LETTER: Supporting Snook and Boynton for Concord School Committee
Old Pickard Road resident Suzanne Hogan writes that she believes Kathi Snook and Johanna Boynton 'will serve Concord diligently and fairly as School Committee members.'
Editor's Note: Although letters are edited for punctuation, grammar and AP/Patch style, we have not corrected this author's misspelling of a candidate's name, an error denoted by [sic] immediately following the error.
To the Editor,
I am writing to endorse candidates Johanna Boynton and Kathy [sic] Snook for School Committee. These two intelligent, thoughtful women have records of service, and I honestly believe will serve Concord diligently and fairly as School Committee members.
School Committee members are in a position to guide the CCHS building project over the next several years. I sat surprised and stunned at the LWV Forum to hear candidates Lisa Bergen and Cynthia Rainey express full support of the building project. Rainey stated, “I absolutely support the current design” and Bergen said, “I have always supported a new building.” Throughout the forum Bergen presented herself as a team player, one who would tell the superintendent that she’s “here to support you” and ask “What can I do to help?”
I believe these statements were carefully crafted to not reveal the truth of five months of emails between Bergen/Rainey and officials at the MSBA, the most concerning of which occurred as reinstatement of funding for the building project was imminent. On Oct. 10 Rainey wrote, “the current design is wasteful, inflexible and inefficient” and “Please do not allow reinstatement of funds for this project.” On the same day Bergen also wrote that reinstatement of funding “would not benefit our community or our students.” She continued, “Help us avoid escalation to legal injunctions” as "citizens feel so strongly about this if this design is authorized.”
I'm separately concerned about the reference to legal action and egregious use of the collective "we."
In support of open and honest communication, I believe the candidates should make their full records of involvement public before the election. A few of the emails can be seen at: http://truthinconcord.com.
My informed vote will be for Boynton and Snook.
Suzanne Hogan
Old Pickard Road
Michael Amster
9:17 am on Monday, March 18, 2013
This letter is in support of Kathi Snook and Johanna Boynton. There are many ways to become informed in this information age -- many are more efficient than attending innumerable meetings. It is one thing to be informed. It is totally another to have the judgement to act on the knowledge. There is enough spin/inuendo/misinformation/half-truth/etc around this race. One thing is for certain are the e-mails posted on the following web site: http://truthinconcord.com. Snook and Boynton are uniquely qualified and deserve our support.