Delaware Valley School Board 2025

We are asking voters in the Delaware Valley School District to vote for ALL FOUR REPUBLICANS on the ballot. This is for our kids. Let’s unify to prevent a far-left Democrat from winning a seat on the School Board!

Dorit Smith running for Delaware Valley School Director

I am Dorit Smith, mother of 5 boys and grandmother of 5. I am running for school board out of love and concern for my family, and the families living within the Delaware Valley School District. Children are so vulnerable when they are young; they deserve a safe learning environment with a clear moral standard.

If elected, I will focus on creating a strong academic environment where emphasis is placed on learning English, Math, Science, and American History.

I come from Denmark, and from a young age I learned that America saved Denmark from Nazism in World War 2. My father always taught me to be grateful to America, and deeply loved this country.

Another priority of mine is to keep children safe. No more sharing of bathrooms or locker rooms, and no more biological boys in girls’ sports. I will continue to support DVSD in its efforts to prevent bullying of ALL STUDENTS.

We are a very frugal family and live according to what we can afford. We know how to save and many Pike County families are like us. But because of the increasingly high school taxes, lower income families are struggling and some are losing their family homes. It is also very hard for Seniors to afford school taxes. So I want to watch carefully how the money is being spent in the school.

Having worked in the school system for many years with disabled children, I understand and appreciate how the system works. As School Board Director, I will prioritize the well-being of our students and their families with a common sense, fiscally responsible perspective.

Dorit Smith, Millrift

Pam Lutfy running for Delaware Valley School Director

Currently, I am serving in my 30th year as a school board director for the Delaware Valley School District. It is with tremendous appreciation that I thank the community who has supported my public service throughout the years. Your votes, your attendance at various meetings, your calls, your emails, and personal conversations have allowed me to be an effective communicator regarding the many aspects of school board business. It is my hope that I may continue to be an active link between the public and the school district.

As an ardent supporter of public education, I will continue to focus on policies that ensure accountability for the district’s academic performance and financial stability. I will continue to advocate for equity across academic and extra-curricular programs for all students. Additionally, I will continue to encourage active discourse and the pursuit of subsidy funds, which address the increasing mental health challenges confronting students and their families across the district.

If re-elected to the board of education, I will continue my dedicated efforts as liaison in the areas of Special Education, Policy Maintenance, Curricula, and Legislation, and I will continue to represent the district as a member of the Colonial Intermediate Unit #20 Board of which I have served for 18 years.

My husband, sons, uncles, aunts , nieces, and nephews have graduated from the Delaware Valley School District. Our district is thriving as one of the best in the nation as a result of experienced collaboration between the board of education, Superintendent, and highly qualified staff.

My background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Speech and Language Therapy and a Masters in Education. I worked within the DVSD for 14 years prior to founding The Sunshine Station Early Learning Center in 1992 where presently I am a director and teacher.

Never has the role of a school board director been as important as present. The landscape of public education is changing daily. The Department of Education has been dismantled. Artificial Intelligence has infiltrated the educational system. Mental Health issues require exorbitant funding sources. Please support Pam Lutfy, Jessica Decker, and Felicia Sheehan so that we many continue our very important and dedicated focus in ensuring that every student is challenged to reach his or her fullest potential.

Thank you.

Pam Lutfy

Jessica Adler Decker running for Delaware Valley School Director

My name is Jessica Decker and I am running for re-election as a School Board Director for the Delaware Valley School District. I moved to Pike County in 2005 with my now husband Chris after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from The College of Saint Rose. While living here, I obtained my Master’s Degree from University of Scranton in Curriculum and Instruction. While we’ve lived in Dingman’s and Matamoras, and then we bought our forever home in Shohola where we’ve lived for 14 years with our two sons, who are now in ninth and 12th grades. 

If I had to tell you about myself in three words (ok 4), I would tell you I’m a mother, an educator, and community volunteer. I do everything I can to champion for children, both professionally and within Pike County as a volunteer. Both of my parents were volunteers for Girl Scouts, Youth Group, the PTA, coaching sports, the list goes on and on. So it was natural that those values that I grew up with were instilled in me. In addition to teaching pre-kindergarten, which I have done in Pike County for 20 years and which is my passion, I also coach youth soccer teams and help to run the behind the scenes work for the local soccer club helping almost 500 players get on the field every single Fall. I know firsthand that kids that are active in their schools and community are not the students who are expelled so if my time helps those students, both current and future, then I willingly give all that I have.

I’m proud of my and my fellow board member’s service to the community. I first ran because I believed that my background gave me the foundation to positively impact more children. Over the past twelve years I have advocated for:

• Keeping Schools open during covid with no mask mandate despite being personally sued in federal court along with other board members, ensuring that parents had the ultimate choice over what was best for their individual families.

• The Career and Technical Education expansion, providing a much needed revamp to the old facilities and adding a program to reinstate important Perkins funding that had been lost which adds essential equipment grants to the CTE programs.

• Construction of the Delaware Valley Elementary School which was controversial at the time. However, after thoroughly researching the issues, the data supported maintaining seven schools in the district.

• Worked with other board members and administration to Increase transparency for parents and the community by adding all curricula to the school district website; I was a member of the curriculum committee (twice- both before I was a board member and after being elected) when we created a better, more thorough process to review textbooks. The second, and most recent time, we added more feedback from the community and parents and helped create a timeline that gave board members more opportunity to review the textbooks and curricula before approval. Now, all potential textbook purchases and lists of curricula up for revision are added to the district website in the Fall before being approved in late Spring/early Summer. New textbooks are in the public libraries 30 days before they are approved, allowing anyone the opportunity to review them and provide feedback.

• We have advocated for the district both at the state and federal level, meeting with our legislators to ensure they know about important issues that face our district. We push for Cyber Charter reform, knowing that we spend over 2 million dollars a year for outside cyber schools. Just to give you a small taste of what your hard-earned money goes to- Commonweath Charter Academy, otherwise known as CCA that you see advertised at hockey games and other arenas- their state testing showed that 11 percent of their students are proficient or advanced in English Language Arts and just 4.7% percent of students are proficient in Math. We must pay for any outside cyber charter school that a student chooses and pay almost $17,000 per regular education student and over $33,000 per special education student.

• Which leads me to the budget. For perspective, cyber charter reform would result in a 4% tax DECREASE. Over the past 12 years, we had no tax increase for 6 years. The other years, I offered suggestions to reduce expenditures that I felt could reduce the tax impact on the community had they been supported, when they were not, I voted against tax increases 3 other times. The very first vote I had on the board was no to the budget because there was over a 2 million dollar surplus yet taxes were increased by 2.3%. I’ve spent years diving through the budget, reducing unnecessary line items to save the taxpayers money (such as eliminating the $10,000 for PSSA snacks and motivation). We have balanced the needs of students with their resulting tax burden to the community without cuts to essential programs and with no layoffs.

Being a school board director, like any elected position is not easy but it is important work. There is not a vote that we make that is not researched and carefully considered to ensure that it’s in the best interest of students while balancing what that looks like to the taxpayer. We don’t take lightly the economic impact on all of you, but we also know how much a high performing and desired school district is a benefit to the community. If you don’t believe so, I urge you to visit other areas and see what a failing school can do to its community. I have been proud to serve the community in my role as a school board director. As we navigate what public education will look like with major changes at the federal level that will increase control at the state and local level, I believe it is more important than ever to have people with experience on the board.

Felicia Sheehan running for Delaware Valley School Director