This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Letter to the Editor: Carpet Bombing Campaign

Mineola Board of Education candidate Artie Barnett submitted the following letter.

Elections often bring out an interesting side of people and this year's campaign for Mineola School Board certainly shows us that.

Since I , Mr. McGrath has taken off on a carpet bombing campaign of our entire district. While I certainly expected him to target me as he saw fit, I was amazed to see him belittle, insult and threaten the very people he was elected to serve.

He started with our students, calling the Mineola graduates ill-prepared and less than college ready. He suggests that the parents of our special education students, themselves have special needs in a broad brushed insult to all of them at . And now, against our own District Council of PTAs?

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

When I suggested that John had lost touch with our district residents he took umbrage with that notion. I can do little more than watch him prove my point. His words and actions over the past month solidify my belief and has truly made me happy I decided to run and remove him from our board of education.

Our entire district deserves people who truly represent them. More importantly, our district deserves people who respect them. I believe he has gone from out of touch, to totally out of bounds. Your debate was with me John but you chose to go after our students, parents and hard working volunteers instead.

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Only in the eleventh hour does he choose to engage his true opponents, or possibly just throw in a last word. His cannot change his actions of the past. I look forward to the district voter’s choice tomorrow and if nothing else, I hope it shows a healthy support of our budget.

Artie Barnett
Mineola, NY

Artie Barnett is a Mineola resident. He is currently running for trustee on the .

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?