I am writing to respond to Allen Sarvinas’ odd letter that appeared in The Forecaster (“Teachers don’t belong on school boards,” April 23).
Mr. Sarvinas doesn’t want teachers to be elected to school boards because he believes they would always vote in lockstep with positions taken by teacher unions. Mr. Sarvinas suggests that if only teachers could be kept off of local school boards, we’d have a “group of non-conflicted members that prioritize the kids and taxpayers in their community.” He mentions “objective” members twice, so this is an important quality for Mr. Sarvinas. And then, using a logical fallacy to make his argument, he links a Black Lives Matter symbol on a Lewiston Middle School website and a “No Justice No Peace” statement at Mt. Ararat High School as evidence of teacher union infiltration of school boards. Such non-sequitur thinking makes me wonder if Mr. Sarvinas blames the teacher unions when his toilet gets clogged.
What is obvious to me is Mr. Sarvinas’ position on racial equity in Maine and what the people look like in his “community first perspective.”
Finally, I urge us to see folks as more complex than their political viewpoints. All board members, regardless of their professions, pay taxes; might worship on Sundays; might or might not have children attending schools in the district; might like the arts; might like sports; might be gay, straight, Black, white, Asian, Hispanic; and might respond to the pronoun they.
No one who serves on a school board is objective and free from conflicts of interest.
Gregory Greenleaf
Harpswell
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