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PAC announces involvement in school board race
By Conner Hammett, chammett@starlocalnews.com
A group of former Plano ISD school board members, administrators and PTA leaders has formed a political action committee to participate in this year's school board election.
The Plano School Coalition registered with the Texas Ethics Commission in August of last year. So far, it has raised $650, mostly from current members.
Allan Bird, former school board president and member of the group's executive committee, said the PAC formed with the goal of raising awareness of local school district and state legislative issues.
"We don't plan on giving money to any candidate," he said, adding he expects all five seats to be challenged. "We may put some things on our website or some mail-outs endorsing the candidates, but that will be our effort, not giving them money for their effort."
The committee will look to attitudes toward the election and public education as well as what issues the candidate feels are important to make its endorsement decision, Bird said.
"One of the things I've seen over a long period of time is you get single-issue candidates on the board. It's problematic for the board and for that candidate," he said, adding he would like to see more discussion prior to votes at board meetings. "We want people who have a broader perspective of education."
Who's who
The PAC's membership, listed on its website, is a virtual who's-who of district officials, PTA presidents and school board members over the past 10 years.
All three members of the PAC's executive committee are former school board presidents. Bird was president for seven of his 23 years on the board. Mary Beth King served five terms on the board and was president from 2001 to 2005. John Muns served on the board either as president or a trustee for 15 years.
The group's operating committee also has a strong Plano ISD heritage, counting among its ranks former trustees Ralph Stow and Melody Timinsky and former administrators Marilyn Brooks, Carole Greisdorf and Connie Lewellen. The remaining seven members include current and former PTA leaders, area business leaders, McMillen High School office manager Sharon Hirsch and two-time trustee candidate Bart Ridley.
"I'd think the majority of them are not [former administrators or board members], though there are quite a few," Bird said. "We've recently had a fair number of former schoolteachers and administrators join because we sent out an email to the retired teachers association, and we got some fairly good response to that."
Two committee members -- Muns and former Council of PTAs President Angela Miner -- are listed on Place 6 candidate Yoram Solomon's website as endorsing that candidate, a fact of which Bird said he was unaware.
"We'll look at that," he said. "If somebody's already endorsed [a candidate], we would not allow them to vote if we make an endorsement."
The group plans to disseminate news related to the election, the Legislature's school finance process and school district events via its website, planoschoolcoalition.wordpress.com and a public e-newsletter. The group will also likely hold a voter registration drive, Bird said.
Bird said the committee wants the information it distributes, except endorsements, to be presented in an unbiased, impartial manner.
"One of our concerns is, 'How do people get information about these elections and what's going on and what their viewpoints are?', so that's a hard thing to figure out and a thing we're really struggling with," he said.
Phone messages left for Muns and Miner were not immediately returned.
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