That didn’t take long. On Monday I wrote a post about a suburban Pennsylvania school board that was openly discriminating against one of its own members. The nine-member school board in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania elected a new president last week. There were two candidates for president – Greg D’Elia and April Stainback.

Upper Moreland School Board member Jennifer Solot delivered a statement before the board voted explaining that her vote would go to Stainback, not D’Elia, though D’Elia “would make an excellent president.” The problem in her mind was that he is a cis white male and that would send the wrong message to the community, you see. So, she voted against him and all the other school board members did, too, except D’Elia, who voted for himself. The arrogance of Solot’s remarks and the discriminatory tone it set was wrong all the way around. She was free to have those thoughts but to say them out loud in front of the other board members to pressure them to vote as she was going to do was wrong.

The other board members, except D’Elia, were obedient sheep. Two hesitated before voting for Stainback and they should have listened to their conscience, as I said in my first post.

Upper Moreland School District Superintendent Dr. Susan Elliott issued a statement on Solot’s comments Monday. The blowback from the school board election must have been significant. The meeting was held last week but the national press picked it up by the weekend. Solot has resigned.

“As a result of this incident, Ms. Solot has decided to resign from the board effective January 2, 2023,” Elliott said. “She wishes to apologize for her poorly chosen words and does not want to be a distraction from the great things happening in our schools on a daily basis. The district thanks Ms. Solot for her five years of service to the Upper Moreland community as a board member.”

The superintendent added that Solot’s comments were “solely hers” and did not represent the opinions of the rest of the school board members or the district.

Good riddance. There’s no place for that kind of narrow-minded sexist thinking, especially on a school board. Her message was a terrible one for kids to hear. The discrimination was bad enough but D’Elia is an engineer with an impressive resume and a passion for fighting for services for students with special needs. He has three children of his own.

Superintendent Elliott went on to include D’Elia in her statement.

“Indeed, Board Director Greg D’Elia, who was the subject of her comments, says that he ‘supports diversity, but these comments did not further diversity and reflected poorly on our community,’” Elliott said.

According to Elliott, the district focuses on nondiscrimination across the schools and inside the classrooms. It also sees value in the diversity of the community it serves and helps students and staff achieve success without discrimination based on race, color, age, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, gender identity, and more.

She also said the district hires “the most qualified person for the position” and does not discriminate.

Elliott and Stainbeck threw Solot under the bus, rightly so, and said her comments were “solely hers and were not intended to represent the opinion of the entire UMSD Board of Directors or the district as a whole.” To me, that screams please don’t sue us, but your mileage may vary.

Solot was a school board member for five years. I wonder if her comments track with her previous years of service. Did she usually speak like this or is this a new development?

The important thing is that the problem is resolved and she’s out. What a lousy thing to do to a colleague. She could have voted as she saw fit without making her statement and allow the other board members to vote as they wished. I wonder what the outcome would have been.