Letter: Vote for nonpartisan board

School board races are supposed to be nonpartisan. Nonpartisan means you respect freedom of thought, speech, religion, etc., for all. You allow books to be read, opinions to be proffered and questions to be asked, then trust teachers and parents to guide kids in thinking about the ideas presented. Nonpartisan is not proudly identifying yourself by any label such as party affiliation as did members of the Team for Change. To me labels aren’t important, qualifications are, and taking any label into the role of a nonpartisan school board member does not serve the entire student body.

What is important is knowing how education works and providing opportunities that will help every student succeed, irrespective of learning style. School boards establish the vision, goals and standards for the school district. I don’t know how one does that without experience as an educator. The Team for Change has only one member with any type of experience as an educator, whereas all five members of the Citizens for Carlisle Schools – Bussard, Clash, Shane, Stroud and Tarrant – have decades of experience.

School systems are experiencing problems across the country. Negativism is not problem-solving. At the forum, I heard a lot of problem identification, but few solutions, coming from the Team for Change. I did not hear a coherent plan. This concerns me and makes me wonder what other agenda they might push if they get elected. Conversely, Citizens for Carlisle Schools seemed focused on solving the problems they know are there. They gave a reference for their detailed plan (CitizensForCarlisleSchools.org) and have saved the money to fund it.

Based on the points above, I think the choice on Nov. 7 is clearly the Citizens for Carlisle Schools group – Bussard, Clash, Shane, Stroud and Tarrant.

Jen McDuffie

Carlisle

Read Jen's letter