Waste of the Day: School Officials Claim Safari Was “Professional Development”

Topline: Regina Speaker and Sandra Edling, directors of the county office managing schools in Montgomery, Penn., recently took the trip of a lifetime: a 14-day African safari with zebras, elephants and more.

An African safari, as professional development? (Do they take us for April Fools?)

Taxpayers footed the entire $18,000 bill in the name of “professional development,” according to records obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

When asked how the safari was related to her job, Speaker told the Inquirer, “Everything was through the lens of leadership. It was about that process of survival of the fittest, and how are you a leader, and what do you prioritize.”

Key facts: Speaker and Edling are executive directors at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, one of the local agencies that govern Pennsylvania schools in place of superintendents’ offices.

Their safari to Kenya and Tanzania in 2023 was sponsored by The School Superintendents Commission, but several other attendees paid for their own expenses, according to the Inquirer.

Speaker and Edling likely could have paid their own way as well. Speaker made $298,000 in 2025, the 15th-highest salary of any education employee in Pennsylvania, according to records from the state Department of Education. Edling made $226,395.

The average full-time classroom teacher in Montgomery County makes $93,748, payroll records show.

Speaker also spent $13,000 to attend a leadership conference in Singapore and South Korea for 11 days last April. She told the Inquirer all her trips were “clearly communicated” and approved by the local school board. 

Now, wait a minute!

But Jennifer Wilson, who was a board member at the time, said she never knew about the trips and would not have approved them. And one of the receipts for the South Korea trip was never signed by the board, according to the Inquirer.

Juliane Ramić, treasurer of the school board, told the Inquirer she and her colleagues never learned proper oversight rules. “There is no onboarding or training for serving on an intermediate unit board,” she said. “There is no guidance. There are gaps there.”

Edling also planned to spend $7,000 on a 10-day trip to Germany, Switzerland and Austria last October, which Speaker said was to “bring her up to speed on the leadership component” of running a school district. A brochure reviewed by the Inquirer said the trip would include waltz lessons, an underground train ride to an ancient salt mine and dinner in the Swiss Alps. The trip was canceled due to budget constraints.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Summary: It’s possible Montgomery County’s school officials developed new leadership skills by traveling the world, but budget management was clearly not one of them.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.