{"id":49298,"date":"2021-10-29T09:10:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T13:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=49298"},"modified":"2021-10-29T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T13:10:21","slug":"letter-politicization-of-school-boards-should-concern-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=49298","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Politicization of school boards should concern everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"

To The Editor,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The rapid politicization of school boards should be of concern to all stakeholders. There are good and valid reasons that school board members should adopt a non-partisan stance in their duties.\u00a0 The only agenda a school board candidate should have is the continued educational progress of our students, the continued prudent use of taxpayer money and community resources, and the health and safety of the students and staff.\u00a0 These goals by their very nature are non-partisan, and school board members who sincerely adopt these goals are rarely partisan in their approach to achieving them.\u00a0 This does not mean that Directors do not disagree at times; but it does mean that they work with the district\u2019s administration towards a set of common goals in good faith.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Yet school boards across the country have become the front line of the partisan divide that presently plagues us. Three candidates for Director of the West Chester Area School District– Ms. Nestor, Ms. Whomsley and Ms. Edgarian\u2014are clear examples of this trend.\u00a0 All three of these candidates are supported by large political action committees and the local Republican party\u2014all of which are actively politicizing the election.\u00a0 Further, they actively and demonstrably engage in lies and distortions about public school board meetings and school district actions and policies.\u00a0 One need only visit their websites to see ample evidence of this fact.<\/p>\n

If elected, these three candidates have demonstrated through their words, their actions and their affiliations that they will disrupt, attack, and weaken an excellent school district.\u00a0 They have also publicly stated their intention to ignore state mandates\u2014thereby placing our district in legal jeopardy.\u00a0 \u00a0Further, they consistently question the intentions and diminish the experience and expertise of WCASD\u2019s talented teachers and administrators. Two of these candidates have removed their children from the district, yet they still wish to sit on the Board and undermine the foundation of our excellent school district.<\/p>\n

This cannot happen.\u00a0 We urge the WCASD voters to elect candidates, regardless of party, who are qualified, demonstrate a deep commitment to excellent public schools, and are capable of working constructively and respectfully with administrators, teachers, parents, and the community at large.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Susan Tiernan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daryl Durnell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karen Herrmann<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gary Bevilaqua<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kate Shaw<\/strong><\/p>\n

Randell Spackman<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor, The rapid politicization of school boards should be of concern to all stakeholders. There are good and valid reasons that school board members should adopt a non-partisan stance in their duties.\u00a0 The only agenda a school board candidate should have is the continued educational progress of our students, the continued prudent use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13623,7433,14158,5359],"class_list":["post-49298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-election-2021","tag-politics","tag-republican-party-of-chester-county","tag-west-chester-area-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49299,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49298\/revisions\/49299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}