Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:39:19 -0400
From: Judy Hogan
Subject: I support Galin and Munn for School Board
Hi, all. I thought I’d put in my thoughts on the county races. I was a member of the Chatham Coalition back in 2004-6 and I felt good about all the candidates I worked to elect which the Coalition supported in those elections.
I will be voting Democratic across the board in the partisan races. I believe both Mike Cross and Sally Kost to be competent, concerned for the county, and able to do the job of a county commissioner wisely and well.
In the school board non-partisan race, it seems to me that we have four very qualified and dedicated people, but I disagree with the Coalition’s endorsements. I believe Gene Galin will be an excellent member of BoE. He knows Chatham well and obviously cares about improving both our general quality of life as well as our schools and our children’s education or he wouldn’t have dedicated 10 years of free time to the chatlist, the Bulletin Board, and his newspaper, The Chatham Journal. He also goes regularly to Chatham events taking photos and publishing them both in the paper and on line. He seems open to everyone, welcoming of the diversity that makes us up here. I’ve noticed a persistent thread in his handling of the chatlist, that of focus on our schools. I think he’d be a fine addition to the three remaining members of the school board, Kathie Russell, Gerald Totten, and Deb McManus, all of whom I supported in 2006. I’m sorry to see Holly and Norman leave, but they’ve done excellent jobs, too. I would care about our schools in any case, but I also have grandchildren in Perry Harrison, and I’ve taught creative writing in Moncure, Silk Hope, and Virginia Cross, and I was impressed with morale and teaching quality in all those schools. We did not have this same standard, as I remember, when I first moved to Moncure 10 years ago.
I’m also supporting Mia Munn. I’ve never met her, but I like her passion about education that comes through in a post she wrote on the bulletin board. She sought excellent education for her children, and wants to do that for all our children. I don’t hold it against her that she put a child in Woods Charter because Northwood didn’t respond well to her child’s needs. I remember that Holly Duncan was discouraged by her teaching experiences in a Chatham School and went to work in Orange County. But she then ran for school board to correct what she’d seen was wrong, and it did get better. With Mia on the board, I expect the academic standards to rise in our schools. She strikes me as being satisfied with nothing less.
As to the Coalition, I feel sad that they seem to have lost perspective. I see no conflict of interest between being on the school board and running a chatlist or a newspaper. Conflict of interest means that you might make money or benefit from your political position for your other business. Hardly. But I urge everyone to learn all they can and to vote. We’re lucky, so lucky, to have good BoC and BoE boards, and good and good new candidates running. Judy Hogan