To the Editor:

I virtually attended the May 2 BoE meeting, in its entirety, and must say I am impressed with the participants and the members of the board. I am the father of a future NPS student and this was my first meeting. It put a lot into perspective.

I went into this meeting thinking that so many people, regarding the ongoing book controversy, from both sides, were not only peddling politics in their arguments but were also motivated by politics. I was pleasantly surprised that the participants’ motivations came off as genuine, not political. Obviously, many of their arguments were very political, just watch the meeting to see for yourself. In fact, participants got so political that I learned “christofacism” is a thing.

But their motivations came off as pure and it made me take a different stance on everyone from both sides of the aisle. I really take issue with how political so many of our residents are being with our children’s education but this meeting showed me that they care about our students, first and foremost. Everyone, except a select few that rudely went over their allotted time, civically engaged appropriately. Kudos townspeople!

I also want to point out that there were a few participants, from both sides, that presented their arguments in an objective, constructive, and reasonable manner. I wish all participants did the same. Double kudos!

I was pleasantly surprised by the members of the board. I thought they handled themselves in a professional and objective manner. I was happy with the questions they posed to themselves and happy they wanted to compromise to meet our town needs. Kudos board members!

Unfortunately, I was not so thrilled about the way the assistant superintendent was answering questions from board members. She was tasked as head of the special committee reviewing these books. In my opinion, she avoided answering certain questions because they could undermine the special committee’s recommendation. No kudos for you!

Finally, the three mothers at the end had unrelated but very important concerns about the classroom environment their children are in. Every student deserves a proper, full education and the board should be doing everything in its power to make it so. It is very unfortunate that this is coming out while the board is managing the book controversy. I hope they investigate this quickly and seriously because this appears more important than the books. Kudos moms for bringing your concerns to the board!

I will end by saying that it seems all sides of the book controversy are arguing about different things. If we keep being political and not listening to and discussing others’ perspectives, we are never going find a solution and will only remain divided. Please, talk with your fellow townspeople in person, especially the ones that disagree with you, and just listen to what they have to say. I bet you have a lot in common.

Your friendly neighbor,

Brendan Lukaniec

Sandy Hook