Six in running for four seats on Parkland School Board
Number of candidates down from two years ago
The primary election for the Parkland School Board is vastly different from the one that took place in 2023.
Two years ago, 14 people ran for six seats in the spring primary with candidates divided into two camps. Fiscal responsibility, parental choice, masking policies and transgender rights were top campaign topics.
The race generated contributions from four political action committees. One, fueled by donations from Lehigh Valley business leaders and hedge fund manager Paul Martino of Bucks County, raised more than $30,000 for a slate of Republicans called Education First for Parkland. None of the six candidates won.
This time around, six candidates are seeking four seats on May 20, including one incumbent, three new faces and two unsuccessful candidates from 2023.
Four candidates have aligned themselves but are running separate campaigns: incumbent Republican David J. Hein, who is the board’s vice president, and Democratic newcomers Alyssa Beckwith, Jon Macklin and Matthew Weimann.
The other candidates are Republicans Patrick Foose and George Rivera. Foose was an incumbent who lost in the 2023 primary. Rivera was a 2023 candidate who lost in the general election. He had been part of Education First for Parkland slate.
Two other Republicans – Mike Millo, who lost in 2023 for a two-year seat, and David Caruth, who ran unsuccessfully for school board a decade ago – were removed from the 2025 ballot after successful challenges to their nomination petitions. Millo is running a write-in campaign.
All candidates but Rivera will appear on both party ballots. Rivera’s name will be on the Republican ballot. School board candidates are permitted to cross-file.
The Parkland School District is in the midst of implementing Vision 2030, a plan to address overcrowding in grades 6-12.
The school board is moving ahead with a 75,000-square-foot addition at Parkland High School and an addition and renovations at Orefield Middle School. Alloy5 Architecture was contracted to design plans for both schools. The district said the projected cost for the high school is $61,570,010. The price for the middle school was unavailable.
Last year, the board unanimously adopted a $236 million budget for 2024-25 that raised the property tax rate by 5% to 17.12 mills. The district said the tax hike put it in a position to fund the building program through borrowing.
In January, the board unanimously adopted a resolution agreeing to limit a tax increase for the 2025-26 school year to no more than 4%, the maximum allowed under Act 1 index calculated by the state Education Department.
Here is a look at the candidates seeking four-year terms. Information was obtained from campaign websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, interviews, website interviews and media reports.
Alyssa Beckwith – Democrat, cross-filed
Beckwith is director of clinical partnerships at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. This is her first run for office.
She said her priorities are ensuring ample resources for student success, community engagement and outreach, supporting teachers and staff and maintaining safe and innovative school environments.
“I believe the most important issue is ensuring we continue to support the programs that will enable students to be successful post-graduation while also optimizing the budget through diligent analysis and assessment,” Beckwith said in an email.
She said she is concerned about possible federal spending cuts, but believes the state will be able to navigate losses.
Beckwith graduated from Allen High School. She earned a chemical engineering degree from Lehigh University in 2001 and a master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in 2008.
She lives in Schnecksville with her husband and her daughter, a high school freshman who plays softball. Throughout the years, she’s been active in PTOs, supported fundraising events, helped to coordinate the 8th Grade Celebration last year and is active in the Parkland Softball Booster Club.
Patrick Foose – Republican, cross-filed
Foose is a legislative aide for state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, a former Parkland School Board member and fellow Republican who represents the 16th Senate District. Foose has a bachelor’s degree in English and literature from Moravian University and a master’s degree in education from Kutztown University.
Foose served one term as a school board member before losing in the 2023 primary. He was not aligned with either slate that year.
Foose said he stands for enduring fiscal responsibility, promoting tax fairness, enhancing community engagement and fostering transparency.
Regarding the district’s 4% tax hike cap for 2025-26, he said, “We need people on this board who will speak out against wasteful spending, answer constituent questions, and not let this administration get everything they desire plus some on a golden platter.”
During a recent appearance on Quinn Allen’s show on WRGOA.com, he brought up his vote against buying new carpeting and chairs in rooms used by the board, saying the money would have been better spent fixing Springhouse Middle Schoo’s HVAC system.
