The question in Poland: If the train is running on time, do you change the conductor?

The question in Poland: If the train is running on time, do you change the conductor?

Making the case for removing incumbents on a board of education in a school district that is consistently scoring high on state report cards and turning out students who make their parents proud is a tricky business.

There are four candidates in the race for two seats on the Poland Board of Education. The candidates include two incumbents, Frank Divito, 49, chief information officer for Jameson Health System in New Castle, Pa,, who has eight years on the board, and Laura A. Stacy, 70, now retired, who has business and banking experience and has served 20 years. The two challengers, Larry Dinopoulos, 46, a dentist in private practice, and Richard “Beau” Weaver, 49, a sales executive for Hormel Foods.

Stacy declined an invitation to an endorsement interview with Vindicator editors and a reporter, which makes her ineligible for an endorsement. We met with Dinopoulos, Weaver and Divito for about a half hour each, and found ourselves in a quandary at the end of the day.

Weaver and Dinopoulos had similar criticisms of the sitting board. They centered around some controversy over the hiring of a new athletic director, the $2 million cost of a new stadium, the speed with which science classrooms are being renovated and a general complaint that the board is not as open or “transparent” as it should be.

Both spoke fondly of the district, especially Weaver, who says he jumped at the chance for a transfer that would allow his children to attend the same schools he had, and both spoke passionately about their desire to make the Poland Local School District a better district.

The rebuttal

Then it was Divito’s turn, and he responded to the criticism of hiring policies, classroom renovations and the stadium project in a business-like way that answered most of the questions raised. The issue of board transparency is not one that lends itself to being resolved in relatively short interviews, and Poland voters will have to gauge for themselves to what degree, if any, the board operates in a way that leaves residents feeling uninformed and voiceless.

But the bottom line for a school district is its product, the students, and there is scant evidence that students are coming out of Poland schools anything but academically prepared for the rigors that young people face in today’s demanding world.

Perhaps there’s some serious dysfunction within the Poland Board of Education that argues for the replacement of the incumbent board members, but it didn’t become clear during our interviews.

We commend Dinopoulos and Weaver for running strong races for what is the most important elective office in many communities.

Every voter in the school district has the option of voting for one or two candidates in this race, depending on how well they know the candidates and how strongly they feel about a candidate’s record or his or her potential to do the job.

The Vindicator chooses to endorse only one candidate in this race, Frank Divito, who is seeking his third term with a pledge that he will work to preserve the district’s record of excellence and adapt to new challenges the district may face.