DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — In Tuesday’s election, Democrats won several high-profile school board races, including in districts where controversial policies turned once-sleepy board meetings into shouting matches.
Heather Reynolds, who unseated the school board president in the high-profile Central Bucks race on Tuesday, says the community was fractured by COVID-19 policies in schools, like many school districts.
“And on the other side of that divisiveness, instead of trying to bring our community together and focus on the issues within our district, our former board majority decided to look at issues and policies that would drive a deeper wedge into an already divided community,” says Reynolds.
The board made headlines across the country, adopting policies on content in books and banning LGBTQ pride flags and other political symbols in classrooms.
“The overarching issue that our board had was that they lost focus as to what their role was. The role of a school board is to ensure the district is well run, not run the district,” Reynolds said.
“Ultimately, the children are the ones who lose and the community are the people that suffer as a result of personal politics being inserted into the decisions of a board.”
Republican board President Dana Hunter calls those policies “common sense,” but Reynolds beat Hunter in a region of the Central Bucks School District where registered Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats.
“It's one of those, if not me, who? if not now, when? and I wanted to step up.”
Reynolds is one of five Democrats who swept the Central Bucks board seats on the ballot, flipping the majority.
“It was a message of: We were done. We're all fed up. We want better. This is not what we want for our school districts.”
Reynolds says she hopes to be part of a board of nine people who work together with compromise, dialogue and listening.