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STATE COLLEGE — Democrats and Republicans in the State College Area School District will have seven board of directors candidates to choose from in the May 20 primary.
About 95,000 people live in the Centre County school district, according to 2020 U.S. census data. It educates just over 6,700 students, per the latest enrollment data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Almost 700 professional staff members work for the district.
Four seats on the nine-member board are up for grabs. Two incumbents — Deborah Anderson and Jackie Huff — are running for another four-year term. They’ll be joined on the ballot by newcomers Jesse Barlow, Jennifer A. Black, Rebecca Arnold Desmarais, Kirsten McTernan, and Mihaly Sogor.
Each candidate is cross-filed, which means they will be listed on both the Democratic and Republican ballots. The state Election Code permits school board candidates to do so; the practice ups their chances of advancing to the general election.
Democrats and Republicans will each select four of the seven candidates on their primary ballots. The top four vote-getters from each partisan primary will appear as the parties’ nominees on the general election ballot in November, Centre County Director of Elections Melanie Bailey told Spotlight PA in an email.
If a candidate wins in both parties’ May contests, they will appear as both a Democratic and a Republican nominee in the fall.
Pennsylvania has a closed primary system, which means that unaffiliated and third-party voters can’t vote for candidates during spring contests unless they change their registration. All registered voters can cast ballots in November.
This guide may be updated as additional information about the candidates becomes available.
What does a school board member do?
Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts are governed by boards. Members of each school board — generally consisting of nine directors who are elected for four years each — are responsible for the functions of public education.
Adults who have lived in their district for at least one year can hold office on school boards, provided that they do not hold another municipal office, have never been convicted of certain crimes, or are barred under state or federal laws. Upon election or appointment, school directors go through trainings required by state law.
Nearly 4,500 individuals serve as school board members in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. School boards adopt and manage budgets, levy local taxes, adopt instruction plans, approve hiring, and appoint a district superintendent to manage day-to-day operations. A school district’s overall mission and strategy are dependent on school board members.
Deborah Anderson, incumbent
Anderson, a registered Democrat as of September 2024, was first elected in 2021 and currently serves as vice president of the board.
Anderson told Spotlight PA that her years of active involvement in the school district as a volunteer, parent, and later as board member set her apart from others.
Anderson’s first priority if reelected is to offer all students a challenging curriculum so they grow academically. Access to art, technical education, and athletics should accompany this goal, which requires intentional, long-range budget planning, she said.
An external review of the district’s suicide prevention and response protocols prompted by student Abby Smith’s death in May 2024 found that there is a “climate of mistrust” among adults who deal with the district.
Smith, an eighth grader at Park Forest Middle School, died by suicide.
Anderson said students’ social and emotional well-being is another top issue for her. While she said she believes the district is providing “already considerable” resources to respond to student mental health needs, she supports expanding them — including ensuring sufficient staffing of counselors — and making sure families and community members are a part of the support.
Pointing to her background in labor economics, Anderson said fiscal responsibility is one of her guiding principles as a board member.
“My general preference is to raise taxes as little as possible without endangering the quality of educational programs and opportunities. That said, given the recent levels of inflation and the current uncertainty surrounding federal support for education, I think it is likely we will need to raise taxes again for the 2025-26 fiscal year,” she told Spotlight PA.
The board approved tax increases each of the past three years. The budget proposal currently being weighed by the board proposes raising taxes by 4%.
Anderson also supports cyber charter school reform, because the current reimbursement formulas do not take into consideration the different costs of cyber versus brick-and-mortar education and are unfair to local school districts, she said.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor in February released an audit of cyber charter schools and called for “major reform to how they are funded.”
Concerning the federal government’s threat over funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools, Anderson said there is too much uncertainty about the legality of requirements coming from the Trump administration. And until those questions are answered, she does not advocate eliminating any programs.
Watch Anderson’s candidate interview with C-NET, Centre County’s government access network, here.
Jesse Barlow
Barlow, a registered Democrat as of September 2024, is a professor emeritus of computer science at Penn State. Barlow served two terms on the State College Borough Council, including four years as council president and one year as chair of the Centre Region Council of Governments.
From his time in local government, he has gained experience with public policy and budgeting, Barlow told Spotlight PA. In addition, he served for five years on the Centre County Advisory Council for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Barlow said many of the issues he dealt with in those roles also impact schools.
“What most students and their families want out of their school is access to learning that prepares them for their future and the feeling that they are welcome, safe, included, and that they belong,” Barlow told Spotlight PA. “For many of our students, the climate in SCASD schools is good, but for some that is not true.”
