Meghan Lomangino & Christian Tatu for Saucon school board

I humbly urge Saucon voters to elect Meghan Lomangino and Christian Tatu—along with Cedric Dettmar and Shamim Pakzad—to Saucon Valley school board on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

There are many areas where I can imagine these four people in conflict with one another, and personally, I wouldn’t want it any other way. They need to be themselves. But I foresee productive, well-mannered tension, not bitter, uncivil, energy-sapping battles.

Lomangino and Tatu would, I believe, bring important changes to district governance that we desperately need, and the fact is, time is running out in Saucon if we want to preserve the district’s estimable academic reputation.

Sometimes I feel like there’s too much vagueness and too many platitudes in their campaigns, but the truth is, they’re no more vague than their opponents’ statements and posts.

Lomangino mentions academic excellence and supporting the classroom in some of her campaign statements; and Tatu is familiar with great literature and, in his own posts, namedrops writers such as Ernest Hemingway on his site.

When was the last time a school director even mentioned a great writer? More of that, please. Those may seem like mild blandishments, but they’re right up my alley. I want our district thinking intellectually—and practically. Lomangino and Tatu offer that combination.

I’ve been on the board for two years, but I’m on a voting minority bloc. I think the district’s leadership lacks creativity and vision and—again and again and again—fails to work collegially with all our district stakeholders. We waste too much time and energy on stupid personality conflicts at the top. It’s got to change.

Lomangino and Tatu’s main cross-filed opponent, Barrett Geyer, is a also decent person who has grown up in the area, and I think he would serve the district ably.

I’ve had my contretemps with Geyer in the past, but I’ve also seen him mature as a candidate. He’s collegial, and he wants to work with others productively, too. He’s also very involved in party politics, but I suspect, if actually seated, he would not act as a party ideologue. None of us really do. I could be wrong.

My main reservation about Geyer is that I think he will nurture a status quo in the district leadership where a change of direction is merited.

Some new school directors, once in power, are seduced by the position. We can’t do that if we want to see the Saucon Valley schools improve academically.

Lomangino and Tatu, I expect, will bring a spirit of positive and substantive change.

As with everything on this blog, this is personal opinion and not the position of anyone or anything but myself.