Elections (Credit: MediaNews Group)
In the Pennridge School District, eight candidates are vying for four open spots on the school board.
The Democratic “Pennridge Community Alliance” team includes newcomers Dan Bebernitz, Thomas Trauger, Nathaniel Leffever and Carly Taylor, while the Republican “Pennridge for Excellence” team includes former board member Jonathan Russell and newcomers Michael Bongiovanni, Daniel Mainieri and Brian McMullen.
All candidates were asked the same set of questions. Below are their responses.
Bebernitz
Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
I am a Behavior Analyst, a specialist who designs programs to help students with disabilities grow and learn safely. Prior to that, I was a social studies teacher and ran a mentoring program, but I’ve always been a supporter of teachers and an advocate for students. I hold undergraduate and graduate degrees in education with 13 years of experience in schools.
Alongside my career, I am also a parent of identical twin girls whom I love more than I can explain. It is my dedication to them and belief that it’s our duty to give back to our community that motivates me to run for office. With that inspiration and a rational, evidence-first mentality, I believe I could help the students of our community have the very best education we can provide. I believe listening and learning are essential to being a leader, and I look forward to working alongside the superintendent and the experts at the school to guide policy to empower our teachers and engage our students.
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
Tom Trauger, Carly Taylor, Nathaniel Leffever, and I have talked to residents at their doors for hours every weekend for over 6 months, listening to what matters most to them. The overwhelming consensus from the Pennridge community is that they want extremist politics kept out of our schools. The GOP-led Vermilion debacle was a stain on Pennridge’s proud legacy and set us back in many ways: loss of staff, misuse of funds, and a divided community. This PCA slate has focused exclusively on safety, academics, and quality within the schools and are not pushing any political agenda. We are parents, community members, and volunteers who approach this candidacy with the same clarity.
The other issue most brought up when canvassing is transparency. Privacy rights often prevent the school from sharing out details regarding community issues. I would work with our solicitor to understand if there is the ability to provide more information on community issues and to combat the spread of misinformation. I would advise we post solicitor-approved statements letting the community know that actions are being taken and state the applicable policy, but details are withheld for privacy laws, giving the community transparency without violating rights.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Website: PennridgeCA.com
Facebook: facebook.com/PennridgeCommunityAlliance
Trauger
Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
I have been a proud resident of the Pennridge School District since 2004 and the parent of three children who attend Pennridge schools. With a degree in Finance and a professional background as a consultant in the skilled nursing industry, I will bring strong problem-solving, leadership, and strategic planning skills to the district. My experience in a highly regulated field has taught me how to navigate complex challenges while keeping the focus on people and outcomes.
As a candidate, my top priority is improving education and strengthening academic excellence in Pennridge. I believe every student deserves access to engaging instruction, strong support systems, and opportunities to reach their full potential. I am committed to working collaboratively with teachers, families, and administrators to promote innovative learning, support educators, and create an environment where students thrive. My goal is to help Pennridge become a district known not only for fiscal responsibility, but for academic achievement, integrity, and pride in our schools.
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
Over the past several months, I’ve spent a great deal of time listening to our community—knocking on more than 800 doors and having meaningful conversations at doorsteps and local events. One message has come through loud and clear: residents want politics out of our schools. Families are asking for a renewed focus on students, learning, and respect for our educators.
As a father first, not a politician, I have no political agenda. My only goal is to support a school system where every decision centers on what is best for students. To keep politics out of the classroom, we must trust our district’s professional administrators and educators to do their jobs, provide transparency so the community stays informed, and actively listen to parents and staff for feedback. Actions speak louder than words, and I will lead through collaboration, openness, and respect for all voices.
