Kierra Green: Nothing wrong with exercising right to select elementary school

To The Daily Sun,

As a former Laconia City mayor, Matt Lahey is surely aware that Laconia schools employ central registration and has done so for 20 years. Central registration allows parents to choose which of the three schools their child attends. This choice ensures a diverse socioeconomic student population in each school, because residents aren't bound to send their children to the school in the neighborhood that they reside in.

Incumbent Ward 2 School Board Vice Chair Laura Dunn exercised this choice to send her children to Pleasant Street School, and from the moment of registration has dedicated her time and endless effort in support of that school. She has further supported the entire Laconia School District through her tenure as a school board member. This is a good thing for Pleasant Street School, the district and the City of Laconia.

How Lahey manages to paint this dedication in a negative light escapes logic, especially considering that Kelley Gaspa-Caravona also sent her children to Pleasant Street School.

Dunn is also not the only current school board member whose children attend a school not in the neighborhood they live in. Board member Nick Grenon's children attend Elm Street School, which is not in the ward he resides, because he also exercised his right to choose their school. Lahey's own grandson attends Pleasant Street School, but lives in a different ward. It is clear that Lahey knowingly wrote a letter filled with misinformation to intentionally slight Dunn.

Kierra Green

Laconia