Our Schools USA Celebrates 18 Winners in PA School Board Races
CHINO, CA – Our Schools USA, a grassroots non-profit founded by parents, teachers and school board members dedicated to advancing quality public education for all students, today celebrated eighteen winning school board candidates in Pennsylvania.
“Our Schools USA supports candidates who know educating children works best with engaged parents and caring teachers working together to create a safe space for all children to learn,” said Christina Gagnier, a former school board member and co-founder of Our Schools USA. “We’re so happy so many school districts chose public servants over extremists running on policies known to harm students. Extremists putting their own personal political crusades ahead of educating our children have no place making decisions on our school boards or anywhere else.”
Our Schools USA’s first Pennsylvania chapter started in Lehigh County where 15 of 15 candidates supported by Our Schools Leigh County chapter won their school board races. Winners include Shonta Ford, Jeffrey Jankowski, Timothy Kelly, Gabrille Klotz, and Joshua Levinson in East Penn; Carol Facchiano, Christopher Pirrotta, Jay Rohatgi, Lisa Roth, and Marisa Ziegler in Parkland; and Eric Boyer, Emily Gehman, Tim Kearney, Candi Kruse, and Melissa Torba in Southern Lehigh.
“When three highly respected, well-rated and sought-after school districts became targets of the far right in the 2023 election cycle, we started an Our Schools USA Lehigh County chapter,” said Stefanie Rafes, a healthcare professional and community organizer leading Our Schools Lehigh County chapter who recently launched a campaign for the open seat in Pennsylvania House District 187. “Our Schools USA helped show our chapter what far right extremism looks like on a local level, specifically what happens once they take over a school board. Our Schools helped by giving us the tools we needed to develop messaging for Lehigh County while offering constant support and weekly check-ins. Our chapter connected to other chapters and partners throughout Pennsylvania and across the country to compare notes, find out what was and was not working, and develop and implement strategies to make sure Lehigh County voters knew what was at stake. I’m so proud we’ve elected strong candidates committed to protecting our public schools.”
In Oxford, Our Schools USA Action Fund sent mailers supporting winning candidates Jenifer Warren, Tenille Dewees and Debbie Vendrick.
Our Schools USA also congratulates the Ridge Network and their organizing efforts that resulted in winning five seats and flipping a Pennridge School District Board that had been taken over by extremists who hired a Moms for Liberty summit speaker Jordan Adams to rewrite school curriculum. Laura Foster and Adrienne King of the Ridge Network recently appeared on Our Schools USA’s Head of the Class podcast (Episode 10: “Grifters and Drifters”) to talk about the extremist curriculum takeover and their organizing efforts in Pennridge.
Founded in February 2023, Our Schools USA is a grassroots non-profit that has grown to have chapters and partnerships with public school advocates in thirty states. Our efforts have been covered by the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, NBC News, Fox News, Vice News, Daily Beast, and more. Get more information at OurSchoolsUSA.org.