Smith: Board Member and Letter Writer

One of the characteristics that I like about Al Smith, Raritan’s elected representative to Bridgewater-Raritan’s Board of Education, is that from time to time he will pen a letter-to-the-editor which appears in both the print and Internet versions of the Courier News.

To insure that he does not incur the disapproval of the Board, he always closes his letters with a statement that he is writing on his own behalf, and that his views don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of either the BR-BOE or those of the Somerset County Education Services Committee upon which he also sits.

Al Smith Speaks at the May, 2010, Township/BR-BOE  Meeting

I wish that more Board members would follow his example, because we the public would acquire a better insight into the personal thinking of individual Board members. 

Interested citizens should not have to attend every Board meeting to get to know how Board members feel on issues, some of which may never come up in formal discussions at Board meetings.

It’s not important that one agrees or disagrees with what a Board member such as Al Smith has to say in an op-ed letter.  I often have a different view from that of Al.  But that does not matter.  What does is that he expresses his opinions in writing, in public, for the record, and unexpurgated by the Board.  

For that, I am grateful.

Thanks for reading and stay engaged.  It can be tough out there.