Meet a School Board Candidate: Ross McLennan

Vote May 18!

The Pennridge School Board race will be one of the most watched in Bucks County. Ross McLennan believes he can be part of the solution to push back the Pennridge GOP’s far-right hostile takeover of the board and its electoral hijacking of local education. Learn more about his background and how to get involved and support his campaign.

Why are you running for school board? 

I am nearing retirement and, given the recent local events, I am realizing that my background, skills and interests are uniquely suited for the position of School Board Director; at the same time, I want to offer those skills to the School Board.

I have had a long diverse career as an engineer and successful businessman in US manufacturing companies. I have had roles from entrepreneurial to an engineering department manager in companies ranging from start-ups to fortune 500. I work well teaming with all corporate functions; sales, marketing, upper management and the supply chain. After raising my 4 children in the Easton school district, they are now in their 30’s, I moved down to the area 10 years ago and helped raise my partner’s four Pennridge children, the last graduating in 2015. I am an active parent with all the children and their varied interests and school activities. I have been active in my community with engineering, science and environmental education and advocacy. I have given talks to students in K-12 and college and mentored many students, young co-workers and employees. I have worked as a manager for Engineers week activities, science fairs, MathCounts, Destination Imagination and a popular scholarship program. As a School Director I want to establish these types of programs and help them thrive.

My professional career in US manufacturing has taught me the importance of manufacturing sciences and engineering to the United States. As a Pennridge School Board Director I want to change the school-to-work paradigm by bringing our community together with students, education and a local jobs focus.

My parents were both career educators, my father a Physics professor and my mother taught science at a catholic school. My son works for a high-achieving charter school in NYC. Education has always been a high priority in my life and I want to follow my family's dedication as a School Director.

Foremost my background and professional experience support my objectives to develop a community driven school system. I feel that in addition to many other important aspects that schooling should prepare students for real-world jobs and adult lives. I am particularly interested in developing more programs to invest in local jobs by positioning our schools as community hubs tying education,funding and employment with sustainable and job applicable student development. I will work to connect local and regional companies to our schools in a more directrole, including Pennridge High School, the UBCTS and BCC. A community-centered education should have a focus on creating direct-from-high-school hires to local business as an important objective. Many companies pay tuition assistance and hire directly from high schools and trade schools with an understanding that the student is still college-bound. Also relevant is following trends in local and regional job needs. It is frequently the case that students’ interests and school-driven objectives are not in sync with the job demands, I would work to close that gap. 

I am a member of the Northampton College Bethlehem FabLab, the affordability and access to evening classes is valuable to adults but also to students in that community. Very affordable with grants to low income the program is self supporting and at times marginally profitable. The classes are designed to be creative, fun and produce both useful products and trained students. They Offer an hourly rate to use the equipment. NCC teaches safety and provides access to tools, materials and further skill development. Here in the Pennridge School District I would work towards expanding our adult evening classes and would begin development of a local Maker Community with a Fab Lab accessible to students and our local community. My own personal experience has proven that hands on opportunities for students enhances the learning experience and develops strong skills invaluable to hiring managers. 

I am an environmental advocate, volunteer, and organizer. My particular interests are river and stream health. I am an active Master Watershed Steward working on riparian buffers, clean-ups, residential rain barrels, rain gardens, meadows and other naturalization programs. I work student environmental education programs and assist with the PSU MWS outreach. As a school director I will develop and encourage student involvement in environmental programs the Envirothon and Junior Master Watershed Steward program.

Within the schools I will promote educational programs that develop teaming and creativity, not just test results. Design Thinking, STEAM Education and Maker use curriculum that immerse students and teachers in real-world problem solving. The "A" in STEAM is Arts. Relying on just STEM no longer develops the well rounded graduate. Pennridge has been seeing a decline over the past few years in standardized test scores, their US News Ranking following and at the same time a decline in the rigor of the arts and music programs as a result of resources. This has been true of other districts. The current thinking is to reverse this trend and as a School Director I will look at how to reestablish these important programs.

What do you identify as the top education issues folks must confront in your school district, in Pennsylvania, and nationally?

Many US current events and long settled history are under attack by a subversive right wing agenda aimed at whitewashing history to keep non-white views out of schools and school curriculum. It is obviously a revisionist history and a racist agenda capitalizing on the successful fear mongering of Trump and his supporters. In the majority of school districts it is totally unwarranted, yet many very high profile school district director races are coming under this attack. And it is happening here in Pennridge. Moreover the history and civics being proposed are not what has been cynically mislabeled by the right-wing school board candidates and politicians as the “radical indoctrination” of critical race theory, or CRT. As a school director I will work to promote American History, Civics and work to have better equity, diversity and inclusion in school curriculum. 

April 19, the Department of Education: “quality of American history, civics, and government education by educating students about the history and principles of the Constitution of the United States, including the Bill of Rights; and… the quality of the teaching of American history, civics, and government in elementary schools and secondary schools, including the teaching of traditional American history.” The department is proposing two priorities to reach low-income students and underserved populations. The Republicans object to the one that encourages “projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives into teaching and learning.”

History teaching that reflects our diverse history and the way our diversity supports democracy can help to improve racial equality in society, the document states. It points to the 1619 Project of the New York Times, as well as the resources of the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History, to note how our understanding of diversity is changing. It notes that schools across the country are teaching “anti-racist practices,” which it follows scholar Ibram X. Kendi by identifying as “any idea that suggests the racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences—that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group.”  * Ref  Heather Cox Richardson.

How can folks get involved with your campaign?

www.mclennanforpennridge.org

Which journalists, writers, podcasts, and/or publications do you turn to for information and inspiration?

My go to morning news is the daily blog from Heather Cox Richardson. Her detailed current news with historical references are informative and spot on. I also read the New York Times and AP, listen to audio and Podcasts from NPR, Slate and Preet. I get local news from the Bucks County News Feed, the Bucks County Courier Times and Raging Chicken Media.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your feedback and suggestions.