Letters

In a recent letter to Sag Harbor officials, I asked that there be open dialogue and outreach around the acquisition of the Marsden properties before the school went to a vote on acquisition. The board demurred, and the vote carried, albeit with substantial voter opposition.

Now the School Board has both turned up the heat on those asking for dialogue — the letter by Anthony Chase Mallia of TASCH, the teacher’s union, exemplifying such pressure — and have defined dialogue in a way that has nothing to do with dialogue.

Both the pressure of the TASCH letter and the persistent unwillingness of the board to listen and respond in the spirit of civil negotiations with sincere people who care about our historic neighborhood and the conservation of open space and species habitat are symptomatic of a lack of deep commitment to small-town democracy.

First, the letter. Chase Mallia is one of the best teachers at Pierson High School and one of the most thoughtful about how kids learn. He has spent years freely sharing his out-of-school time with kids, and helping them love mathematics.

However, his linking student-athletes’ impaired academic success to their need to leave early for games or walk to Mashashimuet Park is specious. As a longtime after-school educator, my colleagues and I all know that for students, if the coach and the team are waiting, everything else loses priority. You might have a field closer to the school, but until our school and all East End schools change their policies on when games and practices can be scheduled — and, more radical still, decide that core subject education takes some priority over athletics — kids will rush off the minute they are allowed.

Dear members of the Southampton Town Board: If you vote against use of the Community Preservation Fund, you need not fear to have further harmed our student-athletes’ education.

Second, the School Board. On the board’s web page, there is a policy paragraph: “The Board of Education does not respond to the questions or comments posted to this email address on an individual board member basis. The board will respond to the questions that are appropriate questions for the board level as a political body that speaks with one voice.”

I am really seriously troubled by this statement. School boards, more than ever, are one of the few arenas where citizens have direct contact with governing bodies.

There cannot be conflict resolution if there are only “allowed” questions. We used to have a very healthy School Board, loud and fractious and sometimes difficult, but trying their best. The current junta disrespects all of us, because it does not want to hear difference. But that is the School Board’s job.

Leah Oppenheimer

Sag Harbor