Suzan Leonard Bio

My name is Suzan Leonard, a 24 year resident of Upper Gwynedd and a practicing attorney specializing in Family Law.  North Wales is where I have owned and operated my law practice for fourteen years in a charming house, built over 200 years ago.  My three sons attended North Penn School District where I was a parent volunteer, serving as Vice President of the North Wales Elementary Home and School Association and as Treasurer of the North Penn Coordinating Council.  As an active parent volunteer with North Penn Theatre I helped by serving dinner for 70-80 students, the parents and teachers involved with the shows  and also helped with the North Penn Music Program.  Part of this job also involved measuring  for gowns and tuxedo's for the choruses.

I am a member of the Montgomery Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association,  the Family Law Section of the Montgomery Bar Association, the North Wales Boro Business Association and the Montgomeryville NBI.  As a member of the North Wales Area Library Board, I helped complete a successful transition from a one room library in the basement of a school into a spacious learning and community center.  After successfully chairing the committees responsible for the Annual Library Gala and Annual Golf Outing two years in a row and despite retiring from the Board, I am continuing on as one of the chairpersons of the Fund Raising Committee.  I also serve as a Democratic Committee Person for Upper Gwynedd.

Busing Issues

The Reporter recently ran a story of major busing concerns with High School students.  The fact is, there are problems at all school levels.  The following is a copy of an email sent to our campaign from a frustrated and concerned parent.  An attempt was made by telephone and email, with no response from the district.

"Marianne Cleary,

I had left you a voicemail last week, but I have not yet heard back from you.  My wife and I would like to have a Penndale bus stop added to Church Road in North Wales.  We live on Church Rd., near Kneedler Rd.  The closest current bus stop is located on Church Rd, at the Pennbrooke Apts across from Becker Rd.  The location of the current stop seems inappropriate for the location of our house.

The current stop requires our daughter,  (12), to deal with too many unsafe options.  If she crosses Church Rd at Kneedler, she is crossing a busy road at rush hour with no cross walk, or crossing guard.  When she gets to the other side, she lands on private property with no sidewalk.  If she walks down our side of Church Rd, then crosses at Becker, she is walking the entire distance through residential yards, with no sidewalks.  She then has to cross Church Rd at an even less safe location.  If she walks down Kneedler and then down Becker, she is walking about twice as far, and again, she will have residential properties, with no sidewalks, a lot of on street parking and fast cut through traffic.

I don’t know how she is expected to make this walk twice a day, especially during, rain, snow, ice, etc.  Church Rd also has multiple SEPTA bus stops between our house and the current NP bus stop.  These SEPTA stops are usually occupied by people who I feel are unsafe.  Church Rd also gets a lot of adult foot traffic due to the SEPTA train station nearby.  Since we are on the corner of our neighborhood, we are not familiar with most of the families on Becker Rd.  We are completely unfamiliar with the people who live in the Pennbrooke Apts.  As far as I know, she is the only student from Kneedler/Becker that is attending Penndale.  She has no other student to walk with in a safer pair.  I, my wife and my daughter are not comfortable with the distance she has to walk, the conditions of the walk and the unfamiliar surroundings. 
Please add a stop on Church Rd, at Kneedler Rd, so she can wait on the corner of Church and Kneedler, and safely cross the street with the help of the school bus STOP sign.

I look forward to hearing from you."

A Busy Day For The Candidates

Candidates of the 1st S.T.E.P. campaign started off visiting and meeting community members in Towamencin Township this morning and afternoon.

Later, 1st S.T.E.P. was respresented at Bike Night in Lansdale.

The day concluded watching North Penn beat Lansdale Catholic 36-6.

It was great getting to meet so many people and have so many different conversations.

The Candidates of 1st S.T.E.P.

(from left to right) Alex Ryabin, Tina Stoll, Suzan Leonard, Carolyn Murphy, Paul Edelman.

School Board Meeting Cancelled/NPEA Clarification

The School Board work session scheduled for Tuesday has been cancelled.  This makes the second work session in 3 months cancelled.  The following committees have also cancelled their meetings in the last several months:

Education/Community/Policy        July and August
Finance                                     August
Support                                     May, June, July
Personnel and Safe Schools schedules are not posted

In spite of all of these cancellations, decisions were voted on at the Action Meetings, mostly without discussion or public information, mostly with unanimous votes.  ECP, Finance, and Support do not meet again before the next Action Meeting.  If you would like to know, how things are handled in the school district, without any discussion, come to the next Action Meeting to be held on Thursday, September 22nd.

Finally, 1st S.T.E.P. would like to provide this clarification: The NPEA recommendation of Tina Stoll was made to their membership. Tina went through their PACE questionaire and interview process. The other 1st Step Candidates went through this process in the spring.

School Board Work Session

The is a School Board work session, on Tuesday, September 13th, at 7:30, in the ESC. Questions that should be asked...


Why was there last minute "back door" redistricting? Affected families were given only two weeks notice their children would be shifted to other schools. This situation was known for at least 3 months.

Why were there so many problems with busing the first week of school when a consulting firm was hired and paid a lot of money to fix a system that was not broken?

A lot of taxpayer money was spent rennovating Crawford Stadium. When is it going to be able to be counted on for use reliably? Why hasn't the fallen light tower been replaced yet?

Is it true that Home and Schools, school staff and administrators are being directed to refuse invitations to meet candidates of the 1st S.T.E.P. campaign?

Tina Stoll Recommended By NPEA-PACE

The NPEA-PACE (Political Action Committee for Education) is pleased to announce the recommendation of Tina Stoll for North Penn School Board.  Tina was appointed by the North Penn Democratic Committee to replace Ashanur Rahman on the ticket after he withdrew from the race due to personal reasons.  Tina has been involved on many levels with the North Penn School District—she is the proud parent of three North Penn graduates, was active in the home and school associations at both Gwyn-Nor and Bridle Path, and served as President of the Twelfth Knight booster organization during the time that her sons played football for North Penn.  Tina appreciates all that North Penn has done for her family and shares our vision for the district’s continued success in the future.  We are pleased to recommend her candidacy along with the other four 1^st Step Candidates Carolyn Murphy, Suzan Leonard, Paul Edelman and Alex Ryabin.