The current board has made meaningful progress in rebuilding trust and refocusing on academics, and I will continue that positive path. My commitment is to restore unity, strengthen trust, and keep our schools focused on providing every child with a high-quality education. Together, we can build schools that make our community proud, create pathways for all students to succeed, and plan responsibly for long-term success.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Website: PennridgeCA.com
Facebook: Thomas Trauger – For Pennridge School Board Director
Leffever
Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
My family business is in education. Not only do I come from a family of teachers, but my family also founded and owns a well-known preschool in Doylestown. I worked there my entire life, doing everything from mucking horse stalls after school for our equestrian program to teaching our enriched Kindergarten class over a decade later. I’m also a Pennridge graduate and now a parent — my daughter started first grade this year at Bedminster Elementary, and I could not be more excited for her to grow in this district where, as the fence outside of her school says, “everyone counts, cares, creates, and collaborates.”
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
For several months now, I’ve been out and about in our community, knocking on doors and talking to the people who make up our district. Together with the other PCA candidates, we’ve knocked well over 1500 doors and had conversations with people from all over the political spectrum. What I’ve learned, and what I see as the single biggest issue in our schools, is the need to keep politics out of our schools.
Our community has shown an overwhelming amount of support for — and pride in — our schools and teachers. Across the board, our community has voiced the need for us as a board to focus on education over political agendas, and to make sure that our teachers feel supported in their efforts to provide the best possible education to our students at all levels and ages. The way to address this is simple but not always easy — listening to the voices of people whom I may not agree with on everything, but approaching every issue with an open mind and a desire to find real solutions rather than bragging rights.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Website: PennridgeCA.com.
Facebook: Nathaniel Leffever for Pennridge School Board
Taylor
Carly Taylor, Pennridge School Board candidate (Courtesy of Carly Taylor for Pennridge School Board Director)Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
My career and life experiences have molded me into a community-focused individual with a strong drive to serve, which I feel will bring great value to the school board. I am a former laboratory manager, where I primarily focused on process improvement, training, and compliance. There, I learned an understanding of balancing business needs with needs of employees, while working within a budget.
I have lived in Bucks County for most of my life and now have a 5-year-old daughter in Kindergarten at Grasse Elementary, who reminds me why quality public education for all is so important. I have built a career as a horse trainer and a vet assistant for an equine dentist in Bucks County, where I interact with the community daily. I love that I get to be a part of identifying creative solutions which positively impact lives.
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
Financial responsibility and keeping politics out of our schools are the biggest issues I hear about while engaging with members of the Pennridge community. A school board director needs to focus on the needs of their district and not on personal political agendas, like what happened with the Vermilion contract in 2023. The decision to implement the Hillsdale curriculum was not only a bad decision for education, it was a bad financial decision which wasted money.
Being financially responsible and non-partisan means making decisions by asking questions like “How would this help keep our students warm, safe, and dry?” “How does this empower teachers and staff to perform their jobs and feel satisfied in their work?” “How does this strengthen our community?” By focusing on these perspectives and working with the administration to guide their policies and hold them accountable, we can create a strong and stable Pennridge for all our students. I will always work to ensure transparency and accountability with the entire community is a priority, and accept feedback with grace.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Website: PennridgeCA.com.
Facebook: Carly Taylor for Pennridge School Board Director
Russell
Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
Having served on the Board for two years previously, and with two of my children still in the District, I believe that I can add value to the Board. I feel as though there is a need to have reasonably-minded people in this leadership position in our community. By way of background and experience, as a trial attorney for the past thirty-two years, I understand how to resolve issues, even with my adversaries. I bring a logical, rational, and reasoned approach to problem-solving. Additionally, I have over twenty years of experience in board governance with various non-profit organizations. I know what good processes look like. As to my leadership style, I have a collaborative approach to board engagement, which hopefully invites people to work with and not against one another. I understand that the process of reaching a decision can be just as important as the decision itself.
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
It seems that parents are not receiving timely responses from Board members or the administration when an issue is raised. They don’t understand why our taxes just increased when we have a lot of new developments being built within the District, and our student population is decreasing. The residents want the District to focus on fundamentals — on reading, writing, arithmetic, and science. They don’t want teachers or administrators using classroom time to indoctrinate or advocate for a preferred social position. They don’t understand why our math and reading scores, especially in the middle schools, are so low. They don’t think it makes sense to have a practice that allows boys and girls to use the same bathrooms. They just want common-sense decision-makers who represent the community well.
