Freeport Area School Board will have new faces soon; the question is: How many?

There will be at least two, and possibly three, new faces on the Freeport Area School Board after Tuesday’s election.

Three political newcomers, Greg Selinger, Ron Kobelenske and Adam Toncini, all of Buffalo Township, join three incumbents to make up the six candidate field.

Toncini is the only one who managed to secure both the Democratic and Republican ballot spots in the May primary election. Selinger is running as a Republican and Kobelenske as a Democrat.

Incumbents Melanie Bollinger, Frank Prazenica, both of Buffalo Township, and Michael Huth of South Buffalo all won both party nominations in the primary.

There are five seats up for grabs in this election. Two belong to longtime board members Barbara Toy-Gaydos and Frank Borrelli, who chose not to run for reelection.

Having children who are either in the district schools or will be attending them in the near future is something that Kobelenske, Toncini and Selingerl have in common. Bollinger is the only current board member who has children in the district.

All the candidates share the same priority: maintaining what they all see as a high quality educational program. At the same time nearly all said they don’t want raise taxes. .

Toncini, 36, is an accounting manager for Concordia Rebecca Residence. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

“The top two priorities in Freeport, I think, is maintaining the quality of education that we have balanced against the tax base,” Toncini said.

“Keeping the quality of the school district is a huge thing. Freeport is a wonderful school district and people say to maintain the quality you have to spend the money, but that isn’t necessarily true,” he said.

Selinger, 40, is the operations manager for Weleski Transfer in Tarentum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and sports from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

“The top priority I have for the district is to balance the budget without raising taxes,” he said. “Hopefully, I can help bring that a little more under control.”

He said from what he’s heard while attending board meetings, there may be some unnecessary spending that should be cut but he could not cite a specific example.

“I know at the end of this year our teachers contract is up. And however I can help and give some voice to the process, I’d like to,” Selinger said, adding that he wants to make sure the new contract is right for both the teachers and the taxpayers.

A facilities projects coordinator for Penn State University, Kobelenske said he studied architectural design and drafting at the Community College of Allegheny County but did not complete his degree. His wife, Rose, is employed as an elementary teacher in the district.

“My first priority is we are expanding as a community so much that I think we really need to pay attention to maintaining our high quality of education,” he said.

He said that he believes maintaining quality starts with the teachers, and says it’s not just because his wife is a Freeport Area teacher.

“I view our teachers as talent, and you have to attract the best talent to maintain the best education,” he said.

Another priority, Kobelenske said, is maintaining good support for students with physical and mental challenges.

“My 9-year-old daughter is autistic. And I know that Freeport’s autistic support program, if it is not the best it is one of the best in the area, and I really want to keep it that way,” Kobelenske said.

Prazenica, 72, is a retired school superintendent who is running for his fourth four-year board term. He holds a bachelor’s degree in education from IUP, a masters’ degree from Westminster College and a masters’ and doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. He is Freeport Area’s representative to and the current president of the Intermediate Unit board of directors.

He said the board and the administration work together but it’s the board’s job urge the administration to be as frugal as possible. Prazenica his urging for several years prompted the district to change banks it uses as its depository.

“That probably is bringing the district $20K more a year in revenue,” Prazenica said, due to better interest rates on deposits.

Prazenica also wants the board to do a better job at making everyone feel a part of the district’s success story.

A graduate of Clarion University, Bollinger, 48, is employed as a personal caregiver. She is completing her first term on the board.

“We want to maintain the high level of education that we give,” Bollinger said.

“I like our focus on what the kids are going to do once they are out of high school, making sure they are prepared whether it’s a vocation or going to college.”

Bollinger said the other priority is passing budgets that maintain educational quality yet also address other things like safety measures. At the same time, the state and federal governments give districts less.

Huth, 68, the third incumbent on the ballot, is a retired school business manager and former federal government employee. First elected in 1991, he is seeking his eighth straight term.

Although he also called for maintaining educational quality, it was not the first thing he mentioned.

“One of the priorities is to upgrade the high school,” Huth said. “… It opened in 1960 and it needs an updated electrical system, new heating and air conditioning system, and the gym needs to be updated.”

He said the school has to be able to handle the demands of advancing technology used in the education programs. Such a renovation program likely would be financed refinancing and new borrowing, since he said interest rates are dropping again.

Along with that, Huth said that schools are service oriented and “a lot of that comes from the teachers.” He said the district has good teachers and a priority of the board should be to give them the tools they need to help students advance, whether it be software or additional textbooks.