Douglas petersen's letter to the editor

Put character over affiliation 
to elect school board members

In Mesa County next month the election of three school board members will occur. Affected by this will be about 20,000 people in Mesa County: children. Regardless of where you live, all Mesa County residents will vote for three candidates.

What’s the real issue? Do we want a balanced school board whose members know how to work together and listen to the community, or do we want to turn the board’s members over to politics: Democrats versus Republicans?

I believe the first choice is the one. It should not be about the Mesa County Republican Women’s endorsements or Rick Wagner’s article in Thursday’s Daily Sentinel with only minimal pieces of accurate information. Let’s not let our school district turn into a Washington, D.C., of dysfunction and division.

Please seriously consider John Williams, Greg Mikolai and Tom Parrish, who are endorsed by Save our Schools. Williams not only chairs “Explore 51,” a committee that meets regularly with community members, but also regularly reads with kids. He’s donating his time with a paycheck of zero dollars.

As school board president, Mikolai has experience that is extremely valuable as School District 51 faces many issues critical to education.

Parrish has worked as a teacher, principal and supervisor of all elementary schools. Fifteen years ago, he was the principal at Wingate Elementary. Our seven-year-old daughter was struggling with separation anxiety. Parrish spent time with my wife and me as we discussed next steps to help her. He ended up holding onto our little girl in tears as we left her at school early every morning for the next couple of weeks. Her struggle was resolved.

Please don’t vote by your party, but rather by the candidate’s character. This election will be pivotal.

DOUGLAS C. PETERSEN

Grand Junction