School Board President Continues To Help Students

Gatsby sits on his log, soaking up the rays from the heat lamp and pokes his small, reptilian head out of his tank.

“What do you think Gatsby?” Marilyn Messina asks.

The red-eared slider looks content on the log and stares lazily around the room.  

The turtle, along with six cats, actually belong to one of Messina’s four daughters. But after the girls grew up and moved out, the animals stayed behind. Messina, 64, is glad to have them.

“I always talk to my animals,” she said. “It’s a source of comfort for me.”

At times, Messina might envy Gatsby’s relatively easy life enjoying his 55-gallon tank over her duties on the Woodland Hills School Board. For the past 23 years, Messina has served on the school board and she is starting her fourth year as president.

She also is running in the upcoming primary election to hold onto her spot on the school board May 17.

And throughout this time, she has voted on several tough issues, including teacher contracts, the addition of Woodland Hills Academy and the decision to build a new football stadium. During her first year as president, she watched the superintendent and 13 other administrators leave the school, including the deputy superintendent and the high school principal.

Messina moved to Edgewood in 1984 from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia with her husband, Pete, who served as the Edgewood Police Chief for 17 years. She made the decision to run for school board because she wanted to help the students.

Recently, Messina voted Jan. 19 to keep the within the school district to the applause of BCMC students, faculty and parents.  

“Sometimes a vote impacts too many people and I really feel that some of those kids at BCMC don’t have a lot of feel good days, and this was good for them,” she said. “I didn’t do it for anybody to congratulate me; I want the kids to do well.”

And although other members of the board do not always agree with each other — the vote for BCMC was split five to three — they have accomplished a lot over the past few years, including an administration change and the opening of Woodland Hills Academy in 2009.

“Even though we have our differences, I think the board should be proud of ourselves,” she said. “It was a lot of hours and a lot of work, but we’ve come a long way.”

Board member Robert Tomasic also is entering his 24th year on the board. He has had his disagreements with Messina over the years, but he said she does not let the squabbles affect their personal life.

“She always says hi to me before the meeting,” he said. “I haven’t talked to other members of the board in years.”

But if anything good comes from their arguments, Tomasic said, it is publicity. Three years ago, the school began recording the board meetings and broadcasting them on television. Now, some people watch the meetings just to see what Tomasic and Messina might disagree on next.

“She and I can take credit for getting more people interested in the school board,” he said.

One big issue four years ago, Tomasic said, was spending $8.5 million on a football stadium. He said spending the money for 10 or 15 students to have a better chance at a college scholarship did not benefit the greatest number of people.

“The locker rooms are better than some school buildings,” he said.

At first, he said, Messina agreed with him, but when she became president her role changed and she started to see the issue differently. But Messina said she never votes blind and gets all of the facts before voting on anything. She said she has learned that the whole story is not always on one piece of paper.

And she also knows what it is like to teach, being a teacher herself for 32 years. After a brief stint as a radio broadcaster, Messina said she felt her calling was to teach.

“Teaching is what I was supposed to do,” she said.

She retired last year from the Penn Hills School District, where she worked at the Shenandoah Elementary School before it closed in 2008. She also taught at the St. James School in Wilkinsburg, the and at Sandy Run Elementary School outside of Philadelphia.

Having a school board member with a long background of teaching is beneficial, said Barbara Wieser, who was a teacher at Woodland Hills for 35 years and was president of the Teacher’s Association for more than 20 years.

“Marilyn being a teacher and going through the same problems in another school … her perception of what was going on and the reality of what was going on were not different,” she said. “She was dealing with it from our view.”

Wieser said Messina was always in and out of buildings and always approachable. Being president of the teachers union, Wieser met with the board every year to discuss any changes the teachers wanted or concerns they had.  

“She is the type of board member that puts the priority of education first,” she said.

But over the years, the votes and the inevitable arguments, Messina hopes her constituents, the faculty and the students know that she is proud to be a school director. She said she has worked to put good systems in place for the benefit of the students.

“What you always hope for is the goal that the system will work on its own,” she said. “If the system is only as good as the school directors there … then the system isn’t good. The systems have to be good, and the board is there to support it."