14 candidates vying for 5 seats on Plum School Board; parties endorse slates

Democrat and Republican voters in Plum will have the same 14 people to choose from in the upcoming primary election to fill five ballot spots for the Plum School Board.

All of this year’s school board candidates are cross-filed for the May 16 primary. They include five incumbents seeking to stay on the board and nine challengers.

The incumbents are Michael Devine, current board president; Michael Caliguiri, vice president; Adam Hill; Michelle Stepnick; and Amy Wetmore.

The challengers are Lindsay Arenth, Aaron Butler, Thomas Feeney, Eric Gumkowski, Gary Motor, Justin Newman, Renee Richardson, Phil Sewell and Mark Stropkaj.

Although his name remains on the ballot, Sewell has announced that he forfeited his candidacy because he pleaded guilty to assault in 2004 and is ineligible to hold the seat. He could not be reached for comment.

Plum’s Democratic and Republican committees have endorsed a slate of five candidates for school board. The candidates had to be registered to each party to receive endorsements.

The Democratic slate includes three of the five incumbents — Caliguiri, Hill and Wetmore — and Newman and Richardson.

The Republican slate is all newcomers: Arenth, Butler, Gumkowski, Motor and Stropkaj.

Two of the five incumbents, Devine and Stepnick, are running unendorsed as is Feeney. Sewell also did not receive an endorsement.

Wetmore, who is serving her first term on the board after first running unsuccessfully in 2017, also is chair of the borough Democratic Committee.

“It was important to our party that the people who were running had what was in the best interest of the students first and foremost and had a strong emphasis on education and using positive messaging in education,” she said.

Wetmore said they also are hoping to build some diversity on the board — Newman and Richardson are persons of color. She also noted that the Democratic ticket includes two women.

“We have had one person of color serve on our school board in its history,” she said. “It would be nice to have representation that reflected the community on the board.”

Wetmore noted the current board has faced many challenges, being sworn into office in December 2019 just before the covid pandemic shut down schools.

“We did a lot of work around bringing in mental health resources,” she said. “We have social workers now. We have a special education director who is a full-time district employee. We were able to make those changes to help address what we were seeing was important.”

Republican Committee Chairman Steve Schlauch was a member of the board from 2015 to 2019 and now is running for a seat on Plum Council, where the primary is uncontested.

Schlauch described the Republican school board candidates as team-oriented.

“They’re trying to put the students first, what’s best for the kids and the education, while also trying to look out for fiscal responsibility and doing what’s best for the community and the taxpayers as well,” he said. “All of these candidates represent the community in those regards.”

Schlauch said a big issue in today’s education environment is education over indoctrination.

“We’re trying to get school board members elected that are going to support our values and protect the kids from indoctrination,” he said. “In today’s environment and in schools, there’s always a push for bringing in a lot of different education topics that are controversial. It could be more progressive and not best for the kids’ education.

“We want to be sure parents have more say in their education and some control over what their kids are being taught in schools. Parental inclusion is good in today’s environment.”

Of the three unendorsed candidates, Devine and Feeney are registered Republicans, and Stepnick is a Democrat.

Devine, the board’s current president, is nearing the end of his first term. He said the board has worked to rebrand the district in academics and athletics and create a culture of accountability, which he said has brought about a sense of pride in the community.

“I think we’ve done a really good job over the last three and a half years. Our work’s not done,” he said. “The mark of a good community is a good school district. I don’t want to see our home values drop. I don’t want to see our community go by the wayside because the school has gone by the wayside. I want to keep going in the right direction, the direction we’ve been going for the last couple of years.”

Feeney, who is seeking office for the first time, has lived in Plum for about four years. He did not seek an endorsement from either party.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been attending school board meetings pretty frequently. I’ve noticed that a lot of people get angry. There’s a lot of infighting and arguing back and forth. A lot of people carry with them a lot of this party versus that party, Republican versus Democrat,” he said. “Our kids, our schools and our community deserve better than political party. All the fighting you see on the national stage, we don’t need that on the local stage.”

Stepnick returned to the board in 2019 after serving from 2013 to 2017. She also did not seek a party endorsement.

Stepnick said she wants to provide a first-class education for children while being fiscally responsible for taxpayers. She has a degree in social studies education and is the CEO of MK Inc. of the Palm Beaches, an entrepreneurial company.

“My goal has always been to have some involvement in public education,” she said. “I thought my skillset working in governments and working for government, my degree in social studies education and being a mother gave me an outlook and an opportunity to bring some fresh ideas and younger parents to the board.”