Hempfield Area School Board candidates share ideas on budget, curriculum

Just a few months into the new school year, candidates for the Hempfield Area School Board are looking ahead to budget planning for next year.

“We start earlier and earlier each year at looking at where the budget's going to be, where it's going to come in,” said Sonya Brajdic, board president. She has served on the school board for 12 years and is among the five candidates seeking election to four seats on the board.

The board has asked the administration to start looking for more ways to save, she said, adding that she doesn't think there's support from the board to raise taxes to the index this year.

Last spring, the board passed a $95.75 million budget that raised property taxes from 79.74 mills to 82.21 mills. For a home with an assessed taxable value of $100,000, that's a nearly $200 yearly increase in school real estate taxes.

The tax hike is the district's ninth in 12 years.

“It's a line-by-line issue. We just have to continue to be diligent and look line item by line item, see where we can save, and try to save the district and the taxpayers money,” said candidate Scott Learn.

Learn, a dentist with a practice in Latrobe, was appointed to the board in June to fill a vacancy but did not have to vote on the most recent budget. Since then, he's been working to get a handle on “the complexity of the operations that go on with the school administration and the school board,” he said.

Learn's term will expire in December if he doesn't win one of the four seats in November.

Also on the ballot are David Iwig, Chris Rossman and incumbent Diane Ciabattoni, who has served on the board for more than 20 years.

Three candidates — Brajdic, Ciabattoni and Learn — cross-filed on both the Democratic and Republican tickets. Rossman is running only on the Republican ballot and Iwig on the Democratic.

“We have a good, caring board,” Ciabattoni said. “We have a lot of different ideas. We discuss them — sometimes loudly — but we care about each other, and we respect each other, and that is really a win-win situation for not just the central administration, but for the whole school district.”

While she thinks Hempfield offers good opportunities for both staff and students, Ciabattoni acknowledged that there's room for improvement. One area is in how the district prepares students interested in joining the workforce immediately following high school, she said.

Iwig expressed a similar perspective, drawing on his experience teaching at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg campus and Penn State New Kensington and his work in the science and engineering industry.

“I know how the students are coming out of school and what types of skills they need for these types of well-paying careers,” Iwig said, adding that he wants to make sure Hempfield students have access to mentoring and job shadowing opportunities while they're still in school.

Chris Rossman, on the other hand, pushed back against the use of education buzzwords.

“You can't just use a blanket term like STEM — that's a hot term right now. All the subjects are important right now, not just STEM,” Rossman said.

He emphasized the need to make sure students have ample opportunities to pursue advanced placement coursework throughout high school and to push students who are interested in an Ivy League education to aim for competitive schools.

Rossman said he would encourage the board to look for underutilized programs — a move that could benefit the budget and make room for additional programs that would keep Hempfield students competitive in college and the workforce.

Jamie Martines is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at jmartines@tribweb.com, 724-850-2867 or via Twitter @Jamie_Martines.