Parkland School District

1210 Springhouse Rd.

Allentown, PA 18104
Contact: Nicole McGalla, Director of Community Relations &
Development
Phone: (610)351-5630 Email: mcgallan@parklandsd.org

For Immediate Release: December 27, 2022

Parkland School District Will Meet January 3, 2023
to Fill School Board Vacancy

(Allentown) – On Tuesday, January 3, 2023, at 7 PM, the Parkland Board of School Directors will
hold a special public meeting at the Parkland Administration Center, 1210 Springhouse Rd.,
Allentown, PA 18104. The Board will meet with the intent to fill the School Board Director
vacancy that was left after Jarrett Coleman resigned in December. Mr. Coleman’s resignation
was publicly accepted and approved by the Parkland School Board on December 20, 2022.

At the special meeting on January 3, 2023, the School Board intends to appoint former School
Board Director Robert Bold to fill the vacancy. Mr. Bold does not intend to run for School Board
in 2023, when six Parkland School Board seats will be on the ballot for election.

Carol Facchiano, President of Parkland’s School Board, stated, “The plan is for Mr. Bold to serve
for the remainder of the year until the six School Board Directors are elected during the regular
election process in 2023. By doing this, the School Board stays nonpartisan and stands to benefit
from Mr. Bold’s knowledge as a result of his long and dedicated history on the Parkland School
Board. The Board encourages anyone eligible and interested in running for the Parkland School
Board in the upcoming election to do so by following the regular election procedure.”

About Robert Bold

Robert “Bob” Bold started serving on the Parkland Board of School Directors in December 1999
after retiring from a 30-year teaching career in the Allentown School District. During his tenure on
the Parkland School Board, Bob served as President of the Board 5 times and Vice President 3
times. He was on the Academics, Arts and Athletics Committee 6 times, the Building & Grounds
Committee 10 times (4 of them as the Chair) and the Personnel & Finance Committee 4 times (1
of them as the Chair). As President of the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit Board of Directors
from 2009-2019, Bob regularly reported on activities and priorities that served students with
special needs, always supporting equity endeavors. Bob is a true advocate for public education
and served as the Pennsylvania School Boards Association Legislative Liaison for Region 8 from
2007-2019. He served on the Lehigh Career & Technical Center’s Joint Operating Committee
from 2002-2019. In 2009, Bob was designated a Master School Board Director by the
Pennsylvania School Boards Association for demonstrating exceptional accomplishments in
attaining the goals of effective governance and meeting the needs of students for the 21st century
through educational excellence and equity of all students. In 2011, Bob helped form the Parkland
School District Education Foundation and continued to serve as the School Board Liaison to the
Education Foundation for 6 years. In 2018, the Parkland Education Association (Parkland
Teachers Union) honored him with its first Friend of Education Award for always putting children
first and supporting the administration and educators in the Parkland School District. In April
2021, Marie Maritch resigned from the School Board. At that time, it was determined that during
an election year, it made sense to let the election process play out without any endorsement of
potential candidates. Therefore, the Board decided to select Robert Bold, noting that he was not
going to run for elected office that year. With an appointment in 2023, Robert Bold would fill a
similar need for the Parkland School Board as he did in 2021.

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