Support for school district’s efforts

To the editor,

As retired educators for over 40 years each and grandparents to three school age children, we are in support of the RSU 21 school board, administration and teachers. We have attended school board meetings, and more recently John has substituted in one of the schools.

What we have learned and seen first-hand is that board members, administrators and teachers are working and succeeding to bring a dynamic, relevant and essential curriculum to each student in every grade pre-K through high school.

Divisive and vitriolic rhetoric sets a dangerous example to our young people and does nothing to bring about constructive change. Discussions of school affairs should avoid judgments that are unproductive and without merit.

Barbara and John Ripton

Kennebunkport

Veterans Day request

To the editor,

As we celebrate Veterans Day, I try to imagine what it would be like if we treated out veterans as well as we do illegal immigrants. While there are at least 500,000 homeless veterans who can’t find affordable housing, exasperated by the demand created by the almost two million people flooding our southern border.

Why aren’t we focused on the people who have risked their lives to defend our freedoms and Constitution? I think many of us know the answer.

Bill Case

Kennebunkport

Organization appreciates community support

To the editor,

We are so thankful. No Place Like Home is an all-volunteer organization serving Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. We are here to help older adults stay in their homes by providing free, local, non-medical rides and help with small home tasks. We also manage the medical equipment loan closet, loaning out medical equipment for free usage by community members from all three towns.

This has been a busy year and we are grateful to the town of Kennebunk, Kennebunk Light and Power, Spurling Fitness (new home for our equipment loan closet) and Hancock Lumber Company, among many others, for their support. The many volunteers who drive, donate, deliver and connect with the wonderful elders in our community make it all possible. Thank you.

If you would like to know more about No Place Like Home, want to borrow or donate (we need wheelchairs), or are interested in becoming a volunteer, please check out our website at www. nplhmaine.org or find us on Facebook at NoPlaceLikeHome-Kennebunk.

We invite you to join us Nov. 18 at our open house. You can register by calling 207-558-2270.

We truly agree, there really is no place like home.

Molly Hoadley, chair and founder

No Place Like Home

School district grapples with pandemic

To the editor,

In a letter to last week’s Kennebunk Post, Jim McMann asked why some families have pulled their children out of RSU 21, and he suggested “the culture of policies and procedures being imposed” might be the cause. As the school board, administration and teachers have grappled with this second school year of COVID, I have no doubt that some decisions have been unpopular and that some families have had to choose other options to manage difficult family situations.

Pandemic management has not been easy for anyone, let alone a brand-new superintendent. Superintendent Dr. Cooper joined us in August of 2020. She has been faced with an ever-evolving public health crisis and coordinated political opposition from day one. Mr. McMann, a leader of that opposition, was rejected by the voters of Kennebunkport in his bid to join the school board by a margin of nearly 2:1 just five months ago. He appears to be continuing that campaign by other means.

While most of the community is grateful for strict enforcement of CDC protocols, those policies can disrupt families that have to make alternative childcare arrangements unexpectedly. The goal has not been, and cannot be, to make everyone happy. It has been to keep the children learning at the standard of excellence Kennebunk is known for, while keeping our community safe. The success of Dr. Cooper and the school board in that regard has been outstanding

Dan Sayre

Kennebunk