rohatgi also won the seat for the 2-year term, meaning he will have to make a decision about which position to fill, and the directions will appoint someone to take the remaining seat (Lehigh Valley News). The candidates that lost were called Elevate Education and/or Education First for Parkland. These were not necessarily landslide winnings, as the majority of the democratic candidates won by 10%, or a few thousand votes (The Morning Call).
The Democrat’s positions were mostly focused on highlighting their past accomplishments and emphasizing the continuation of their work to improve the district (The Morning Call). This would include pursuing the plan to expand Parkland High School and Orefield Middle School, for which renovations are estimated to cost $165-189 million. This plan is a five-year plan to improve Orefield’s bus loop, field house, and stadium, as well as the addition of a new building to the high school. These building projects are in response to the growing population of the district, as well as the push to modernize Orefield’s design. The renovations hope to allow it to function more as a middle school, as opposed to the high school it was originally constructed to be (Parkland School District).
On the other hand, the majority of the Republican candidates centered their campaign on increasing the amount of parental involvement in the schools, as well as separating politics from education. This position arises from past concerns about the morality of COVID-era mandates of masking, as well as recent objections to classroom discussions on gender, sexuality, and race (The Morning Call).
The two groups both issued statements from their subsequent members. “I’m thrilled that the people of Parkland showed up to the polls today to back public education, civility, and fiscal responsibility,” said direct-elect Pirrotta (Lehigh Valley News). Millo gave a response on behalf of the Elevate Education group, “Congratulations to all of the winners. I am proud of our message and effort but respect the voters” (Lehigh Valley News).
