One by one residents spoke of the financial, educational and community harm they believe would be caused if Abram Lucabaugh, the divisive and controversial former Central Bucks School District superintendent, is hired to become Centennial’s next top administrator.
The May 13 meeting lasted nearly 3 hours with hundreds of residents in attendance.
Centennial School District parents and community members packed the district’s meeting room and two overflow classrooms Wednesday in an effort to halt the school board’s hiring process.
Lucabaugh did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
In a May 8 press release, the Bucks County Intermediate Unit, which facilitated the search for Centennial’s next superintendent, said the school board would vote on an employment contract with Lucabaugh at its May 27 meeting.
“I think the majority of this board has not given an opinion because they want to hear from you, I being one,” school board director Jane Schrader Lynch said.
A community forum will be held May 22 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Log College Middle School located at 730 N. Norristown Rd., in Warminster to introduce Lucabaugh.
If hired by Centennial, Lucabaugh, who lasted just roughly six months after signing a newly minted five-year contract at Central Bucks, would replace outgoing superintendent Dana Bedden. Bedden tendered his resignation to the school board late last year. His last day as Centennial’s superintendent is June 30.
During his tenure at Central Bucks, Lucabaugh was embraced by local members of Moms for Liberty, a nationwide conservative political organization that advocates against school curricula which includes or mentions critical race theory and discrimination, race and ethnicity and LGBTQ+ rights.
Lucabaugh at the behest of the right-wing majority school board at the time, embraced and defended efforts to ban library books, prohibit Pride Flags in schools and classrooms, and he even suspended a teacher who had defended a transgender student against bullying. He resigned after Central Bucks School District voted to elect all Democrats on the ballot, thus flipping the board majority.
“Given Dr. Lucabaugh’s history in Central Bucks we are concerned that his willingness to discriminate the LGBTQ+ students could extend to other marginalized student populations that could also be threatened by his policies,” said Nancy Pontius, a Warminster resident, teacher, parent and spokesperson for “Concerned Citizens of Centennial School District”, a grassroots advocacy group.
Centennial is made up of students from Ivyland Borough, Warminster and Upper Southampton townships; contains six school buildings and serves a K-12 population of about 5, 317 students, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Centennial board members sought to clarify and explain the process they used to search for the next superintendent.
School Board President Mary Alice Brancato said finalists were selected after two rounds of interviews.
“I have not forced anyone to select Dr Lucabaugh as the next superintendent,” Brancato said.
“Unfortunately, I have had experience with Dr Lucabaugh …as an educator in the Central Bucks School District,” said Catherine Dangler of Warminster Township and Centennial parent.
READ: It Takes a Village: Expelling Right-Wing Extremism from Bucks County School Districts
Dangler said collaboration was among the qualities desired in the next superintendent, according to a community survey.
“My experience with Dr Lucabaugh did not reflect collaborative ideals,” Dangler said, “children deserve better … they deserve what our educators bring. Dr. Lucabaugh does not value an educator’s voice. This is not what’s best for our kids.”
Board transparency during the superintendent search was questioned by those in the audience.
“I know we have been besieged with emails, text messages and phone calls, and I think the process could have been better. The question that lingers in my head…did we violate the Sunshine Act,” Lynch said.
Potius detailed the group’s concerns about hiring Lucabaugh.
Among them were millions of Central Bucks taxpayer dollars spent on attorney’s fees and lawsuits; public relations firm costs and a roughly $700,000 severance package paid to Lucabaugh after he abruptly resigned in 2023; Lucabaugh’s position on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, LGBTQ+ student treatment and rights; library book and pride flag and symbol banning, among others.
Some Centennial meeting attendees called out a federal complaint filed by the ACLU against Central Bucks and Lucabaugh’s actions, citing “discriminatory and punitive” policies directed at LGBTQ+ students “and their allies.”
Lucabaugh received a 40 percent salary increase in July 2023 – just two years into his first contract – before his sudden resignation, making him the second highest paid school superintendent in Pennsylvania at the time.
“We’re going to have something on the 15th, I don’t see why, because you’re already working on a contract, you’ve already picked an individual without our taxpayers input. It is unacceptable,” board member Patti Crossan said.
An invitation-only closed meeting with Centennial community stakeholders will be held at the BCIU in Doylestown this evening. Attendees were invited to submit questions to be answered by Lucabaugh. No votes will be taken or deliberations will be held at the meeting, district officials said.
School board members Lynch and Tony Sadowski said the BCIU had strict rules they had to follow with respect to interviewing candidates – and there were several questions they were not permitted to ask.
“My main concern is the questions didn’t adequately address that we were allowed to ask … they didn’t address the serious issues with the candidate in question and our community deserves a chance to weigh in and be heard, and have their voices weigh on our votes for a position this important,” Sadowski said.
The May 14 school board meeting is available for viewing on the Centennial School District’s website.
