OVERVIEW

• Portrait of Dysfunction: Examples of Disappointing Board Behavior
  
  

DETAILS ON KEY ISSUES

• Ignoring stakeholder survey results from 2024/25 School Year

• 2025-2026 budget negligence  

• Teachers issue vote of No Confidence in School Board Majority (May 2025)

• Extreme library book policy overhaul – 10 months wasted on a non-issue (2024-2025) 

• Refusal to sign ethics and good governance policy (2023-2025)

• Rejection (twice) of teachers' core text selection (2023-2025)

We've been tracking meetings regularly since the newest board members took office in December 2023 and reporting the biggest concerns in our email newsletter. Click on a meeting date to read the recaps.

 MEETING RECAPS: 2025 | 2024 | 2023

• 9/15/25: Board faces tough staff decisions due to deficit

• 8/25/25: Financial concerns and stakeholder survey

• 8/11/25: Board majority wastes everyone's time and deflects from stakeholder survey results

• 7/21/25: It's all about control: 9th grade ELA teachers again fall victim to Brussalis' opinion and false narratives

• 6/23/25: Board prepares to deal with budget issues they helped escalate • Brussalis email oops

• 6/9/25: Budget Vote: Financial Negligence

• 5/12/25: Board majority not acting as responsible stewards of district finance (because it's an election year?) 

• 4/21/25: Board prepares to dig a financial hole • The Bog Wife • PSBA representation concern

• 4/7/25: Budget-related changes • Cyber charter reform • Ethics issues 

• 3/17/25: Library policy passes • Finance • Students heckled by community member

• 2/24/25: Second read of policy 109.1. Board won't budge event after students call for compromise and head librarian shares her concerns during the public comment period.

• 2/10/25: First read of policy 109.1 after interlibrary loan amendment 

• 1/22/25: Board reviews their own governance and ethics policies

• 1/13/25: Board votes down teachers' request for Angel of Greenwood

• 1/9/25: Amending redlined book policy • Experts and students silenced, ignored, undermined

PR School Board In the News

2025

• AG: Wexford woman allegedly forged signatures to get candidate on the ballot in Pine-Richland School Board election. (WTAE) This and related stories below are not about a sitting school director, but they are relevant. The would-be candidate is an ally of Christina Brussalis and others in the board majority. 

• Woman charged with forging nomination paperwork for Pine-Richland School Board candidate (KDKA)

• Wexford woman accused of forging signatures to get Pine-Richland School Board candidate on ballot (WPXI) 

• Charges: Allegheny County Woman forged signatures to get Pine-Richland School Board candidate on the ballot (Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General)

• PA Election Fraud Case: Woman Facing Numerous Charges (Pine-Richland Patch)

• Pine-Richland administrators recommend tax increase as district faces $4.9 million deficit (Pine Creek Journal)

• Finances to be focus of 4 Pine-Richland School Board meetings as district faces $4.9M deficit  (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland School Board OKs budget with no tax increase over concerns of superintendent, residents (Pine Creek Journal)

• Letter to the Editor: No Challenge (Post Gazette)

• Letter to the Editor: Pine-Richland's Book Ban Sham (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland teachers' union issues "No Confidence" vote in the majority of district's school board (MSN)

• Pine-Richland teachers' union issues "No Confidence" vote in the majority of district's school board (CBS News)

• Pine-Richland teachers union issues no confidence vote of school board majority (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland moving forward with no property tax increase over superintendent's warnings (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland school board majority, administration differ on increasing property taxes (Pine Creek Journal)

• Podcast: Pine-Richland school board approves library policy in contentious vote (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland passes final read of controversial library policy, defining process to challenge books (Post-Gazette)

• Pine-Richland board gives itself final power of book selections at school library (Pine Creek Journal)

• Controversial policy on library resources passes at Pine-Richland School District (WTAE)

• Pine-Richland passes second read of controversial book policy (Post-Gazette) 

• Author of book rejected by Pine-Richland School Board draws large crowds during local visit (Pine Creek Journal)

• Angel of Greenwood: Pine-Richland students distribute book rejected for 9th grade curriculum (WTAE)

• Birmingham Author's Book Creating Controversy in Pittsburgh School System (Birmingham Times)

• Pine-Richland School Board takes next step in implementing controversial library policy (Pine Creek Journal) 

• Meet the Pine-Richland student fighting to keep access to books in her school (Post-Gazette) 

• Author of book rejected by Pine-Richland School board wants to visit district in late February (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland School Board rejects proposal that sought to punish members for not signing document (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland junior creates petition to oppose school board library policy (Pine Creek Journal)

• Author of book rejected by Pine-Richland School Board wants to visit district (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pennsylvania District Won’t Allow Novel Set During Tulsa Race Massacre into Curriculum (School Library Journal)

• Editorial: In Pine-Richland book wars, a lack of trust makes solutions impossible (Post-Gazette)

• Pine-Richland timeline: How the school district's controversial book policy has evolved (Post-Gazette)

• The Free App That Makes School Book Bans Pointless (Pittsburgh Magazine)

• Pine-Richland School Board rejects book during heated meeting (Pine Creek Journal)

• Pine-Richland School Board considers new library policy that would ban books (KDKA - CBS News) 

• Pine-Richland School Board meets to discuss what critics call potential book ban (WPXI)

• Pine-Richland School Board meeting on controversial book policy turns heated (Post-Gazette)

• Tempers flare during 7-hour Pine-Richland school board meeting over book policy (Pine Creek Journal)

2024

• Pine-Richland school board starts to review controversial book policy proposal (Post-Gazette)

• Florida May Provide a Window Into How Pennsylvania's New Right-Wing School Board Organization Might Operate. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania School Directors Coalition founder Christina Brussalis is tight-lipped about who's funding the organization, who's on the board, and whether they are working with the Independence Law Center. (Bucks County Beacon)

• A group to rival the Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA)? A conservative member has launched an alternative (Philadelphia Inquirer)
  Click here to read about the PSBA, the pro-public school organization that PR school director Christina Brussalis is fighting with her Moms for Liberty-inspired political organization.

• Books targeted to be removed will remain in Pine-Richland school libraries (Post-Gazette)

• Fighting Book Bans in Pennsylvania (The Humanist)

2023

• Pine-Richland voters elect school board members who support book ban (KDKA)

• Books targeted for banning by Western Pa. school board members are almost never checked out, analysis shows (Post-Gazette)

• Pine-Richland to reconsider school library policy after complaints about books (Pine Creek Journal)