Find the time for the simple moments

LAURA MCFARLAND Managing Editor

It’s a good thing I like wind chimes.

As this column is being written, I am sitting on my deck on a gorgeous sunny day enjoying the first real outside workday of 2023, meaning the time spent writing and returning emails but not tied to my desk.

The only potential negative to the beautiful 74-degree day is the strong wind, but other than the constant but harmonious wind chime concert emanating from behind me, I avoided any actual downsides by not bringing paperwork outside and tightening the screw on the stand holding the umbrella shading me from the sun.

It is a peaceful day, if not necessarily a quiet one. The frogs croaking in the nearby woods, the neighbor’s laying hens clucking in their pen, the cawing birds circling something in a nearby field, and the bugs occasionally buzzing my head in apparent dive bomb patterns all provide their own symphony of sound. The barking of dogs in the distance and low hum of the particularly loud traffic on the nearby major road aren’t too distracting. All that is missing is a neighbor partaking of some firearm target practice to make the day’s composition complete. A minute ago my neighbor, who is a talented and avid gardener, shooed one of her inquisitive dogs out of her compost heap, not wanting him to eat something he shouldn’t be consuming. His tail was between his legs for all of five seconds before he found a beloved dog toy to enjoy and was off somewhere to chew on it instead. Days like these are a great way to relax while working on more serious stories such as writing about board meetings held earlier in the week. Traversing the intricacies of the county’s budget aren’t nearly as onerous when the view and atmosphere are this pleasant. A beach setting with the crashing of the waves as a backdrop would be even better, but I will take what I can get.

As someone whose life has been divided between cities, suburbs and country living, I like that I can still take moments like this to appreciate my current rural surroundings and not take them for granted. Do I wish the bugs would leave me alone and the nearby dog that just started up a constant stream of barking was a little less distracting? Absolutely. Are those influences enough to chase me away from the serenity of this moment? Absolutely not.

If you read this far and are still expecting some big hidden message, sorry to disappoint. This is and was always meant to be a celebration of a simple moment in time when the problems weighing on my mind were briefly drowned out by the wind rattling against the gutter and the still-barren trees silently waving their branches, almost as if they were dancing to the beautiful peals of the wind chimes. With the apparent arrival of spring, I hope all of our readers get a chance to enjoy a similar moment of serenity.

Laura

McFarland may be reached at

Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.

From 8 request parent and guardian information from GCPS through a FOIA request? I asked District 1 supervisor Susan Lascolette this question at the recent District 1 Town Hall meeting and was told it was none of my business and not the business of the people whose information she demanded. This is a disrespectful and wholly unsatisfactory answer.

The concerned parents and guardians I have spoken with about this were shocked to know Lascolette received their personal information and are very anxious about her intended use of this information.They do feel it’s their right to know why she requested it and what she is using it for. Lascolette screams about “privacy.” What about the privacy of the parents and guardians she’s trying to marginalize?

So again… why would a county supervisor who controls the purse strings of our public schools, who organizes protests against them, who is heavily involved in groups looking to dismantle them, smiles at school board meetings when supportive parents of LGBTQ+ kids are called “groomers,” and questions the teaching of comprehensive Black history demand the contact information of these parents?

Why? The only logical use of this information is to campaign for herself or her hand-picked anti-public school candidates. This is unethical. Or perhaps it is to target the parents supportive of Equity and Inclusion. This is unethical and vile. Pick one. We doubt she’s using it for her Christmas card list.

And please know, this is not just progressives and Democrats. The actions of this board member and others hasn’t gone unnoticed amongst solid Republicans in Goochland fed up with the far right takeover and what may be a successful take down of our public schools. Superintendent Raley is leaving. Expect an exit of our best teachers and families to follow if the wishes of Ms. Lascolette and her extremist candidates win in November. They just might. And if they do, Goochland won’t be such a sought after address for homes or businesses.

Moderation is the key. Extremism is winning. Contact your supervisor and ask them why one of their board members has requested this information. Demand an answer. For now, they aren’t responding and their silence either indicates they are perfectly fine with her reprehensible behavior or makes them complicit. We have the opportunity to bring sanity back to Goochland. Please help us.

Sincerely,

Jenifer Strozier Goochland

Board member must be held accountable for her actions

Dear Editor, A few weeks ago, GCPS families received a prompt to update their privacy preferences around their personal contact information. Was this just a routine reminder? No. This was the school system wisely giving families the opportunity to tighten down security on this information following a request from one of our county supervisors.

District 1 representative Susan Lascolette made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking for the personal contact information for GCPS parents and guardians. As required by law, GCPS had to release what they had, but made the preference changes in effect for the future.

But this begs the question: Why did Lascolette demand private parent and guardian contact info via the Freedom of Information Act from our school system? When asked at a District 1 town hall meeting, she told the questioner it was none of their business. I beg to differ.

Ms. Lascolette, I am asking. Why did you demand private parent and guardian contact info via the Freedom of Information Act from our school system?

Through FOIA requests, we also learned Ms. Lascolette has:

- Questioned the use of supplemental Black history curriculum that is not being used by our schools. Why is she interfering with curricular offerings at all?

- Met with school board mem- ber Angela Allen to organize special interest group funded attacks on our school board. Is this how you spend your time representing us?

- Attacked Dr. Raley in emails and texts. How do you expect we will be able to attract a quality candidate for his vacancy if this is how you act?

- And of course, Ms. Lascolette disgraced her office when she sat and laughed during public comments at the Feb. 14 school board meeting when I and other speakers were called “groomers” by a heckler for speaking up on behalf of the civil rights of transgender students and reminding the school board to follow federal law instead of spending tax dollars on litigation, making a spectacle of our county in the news. Would you rather litigation be the way we spend our tax dollars?

Families and citizens, please be aware and ask her and her other colleagues on the Board of Supervisors the same questions. This is unethical, inappropriate and embarrassing.

Submitted,

Laura Kassner, Ed.D. Sandy Hook