To the Editor:

The Northampton Area School District has long been plagued by rumors of racism, despite all of the inside work by administrators and teachers to prove otherwise.

The school board meeting Oct. 14 provided an apt illustration as to why some would say that. Some school board members’ true colors were shown that night through their racist comments.

School board Directors Kristen Soldridge, Brian McCulloch and Josh Harris not only perpetuated the stereotype of NASD being a racist district but showed their ignorance of school policies and their unwillingness to give up their conspiracy theories and learn the facts.

Soldridge and company continually used the word “illegals” to claim that “illegals” are taking money that excludes other students from getting extra help, proving the fact that not any of the three understand how students get extra help or that the district spends the same amount of money on all students.

The three accused district officials of hiding the dollar figures spent on “illegals” and repeatedly asked to know “how much money is being spent on illegals,” even after being told no such figure existed. A quick search through district history would show there has not been an increase in the staffing of multiple languages teachers in the district as of late, proving no extra money is being spent on “illegals.”

However, Soldridge, McCulloch and Harris kept insisting “illegals” are infiltrating our district and causing other students to not get the help they need because money is being funneled to help “illegals.”

Soldridge’s bottom line was that anyone with an accent is likely an “illegal.”

None of the three school board members were actually asking questions. Rather, they were ranting to provide the community in the audience with buzzwords to rile them up and fear monger in the face of the upcoming election.

Unfortunately, none of these things are actually helping any of our NASD students and only furthering their own political agenda.

In the process of their ranting and misinformation, their sentiments paint a portrait of a “racist” school district.

The process of student registration (involving several documents) was explained and basically proved Soldridge, McCulloch and Harris wrong; however, Soldridge continued to expose her conspiracy theory that illegals are entering our district without documents.

It is clear that none of these school board directors are willing to educate themselves on the procedures, rules and policies within the district, even when they are provided. It is clear none of these school board directors know how educational services are provided.

These school board directors are more concerned with fear mongering and conspiracy theories. It is my fervent hope these three school board directors can put aside their own political agenda and do what’s best to educate all of our students — not just students who look and sound like them. However, the more I see and hear from these three lead me to believe they are uninterested in facts and truth of policies and procedures. It appears they simply like to hold their school board director seat to further their own agenda.

These are the people who are in charge of educating a whole generation of students. How can the willfully ignorant and uneducated help others?

Jessica A. Quinones

Allen Township