5 Democrats, 1 Republican running for school board

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In the Bethlehem Area School District, three at-large seats and two region seats are up for election on the nine-member board on Nov. 7. All are for four-year terms.

Three Democrats — incumbents Emily Root Schenkel and Karen Beck Pooley and newcomer M. Rayah Levy — are running as a slate for the three at-large seats. The Republican candidate is Cindy O’Brien, who was endorsed by Moms for Liberty-Northampton County.

In Region 2, incumbent Democrat Michael Recchiuti won the Democratic and Republican nominations for the single seat up for election. Recchiuti, a lawyer who lives in Hanover Township, Northampton County, was appointed to replace Craig Neiman, who resigned in November 2022. He is unopposed. Region 2 covers Bethlehem wards 7, 8, 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 14-1, 15-1, Hanover Township and parts of the city that are in Lehigh County.

In Region 3, incumbent Democrat Kim Shively is facing O’Brien for the single seat up for election. O’Brien also won the GOP nomination for this regional seat and appears on the ballot in two places. Region 3 covers Bethlehem wards 14-2, 14-3, 14-4, 14-5, 14-6, 14-7, 14-8, 15-2, and Bethlehem Township.

Shively, Recchiuti, Schenkel, Pooley and Levy were endorsed by Lehigh Valley For All, a progressive grassroots group that, among a long list of stated values, supports universal health care, unions, protecting LGBTQ rights, and promoting diversity and inclusiveness.

BASD serves about 13,000 students in 22 schools. It also has four preschools. The district’s minority enrollment is about 61%. About 38.6% of students are economically disadvantaged.

In June, the school board adopted a $339 million budget for 2023-24 that for the fourth year kept the property tax at 58.45 mills in Northampton County and 18.32 in Lehigh County.

Here is a look at the candidates in contested races. Information on the candidates was found on their campaign websites, Facebook pages, Linkedin sites, news articles, through interviews and other sources.

At-large seats, vote for three Karen Beck Pooley, Democrat (incumbent)

Pooley is a political science professor of practice at Lehigh University where she teaches courses on city planning, neighborhood and housing issues. She also serves as director of research and analytics at czb LLC, an urban planning and neighborhood development consulting firm. Before taking a job at Lehigh, she ran Allentown’s Redevelopment Authority from 2007 to 2011 and was a deputy director within New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wellesley College, a master’s degree in urban planning and policy from New School University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

She and her husband are parents of two children who attend district schools. Pooley is seeking a fourth, four-year term as a school board director. In her role, she chairs the board’s facilities committee, which oversees the maintenance of all district schools. She also represents the board on Northampton Community College’s board of trustees and is on the steering and housing committee of Northside Alive, a neighborhood revitalization effort that she and the district helped launch with the city of Bethlehem. She is a founding member of BASD Proud Parents, the district’s parent advocacy group, and Pennsylvanians for Fair Funding.

Last year Pooley was honored by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association with induction into its Allwein Society. This accolade honors school directors who excel as leaders and advocates for public education and students.

In a questionnaire from BASD Proud Parents, Pooley said she will continue to advocate for full and fair funding from Harrisburg, citing that in the last few years, BASD’s state allocation of basic education funding has increased by $12.5 million. As a result, she said, the district was able to invest more money in programming without a tax increase. Continuing to invest in district facilities is also a priority, she said. Although COVID relief funds enabled the district to replace over a dozen HVAC systems at area elementary schools, larger facility needs exist at Fountain Hill, Thomas Jefferson and William Penn elementary schools, she said.

Drawing on her expertise in city planning, Pooley underscored the significance of public schools as essential “key neighborhood anchors,” offering support and services not only for students but also their families and providing a local gathering space.

An outline of her priorities on the Parents for Liberty and Freedom website includes continuing the district’s work around Reading by Grade 3 and continuing the high schools’ college and career pathways program.

M. Rayah Levy, Democrat

Levy has spent most of her career working in public and academic libraries and is presently employed as public services librarian at Moravian University, Bethlehem. Her educational background includes a master’s degree in library science with a focus on preservation from Simmons University in Boston.

She is married and has one son who attends Liberty High School. She holds membership in organizations such as Bethlehem Human Relations Commission, the NAACP and the State Historical Records Advisory Board. She previously held a position on the executive board at the Moravian Historical Society. As the founding director of the Esther M. Lee African-American Heritage Center, Levy secured a grant from the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium to spearhead and create an oral history project titled “Voices from the African Diaspora: The Black Experience of Bethlehem, Pa.”

She was recently named a Public Education Champion by Education Voters of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that advocates for public education.

In a recent post on her Facebook page, Levy expressed her belief that the education of the district’s children is at a critical juncture. “Many are trying to turn back the hands of time by attempting to erase and silence our educators by burying the truth about the American historical experience. Therefore, I must fight for our children and teachers as if my life depends on it,” she wrote.

She also voiced concerns about attempts to ban books and shift the focus away from preparing students for the global job market.

Levy posted the elements of her campaign on the Parents for Liberty and Freedom website. They include:

Empowering teachers to focus on more than standardized tests.

Demonstrating to taxpayers that education is an asset and an investment in a well-developed society.

Ensuring state and federal funding is poured into the community and used for job creation.

Emphasizing a diverse workforce and having teachers of all backgrounds in the classroom.

In a statement on the Parents for Liberty and Freedom website, Levy expressed her belief in the necessity of public education, describing it as a vital tool for preventing adult illiteracy and mitigating child poverty. Parents for Liberty and Freedom says on its website that it promotes candidates in the Lehigh Valley who support “a wellfunded public education system” that includes “every member of the community.”