He reiterated his criticism from his 2023 campaign about the board’s 2022 decision to buy an $80,000 scoreboard for the high school pool. “This was a scoreboard for swimming, of all things,” he told Quinn Allen.
Describing himself as having Asperger's syndrome, Foose said the district needs to better address the needs of special education students.
David J. Hein – Republican, cross-filed
Hein is fiscal director at Workforce Board Lehigh Valley. He earned a business administration degree from Bloomsburg University in 1991. His wife and daughter are both Parkland teachers. Hein was first elected to the board in 2013 and has served as board president. His priorities are safety and security; providing students with the tools they need; fair funding and charter and cyber school reform.
In an email, Hein said funding is the district's biggest issue. “With costs going up across the board for everyone, school districts included, we need to be creative with our limited resources in order to keep the high level of programs in place across all disciplines: academics, arts and athletics,” he said.
Hein took exception to Foose’s remarks about the lack of transparency and out-of-control spending. “Many of the district's costs are state and federally mandated, and we are happy to provide the services; however, many of the mandates are nowhere near fully funded. That eats into the funds we have available to continue the excellent programming that our residents have come to expect,” he said.
Hein disagreed with Foose’s complaints about the school board room costs, saying the carpeting and chairs were worn and needed to be replaced. “There was no full-scale renovation of the boardroom or any other part of the administration building,” he said. The district told Armchair the original carpeting was installed in 1991.
Hein serves as the board’s representative on the Joint Operating Committee at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute and Lehigh Carbon Community College Board of Trustees. He has held leadership roles in the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. He also serves on the board of and is a volunteer with the Parkland CARES Food Pantry.
Jon Macklin – Democrat, cross-filed
Macklin is a stay-at-home father who said his priorities are promoting high-quality, robust education opportunities for all students, attracting and retaining top-notch educators and administrators, and fiscal responsibility. He could not be reached for comment.
“I am seeking election to the Parkland School Board, driven by the conviction that every student in our school district should have the opportunity to receive a high-quality and robust education that equips them for academic success during their school years and fosters continued achievement and fulfillment in their adult lives,” he said on the For Parkland site.
He said he is committed to working alongside fellow board members to maintain a high-quality, comprehensive education for our students.
George Rivera – Republican, GOP ballot only
Rivera grew up in Connecticut and lived in New York and New Jersey before moving to Pennsylvania. He and his wife have three children. He could not be reached for comment.
He is a managing partner for Darden Restaurant Inc. Rivera leads 65 hourly employees and three assistant managers, overseeing $5.8 million a year in revenue while annually delivering a 20% operating profit, according to his campaign website.
In making a second run for school board, Rivera said he is concerned about the district’s level of fiscal responsibility.
“Are we making decisions 100% that are going to positively impact the education and the district and moving forward in a positive way?” he recently told WABE radio host Bobby Gunther Walsh’s show.
He said the district wasted money on the Vision 2030 study dealing with future growth. “It was a multimillion-dollar study, which there really hasn't been anything that's come about from that,” he said.
Matthew Weimann – Democrat, cross-filed
Weimann is an elementary teacher at Willow Lane Elementary School in the East Penn School District. He earned a master's degree in elementary education and teaching from DeSales University in 2011 and a master’s degree in computer technology/computer systems technology from Kutztown University in 2016.
He got into teaching after running a full-time home painting business.
“I wanted to create more positive change in the world,” he said on the For Parkland site. While in East Penn, he began a newspaper club for several years before switching to an after-school chess club.
This is Weimann’s first run for office. “As a public educator for the past 14 years … I not only believe in the mission of public education, but have devoted my life to it,” he said.
Weimann said his daughter, a seventh grader who has cochlear implants, was able to be mainstreamed because of the early intervention and speech support the district provided to her.
He said he is concerned about the possible loss of federal education funding. “What disturbs me the most is the way the Department of Education seems to be using this threat of defunding in order to bully school districts into proving that they are NOT honoring ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’ ”