Barlow said he supports implementing recommendations that were made by the independent consultant who reviewed the district's suicide prevention and response protocols. He specifically pointed to the number of school counselors, social workers, and psychiatrists in the district, which the report said was lower than it should be, and said “this fact deserves significant attention.”
Another top issue for Barlow is the impact that uncertain federal funding could have on how the district can serve disabled and disadvantaged students, he said. Barlow also questioned the legal basis of the federal government’s threat to purge DEI programs. He believes the existing program at SCASD is working for students. He said he is “alarmed” by the cuts made to the U.S. Department of Education.
The school district is financially healthy “with a caveat,” Barlow said.
“There are a lot of stresses on our finances — building and renovation projects, inflationary pressures, and uncertainty about federal funding. We are healthy, but some hard decisions on services and taxes may await us,” he said, adding that tax increases should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Barlow said DeFoor’s cyber charter school audit “should disturb everyone” because of how those tax dollars are spent. He called Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to institute a flat funding rate of $8,000 per student for all cyber charters “a good place for our legislature to start” and said the State College school district would pay less than it does now under real reform.
Watch Barlow’s candidate interview with C-NET, Centre County’s government access network, here.
Jennifer A. Black
Black, a registered Democrat as of September 2024, is a former sixth-grade teacher at Bellefonte Area Middle School and also has tutored children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Black worked in the State College Area School District as a student teacher as part of her professional training. Her volunteer work continued later when her three children entered the school district, and Black said she saw how the district evolved over the past three decades.
Black’s daughter Abby Smith died by suicide at the age of 14, which she said was the driving force behind her run for school board.
The most pressing issues for students in the district are “mental health concerns, social media pressures, and the climate of our country as a whole,” she told Spotlight PA.
Black advocates for creating a standard method for documenting concerns about a student and a protocol for communicating them to parents; exploring partnerships with mental health providers; and helping students who have attempted suicide transition back to schooling routines.
Black said the school district must address the “climate of mistrust” reported in the external review and develop better communication. “We have so many amazing resources, yet we still have so many students struggling. We need to find out why there is this disconnect and what we can do to help those who aren’t currently feeling supported.”
Making sure teachers, students, administrators, and staff at the district keep “open lines of communication” will also help maintain a school environment where students can feel safe and welcome, she said.
The school district should not eliminate DEI programs to avoid losing out on federal funding, because those programs benefit students, Black said.
“I believe it is an absolute tragedy that some districts are watering down or altering their mission statements so that they can still receive federal dollars,” she said. “We are a diverse, inclusive community and this is a fact of which we should be proud.”
Watch Black’s candidate interview with C-NET, Centre County’s government access network, here.
Rebecca Arnold Desmarais
Arnold Desmarais, a registered Democrat as of September 2024, owns a photography business in State College. She has two children who attend school in the district. Desmarais serves as an elementary school parent-teacher organization president and a middle school parent-teacher-student organization vice president. She is also on the steering committee for the new middle school facility, advising the construction of a new building that will replace the 53-year-old Park Forest Middle School in Patton Township.
Desmarais told Spotlight PA the most pressing issue facing the district is the “social emotional learning for our students, faculty, and staff.”
The district should prioritize training for all faculty and staff to create a safe school environment, she said. “These are the people with our children on a daily basis and should have adequate training to help with looking for warning signs.”
She told C-NET, Centre County’s government access network, that the burnout some teachers and staff experienced, especially during remote learning, should be an important part of the mental health conversation.
Desmarais said she does not believe the district should cut DEI programs: “It helps create access, opportunity, and healthy learning environments for all learners, regardless of demographic.” Eliminating them would be a shortsighted decision, she said.
While Desmarais considers the district’s financial picture healthy, she said she would support a tax increase “within reason.”
“If we didn’t raise taxes we couldn’t afford to hire teachers, which would mean larger class sizes and less services offered,” she said.
The district has no choice but to follow state rules regarding how much it pays to charter schools currently, and oversight over how charter schools spend their funding is lacking, Desmarais said. “Cyber charter school reform is necessary,” she said.
Watch Desmarais’ candidate interview with C-NET here.
Jackie Huff, incumbent
Huff, a registered Democrat as of September 2024, is an incumbent board member whose term started in 2022. Huff spent six years as a public school teacher and nearly a decade teaching at a university.
Huff serves as the vice president of the Central Intermediate Unit 10 Board and advocates for public education at the state and federal levels.
The most pressing issue facing the district currently is the balance between managing the uncertain future of public education under the Trump administration and meeting the current needs of students, Huff told Spotlight PA.
