Cinfici Is Appointed Reading School Director

            I was appointed to the Reading School Board of Directors by a vote of the Board Wednesday night to fill a vacancy on the Board.  My swearing into office is expected in May.  I had been elected a School Director in 2005 and served a four-year term.   

The vacancy was created by the resignation of a Democratic School Director whose candidacy I had supported in 2011 when we ran together on a bipartisan ticket.  The appointment is to fill that vacancy until early December.  In the meantime, a special election will be held simultaneous with the General Election for the remaining two years of the term.  After the Primary Election, each party will meet and decide whether or not to nominate a candidate for School Director according to party rules, as the ballots for the Primary have already been set.  The Reading School District’s boundaries are the same as the City of Reading.

Although I will not be the only Director with at least conservative leanings on the Board, I will be the only Republican.  The appointment of a Republican is not unprecedented, but rare.  I join only a handful of Republicans ever to serve more than one term in citywide office in Reading’s history where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5:1.  Reading has been Democratic since the party’s founding that was inspired by Andrew Jackson. 

In a three-part series of posts from May to June of last year entitled William Cinfici, a Successful Conservative School Director in an Urban District, Parts I-III, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/05/william-cinfici-successful-conservative.html, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/05/william-cinfici-successful-conservative_31.html, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/06/william-cinfici-successful-conservative.html, I had offered advice for other conservative elected officials in urban districts, explained some of my reasons for success and listed my accomplishments.

I am honored and humbled to be appointed.  I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve and am eager to get to work.  The District faces major financial challenges.