I would like to introduce myself and ask for your vote in the 2015 School Director election.My name is Albert C. Leach, as I stated above, I will be asking for your vote in the upcoming School Director election. However, I thought you would need to learn a little about myself and why I would make a good School Director for our district. To make a good board member one must demonstrate a great many things: patience, good communication skills, ability to listen and understand many different views, ability to work in a group environment, vision to the future, being able to multi-task and MOST importantly to be able to put the School District students, parents, teachers, and other employees needs and wants in front of your own. For myself, I have demonstrated these skills in a variety of ways over my time in Pottsgrove. I would have you look at my personal and professional experiences, volunteering positions and commitment to Pottsgrove.

I moved to Pottsgrove in 2001 when my wife and I purchased our first house since becoming married in 1996. I have two children (twin boys age 17) and they have received a very good education with Pottsgrove School District that they can be proud of. Currently, they are attending Pottsgrove High School and ranked in the top 10% of the junior class. I am very proud to say they have done extremely well due to many different factors including: my wifes and my involvement, wonderful teachers, and their own passion to strive for the best. They are very involved in the school with sports (soccer (7-9th) and tennis (9th-11th), as well as, clubs (ACE (10th), quiz bowl (10-11th), mathletes (10-11th), and the national honors society (10-11th)). We as a family believe that you must truly be part of the community you live in.

I have been, of the opinion that anytime I offer to help the community it is well rewarding. From 2004 up till 2012, I was a volunteer coach for my sons sport teams. To me, athletics plays such a large role in helping a person become part of the community. Be it by coaching, assisting in the snack stand or helping drive many other children to any game their parents couldnt attend. Even sitting on the sidelines or stands cheering plays an important role in building a community. Some of the most rewarding moments of my time in Pottsgrove have been on the baseball field showing a young child how to properly catch a grounder or slide into second base.

Starting in the Fall of 2014, I became the President of the Pottsgrove Booster Club. The Booster Clubs main responsibility is throwing the awards banquet given to our seniors involved in athletics. However, we do a lot more than this. We help to support all athletics and sport clubs involved in the high school.

This year our goal is to offer every senior playing in athletics the ability to afford, along with two guests, attending the award banquet. I am well on my way to achieving this goal as our fundraising has increased by almost 25% more than in previous years. This is mainly due to our new designed spirit wear. Our spirit wear designs have been mostly created by some of our students and the help of community members. Also, we have secured Dr. Zieglers commitment to make sure each and every senior student athlete has the ability to attend the awards banquet by providing free transportation for any family needing.

During my time living in Pottsgrove, I moved my business (currently own a multi-million multi-location insurance agency) up into Reading PA with second location office in Limerick PA and our third location in Malvern PA. My goal has been to find a future location in Pottsgrove, but to this date Allstate has not allowed this with the current amount of agents located in the vicinity of Pottstown. My experience owning my own business has taught me a great deal of things. From marketing, managing people, sales, administration, promotion, patience, persistence, how to be creative, to have a thick skin and showing consistency is just part of the skills any business owner must have.

My offices total over 9 Million in gross sales while serving over 5000 people. I have been selected by Allstate as one of the top Agents in the Northeast multiple years. I have also served on the State Advisory Board for the max service time of four years, as well as, four years on the Regional Advisory Board (responsible for over 3000 agents covering 6 states in the northeastern US). Only the top 1% of agents in the country will be offered the opportunity to apply for either board. I was selected by my territory and regional leaders to represent our State and our Region.

Both boards were in charge of bringing issues agents had at either the state or regional level and to help guide Allstate in technology advancements, agent involvement, and growing its public perception. I feel that serving my time on both advisory boards has given me a perspective not necessarily awarded to those that havent had that type of experience.

Lastly, a good board member must be able to demonstrate his/her commitment to help the School prosper for many years to come. I have a great stake in this. One, being my children currently attends Pottsgrove High School. Two, my sisters younger children will be in the school district for years to come. Third, the community I love, and the people I adore, will look for the best possible education offered to our current and future students.

In the fall of 2013, I was the individual who lead the push for our school district to move toward incorporating a 10-point grade scale. The new scale was voted to be implemented starting in the fall 2015 in our school district. I spent well over 6 months researching every aspect, the benefits, the possible concerns and the entire impact changing our grade scale could have on our students. I was very pleased to see the community support and after some great discussions both the school board and administration agreed with the overall findings that moving to a 10-point scale was in the best interests of our students.

This fall I went again in front of the board to argue we need to make sure our 7th grade students are not falling behind and are ready for algebra 1 by 8th grade. Our district was moving toward having only a smaller accelerated class of students taking algebra 1 before 9th grade, while the remainder (approximately 80%) would wait till 9th grade. I argued that this could lead to many AP classes not having the proper feeder programs needed to sustain availability and/or have many students college applications weakened due to not completing the more rigorous classes. I also explained that other subjects like science are also affected when the proper prerequisite math course is not taken.

The district has promised to make sure that ANY student showing the ability to take algebra 1 by 8th grade will get that opportunity.

My experiences since moving to Pottsgrove have grown me not only professionally, but personally as well. During my 13 years living and working in Pottsgrove, I have enjoyed a wonderful life experience seeing my boys flourish to become outstanding and responsible young men. I have enjoyed seeing my neighbors become lifelong friends. And, I look forward to the future of what Pottsgrove will become.

I believe in our Pottsgrove Community! Our district has an incredible group of well educated and committed teacher base. Our students will one day be the leaders in our community and in many other communities around the country because of the teachings they learn here in Pottsgrove. Our students will be our legacy and we will be PROUD.

Working together will be one of my goals as a School Director. The people voted to be School Directors must learn to work together toward the goal: preparation of our young men and women to become our future leaders, entrepreneurs, neighbors, respected citizens and learn to never accept anything but the best for them and their families. We must teach our students to TRULY strive for excellence.

If elected as a School Director I will represent our stakeholders in the community. I will make sure any tax increase is only done as a necessity and not taken lightly. I will find ways to keep our budget stable and within check. I will be able to answer to our community members and the school district employees any questions they may have. I will be the leader that our voters expect and deserve.

Therefore, I respectfully offer myself, my skill sets and my vision to run for School Director in 2015. I will make the important policy decisions necessary to continue its flight to excellence. I am well-positioned to understand the practical impact those decisions will have. Moreover, the Districts importance in our community to building the future we all want to see and will love.