Summer Shorts: School Board Double Down, Jasper’s Jabber and Jaunt

This month I’m posting some brief (for me) pieces on subjects that beg mention due to their timeliness and/or significance.  Many of these topics have been fleshed out already – others don’t really need as much analysis to get a point across.

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The Sewickley Herald op-ed collectively signed by the Quaker Valley School Board (June 29 print edition) sought to clearly establish the board’s position on the high school project, presumably in response to the continued post-election information push by the QVGOP. This has been manifested most recently by the campaign of District 1 Republican candidate William Jasper, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Gianni Floro.

The board used assertive, straightforward language in defending their decision to build a new facility elsewhere, and forego building on the current site –

Even if we were to consider building up the lower portion of the property, disturbing the floodplain would involve multiple state and federal agencies, and cost taxpayers five to eight years and millions of dollars seeking permitting that we have little confidence we’d receive.

The current land is largely fill soil, including a coal seam that has caused groundwater flooding and resulted in damage to the building as it is. A new building on that land would not be immune to these enduring challenges.

Building on this land would also likely require the relocation of the current student body to a suboptimal location, such as offsite trailers, for multiple years. This board will not deprive a generation of students of their entire high school experience.

They continued in this vein to both identify and commit to strategies that they claim will maintain their commitment to responsible fiscal stewardship, in ways both voluntary and imposed upon the district by state law.

One topic of interest that was incompletely addressed relates to safety issues that pervade both the project site and location. The board touted (and rightly so) its subject-matter expert on school policing and security, and its commitment to the physical security of the proposed facility and those who would occupy it –

Additionally, our commitment to public health and safety is reflected in design decisions that prioritize adaptability to evolving needs, accommodating shifting requirements while delivering a high-quality education.

Unless something has drastically changed, however, “adaptability to evolving needs” also includes the ongoing controversy concerning emergency access to the site from a roadway other than Camp Meeting Road, and “shifting requirements” must take into account the documented presence of possibly unstable soils under the project site. I have covered these issues in more depth here, here, and here.

These are two of the issues raised previously before the Leet Township Zoning Hearing Board, whose decision regarding the project was appealed by the school district to Common Pleas Court. The court’s decision to reverse the Zoning Board ruling has been appealed to Commonwealth Court, with Mr. Jasper listed as one of the intervenors.

Among many other things, Mr. Jasper asserts in his most recent campaign literature that the school district “ordered 100+ additional soil test borings & final engineering drawings; having spent $10.7 million through Q1 2023“. He elaborates further on his website –

The district is drilling additional test borings…to attain greater certainty of soils quality and the work required to stabilize a hillside that is continually moving…The findings of soil testing will be crucial to the accuracy of highly suspect cost assumptions, currently just under $100 million. 

Assuming this is correct, for me this shows that the district is in the midst of due diligence concerning the stability of the site. Any additional fiscal concerns that Mr. Jasper may be trying to infer appear to have been acknowledged by the board in their Herald op-ed –

As fellow taxpayers, the board is committed to executing this project in the most cost-effective manner possible. In our recent meetings, we have emphasized our dedication to funding the project within the Act 1 tax index each year.

Furthermore, we are bound by legal constraints regarding the amount of debt the district can carry and the maximum expenditure on a building (Act 34). Overbuilding, overborrowing and overtaxing are not viable options for us.

Other factors affecting this may include a Commonwealth Court ruling in favor of Mr. Jasper and his associates, additional project requirements imposed by the Leet Township Planning Commission, and/or a repudiation of current board leadership by the electorate come November. 

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As reported last month, Mr. Jasper has hit the post-primary ground running, or as he puts it on his comprehensive campaign website, “Walking the Walk“. He took that sentiment literally during Leetsdale’s annual 4th of July parade.

Bill Jasper candy bag, distributed during Leetsdale 4th of July parade.

Instead of riding in a vehicle, the nearly 80-year old candidate chose to briskly walk the entire parade route. Wearing a yellow campaign t- shirt, gray work pants, ballcap, and carrying what appeared to be a repurposed cardboard box with an attached strap over his shoulder, he offered not candy to those he passed but instead gave out paper bags adorned with a campaign sticker to hold whatever candy spectators had already collected.

I drove a vehicle along the parade route, and Mr. Jasper’s pace was faster, so I was unable to snap a photo of him. He did present a rather unique visual when compared to other candidates – Johnny Appleseed came to mind.

That comparison brings with it a continued curiosity about what exactly Mr. Jasper and his campaign are sowing. 

Mr. Jasper’s website contains a lengthy narrative that delves into other topics surrounding district operations. These include cost per student, educational integrity, existential threats, and social and cultural issues. This page includes a “platform” for improvements that is endorsed by both Mr. Jasper and the QVGOP.

