Two board members had resigned since November election
The North Penn School Board will head into 2026 with two more new members.
Residents Mark Teoh and Dan Bell were both appointed to fill vacant seats on the board Wednesday night, topping a long list of candidates to become the fourth and fifth members to join the board this month.
Bell is a former Towamencin Township supervisors, and Teoh's wife, Meg Currie Teoh, sits on Lansdale Borough Council as the current vice president.
“Thank you to everybody who volunteered to step up and serve their community. It is a volunteer position, and these folks really stepped up,” said Superintendent Todd Bauer.
November brought two rounds of changes to the board, as newcomers Koh Chiba, Christine Coyne and Ken Keiser all won by large margins at the polls against their Republican opponents to take the seats that had been filled by outgoing board members Tina Stoll, Christian Fusco and Jonathan Kassa. Later that month, then-board President Cathy McMurtrie abruptly announced her resignation during the board’s Nov. 20 meeting, and on Dec. 1 the three newly elected members were seated, then Bauer announced that board member Elisha Gee had resigned a seat she had held since March 2018.
After the second resignation, new board President Juliane Ramic announced that both vacancies would be filled during a special meeting on Dec. 17. Ramic kicked off the appointment process Wednesday by outlining the board’s call for applicants, and recalling how she was grilled and appointed in a similar meeting at the start of 2018.
“We were just so incredibly thrilled to have 16 members of our community step up,” Ramic said.
Each candidate was asked to submit bio info and statements of financial disclosures, then contacted for phone interviews, and that info shared among the rest of the board, Ramic said.
“Every school board director has had a chance to review those notes from those calls, the resumes, the letters of interest, and with that we identified five candidates we were bringing forward for interviews and consideration.”
Of those five, one withdrew after the meeting agenda was posted: Concetta Lupo, an educator and administrator in the nearby Wissahickon School District, had applied for the same vacancy that Ramic ultimately filled in 2018, but withdrew from consideration before the meeting.
“We had many options, and many roads to choose, in how to do this, and we have neighboring districts that have recently had to do the same. We really did try to make this as open and transparent as possible,” Ramic said.
Teoh, Bell, Jojo Dalwadi and Mohammad Polash were sequestered as each spoke to the board and were asked to answer the same questions asking about their background, the strengths and weaknesses they see in the district, and how they would work with others.
Candidates introduce themselves
First to take the podium was Teoh, who told the board he’s a parent of second- and fourth-graders at Knapp Elementary School, member of Knapp’s home and school association, trustee of the district’s Educational Foundation, and a high school history teacher and administrator in school districts in Boston and Seattle, with two decades of experience in education.
“Throughout my work, often in complex fiscal and policy contexts, I have seen firsthand how districts function, and the distinct role school boards play. I believe effective boards govern rather than manage, holding the superintendent and administration accountable for results while respecting roles, and avoiding micromanagement, so staff can do their work well,” he said.
Strengths he sees in the district include staff, and how they interact with students like his children: “Their teachers know who they are, know what their strengths are, and know what they need to do to advance academically, as well as to improve their belonging, and the inclusivity of the entire school culture.” Challenges include budgets, with “considerable financial and fiscal issues” at local, state and federal levels, and weaknesses Teoh said he sees include some aging facilities and systems that need “constant renovation.”
“My children have benefited from a renovated Knapp Elementary, and as my son walked into under-renovation Knapp Elementary, to a newly renovated Knapp that I get to see on a regular basis, what a difference a physical plant makes. How do you balance (budgets) against the physical plant that are also important? These are the decisions that will come before the board, and superintendent and staff, and they’re not easy,” Teoh said.
Bell then described his background as a parent of three daughters who have attended Walton Farm Elementary, Pennfield Middle and now North Penn High School, and he’s currently head of finance for a Philadelphia school system with roughly 14,000 students and a $400 million budget.
“My excitement for joining this board is as a career educator, with a background as a teacher, as a school leader, and a central office administrator, responsible for operations, school safety, construction, financial management, and talent,” he said. “My goal in this role is to serve as an educator, with a commitment for ensuring the success of all students, from every background, need, and diverse perspective.”
