How Pennsylvania’s New Right-Wing School Board Organization Might Operate
From Bucks County Beacon
My newest piece at the (paywall free) Bucks County Beacon looks at the plan to start a new school board association for conservative board members, starting with how things worked out for a similar group in Florida.
Chris Brussalis envisions a similar group for Pennsylvania.
Brussalis is a school board member in Pine-Richland schools, a mid-sized district located in the suburbs north of Pittsburgh. The median household income is $171,804. 85% of the students are White; 7.3% are eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Brussalis was a consultant who “spent almost two decades helping organizations identify strategic opportunities and align resources to achieve goals” as well as doing PR work for two secretaries of defense and a congressional representative. In other words, like the founders of Moms for Liberty, she’s an experienced comms professional. Her most recent gig was with the Hill Group, where she worked with her husband, Chris Brussalis (current president of Point Park College).
Brussalis was elected in 2021 as part of a conservative slate that, as reported by WESA, received $10,000 from Bucks County conservative Paul Martino. As detailed by Maddie Hanna at the Philadelphia Inquirer, this was part of Martino’s effort to “stop the liberal left” and fight those “indoctrinating our children.”
While serving on the board, Brussalis was part of the group that killed a proposed diversity, equity and inclusion program. Brussalis said she “couldn’t move past that (equity) words,” according to Colin Williams for PINJ news. The district was the site of several book challenges (though a level-headed response by Superintendent Brian Miller seems to have settled that favorably).
If that seems like a board that could use the services of the Independence Law Center, the legal arm of the Pennsylvania Family Council that serves as a go-to group for boards that want to implement repressive policies—well, Brussalis apparently has that number available to her.
At the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, a gathering for conservative activists, she was on a panel about empowering parents and students. The panel’s moderator was Michael Geer, the founder, president, and CEO of PFI. Geer started out as a journalist, including almost a decade as senior news producer at WPXI in Pittsburgh. Geer is a regular voice in conservative meetings, church gatherings, and media coverage. He’s opposed to legalization of marijuana, women’s health care options, non-traditional marriage, and freedom to read for students.
Also on the panel was Kenneth Stracuzzi, leader of Hope for PA, a Bucks County conservative activist group. Among their notable moments was an invitation for “talented clappers” to attend a Pennridge district meeting to support Jordan Adams’ proposed conservative curriculum. Stracuzzi is also a “strategic advisor” to PFI. At one point, Geer references “recent conversations” that he’s had with Brussalis.
“We need more conservative voices serving on our school boards,” she told the audience.