Refrain from signing petition

To the editor,

I am writing to urge my fellow citizens of Kennebunk to refrain from signing the petition to recall two members of the RSU 21 school board. It takes only a cursory review of the facts to see that the premises upon which the recall effort is based are completely erroneous and therefore dishonest.

What appears to be happening here is an effort to take alternative facts and play on peoples’ legitimate anxiety, dismay, and fatigue related to the pandemic in order to disrupt a school board that is honorably – and selflessly – doing its job.

This appears to me to be an example of the confrontational politics that certain elements with hidden agendas are promulgating across the nation to sow discord and distrust of our civic institutions.

This is reprehensible and deserves to be roundly defeated. Kennebunk is better than this.

Tom Berry

Kennebunk

Don’t sign the petitions

To the editor,

If you don’t want mean-spirited politics woven into local school board business, then please don’t sign the petitions currently being circulated in Kennebunk. If you think it is somewhere between uncool and slanderous for recall advocates to publicly state incorrect facts and wrongly blame hardworking school board volunteers, then don’t sign the petitions. If you bristle at the idea of 25 individuals intentionally skirting the will of the electorate to try to start a recall, then don’t sign the petitions. If you wish to avoid additional disruptions to the educators and students in our district, then don’t sign the recall petitions.

There is a groundswell of people who are standing up against this recall which undermines the public trust. I have heard that longstanding communication issues exist between administration and teachers. These need to be addressed, but recall is the wrong tool. If you support our teachers, then stand for communication over the nuclear option of a recall. Recalls are a terrible precedent to set. Elections are the civil way to replace elected officials.

If you don’t care for a public servant, then run for office in June. For additional information about this recall process, find more facts at www.kbkstr.com.

Please join me in not signing the petitions for recalling school board members this December. Let’s spare our community the expense of a recall election and all the collateral damage such an act would bring to our town.

Kate Manahan
Kennebunk

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