Quaker Valley School Board-elect members see recent election as referendum on proposed high school

Winners of the Quaker Valley School Board race feel the election served as referendum on the proposed high school project.

Candidates who were in favor of the estimated $105 million development and how the school district has proceeded thus far defeated challengers who voiced concerns about the school and wanted to stop its progress.

Several residents at school board meetings and the district’s Act 34 hearing, a state-required public session for major developments, leading up to November requested school directors put the project on the ballot.

“The opposition to the new high school project had a paucity of evidence to support their position,” said Democratic incumbent Gianni Floro, who successfully defended his Region 1 seat from Republican challenger William Jasper. “All I can say to them is ‘[t]here is your referendum.’”

Jasper and Quaker Valley area resident Michelle Antonelli have appealed to state court an Allegheny County Court decision that allowed the project to move past the Leet Zoning Hearing Board.

Oral arguments were heard by three state judges in October. It is unclear when they will rule on the matter.

The proposed school is on 150 acres of land off Camp Meeting Road. It straddles Leet, Edgeworth and Leetsdale.

Floro and other school board winners said they were not surprised with the results.

“The community wants the new high school built,” Floro said. “The opposition, with the exception of well-intentioned and reasonably justifiable concerns from residents who reside below the site of the new high school, has not been well intentioned.

“There have been those who have intentionally delayed this project and cost the taxpayers an enormous amount of money, time and resources, and they have openly pledged to continue to do so, this is unfortunate and reveals the true nature of their character.”

Democrats Melissa Walls and Jessica Webster defeated Republican challengers John English and George Smith in a four-candidate race for two Region 3 seats.

“Missy and I ran our campaign with an emphasis on building community, focusing on our students and capitalizing on our strengths to continuously improve our district,” said Webster. “I think that message resonated with our community. People expressed a desire to keep politics out of our schools; they want to focus on our children and teachers.”

Walls echoed Floro’s comments about what the election said about the community’s wishes.

“It is very telling that all candidates who are in favor of building the new high school on the property in Leet Township won the election,” Walls said. “In a sense, the election could be construed as a de facto referendum. However, there is no legal authority in the Pennsylvania Election Code, nor anywhere else for a school board or other entity in this Commonwealth to put a referendum on a ballot for voters to chose where the new high school should be built.”

She urged those who believe otherwise to review case law of Hempfield School District vs. the election board of Lancaster County and read the Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Center for Local Government Services’ “Referendum Handbook, Eleventh Edition.”

Incumbent Geoff Barnes and newcomer Corinna Garcia-Skorpenske were on both Democratic and Republican tickets for two Region 2 seats.

“During the race, I heard some candidates frame it as a ‘referendum on the new high school,’” Barnes said. “Although technically incorrect, I suppose it’s a poignant provocation.

“That makes it all the more striking that this was the third consecutive such election — framed by opponents of the high school in these same terms each time — wherein the voters elected a 9-0 school board majority that affirmatively supports building the new high school we’re going to build in Leet Township.”

The school board members-elect all thanked their supporters and expressed excitement for the future.

“I feel very excited to work with everyone who got elected,” Garcia-Skorpenske said. “They are all very experienced people who are in it for the kids. Am I surprised on who won? No because I have faith in this community that they would vote for the betterment of our kids and community. I feel we will all work together well.

“I also want to congratulate the people who did not get elected to the school board. They put time and effort into the election and the fact that they put themselves out there is a big deal.”

People will still have opportunities to voice their concerns about the proposed high school at upcoming school board meetings, as well as Leet and Leetsdale planning commission meetings. Preliminary plans have been submitted to both municipalities.