Letter: Vote for school community candidates

Carlisle Area School District has a very long history of local residents stepping up to serve on our school board. Local icons like Nancy George, Jerry Eby, Judy Castrina, Dick Darr and many others have served without aspirations beyond maintaining a stellar school system that represents local needs. Currently, board president Paula Bussard has been providing nonpartisan leadership in which facilities, academics and social needs have matched local interests. Board members wisely hired Dr. Colleen Friend as superintendent who, as a CHS graduate, connects district operations with residents' expectations.

Paula Bussard, Bruce Clash, Joe Shane, Jon Tarrant and George Stroud are running as a local team of residents known as the Citizens for Carlisle Schools. This outstanding group of volunteers have personal career experiences in public education, higher education, state government and private business. These folks are politically diverse, and they are not associated with any political brands or conspiracy theories.

On the other hand, residents also running for school board are associated with Take Back Our Schools PA. According to their website, this extremist organization has targeted selected PA schools as part of a nationwide attempt to remove local leadership. Fifteen thousand dollars has been provided by this outside organization for the mission. This action is unprecedented, and we should see it as unquestionably unwelcome!

Our community has been blessed and continues to be blessed by honest citizens who represent the needs of local parents and children without influence from political hotbeds that attempt to control our curriculum and social needs. Your choice is a team of residents who represent politically influenced ideas or a team of genuinely caring volunteers whose sole goal is to maintain and improve our local school community. The caretakers of our schools should be Bussard, Shane, Tarrant, Clash and Stroud.

Allen Shank

Carlisle