Richard Metcalf: School board not a place to advance bombastic political views

To The Daily Sun,

The March 9 letter “Protect kids from unsavory teachings” supported SAU 4 school board candidates Fran Wendelboe and Randall Kelley. I was curious about the meaning of “unsavory teachings” and was also struck by the statement “both candidates will work hard to protect our kids by making sure none of the things you have heard about in the news will get any further traction in our schools.”

Sadly, some of the news I have seen lately regarding schools in New Hampshire include the uncivil and destructive school issue meeting confrontations that reduced constructive discussions and hurt the people of Croydon and Laconia, among others. I certainly hope to never hear such news regarding the Newfound School District.

I live in Bristol, so I decided to research Mr. Kelley’s positions and went to his Facebook page. In the past four weeks: shots of his campaign poster (naturally enough) and profile pictures regarding his political views. The only post perhaps remotely relating to schools seemed to be a shot of Alex Jones (who has been found guilty by multiple juries for advancing the lie that the Sandy Hook slaughter of 20 children and six adults was staged and was “fake news”). The photo is accompanied with the F-word (edited here but not on his page).

Forgive me, but I find such posts “unsavory” and not suitable to mentoring our children. School board members should work with children, teachers, and administrators to help solve challenges rather than as a pulpit for personal political views.

I intend to vote for Joe Maloney, a graduate of NRHS, a person with children attending SAU 4 schools, and someone who has been an educator and has volunteered as a coach at TTCC.

Richard Metcalf

Bristol