Plum Borough School Board Candidate Profiles

Ten candidates have thrown their hats in the ring for the five open seats on Plum School Board.

They are: John St. Leger, Joe Tommarello, Richard Zucco, Jim Rogers, Tom McGough, Loretta White, Marcia Chicka, Bill Ferguson, Rich Filar and Ruth Pastore. All have cross-filed on the Republican and Democratic tickets in hopes of securing a place on the ballot in the fall general election. The open positions are all four-year terms.

Learn a little bit about candidates whose names will appear on the ballot for the primary election on Tuesday, May 17:

John St. Leger

Though he has no political experience behind him, John St. Leger, 54, said his work as a senior administrator at an area hospital has prepared him to tackle issues the district faces, especially budgetary matters.

“I believe the major issue is trying to provide a quality education to children while trying to maintain a balanced budget,” he said.

St. Leger said he would deal with financial issues facing the district by going line by line through its budget and eliminating unnecessary items.

“I have lots of experience with preparing, reviewing and implementing budgets,” he said.

He would consider finding sources of revenue for the district, such as sponsorship and naming rights for local and national businesses. This move would allow for businesses to place their names and logos on uniforms and at the football stadium, he said.

St. Leger has three children. Aileen, 17, attends Plum Borough High School, where she is now a junior. Older sons, John, 27, an attorney in Washington, D.C., and Anthony, 25, who is studying for a graduate degree in immunology at the University of Pittsburgh, both attended Plum Borough schools as well.

St. Leger’s community involvement includes being a member of the Knights of Columbus at Our Lady of Joy Catholic Church. He also coached Plum Area soccer for 18 years.

Joe Tommarello

Joe Tommarello has a different perspective on the school district. It’s one that comes from sitting right in the classroom. The 18-year-old Holiday Park resident is in the 12th grade at Plum Borough Senior High School.

“I have talked to hundreds and hundreds of Plum citizens and they are happy there is, quote, ‘young blood’ getting involved,” he said.

He would deal with the issues by approaching the board with information from the point of view of a recent high school student, he said. Tommarello believes the major issues facing the district are fiscal and educational.

“I believe our current and past boards have wasted taxpayers' money. The number one priority of the school board should be education,” he said.

Using all available technology to help students to learn in different ways would also be priorities, he said. Selecting online textbooks to replace physical textbooks is a way he would seek to save money.

He lives in Holiday Park with his sister, Natalee, and his father, Anthony. His mother Mia, lives in Oakmont. Tommarello is the main sportscaster for Plum TV. He is also the assistant coach of his sister’s Plum Borough Athletic Association softball team.

He will major in television broadcasting at Robert Morris University in Moon Township.  If elected, he said, he will be able to balance his obligations at school with his responsibilities to the board.

Richard Zucco

Richard Zucco describes his run for school board as a “grassroots” effort. The 62-year-old Renton resident has not run for office before or served on the school board previously.

“I decided to run because I would like to represent those residents who feel their voices have fell on deaf ears for years,” he said.

How to pay for “everything” is what Zucco sees as the main issue facing the district, he said. If elected, he would take a back-to-the-basics approach to spending and scholastics. His primary concern is the quality of education.

“When (students) come out of school and they don’t know some of the things their parents know, it makes you wonder what they are teaching,” he said.

Tightened belts, increased fees and budget cuts are ways he believes the district should face financial issues and prepare for the future. According to Zucco, balance is key.

“We have a difficult balancing act of how to treat senior citizens with value and respect and still honor our young people and value their education.”

Zucco runs his own business. He has also worked as a corporate accountant. His background, he said, makes him well-qualified to serve on the board. His family includes grown daughters Jennifer and Jacquelyn and his wife, Catherine. He is a member of the Renton Fireman’s Club, the Italian Club in Renton, the National Rifle Association, the Heritage Foundation and he is a Tea Party conservative.

Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers lives in the Ramparts plan with his wife, Judy. The 64-year-old is now retired from Hartford Insurance, where he worked for nearly 40 years.

He identifies spending and education as the district’s major issues. To tackle financial matters he would look at individual programs and ask whether they would serve students after they graduated from school, he said.

“The main goal is to bring some sanity to the spending, some control to the spending and to make sure the kids become the best version of themselves they can be,” he said.

Rogers cites not only his years of working in insurance—which he said Hartford sold to school districts, among many other organizations—but his volunteer experience as well. When his own kids, who are now grown, were in school, he served as PTO president in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. He also ran a girls’ softball league, coached T-Ball and was the chair of a Cub Scout group.

“I feel that with the skills I learned from (Hartford Insurance) and the ability to talk to people and find out their problems, I can come up with solutions,” he said.

He is now active with the Knights of Columbus. He has three children and, between he and his wife, Judy, 18 grandchildren. Three of their grandchildren live in Plum and attend the borough’s schools.

Tom McGough

Tom McGough, a Holiday Park resident, has been on the board since 1991. He is a member of Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s board of directors.

He initially ran for school board, he said, in response to a challenge from a homeless man at the Light of Life Rescue Mission on the North Side of Pittsburgh. The man told McGough that if he really believed what he had shared during a chapel service service then he should do something to make a difference. He translated that challenge into a run for school board, he said.

“For the last 20 years, I have tried my very best to be both an advocate for our children and a watchdog for our taxpayers,” he said.

In his first 10 years on the school board, he served as treasurer and finance committee chair. There, he said, he contributed to a team effort that produced 10 consecutive balanced budgets. Recently, he initiated a plan to move the district’s girls’ softball field to a fallow area at the high school instead of building a second turf field at Pivik Elementary. This plan saves the district $1 million, he said.

