Nathaniel Leffever is a Democrat and Dublin resident.
Why do you think you are qualified to effectively represent your community on the school board?
Primarily because I’m willing to listen to the community as a whole, but also because I’ve worked with children for over 13 years. My family’s business is in early childhood education. I know from direct experience what it takes to run a school and the passion it takes from everyone involved to do so.
Over the past few years we have seen attempts by some school boards across Bucks County, as well as Pennsylvania and the country, to either unilaterally ban books or make it easier for community members to challenge and have books banned, often by usurping the authority of librarians and administrative leadership. What is your position on book banning, and how will you implement policies to support faculty and students?
I think it’s common ground to agree that not all books belong in school libraries, but the recent efforts to blanket-ban books aren’t a solution to concerns about what should and should not be banned.
The concerns of parents and the community should be taken seriously, but the need for trust in our librarians and administrative staff is paramount to navigating these issues.
Decreasing teacher and staff retention is a growing issue school districts are facing. What is your role in the recruiting, interviewing and hiring process and what role can a school board serve to reverse this trend?
I think that the most important thing that a school board can do to reverse waning retention is to provide stability and support to our dedicated staff. There’s the obvious issue of fair pay, and that shouldn’t be understated, but I have never known a teacher who got into teaching for the money. What we need most of all is to ensure that our teachers — old and new — feel like we support them. We can do that by enacting policies that empower teachers to focus on educating our students.
Our biggest challenge, unfortunately, remains the same: we have to protect our district from the extremism that caused us so many problems just a few years ago.
What are the school board’s biggest challenges in the coming months; the next four years?
Our biggest challenge, unfortunately, remains the same: we have to protect our district from the extremism that caused us so many problems just a few years ago. In the short term, we have to focus on protecting the funding that’s needed for our schools to function while combating politicized messaging aimed at dividing our community. In the long term, I would like to see us finally repairing and updating some of our aging buildings so that our students and staff can be safe, warm and dry.
How will you work with administrators and fellow board members to address the district’s biggest challenges in the short and long term?
In a word, listening.
The primary responsibility of any leader, even a board member, is to listen to those who are doing the work and fighting on the front lines to protect and educate our students. At the same time, it’s imperative that I listen to the community as a whole and find the common ground where opinions differ on what the right course of action is. It’s a constant balance that we have to walk, but it’s one that can’t be circumvented without ignoring the voices of the many who will undoubtedly be speaking up.
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