William Cinfici: A Successful Conservative School Director in an Urban District, Part III

           Despite being in a minority of two Republicans out of nine members of the Reading School Board of Directors, I was nevertheless successful in achieving significant accomplishments as a result of my principles and the practices I described in Part II of this series of posts.

            I was able to keep my promise of reducing some wasteful spending in order to avoid a tax increase, without sacrificing the quality of education, despite addressing the challenges I mentioned in Part I of this series of overcrowded schools and crumbling buildings, as well as an insufficient (and illegally inadequate) level of support for special education and a lack of adequate safety and security.  In fact, there were even improvements to the education equality during my term, among other positive results.

            Money was saved in a number of ways because of my suggestions, ranging from several hundred to tens of millions of dollars.  Facilities and labor costs were held down, in particular, such as my questioning the need for building six new elementary schools and the offering of less expensive health insurance with increased coverage for employees.  Also, better financial controls were instituted and policies I spearheaded were approved to increase openness and transparency and reduce waste, fraud and abuse: the Board adopted the stronger anti-fraud policy, and the conflict of interest and whistleblower protection policies I championed, as well as a policy I initiated to limit trip expenditures to the Internal Revenue Service per diem guidelines and to improve the policy for facilities usage.  I also led the successful effort to adopt policies for open records, document retention and for requesting bids for goods and services and to improve the policy for employee use of school vehicles.  As a result, the District has not raised real estate taxes in a decade.  It is important to understand that these savings came despite the liberal tendency to spend money in order to do good or to prove one’s commitment to a particular priority, and to reject small savings as insignificant, coupled with the bureaucratic mindset that if the money in an agency’s budget is not spent during the fiscal year, a lesser amount will be appropriated for that agency the next year.

            The quality of education was improved by the establishment of more programs, higher standards and more staff training.  There was also more focus on results.  I identified errors in the proposed high school history textbook.  The school discipline codes and student handbooks were dramatically approved because of my input to the process.  My suggestion was adopted to provide for customer feedback from students in order to improve education.  I was also one of the leaders in drastically reducing the counterproductive lengthy line to process tardy students at the high school.   

But before the quality of education could be addressed, it was necessary to improve the safety and security for students.  The two of us conservative Republican School Directors were successful in protecting students from obscene art at our District-owned Reading Public Museum by getting the Museum Foundation to agree to keep obscene art out of children’s reach and to post warning signs, despite opposition from most of the rest of the Board of Directors.  I was successful in getting the District to install carbon monoxide detectors in the schools, despite resistance from administrators for this initiative.  I also supported my Republican colleague’s successful initiatives to increase cameras, security guards and police in the schools.  One of my ideas that was implemented was a student I.D. card swipe for building access at the high school.  A policy I spearheaded required that all volunteers in unsupervised direct contact with students obtain their state child abuse clearances.           

            Our support for a conservative Democratic colleague’s proposal to restore the names “Christmas Break” and “Easter Break” to the school calendar resulted in a favorable compromise: “Winter Break” and “Spring Break” were replaced with “Holiday Break,” which at least reflected the religious origin of the state and federal holidays.  I was also successful in my initiative to treat Columbus Day the same as other official holidays, either by inclusion of it in the curriculum or by a day off from school, which was accomplished by the scheduling of an in-service day on Columbus Day.  Both of these initiatives were especially appreciated by the public and staff.

            Although my efforts to increase openness and transparency and improve fiscal controls to allow greater accountability and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse were partly successful, as I mentioned in Part II of this series, the liberal Democratic majority of the Board resisted more serious efforts to eliminate corruption in the Reading School District.  Similarly, although the spending cuts I proposed helped avoid tax increases, the Board treated the increase in funding the District received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, as an opportunity to go on a spending spree.  The Board was unprepared for the return of pre-Obama stimulus levels of funding under Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, despite my warnings of an eventual change in governor or the legislature, or at least the end of their tolerance of wasteful spending, and my reminder of the temporariness of the Obama stimulus. 

Nevertheless, I can say that matters would have been worse without my efforts, which served as a model for reformers, conservative or liberal, to establish good government.  Indeed, several moderate Democratic candidates with whom I campaigned in 2011 for school director on a reform platform were victorious, although my loss left them short of a majority.  I continue to advise them and stand ready to serve again should I be called upon to fulfill my duty.   I have proven that a conservative elective official – even in a minority within an elected body – can be successful in an urban district.  I hope this series of posts inspires other conservatives in urban districts to seek elective office and reformers of any ideology in public service to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.