LANSDALE- The North Penn School District is one of great diversity. Although students, parents, and community members in the district all come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, the North Penn School Board has not been a direct reflection of that diversity, as there has never been anyone of an ethnic minority on the Board.

A quick glance at the district makes it evident that North Penn is a diverse community with a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, and language backgrounds. Based upon demographics from the 2015-2016 school year, 62.9% of the district is white, 20% is Asian, 8.37% is African-American, 4.55% is Hispanic, 3.89% is multiethnic, .13% is American Indian, and .09% is Pacific Islander. The demographic percentages translate to roughly ⅓ of the district’s population as being an ethnicity besides white.

The School Board is looking to appoint a candidate to fill the spot of John Schilling who resigned from the Board a couple weeks ago. Following the 2017 School Board election, this is the second time the Board has needed to appoint a new member to the Board, the other one being the appointment of Juliane Ramić who took the place of Suzan Leonard. The process that the Board goes through when appointing a new member includes sifting through applications from interested community members, selecting either two or three of the applicants to interview at a work session meeting, and finally voting with a majority vote required.

Like the appointment of Juliane Ramić, this appointment is one that places the responsibility of choosing into the Board’s hands rather than the community. Because of the great extent of diversity present in the district, representation is a factor the Board considers when appointing new members, along with the person’s experience, values, and presentation.

“In terms of myself, I really believe strongly it would be in the Board’s best interest to try to find some racial cultural diversity for the board. Right now we are 100% white and the district is not. As representatives of the community, I think it goes a long way to just be able to look and see people that are representing you that are your leaders that you can identify with in a lot of different ways. And that is an important way we identify with people,” said Board member Christian Fusco.

Representation is an important consideration for the Board in a district that is as diverse as North Penn, especially since the levels of diversity heighten with each passing year.

“Year after year you see more diverse populations growing in our district. I think that as a district we should be reflecting more of our community in terms of that Board representation, in terms of our hiring, in terms of the leadership in this district. We want the community to be able to look at us and see a reflection of themselves. That’s an important consideration,” said Fusco.

“We want to find someone who’s representative of our community as best as we can. We are limited to who applies. I think sometimes people are a little hesitant to get into politics,” Board President Tina Stoll added.

The Board has tried to reach out to people they believe would be good fits and plans on continuing to contact people that can help add some diversity to the Board through going out to different communities and different places such as the Lansdale Mosque.

“[Representation] is something that we consider very highly. We’re limited to who applies. That being said, I know we’ve gone out and encouraged people that we know that we think would be good representation on the Board to please apply,” said Stoll.

However, because of the amount of time and work that goes into serving on the Board, many of the people the Board has reached out to have been unable to run for a seat.

“It’s a big time commitment, not just the meetings that we’re scheduled for, but there’s a lot of responsibilities we have to the students and to the families and community members. We try to pitch it to people we think would be good, effective leaders. Unfortunately, more often than not I think they recognize that they may not have the time in their life to do it,” Fusco commented.

Without racial representation currently on the Board, the Board still wants to take steps to engage people from different backgrounds in the community, specifically through a Diversity Committee, something that has been implemented in other districts.

“Even if we aren’t successful in appointing somebody of color to the Board, we do want to start a diversity committee so we have that connection between the Board and community,” stated Stoll.

The Diversity Committee is an idea the Board campaigned on with the goal of getting more minority communities involved as well as addressing diversity issues and solutions within the district. Some of the things the committee, if implemented, would focus on include fostering environments of acceptance, trying to facilitate social engagement between people of different backgrounds, and recognizing and understanding biases that already exist and trying to address them directly.

“I think it’s important to look at the issue of where inherent bias exists while also looking from a strength perspective at what are things and resources that are currently working in the district. So focusing on this idea of all students, all parents, all community members are welcome, while also looking at those areas of inherent bias and addressing those side by side,” expressed Board member Juliane Ramić.

The committee, unlike other Board committees, would consist of parents, students, business owners, and other community members rather than elected members.

“One of the ideas of the committee is unlike the committees we have at the moment, this would be a committee that is a larger committee that would bring people from the public into it to be active serving members on that committee, people in the community that can contribute to the large conversation of diversity in the district,” Fusco explained.

Hesitation of getting involved in politics or a lack of time are two possible reasons many might find it difficult to get involved with the Board, however the Diversity Committee hopes to alleviate these concerns to engage more people.

“If we open it up, the Diversity Committee is one avenue to get involved because you’re not necessarily getting involved at the same level that we’re at because it’s a committee appointment, not a full Board appointment. The more that you do and the more progress that you get to feel connected to, the more priorities of your own start to materialize, I think that’s a great way to promote service,” Fusco said.

One key part of the committee the Board is intent on ensuring is being able to see follow up and results.

“We want to make sure this Diversity Committee shows results and has follow up. It’s not just a committee to have a committee. We want to make sure people feel there’s actually some good coming out of it. That’s key. There have been attempts in the past without follow up for whatever reason,” remarked Stoll.

“In order to get people to get buy in they have to see some results. The onus is really on us to reach out to the community and not just tell them that we’re here or offer them something but to really show results. And I think when they start to see results that will create a better buy in for them,” added Fusco.

In a district as diverse as North Penn, the Board recognizes the importance of reflecting that diversity in the leaders of the district. Although there has been some success, there still is progress to be made to make sure the Board can represent, identify with, and serve all students, families, and community members in the district.

“I think we’ve been successful and there’s been progress but there’s a ways to go. It’s a work in progress for sure, but we really do want to affect change. That’s why we ran,” Stoll expressed.