Addressing some of these issues is easier than others. As to communication, every person who emails the board should receive a response. As to raising taxes, we need to look at our student-to-teacher and administrator-to-teacher ratios. We need to project the anticipated revenue from new developments during the budgeting process. As to academics, we need to find out what certain teachers are doing right and how that learning paradigm can be used in classrooms that are falling below expectations.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Website: pennridgerepublicans.com/candidates
Facebook: Pennridge For Excellence
Bongiovanni
Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
My name is Michael Bongiovanni and I am a candidate for School Board Director in the Pennridge School District. I believe that it is an important time to get involved in school board elections. Our schools, once safe havens for learning, are facing new challenges every day. My educational experience spans over 35 years as a High School Math Teacher in a very high-performing Bucks County School District. My career exposed me to Innovative Teaching Practices, Administrative Responsibilities, Critical Thinking Techniques, Curriculum Writing, Collegial Leadership, Budget Preparation, Teacher Mentoring, and Athletic Coaching. This experience equips me with skills essential for leadership on the school board.
I believe in practical, common-sense solutions that will focus on all of the stakeholders in the school district, especially the students. These solutions will address problems directly and efficiently. My campaign is not driven by a political agenda. It is rooted in my extensive experience as an Educator and as a Parent of two children who have passed through the Pennridge School District. Together, we can tackle the challenges facing our schools. We can work towards a future where every student thrives.
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
Recent School Tax Increase. While I recognize the importance of properly funding education, I believe we must first explore every viable alternative before raising taxes — always keeping the education of our children as the top priority.
One important step would be to adopt a zero-based budgeting process, starting each year from scratch instead of simply building on the prior year’s budget. This approach ensures that funding is directed to what our schools truly need rather than continuing expenditures that may no longer be necessary.
We should also work to strengthen the Educational Foundation fund by actively seeking donations and partnerships with local businesses.
Finally, because the largest share of district expenditures is devoted to salaries and benefits, we must carefully review whether there are areas of spending that can be reduced or redirected without negatively impacting students. By being fiscally responsible and creative in how we manage resources, we can strengthen our schools while protecting taxpayers.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Facebook: Pennridge For Excellence
Mainieri
Describe your background and qualifications for the position you are seeking.
I have lived in the Pennridge community since 2003 and attended Pennridge schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. As a proud 2018 graduate and active participant in local government, I have been given the opportunity to interact with the residents of the Pennridge School District on a regular basis. This has allowed me to gain an understanding of their values, priorities, and concerns. The residents of Pennridge have made it clear to me that they want a district that prepares its students for success after graduation and gives them the tools they need for said success. In 2021, I was elected to be an Inspector of Elections in West Rockhill Township before becoming Judge of Elections in 2023. I also currently work for Pennsylvania State Senator Jarrett Coleman as his Bucks County Representative, and have done so since 2024.
What are the biggest issues or concerns you hear from local residents? How would you address those?
I have two main priorities if elected to the board. The first priority is to ensure our district’s curriculum is teaching our students how to think and not what to think. I believe subjects such as financial literacy, cursive writing, public speaking, civics, and reading comprehension should be started at the elementary level and go all the way to the high school level. These subjects and mastery of them will give our students a competitive edge in the world today, where education has become primarily about memorizing material to pass an exam.
The second issue I wish to address is to ensure our taxpayer dollars are being utilized fully for our students. Recently, our board decided to raise taxes on our community which hadn’t been done in 8 years. This was done in spite of the fact that we have. lost over 1000 students in the past few years and that there is an increase of residential homes being built. The base revenue is increasing but that was not taken into consideration in the most recent budget. The board needs to look at staffing and if there are any positions that can be eliminated/reduced in salary.
Please list your campaign website, social media pages, and/or anywhere else our readers can find you.
Facebook: Pennridge For Excellence
The remaining candidate did not respond to a request for comment.
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