Board member enlists family

An elections official said three members of the same family running for school board appears to be legal.

By Ed Runyan

BROOKFIELD — Joseph Pasquerilla, who has been a Brookfield school-board member for four years, admits that he is comfortable challenging the status quo and confronting people.

Four years ago, he was elected on a cost-cutting platform, which made him unpopular with school employees. Two other men were also elected on that platform — Steve Varga and Dean Fisher.

As soon as the election was over, someone challenged Pasquerilla on his residency, saying he was not eligible to serve as a board member because he was from Hubbard Township. Pasquerilla showed the elections board documentation indicating he had moved into his father’s house in Brookfield, and the complaint was dropped.

The last four years were stormy, marked by two attempts by citizens groups to get him tossed off of the school board on the grounds that he was overstepping his authority, bullying and having private meetings. The second attempt is pending in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

He also was charged criminally over a physical confrontation in March 2008 with fellow board member Ronald Brennan, which resulted in Pasquerilla being convicted by a visiting judge of assault, being ordered to sit out three school board meetings, attend anger-management counseling and write an apology to Brennan. Brennan was convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $25.

While Pasquerilla had a 3-2 majority on the board, he succeeded in cutting costs, but he lost that majority when Varga resigned his seat and a common-pleas court judge appointed Kelly Bianco to replace him.

Now Pasquerilla’s other ally, Dean Fisher, is leaving the board, declining to run for re-election.

But Pasquerilla refuses to quit.

Pasquerilla not only filed petitions to run for re-election this November, but his wife, Ann, and his daughter, Rachel, a 2005 Brookfield High graduate, have also filed to run for the three open seats.

It is the first time Kelly Pallante, Trumbull County Board of Elections director, can remember more than one person from the same family running for the same school board or other government body at the same time in her 25 years with the elections board.

Pallante said to her knowledge, it is legal for all three Pasquerillas to run for the school board, saying the only requirements are that the candidate be 18 years old and a resident of the district.

The Pasquerillas will be challenged by Bianco, former board member Ronda Bonekovic, and one of the people who tried to get Pasquerilla ousted: Gwen Martino. There is one write-in, Michael Murphy.

Martino says she’s surprised it’s legal for three members of one family to run for the same school board.

Legal or not, she doesn’t think it makes sense, she said, because it seems likely to lead to the same type of “rogue” school board that existed when Pasquerilla, Varga and Fisher served together.

Martino said the board has been restoring the quality of Brookfield’s education since Bianco replaced Varga, and she wants that trend to continue.

Joseph Pasquerilla, conversely, says he thinks he restored voter confidence in the schools, which allowed the voters to approve the bond issue that will pay for new schools.

Pasquerilla said he, Varga and Fisher attempted to carry out the recommendations of the Ohio Auditor’s Office relating to cost cutting.

The board has gone back to spending money it doesn’t have on teacher salaries “since I lost my majority on the board,” he said.

Joseph Pasquerilla, who retired after 25 years as guidance counselor at various schools and has a master’s degree, says his wife and daughter have good credentials to serve on the board.

Rachel, 22, teaches multi-handicapped students at a public school system in Summit County and is continuing her education at Kent State University.

Ann, who has a master’s degree, has taught special-education and other classes in the Newton Falls school system for 35 years, he said.

Tim Filipovich, the current board president, whose term expires in two more years, said the only thing that is important is to “focus on what’s important for the kids in the district.”

Filipovich said the school board is guided by Ohio law in financial matters, saying “managing the money is a small part of our responsibility.”

runyan@vindy.com