Lyndonville board members committed to being good stewards of locally run school district

Editor:

Ted Lewis, Steve Vann and I are running for re-election to the Lyndonville School Board. This year’s election has been very heated. When casting your vote this year I encourage you to ask questions and verify the answers you receive.

This year we have two school board members on the negotiating committee for the teachers’ contract: Steve Vann and Ted Lewis. The school board decided this was necessary to maintain a clear understanding of the fiscal workings of the school for which we are responsible.

It seems as if three issues we support – affordable health insurance, resistance to radical social agendas, and parental involvement – are considered by the leadership of the Lyndonville Teachers Association (LTA) as enough of a threat that they publicly endorsed candidates for the first time in my over a dozen years as a board member.

The three of us, Ted Lewis and I, led by Steve Vann, have spent many hours researching and learning about various health insurance programs in an effort to provide quality insurance at the most reasonable price in keeping with our responsibility to be good stewards of the financial resources we are provided by the taxpayers to utilize.

Currently, the highest paid teachers in the district have better plans that newer teachers cannot participate in. In speaking with a newer teacher in the district, she is struggling to make ends meet due to one large burden in her personal budget – health insurance. We are seeking to rectify this and find good quality options for all employees, not just the highest paid.

There has been much misinformation about the potential change in health insurance. Health insurance cannot be changed under New York State law, unless it is comparable or an upgrade. When you understand this fact, it could appear the current chaos over healthcare is simply a smoke screen for the fact the LTA does not want School Board members on the negotiating committee.

We believe schools are a place to learn critical thinking skills through mathematics, sciences, English, foreign languages and history. We strongly support music and the arts as well as the opportunity to engage in individual and team sports. Our school is not a place to introduce radical social agendas. Our children are precious and parents trust schools to teach their children, not indoctrinate them. We believe all children have God-given dignity no matter their race, religion, or any other unique differences.

We believe in being fiscally conservative and we will continue to work to represent the taxpayers by being responsible stewards of their money. We will continue to look for ways to ensure affordable and quality healthcare insurance which is equally available to all staff.

We will resist an agenda to change the school climate as stated by the LTA president (which included threats and bullying within the school as reported by teachers who have chosen not to participate). School is not created to parent your children. There are those who believe they know better and desire more and more control within the school at the expense of parental involvement.

The position of school board member takes a significant amount of time, and experience in order to gain insight to the complexity of the school board process. Feel free to contact us with any questions about this letter or comments made by others who do not feel it is important to get both sides. We are happy to back up our statements and intentions with facts. We desire to keep the school and the many employment and social opportunities it offers right here in our town for as long as possible.

Please consider voting for Steve Vann, Ted Lewis and Susan Hrovat. Keep a Conservative Board.

In your service,

Susan Hrovat

Lyndonville