Next S.T.E.P. candidate Tina Stoll is a North Penn graduate whose three sons also attended NPSD schools from kindergarten through high school. She currently works as the controller for an insurance agency in Chalfont. Additionally, she has served as both president and treasurer for North Penn’s 12th Knight Football Booster Club over the course of seven years. Tina believes that this experience working with students, teachers, and administrators will help her deal more effectively with issues as a school board member.
If elected, one of Tina’s goals is to encourage active participation in school board meetings. “There are approximately 40,000 taxpayers and 13,000 students in the district,” she notes, “yet the number of people that attend school board meetings is usually in the single digits.” She plans to reach out to the taxpayers' association, staff, Home & School organizations, Booster clubs, etc., and encourage members to come to the school board’s monthly meetings. “It is vitally important that you let us know what your concerns are; tell us exactly what you would like to see addressed in your school or community.”
Tina also wants to see better communication among the board members themselves. She believes that politics, even at the most local level, has become too polarized. “Politics should not be a game in which one team wins and the other loses,” she says. “We cannot afford to work like that. We need to find ways to work together and focus on providing our students with the highest quality education possible.”
With upcoming cuts in federal and state funding, the candidate acknowledges that the school board must find ways to work with teachers and staff to maintain a quality education. If elected, not only will she thoroughly examine the budget to determine where costs could be cut, but she will also rely on staff for help. While the current board has used funds to hire consultants, Tina believes that money could be spent more wisely elsewhere. “We should take advantage of our employees’ expertise,” she says. “Who knows how to do a particular job better than the people who do it every day?”
Tina also hopes to partner with other school boards in PA to lobby representatives in Harrisburg. “We have to promote the value of public education,” she argues. “It will be exceedingly difficult to meet increased requirements if cuts in funding continue at this rate.” Nonetheless, she and her fellow Next S.T.E.P. candidates, plan to do everything in their power to make sure teachers continue to receive the best possible training. “We need to continue recruiting and retaining the best educators out there,” she says. “Not only do our students need to succeed… they need to excel. The students will always be our primary focus.”
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