Bell added that he’s seen “the outstanding work” done by teachers through his three girls, and their challenges: “Special education is an incredibly challenging aspect of the work, especially coming back out of the pandemic. It’s never been more challenging, and looks very different than when I was in the classroom a long time ago.” What topics inspired Bell to apply? “I’m a big education nerd, and I enjoy all of it,” and in a prior role he managed facility upgrade and improvements for his school system, similar to what his children are now seeing at NPHS as renovations are underway: “My daughter is very excited that K-pod is looking the way it is.”
And when asked when he has served on or with a committee, Bell cited his stint in 2020-21 as a Towamencin supervisor: “That was an interesting learning experience during a pandemic, to figure out how you navigate” similar challenges.
Dalwadi told the board he’d also bring a new perspective: as a 2021 graduate of NPHS, he’s walked the halls recently, while growing up in an immigrant household: “Home was not always a place of consistency for me, but school was. In a way, school became its own form of community for me. It was a place where I learned how to show up, how to work hard, and how to move forward.”
“I want to help ensure that every student, regardless of background, home life or circumstance, feels the same sense of belonging, encouragement and opportunity that this district gave me,” Dalwadi said.
Since graduating, Dalwadi said, he’s worked as a constituent service advisor for state Rep. Steve Malagari, helping troubleshoot issues across the district, and is currently executive director of the PA Legislative Assembly’s Asian Pacific American caucus, working “right here in our community” with residents in the district and lawmakers across the state on key issues: “I would bring a perspective that’s never been here before: a perspective of a recent student, one that brings diversity of age, background, and lived experience.”
The greatest strength of the district? “Students have the ability to chart their own path. My journey through elementary and middle school wasn’t always the cleanest,” but after arriving at the high school, “I noticed the stark contrast in opportunities that were readily available to me, that my friends who I grew up with, who went to other school districts, didn’t have,” with students and staff of widely varied backgrounds.
His interest in applying was piqued by recent adoption of policies letting students at the high school take college courses: “Growing up, as an Asian American within the school district, I was often not seeing people who look like me, and people who came from backgrounds like me, in my history classrooms. I don’t think that’s the fault of the district or a board, but it’s a place of improvement…as I grew up, I started to recognize that assimilating isn’t fitting in to any sort of system, it’s about embracing who you are. And that’s why it’s important to have a curriculum that not only embodies the student body, but represents the student body as well.”
Polash told the board that he’s a software engineer with more than two decades in that industry, plus the main coordinator for a Bangladeshi cultural festival held every June in Hatfield that draws thousands of visitors each year. “Besides that, I am the proud father of a North Penn High School graduate,” Polash added, whose son is now pursing his own degree in computer engineering.
“I have plenty of time for the community, and so far what I was doing was only for a small community, so now I have an opportunity to work for a bigger platform like North Penn School District,” he said.
Strengths of the district include the diversity of the county and the local area, Polash told the board, and weaknesses include “communication with the parents…I think that there is a communication gap, and if we could unite all the stakeholders to have a dialog, in a common platform, that would make our school district better.”
Vote breakdown
After several board members thanked the candidates for applying, came the nominations and formal votes. First on the agenda was a motion to fill the seat that had been held by McMurtrie, and board member Kunbi Rudnick nominated Bell for that seat, Chiba nominated Teoh, and Dalwadi and Polash were not nominated.
During the first roll call vote, four of the seven members cast their votes for Teoh, with Rudnick and fellow board members Tim MacBain and Al Roesch voting for Bell.
“The outcome is four votes for Mr. Teoh to three for Mr. Bell. With that, Mr. Teoh has been appointed to the vacancy,” said solicitor Kyle Somers, prompting a round of applause from the board and congratulations from Ramic.
For the second seat, MacBain then nominated Bell, Chiba nominated Dalwadi, and Chiba and Coyne cast the only votes for the former student, with the remaining five votes going to Bell.
After a second round of applause, Bauer announced that the incoming members will likely be sworn in by a judge in a private ceremony next week so families can attend, and Ramic said she hopes the other applicants stay involved.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 6 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2026 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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