From this morning’s Republican-American for full story see link below

Letter on Region 1 board tainted by writer’s anger

Reading John Mauer’s May 31 letter, “Region 1 board is unfairly treating its superintendent,” I was saddened to realize people can age without learning the lessons that bring wisdom.

Mr. Mauer was an angry man when he was chairman of the Region 1 Board of Education about 15 years ago, and an unquestioning, unconditional supporter of the administrators at the time. He’s still an angry man and an unquestioning, unconditional supporter of the administrators.

Maybe Mr. Mauer’s anger clouded his perception, because he was factually wrong on pretty much everything he wrote in his letter regarding the statutory executive authority of the Region 1 Board of Education vs. the limited authority of the ABC Committee — a committee of the Region 1 board — to make recommendations that the board may or may not adopt.

The statutes require the Board of Education to evaluate the superintendent, and the board cannot delegate that authority. I won’t go through Mr. Mauer’s other ill-informed claims point by point, but I’ll give one example: He claimed I made the motion to ask Region 1 administrators to reopen their contracts; I didn’t. But if Mr. Mauer can get such an easily verifiable fact wrong — easily verified by reading the minutes of the meeting — imagine how badly he mangled the truth in his other claims.

That’s the problem with anger; it distorts everything. Fifteen years after Mr. Mauer was chairman of the Region 1 board, he still hasn’t learned the lesson that holding onto anger is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die.

Gale Courey Toensing

Falls Village

The writer serves on the Region 1 Board of Education.