Mr. Jasper also addresses topics that perhaps stretch the boundaries of the issues at hand, and perhaps veer a little too far to the right  –

• He has some harsh words for local media coverage of the high school project –

Here is a spoon-fed article in the June 1st Sewickley Herald: “Design for new high school approved.” When you read it, ask yourself whatever happened to investigative reporting? There was no attempt to seek contrary input. No push-back, no questions asked. Just blind parroting of a narrative spouted by an interested party. The reporting by the Herald on the high school project has been consistently biased and one-sided. Question everything they print on this subject. It is not journalism.

• He also gives an impassioned critique of the public health / public school response to the COVID pandemic, which he describes as –

…a classic example of how we abdicated liberty in exchange for the promise of safety. We blindly accepted the advice of self-serving public health “experts,” enriched a new class of billionaires (+500), decimated the middle class and stunted economic growth. What’s worse, our public schools imposed lockdowns, masking and social distancing that served to isolate our kids and hinder their development. We even pushed vaccines with false promises of efficacy and safety for most kids who were at very low risk of severe injury. When history is written of our era, public health and public schools will receive failing grades.

• Mr. Jasper has also made the news outside of his school board campaign. In September of last year he addressed the Allegheny County Board of Elections at their monthly meeting with comments that were submitted in writing prior to his delivering them in person.

      WTAE was there for the meeting, and reported on several “election integrity skeptics“       that addressed the board, including Mr. Jasper. His comments included the following –

I knew there was some fraud in the election process, but the 2020 general election taught me I was very naïve. Fraud was rampant, and in my opinion, skewed the results. What we are enduring today — inflation, human misery, and threats to our national sovereignty — are the direct consequence of a failed, election integrity process.

G-men were my heroes when I grew up. Now, I see the FBI as part of the election integrity problem, not acting as a reliable partner of the American voter. You can and should do something about the election integrity.

Mr. Jasper makes note of his endorsement by the Allegheny County chapter of Moms for Liberty, and defends the organization and its efforts –

The media typically, and unfairly, associates Moms for Liberty with book banning. Understand, I don’t favor banning anything…I support the rights of parents to filter (and be made aware of) what their kids see and learn about, especially in the early grades. Further, I think the public schools have pushed an ideology that is opposed to traditional, family values; demeans the role of parents and fails to uphold our constitutional rights, including individual liberty — the antithesis of censorship/book banning.

I e-mailed Mr. Jasper requesting comment after Moms for Liberty was classified as an extremist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). He replied –

I know (SPLC) from its early days when I was the publisher of a local travel magazine in Montgomery, AL. Like many such groups, it had to re-invent itself to survive and raise money. I don’t take them too seriously. They make noise; that’s what they do to stay relevant and appeal to their donor base…

What creates media attention with (Moms for Liberty) is disclosure of what is being taught in a public forum (school board meetings). Critics respond with bombast (allegations of “book burning”) instead of logic, thinking it sells better. It doesn’t.

LaTarndra Strong (right) came to Philadelphia to protest outside the Moms For Liberty event at the Marriott Hotel on June 30, 2023. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

Bombast was not in short supply on either side of the spectrum when Moms for Liberty held their “Joyful Warriors Summit” in Philadelphia at the end of June. The event brought most of the announced Republican presidential candidates, along with numerous protest groups outside the venue – some invoking pejorative names (see photo) that have become popular on social media.

Trying to put this rhetoric aside, I looked for a calmer, more reasoned analysis of the group and found one at The Hechinger Report. Included was a short interview with Keri Rodrigues, the president and co-founder of the National Parents Union, an organization with hundreds of affiliated groups nationwide that describes itself as “an authentically parent-led organization that works to advocate for policies and initiatives that support families and promote educational equity…Our work is guided by a set of values that prioritize parent empowerment, collaboration, and community building.”

To me this sounds closer to the essence of how effective change in education should be addressed – not with inflammatory public demands from what is often an isolated, bellicose minority. As Ms. Rodrigues described the Moms for Liberty strategy –

This is not serious. It is a distraction…It does not do anything to really prioritize what our children need in this moment…we have work to do, and this is not work…It is political posturing.”

Bill Jasper is conducting a unique, motivated, and comprehensive campaign for school director at a time of great change and associated risk for the school district. Along with being a party to related litigation, he is presenting information that is relevant and timely to what is arguably the largest project undertaken in the district’s history.

He also espouses positions on issues that may get in the way of what appears to be his greater goals. By muddying the waters of what should be a campaign based on pertinent facts with typical conservative complaints about biased news media, overly restrictive COVID policies, and election denial, he creates his own roadblocks to the potential validation of his agenda by what is likely a good chunk of Region 1 voters. He can do better.

Until next time.