By Patrick Cooley
BROOKFIELD — It’s been an eventful four years for the Brookfield Local School District and its board. And the race to shape the next four years continues that trend.
Joe Pasquerilla, the top vote-getter in the balloting four years ago, is running for a second term after a tenure that is best described as controversial. This time he’s teamed up with a pair of candidates he knows well and whose support he can likely count on: his wife and daughter, Ann and Rachel Pasquerilla.
Three seats on the school board are up for grabs Tuesday. Team Pasquerilla faces incumbent Kelly Carrier-Bianco, former board member Ronda Bonekovic, and Gwen Martino, a vocal critic of Pasquerilla’s tenure. Board member Dean Fisher isn’t running for re-election.
Joe Pasquerilla has had his share of headlines in his four years as a school board member, which included serving as president.
The district has spent more than $600,000 in legal fees for court battles in his tenure, and a group of Brookfield parents and community members called “Save Our Schools” accuses Pasquerilla of being the cause of those court battles by refusing to negotiate with the Brookfield Teacher’s Federation over their contract and by deciding to not bus Brookfield children to parochial schools in Warren. He has defended his actions in both instances, saying he was trying to save the district money.
He was also a key figure in the passage of a bond issue to build a new K-12 school building and pleaded guilty to assault after slapping fellow board member Ronald Brennan during a meeting.
When Pasquerilla ran for school board four years ago, he ran on a platform of controlling the district’s costs.
Mrs. Bonekovic served one four-year term as a board member which ended two years ago, and she decided not to run again.
She said she is back now because she would like to seek out grant money to bring back some of the classes cut over the last several years without putting the burden on taxpayers.
Mrs. Bonekovic has a daughter in seventh grade and hosts an exchange student from Spain.
“I care about all the students in this district, not just my own,” she said. “We need a positive school board, and not a fighting school board.”
Mrs. Bonekovic said that too much money has been wasted on frivolous lawsuits during the last several years, and she would make sure that wouldn’t happen when she was on the board.
She’s been involved in the district through the Brookfield Parents Association and several other parents groups.
Gwen Martino has master’s degrees in special education and school administration from Youngstown State University. She has worked for Warren School District for 36 years, 23 teaching special education and 13 working in the library as a media specialist.
Mrs. Martino said she would like to see Brookfield have a balanced budget, but “not on the backs of the children.”
“Cuts have been made, and the way they’ve been done, they’ve greatly affected the kids’ education,” she said.
Mrs. Martino said many of the cuts could have been avoided.
“On the one hand, they don’t have enough money, so cuts have to be made,” she said. “But on the other hand, huge legal fees are being run up, and that money could have been used for education.”
Mrs. Carrier-Bianco was appointed after former board member Steve Varga resigned from the board in March 2008.
Members of the Brookfield Teachers Federation gave Mrs. Carrier-Bianco credit for resolving the litigation between the school board and the BTF over the teacher’s contract. Brookfield teachers were without a contract for two school years.
“I was able to negotiate with them and get a settlement which I think was pretty favorable for the district,” she said. “If it would have been settled by the state employee relations board, it would have resulted in a fiscal emergency for the district.”
Mrs. Carrier-Bianco said there was a fair amount of animosity in the district before she was appointed. She said she’s worked hard to reach out to other board members and establish a good working relationship with them and teachers.
“I really care about this community,” she said. “I was born and raised here and I’ve lived here my entire life.
“I bring a unique set of qualifications, with a background in business consulting, I have a pretty good skill set in managing and understanding finance, and understanding what makes business work, and the district is the largest employer in Brookfield,” Mrs. Carrier-Bianco said.
Ann and Rachel Pasquerilla said they are running because they want a financially-responsible district, and to look for ways to improve the district that wouldn’t cost taxpayers money.
“We can look at things like scheduling and more communication with parents,” Ann Pasquerilla said.
“We can look at structuring teachers in grade levels, and setting up Web sites that are helpful to parents and link the community (to the school), things that are going to cost nothing but would be a huge help,” Rachel Pasquerilla said.
Ann Pasquerilla worked for the Newton Falls school district for 35 years, three as elementary school principal.
Rachel Pasquerilla has a master’s degree in special education from Kent State University, and is working on her Ph.D. from Kent in the same field.
She said that she has helped initiate a group that links parents with special-needs children in the tri-county area, hosted at the Brookfield administration building.
“I am an educator myself,” Rachel Pasquerilla said. “That allows me to be up-to-date on education practices and research.”
Both Rachel and Ann Paquerilla said their relationship to Joe Pasquerilla would help more than hurt them in the election.
“The three of us individually are well-qualified; the list of our qualifications overrides that of our competitors,” Rachel Pasquerilla said.
Joe Pasquerilla said that during his tenure as a school board member the board educated the students well without asking for any additional tax increases.
“I plan to continue that,” he said. “I think past experience has showed that I have been fiscally responsible.”
Joe Pasquerilla said that he has worked in education for 30 years, and has owned a small business for the last 30 years, which he said gives him experience in both education and finance.
“I feel I’m very qualified,” he said.
The Pasquerillas did not attend a candidate’s forum held at the Brookfield High School auditorium on Oct. 20. Joe Pasquerilla said this is because they circulate their own campaign literature throughout the community, and that the voters in the district are aware of their platform.
