Letter: PASD employee deflects budget questions with attacks

To The Editor,

Last night during the budget meeting a statement was made by Phoenixville Area School District employee Richard Fazio. Mr. Fazio, in a fashion I can only describe as utterly devoid of professional ethics replied to my questions by personally attacking me.

Such an unwarranted attack would never have been permitted while I was on the board. It is yet another clear sign that alleged misinformation and misbehavior are being ignored at the Phoenixville Area School District.

While our staff and teachers continue to do an excellent job it is deeply troubling that Mr. Fazio, who I believe has been with the district less than a year in this position, would be permitted to make such statements and not be forced to document what I will continue to call misleading statements.

During the last budget meeting Mr. Fazio stated that prior boards had “underfunded” what he called employee benefits. This is not true.

The prior budgets were constrained by several factors, including the PA School Code. When a district is self-insured, as we are, you cannot be absolutely accurate in predicting costs. The prior boards fully funded the expected costs.

For Mr. Fazio to falsely state the prior budgets were underfunded is misleading to the public who does not have the full background information.

This budget has so many questions due to the current shut down, and not a single question I asked related to costs that may need to be incurred to upgrade HVAC and ventilation were addressed, instead Mr. Fazio attacked me in a rather bitter and unprofessional manner because I dared to call out his misleading statements.

Now is not the time to allow such behavior. Sadly, given the current state I have no expectation he will face any consequences for his behavior. A member of the board has also made false statements, claiming I was engaged in pursuing legal action against the board in an attempt to make it seem I was suing the district. It seems some things do trickle down.

Taxpayers deserve better.

Lisa Longo,

Phoenixville