Huff said the governing body also needs to acknowledge and respond to the “climate of mistrust” finding in the external suicide prevention and response review.
“A climate of mistrust at any level works against the way I want a school district to function. The board should work to provide resources and oversight to help facilitate better interactions amongst stakeholders,” she said.
Mental health is not something that can be won, but an evolving effort, she told C-NET, Centre County’s government access network. She also spoke about supporting the building of the new middle school, working to help students grow, and retaining staff.
The state legislature could help ensure adequate and fair funding for school districts by increasing basic education funding across the board, while reforming the cyber charter school funding formula, which is “simply unfair,” she said. The $6.5 million that the district pays in the current budget for cyber charters could pay the salaries of 50 new teachers, Huff told Spotlight PA.
Local revenue — property taxes collected from residents and businesses — made up about 80% of the school district’s budget in the past few years, Huff said. Funding reform could boost school district funding and allow for less reliance on property taxes, she added.
Huff said it’s unclear what the federal government is asking schools to do exactly regarding DEI programs, but she sees them as valuable to students.
“Our mission is to ensure every student has opportunities to grow, thrive, and fulfill their potential through caring, responsive education,” she said. “We will continue to comply with all laws. However, DEI programs (or any other program that supports our mission) should not be removed just because the federal government has requested they be removed.”
Watch Huff’s candidate interview with C-NET here.
Kirsten McTernan
McTernan, a registered Republican as of September 2024, has four sons and is the author of a book designed to help parents understand home education.
McTernan told Spotlight PA that during more than 15 years of homeschooling, she became equipped in vetting curricula, setting learning objectives, and managing budgets. Exposure to a range of learning styles and ways to meet academic goals — which began as an attempt to provide an alternative to her oldest son — drives her decision to run for school board.
If elected, McTernan said her top issues are mental health, safety, and educational standards.
McTernan said self-harm, depression, and anxiety are on the rise, and that it’s imperative to address their root causes.
“I think we need to be open to the idea that perhaps pushing ideological beliefs on children is actually causing undue stress and mental health issues,” she told Spotlight PA. “Also more and more studies are being done that show that social media is a major factor in causing bullying, anxiety, and depression. Parents need to be informed of this, and teachers should have the right to not allow cell phone use during instruction time.”
McTernan told Spotlight PA the school board’s focus should be on academics and less on “divisive curricula,” which is why she said she would support eliminating DEI programs. She told C-NET, Centre County’s government access network, that these programs are outside the scope of a school district’s academic mission.
The cost of education per student in the school district is high compared to the national average and especially so compared to the average homeschooled student, McTernan said. She said there must be fiscal responsibility and accountability in district spending.
Watch McTernan’s candidate interview with C-NET here.
Mihaly Sogor
Sogor, a registered Republican as of September 2024, is a State College native and a 2019 graduate of State College Area High School.
Sogor told C-NET, Centre County’s government access network, that becoming a homeowner motivated him to pursue fiscal responsibility in public spending, especially in the local school system.
Sogor told Spotlight PA he is the only candidate “young enough to understand what it is like to be a kid in this modern era” and has firsthand experience “dealing with the failed policies put forth by a school board.”
He said the most pressing issues facing State College students are policies that “help the top ten and bottom ten percent of students while the middle 80 percent continue to get left behind” and taxpayers shoulder higher taxes.
The district has a $200 million budget despite having fewer students enrolled, Sogor told Spotlight PA. He said he does not support tax increases in the school district and would like to see them decrease instead.
“Parents deserve further transparency on where their tax dollars are spent, and specifically why we must pay an extra million dollars to build Park Forest in order to save a couple trees,” he said, referring to the construction of a new building to replace the current Park Forest Middle School.
Sogor said every child deserves to be loved and feel safe, including while at school, but he said it’s hard to say what role or responsibility the school board has regarding the “climate of mistrust” described in the third-party review.
Having parents more involved and fostering a better sense of community are what students need, he told C-NET. He added that he doesn’t think the solution is hiring more social workers because they can address only some of students' needs.
As a board member, Sogor said he would evaluate whether students benefit from existing DEI programs before making a judgment on whether they should continue.
He is “encouraged” by the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, he told C-NET. He said he believes states should make decisions for themselves when it comes to education, because states understand students’ needs better than the federal government.
Remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has hampered academic achievement across the board, Sogor said. There’s a need to “right that ship” and encourage a better form of education.
Sogor was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the Centre County GOP against the Centre County Board of Elections challenging the county’s decision to count undated or wrongly dated mail-in ballots during the 2024 primary elections. The district court dismissed the case in May 2024.
Watch Sogor’s candidate interview with C-NET here.
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