Russ Larson — Perkiomen Valley School District
This installment of our series of interviews with school director candidates across Pennsylvania brings us to the Perkiomen Valley School District.
Russ Larson is running for school director in the Perkiomen Valley School District, located in Montgomery County. He is a registered Republican and has resided in Skippack since 2001 with his family.
Why are you running for school board?
I’d like to bring a community centered point of view to the school board by providing a conduit for expressing two sides to issues and challenges of our school district. The approach I’ve taken in my personal career and my children’s upbringing has always been “outcomes” centered, and I think that positions me as a leader who considers the viewpoints and insights from anyone. In this regard I don’t look for partisan alignment to my own views, but rather any thoughts and ideas that could provide the best outcome for a majority of students, while balancing the needs of taxpayers. After all, the continuity of our community depends on the success of children as they grow into adults.
What are the most important issues facing your district?
The top two issues facing the district are disproportionate, crushing property taxes, coupled with undesirable descending academic performance over the long term.
Our community is one of the highest taxed school districts in Montgomery County and in Pennsylvania. Previous boards have taken a “let’s try everything approach” by raising taxes beyond the CPI index, without really assessing over the long term if the expenditures we keep adding to the budget are helping students — they are not.
Deeply tied to our tax burden, the academic performance of our students has worryingly declined under previous board representation. Perkiomen Valley School District ranked 9th in the state in 2018 (US News & World Report), fell to 47th in 2024, and ranked 50th in the most recent US News & World Report for school districts in Pennsylvania. Some community members currently running for Perkiomen Valley school board have actually touted our 50th place ranking as a trophy to their partisan-aligned success! Falling from 9th to 50th is not an indicator of a student-focused approach to board priorities.
What is your professional background/experience? What skills would you bring to the board?
I’ve worked in healthcare for more than 30 years with a focus on customer/patient experiences and outcomes. I wrote an article on “financial essentialism” (based on the book by Greg McKeown) and how this can be applied in our school district to reduce our tax burden while improving student outcomes. This approach prioritizes new ideas based on the potential outcomes those ideas will have on students, against a “trade-off” approach to funding those ideas. For example, look for outdated programs that are lingering (and costing the district money) that no longer provide relevant improvements to academic outcomes, in order to fund new ideas. With this approach, you’re pausing to ask what really matters. You’re choosing carefully in order to get great results. This avoids raising taxes when trying new ideas. This approach also helps the board, the administration, and the teachers feel more in control, less reacting to what is pressing every moment that causes us to execute without planning, and gets the right things done! That’s student-centric.
Have you run for political office previously? Have you been politically active?
I ran for school board director in 2023, and I regularly attend my local (Skippack) committee meetings to hear what’s important to the community on all matters.
Are you running with other candidates?
Yes, I’m running with Don Fountain, Rowan Keenan, and Jason Saylor and our collective brand is Thrive4PV. Don, Rowan and Jason bring several years of previous school board experience via fiscally responsible and student-centric attitudes.
What is the most important role of the school board in your opinion?
The most important role of the school board is to curate and set the prioritization of student programs that maximize academic achievement, community spirit, and position children to become thriving members of our community and our nation. In this role, the school board balances taxpayer interests with the mission of maximizing the fundamental education of our district’s children and creating opportunities for upward mobility of all students.
Please list any campaign websites and social media sites.
We contacted the Democratic and Republican committees in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Montgomery counties and asked them to share the questions with their school director candidates. Broad + Liberty will post the responses throughout the summer to assist voters in learning about the candidates running in their district. The series is open to any school director on the ballot in November. Please contact barosica@broadandliberty.com for more information.