McGough describes himself as a born-again Christian who is morally, socially and fiscally conservative. He supports full-day kindergarten, alternative education, expansion of music, foreign language and athletic programs as well as the ROTC and a comprehensive class-size policy.

Loretta White

White was unavailable for comment in time for publication. The profile below is based upon information provided by the Plum Borough Democratic Committee Council.

Loretta White has served on the school board for six years and has lived in the borough for 50 years. Her children and grandchildren have attended borough schools. For this reason, she said, she takes her job as a school board member seriously.

Since she became a member of the board, it has only raised taxes once. She describes this increase and “unnecessary” and said she voted against it. White counts among the board’s accomplishments the initiation of a more rigorous curriculum, improved test scores, integration of technology and achieving Adequate Yearly Progress in all schools.

Due to cuts in funding, White said, there is much work left to do.

“We will need experienced school directors who are not only fiscally responsible, but also realize the importance of educating our young people so they can have the skills to succeed in an ever changing world,” she said.

She said her commitment is to the senior citizens, working families, young people and taxpayers.

“I promise to continue to serve the district with integrity and make decisions based on the welfare of all community members,” she said.

Marcia Chicka

Dr. Marcia Chicka, 52, has been in the education field for more than 17 years. While she doesn’t know politics, she said, she knows education. This is one of the main reasons she feels she is qualified for a position on the school board.

“It is vital for our school board members to be well-versed in the educational arena to ensure the best decisions are made for our children,” she said. “The importance of educating our youth has always been the driving force in my personal as well as professional life.”

Chicka holds a bachelor's degree in psychology/elementary education, a master’s in elementary education and a doctorate degree in educational leadership K-12. She has counseled teens and taught in various school districts, she said. She is the Title I coordinator at New Kensington-Arnold School District. In addition to her experience as an educator, she said she would bring experience in grant writing and budgeting to the district as well.

Major issues she sees Plum Borough facing are the choices the district must make in the face of recent state and federal budget cuts. She said these are “crucial decisions that will impact our students and community.”

Her family includes two grown children, Daniel and Lorraine. Daniel lives in Virginia with his wife and son. Lorraine lives in Plum Borough with her husband and three children; the oldest will enter kindergarten in the fall.

Bill Ferguson

A retired Westinghouse employee, Bill Ferguson, 87, lives in the northwest corner of the borough at the Longwood at Oakmont Retirement Village. He said he would bring the experience of age to the board, along with a balanced view.

“I‘m unbiased. I don’t have any kids in school, I don’t own any property in Plum,” he said. “I have no financial interests one way or the other no matter what we do, which I think is a unique advantage.”

Finances are what seem to him to be a big issue for the district. With cuts in federal support resulting in less funding than previous years, he said the question to him is how to make up for that difference. The answer, he said, is with budget cuts to avoid raising taxes. He believes that is what the district’s taxpayers want as well.

“I’m pretty sure the community wants us to cut out some of the frills,” he said. “It’s hard to get people to agree to what those frills are.”

He hasn’t served on school board before, but did serve a term on the Murrysville Council. In addition to volunteer activities at the Longwood at Oakmont, Ferguson also is a member of the Service Uniting Retired Employees (SURE) group. The group is made up of retired Westinghouse employees who serve in the community.

His family includes his wife, Dorothy, two sons and a daughter, all grown, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Rich Filar

Rich Filar sees his experience as a businessman and a business partner as good qualifications for a school board member. From spending a budget to establishing a budget, Filar is familiar with financial responsibilities.

Major issues the district faces are controlling costs while maintaining an excellent education, he said. An example which he cites—all-day kindergarten. He said he has seen the positive impact of the program on his daughter, Morgan, who is now in the first grade. Filar said he hopes his younger daughter, Kennedy, attends full-day kindergarten as well.

“Any kind of cuts to take that to half a day would be something that would whittle down their foundation,” he said.

Increasing taxes is “not the answer,” he said, adding that the board must make better decisions on how and where to spend its money. Filar also sees extracurricular activities and class size as important matters.

“The board must work to make sure class sizes do not grow to the point where we are handicapping our educators and shortchanging our children,” he said.

Filar lives in the Whispering Pines housing development in Plum. His family includes his wife, Maura, and their daughters. He just recently served a three-year term on the Whispering Pines Homeowners Association. He has not served on the school board before.

Ruth Pastore

Ruth Pastore has no prior school board experience but she has been involved in a range of community and government activities.

She is involved in a number of organizations in Plum and beyond, among them the Plum Democratic Committee, where she is secretary; the Plum Civil Service Commission; and the Jefferson Hospital Health Council. She is also a national officer of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America and treasurer of the Pennsylvania National Federation of Democratic Women.

She has also been involved in the Clairton Crime Watch for 20 years, and was a director. A former resident of that area, Pastore said she was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Mon Valley Chamber of Commerce for her work in the community.

Issues she sees Plum Borough School District facing include the Town Center in Plum and maintaining the arts and music programs in the school district. Public safety is a major concern of Pastore, as are taxes, which she said are important to keep in mind for working families and senior citizens.

Encouraging board members to work together is how she would tackle issues facing the district.

“It’s not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about doing a good job and doing it for the community and not yourself,” she said. “You have to collaborate together or nothing gets done.”

Pastore has six daughters and a son, all grown. She declined to provide her age.