WARMINSTER, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The Centennial School Board in Warminster, Bucks County, has narrowly voted to appoint a controversial superintendent who recently resigned from the same position at the Central Bucks School District.
Community members booed Tuesday night as the motion passed 5-4 to appoint Dr. Abram Lucabaugh as the next superintendent of the Centennial School District.
Lucabaugh had previously presided over Central Bucks. During his tenure, the ACLU filed a complaint against the district over allegations of widespread LGBTQ+ discrimination. The district also implemented a controversial policy banning the display and discussion of things that advocate for political beliefs or social causes, which some took as an attack on pride flags.
Lucabaugh resigned in November 2023 after all five school board chairs up for grabs went to progressive candidates.
More than a dozen Centennial community members raised issues with Lucabaugh’s appointment and the board’s process. Even board member Jane Schrader Lynch said she considered the saga a distraction.
“We do not need all this diversion from a superintendent,” she said. “Dr. Lucabaugh, I ask you, please, for the good of Centennial, please withdraw from the superintendent position.”
Nicole Lynch, of Southampton, was concerned that the policies implemented at Central Bucks might find their way to Centennial under Lucabaugh’s stewardship.
“Dr. Lucabaugh says he wants to keep politics out of education. If we’re keeping politics out, that means no censorship of books, no targeting marginalized students,” she said.
Dr. Kirsten Findell, of Upper Southampton, said the board has undermined community trust in its decision-making in two ways: “The lack of transparency of the process of putting forth this candidate, and then the selection of a candidate with so much baggage that is well-advertised and well-known.”
Most speakers echoed Findell’s sentiments, but Ed Chadrow argued Lucabaugh sufficiently addressed the controversy surrounding him at a Q&A last week.
“It just detailed the selection process very well, dispelling a lot of the myths that circulated about his leave. I thought they did a good job at that,” he said.
At the Q&A, Lucabaugh said he became the face of that Central Bucks policy after the board passed it.