Pennsbury civic group accidentally releases strategy

In layman's terms, it's a classic case of "Oops."

In asking a Bucks County judge to reconfigure the voting areas in the Pennsbury School District, a civic group accidentally submitted documents revealing that it was targeting members of the school board.

An internal memo and a letter to the state association of teachers' unions zeroed in on board Vice President Simon Campbell, a staunch union critic.

Provided "the opportunity to cut off the head of the snake by denying Campbell a seat to run for, why not go for the kill?" the memo said.

"Campbell and another member of his majority, Kathleen Zawacki . . . would find they have no seat to run for re-election" under the group's plan to divide the district into nine regions, the letter said.

The group, Concerned Residents of Pennsbury (CROP), and district officials agree that the voting regions need adjusting to balance the population of 71,000 and provide equal representation. They disagree on how to do it.

The district filed a plan in county court last month that would alter the boundaries of its three regions without any member losing a seat. CROP, led by the unions for the teachers and support staffs, countered with a proposal to divide the district into nine regions.

CROP's plan "has nothing to do with trying to achieve balance between the regions," district lawyer Jeffrey Sultanik said this week. "This is an effort to achieve an objective they have not been able to achieve at the ballot box or the negotiating table."

The teachers' union has been working under an expired contract for two years and the support union for one year. Their school board candidates have failed to prevent Campbell from gaining a board majority.

The documents CROP accidentally filed indicated the group's intentions "to engage in gerrymandering to get a board member off the board," Sultanik said.

CROP's lawyer, David Truelove, scoffed at the accusation of politicizing the process.

"Every redistricting effort on every level involves politics," he said. "A proposal in which every board member retains a seat is engaging in the politics of self-preservation."

Truelove was hired to file CROP's petition in court and to represent the group when President Judge Susan Devlin Scott reviews both sides' proposals on Aug. 17. With the petition, he filed a CD with 3,852 supporting signatures, not realizing the internal documents were also on it.

"I was handed a thumb drive by John McDonnell," the lead plaintiff and a former president of the teachers' union, "and I thought only the signatures were on it, so I asked my staff to copy it," Truelove said. "I was surprised to find out what else was on it."

The petition and CD also were supplied to the district, which provided copies to each board member.

Campbell spread the word about CROP's strategy, e-mailing reporters and the Pennsylvania State Education Association and posting a video on YouTube.

"Cutting off the 'head of the snake?' Going for 'the kill?' This shocking aggression is what PSEA is funding?" Campbell wrote to the association that represents teachers at 483 of the state's 500 districts. "What an appalling example to set our school children."

The PSEA has agreed to provide "financial assistance" to Pennsbury's teachers' union, though it has not determined how much or when, spokesman Wythe Keever said. The union, in the letter accidentally copied on the CD, asked for money for CROP to hire a lawyer.

The PSEA is supporting "members of the PEA [Pennsbury Education Association] and the 3,800 residents who signed the petition, who are availing themselves of their rights as residents of the district to one person, one vote," Keever said.

CROP needed 940 signatures to support its petition, union president George Miller wrote in the letter, and 3,852 were provided on the CD.

The district is checking those signatures against voter registration lists, Sultanik, said.

"Though we haven't taken a precise count yet, our guess is that only about one-quarter so far are good," he said. "One gentleman's name was printed on the petition, but it turns out he died in 2004."

Oops.