Shawn Ratti

My name is Shawn Ratti, I have been a current resident of Morrisville for over ten years, plus several more years prior.

One thing I like people to know about me right out of the gate is that I actually chose to come to Morrisville as a high school student. After having been in several other school districts in Bucks County while growing up and moving around, I never felt a true connection to a place or community before. After having spent a summer in town in 2002, I came to the realization that this was the kind of place I wanted to be, because there was something special about Morrisville and the people here. As a result, I left a stable household for a more challenging one, just for the opportunity to live here and be a part of the school. 

I have always been proud to call myself a Morrisville alumnus, that I bleed blue and gold, and to ensure that anywhere I went, people knew where I was from. It didn’t matter if they never heard of Morrisville before, they knew by the time I was done. And my time at the school led to working on many community events, from doing projects with the school, Morrisville 200, being a student representative on the school board, to the inaugural years of Youth in Government to learn about elections and local politics. A passion for learning about people developed from my work with others, leading me to earn degrees in both Humanities and Cultural Anthropology. This gave me an objective perspective to learn how to best understand others, by working with various communities, not against them.

My wife Jamie, a lifelong Morrisville resident, and I moved back to town when we got married to be closer to both family and the community, having many ties to this place we call home. I have been a member and part of the Compass Fellowship Baptist Church (previously First Baptist) community for over the last fifteen years. That has given me the opportunity to get involved in many town events, from parades and community clean ups, to the Solid Rock Youth Center, and even running sound equipment for Winterfest concerts for all these years. I also volunteer my time to run, build, and manage the Tech Team for the church, which allows me to mentor and train teenagers in town to provide them with new skills and a sense of selfless volunteering to help others, not just for profit. Jamie and I’s favorite contribution to the town is our work running Mega Sports Camp for over a decade, a week-long free summer sports camp at Williamson Park open to younger kids with a focus on positive, inspiring messages, outdoor activities, and sportsmanship.

As a teacher in the Morrisville School District and the Bucks IU FabLab, I have an invested interest in the schools, education, and well-being of Morrisville’s children. My wife and I work with students across multiple ages, myself in our elementary schools and her in our high school, as well as their families to help provide for the needs of each student. Having both graduated from Morrisville, we believe in the importance of not only education, but helping to set our students up for the future, to achieve goals they otherwise might not believe they could when coming from a small community like ours. It was the personal effort of the teachers in my education here that helped inspire me to reach new heights, and I aspire to do the same for the next generation. While the Borough Council doesn’t directly involve itself in matters of the school, I believe in a working relationship between our local leadership and the school board to create more opportunities in town for student growth and family support, and that the community still has a responsibility to provide resources and programs to enhance our children’s learning experience to achieve success.

My goal as a councilman is to bring back public involvement and transparency to our local government. I want to see the enhancement of our existing parks and public spaces, as well as the expansion of new events, with community members reaching out to create new ideas and activities in our community, both great and small, with the support of local officials. I truly believe that small towns like ours can only thrive with the involvement and inclusion of every member of a community, regardless of social or political background. I also believe a lack of transparency only further ostracizes a community, breeding distrust and a loss of faith in the goals to improve our home. As a trained researcher, I believe in the importance of empirical data, gathering as much information as possible, considering the various options available, and taking all those impacted into consideration when making the best decision possible to help the most people. I know that no one side will always have the solution to every problem, so my success will also depend on my ability to listen to the ideas, lessons, and experience of others, not just my own.

Looking back, I can trace all the best things I have in my life today to that decision to come to Morrisville years ago. Everything from the education experience I received, the opportunities to prove myself by standing out in a small school district, the teachers and mentors I cultivated relationships with that remain to this day, my work in business and management up until my teaching career now, and even to meeting my incredible wife. Morrisville has given me the best parts of my life, something I don’t believe any other town could have, so I am determined to give back to it in return. 

Contact Information:
Email: Ratti6@aol.com
Phone: 267-693-7635