Meet RTM Candidate: Linda Fox

Name: Linda L. Fox

Municipality: Middletown Township

Party: Republican

Running For (include district/ward if applicable): Rose Tree Media School Board Director

Positions Held Previously/Years in Office: 

• Rose Tree Media School Board - 8 years: Technology Chair, Chair of Human Resources, President and currently Vice-President
• Middletown Lions Delco Baseball League: Current Team Administrator
• Aston Middletown Little League: Previously held Concessions Director and Board Member

What are the larger issues facing the district and how would you like to see them resolved?

The largest issue facing our district is balancing the cost of a high quality education with the ever-increasing unfunded mandates of the state and federal governments. 

How would you create a balance between spending taxpayer dollars and quality education? Are you satisfied with the cost/quality balance in an $84M plus budget?

I am proud to be a member of a board that is vigilant in finding and implementing cost-savings measures in order to keep taxes low. Along with “doing more with less,” we have found grant opportunities to help fund several district initiatives. Evidence of the correlation between high quality education and low taxes within the Rose Tree Media School District can be found on the following online links:

Rose Tree Media School District has the third lowest tax rate among Delaware County Schools (http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/treasurer/TaxRate2013)

Rose Tree Media ranks 13th out of 553 school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

(http://www.schooldigger.com/go/PA/districtrank.aspx)

How can you improve school district and board transparency with residents? Would you support direct email communication with board members or a live broadcast of board meetings online or on public access television?

The Rose Tree Media School Board has always had transparency. We meet at least twice monthly for anywhere between three and four hours. On the 2nd Tuesday of the month, we have our committee meetings or work sessions. During this meeting, all items relating to district business is reviewed by the board. We discuss each item to determine whether which items will move to the legislative agenda for a formal vote. Most agenda items that come before us during committee meetings are monthly invoices, contracts and personnel requests that are mandated by state and federal regulations.

On the 3rd Thursday of the month, we meet for a legislative meeting in order to vote on agenda items discussed during committees meetings. With the exception of executive session meetings, all meetings are open to the public. All governmental offices in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including the Rose Tree Media School Board, must follow the Sunshine Act. This Act states that matters of personnel, student information, real estate transactions or legal matters must be discussed in private. Even though this is the case, we still insure that all executive session meetings are announced to the public during the monthly legislative meeting.

All legislative meetings are recorded and accessible through writing a request to “Right to Know.” This information can be found on the district website. We have discussed the possibility of live recording of meetings, but because this would be an additional cost to taxpayers, and not related to educating students, we chose to stay with the current recording of the meeting.

As far as direct email communication with the board, we tried several years to have a direct email link to board members. However, after a year of piloting this effort, we found that ALL of the communication that came to us had to be forwarded to our superintendent for review and/or action. Since the board is more of an oversight committee (i.e., allocating funds, approving initiatives/textbooks/contracts) and not directly involved with the daily work of the district, it makes better sense for all communication to go through the superintendents office. The appropriate administrator can then resolve any possible communication from taxpayers and parents in a more timely manner. 

Why should residents give you their vote?

I am a staunch advocate of education at all levels. I have been a classroom teacher for the past 20 years. I am also in the last year of writing my doctoral dissertation through Neumann University and continue to educate myself by attending workshops and keeping apprised of the ever-changing educational landscape. I have two children who graduated from the district and are very successful from the education they received in RTM. Also, during my tenure on the Rose Tree Media School Board, we have accomplished the following work:

Rose Tree Media School District: An Exceptional Record of Achievement

Fiscal Responsibility, Excellence in Education, Keep Our RTM Team in Office and Working for Us!