Cindy O’Brien, Republican

O’Brien is a freelance journalist and substitute teacher who has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a diploma in French studies from Moravian University. She is a married mother of three grown children who lives in Bethlehem Township.

She said she “will be a strong voice for academic excellence, parental rights and enhanced safety measures that protect students and teachers from violence in schools.”

O’Brien has written about parental rights in op-ed pieces for The Morning Call and on her Facebook page. After parents began complaining about mandated masking policies during COVID, she wrote an op-ed that questioned their effectiveness, saying ventilation systems would do a better job of clearing the air of the virus and other illnesses.

In another, she applauded Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights bill, which includes a ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity through eighth grade. At the time she wrote it, the ban was through third grade.

Since the spring, she said she has altered her opinion on social emotional learning after talking to a school board member about BASD’s program and now supports it as long as it doesn’t indoctrinate students.

She said she supports the district’s restorative justice approach to student problems but said that students aren’t facing consequences for bad behavior. She said she disagrees with the idea that systemic racism is the reason minority students have been cited for school infractions more often than their peers. She said this outlook prevents districts from looking at other reasons and from finding solutions.

O’Brien was endorsed by Moms for Liberty-Northampton County, whose members have encouraged the Nazareth Area School Board to adopt family- and parent-first policies such as those passed in the Central Bucks School District on restricting books with sexual content and setting up a process for book removals.

She said she sought the endorsement but now feels like it has created a “hornet’s nest,” saying it is being used as a reason to vote against her.

She said the subject of book bans has not come up in Bethlehem Area. As a school board member, she said she wouldn’t talk about the issue unless it was raised in the district.

Noting the Democratic candidates’ endorsement from Lehigh Valley for All, O’Brien said, “.. it would appear that Lehigh Valley for all does NOT align with the values of the majority of parents who do not want their children reading sexually explicit books in school.”

Instead of cultural issues, O’Brien said the district should be focused on making sure the district has enough funding, has enough teachers and support staff and continues to make progress in reversing academic slippage that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic.

As a board member, O’Brien said, “I will employ a win-win perspective when addressing educational issues. I believe every child deserves a custom education. Parents deserve honesty and respect. And teachers deserve support and cooperation.”

In the spring, O’Brien gave her campaign $10,121, which she spent on expenses such as mailers, text messages and postage.

Emily Root Schenkel, Democrat (incumbent)

Schenkel is seeking a second four-year term as director. A founding member of BASD Proud Parents, she and her husband have two children attending schools in the district. She is a senior account manager with Instructure, an educational technology company, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from Boston University. She is an assistant lacrosse coach for Bethlehem Township Athletic Association, a Liberty Football Booster club member and is part of Northside Alive, a community planning effort. She also serves on the board of the nonprofit Friends of Flight 93.

In a questionnaire from BASD Proud Parents, she shared her perspective on education, emphasizing its role as a means to equip students with the skills to become self-directed lifelong learners while fostering their sense of responsibility and productivity within society. Furthermore, she advocated for public schools to ensure equitable access to high-quality education for every student.

“My goal is to support our public schools as a fiscally responsible advocate for all students, families, educators and community members,” she wrote.

Her top objectives, if reelected, are to address the education needs of students by supporting curriculum initiatives, ensure the safety and security of students and staff and support teachers so they can provide the highest quality of education to students.

She has also called for construction upgrades and improvements to district schools in a fiscally responsible way.

Five years ago, she organized a petition on her Facebook page that called on the state Legislature to install stop-arm cameras in all school buses and increase fines for drivers who don’t stop when a bus has turned on its red flashing lights.

Region 3, vote for one

O’Brien, Republican

See profile listed above.

Kim Shivel, Democrat (incumbent)

Shively is an anthropology/sociology professor at Kutztown University. She has a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the University of Chicago, a master’s degree in theological studies and world religion from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Brandeis University. She is a married mother of four sons who lives in Bethlehem Township.

Shively was appointed to the board in September 2019 to replace Eugene McKeon, who resigned with a few months left on his term. She was elected to the position in November 2019 after winning the Democratic and Republican nominations in the spring primary.

When asked why she is running again, Shively said, “Two of my children are on the autism spectrum and the school district was able to create educational programs that served their needs well.

I continue to be passionate about making sure our schools provide quality education to all students, whatever their background and situation.”

Shively said the biggest issue facing the district is fair funding. “BASD has been chronically underfunded according to Pennsylvania’s own fair-funding formula. I will continue to advocate for greater state support for BASD schools to take some of the burden off of local taxpayers while maintaining robust educational and extracurricular programming,” she said. Shively also said she’d like the district to acquire more funding and grants to invest more in helping students dealing with emotional and social issues.

Shively said she is concerned about O’Brien’s endorsement from Moms for Liberty-Northampton County.

“The Bethlehem Area School District should serve all of our students equally while respecting their backgrounds and situations. I would like to make sure it stays that way,” she said.

Among her accomplishments, Shively lists helping the district deal with the coronavirus pandemic. “With the support of the school board, the district has been able to partner with area organizations, such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, the United Way, Communities in Schools, and others to support the educational, health, and emotional needs of the students in our district,” she said.

In addition, she said, the district has been diligent about using evidencebased forms of literacy and math instruction. “… we are beginning to see reading and math scores improve after the negative effects of the pandemic. I hope to continue to contribute to these promising developments.”