Letter: Board of Ed Forum Lacked Democratic Presence

To the Editor:

I would like to thank the Middletown Federation of Teachers for hosting the Board of Education' Meet the Candidates forum Oct. 12 at Middletown High School. The forum allowed the residents to hear up close and personally from each of the 11 candidates, in which all the candidates did a fine job.

With all the candidates expressing lack of communication and change of leadership within the board, starting from the chairman down to the administration in Central Office, one would have to wonder, where was the Democratic presence?

With mayoral hopeful Dan Drew (who has children in the school system) and who states in his platform “improving education,” you would think he would want to hear first hand what these parents and taxpayers' concerns were. 

Not only was he not present, but where were the Democratic Council members, with the exception of Councilman Robert Santangelo? Do they not care to hear what the taxpayers' concerns regarding the Board of Education are? Do they think because of their parties' ticket that they are a automatic in?

Matthew Scarrozzo, Republican Town Committee Chair