Friday, July 17, 2009

Election update

I forgot to mention in a post yesterday that Steve Cole pulled nomination papers for re-election to the School Committee and also pulled papers for Charter Commission. But I did update the sidebar.

Nothing new since then (I just checked).

I'm off to the Merrimack River Beach Association meeting.

10 comments:

PI said...

Did I miss something? Is Dana Hooper not running for re-election to the School Committee?

Gillian Swart said...

PI, I heard she is not, but I have not spoken to her directly. She still has more than a week to pull papers.

Lisa said...

I just found out she send her kids to private schools instead of Newburyport schools. That bothers me.

Gillian Swart said...

Oh, well ... so does Gordon Bechtel and Bruce Menin (at least some of their kids, at any rate; last time I checked, Menin had one kid in public schools and one in private).

Lisa said...

"Oh well"???
I think it is very relevant that someone wants to run the schools yet does not see fit to put their own children in. I don't remember this being in past stories.
I have three kids in the schools. I take it you do not. Hooper's and the others' hypocrisy (and your apparent belief that this is not worth reporting)is disturbing.

Gillian Swart said...

Lisa,

I did not mean "oh well" as in it does not matter (that's why the comma is there) I meant "oh, well ... read on" ... and I have reported on this, at the last election cycle. Bechtel is not running, it appears Hooper is not and Menin is not up for re-election. I can't report on a non-issue. It was an issue in the last election and I reported on it then. I do find it disturbing, btw.

Gillian Swart said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisa said...

Sorry, but I have no recollection of any reporting about it as an issue in either paper two years ago. I have no way of refuting your claim, so let's just leave it at that.

Gillian Swart said...

I did not say I reported on it as an issue - in the candidate profiles, I made mention of the fact that these people's kids went to private schools. (I checked and there was no prohibition on School Commitee members to not send their kids to private schools, but I wanted to be sure people had the whole story). There were at the time also a couple of City Councillors who sent their kids to private schools and I mentioned that, too. Maybe this is something the Charter Commission can address?

Wilbur Duck said...

Just cleaning up some loose ends here. FWIW, Menin does not have a child in a private school, and has not had a child in a private school for two years.

Second, people choose private schools for a number of reasons, not the least of which may be because their children may have special needs that they don't believe have been addressed n public schools. On that basis alone, I think those choices made by parents should not have any relevance as a political issue.

And to make another point, parents sending their kids to private schools continue to pay the same taxes as everyone else, they get no rebate for not having a kid in public school. In effect, they continue to support public education with their tax dollars.

Even when my child was not in a private school for a year, I expressed my opinion that I felt it was not germane to a person's qualifications for political office.