Democrats will lead U.D. school board for next year
UPPER DARBY» A strong political shift on the Upper Darby School Board yielded no party-line division when it came to picking leaders and other matters at the first business meeting since Democrats swept all the school board races in the municipal elections.
The board’s ranking, Democrat Rachel Mitchell, was selected as board president as she starts her second term. Ed Brown, who won his first term on the board this year, was selected as vice president. Mitchell and Brown were the only nominees for these positions at the board’s annual reorganization meeting and received no objections.
“I’m excited and I’m honored to serve the community in this capacity,” said Mitchell Tuesday night. “I called each board member and asked them for their support, and as you can see it was unanimous so I anticipate (continued uniformity) with the board.
“I’m looking forward to creating a team of ten again (school board plus Superintendent Dan Nerelli) and working in harmony for the students of the school district.”
Mitchell did not mention any sort of policies and ideas that she would want to push through with her five other Democrats on the board, but that things will play out at meetings.
After Brown, Gina Curry, Neil Desoyners and Monica Taylor are all new faces to the board who were all sworn in Tuesday night. All were elected to four-year terms save Curry, who won a special two-year term.
With Heather Boyd, Democrats now have six seats on the board, double what it was just last month. Judy Gentile, Lee Ann Jordon and Ken Rucci are the remaining Republicans filling out the panel.
In the regular business meeting following reorganization, the board was unanimous in tabling a vote on a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance resolution for the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites at the Drexelbrook Catering & Special Event Center in Drexel Hill. The resolution would provide temporary tax exemption to the new hotel starting in 2019 that would allow it to pay incremental amounts of taxes based on its assessed value through 2023.
The board has decided to make a policy to handle LERTA cases before potential passage of the resolution
Tuesday marked the second consecutive meeting where a vote on the resolution did not occur. After Upper Darby Township, the school board and the county have to give approval before any tax exemption would occur.
Also, the board unanimously approved a motion to advertise bids for solicitor services.
The board currently uses Francis Catania and his firm, Catania & Parker LLP, which the board has paid approximately $170,000 in 2017 so far and $200,000 in 2016 for services, according to district records obtained last month through a Right to Know request.