Editor’s note: This statement was provided by the Pelham Democratic Committee. The Pelham Examiner publishes statements in the form received as a service to the community.

We, the Pelham Democratic Committee, want to address our neighbors before the upcoming school board election. Our Committee has not endorsed any candidate(s); support for a candidate(s) is an individual decision made at the discretion of each member.

Collectively, we support a non-partisan Board of Education election process with the hope that elected members will represent the best interest of ALL students. We support equitable treatment of students, high-performing schools and ensuring that appropriate resources are allocated to students and teachers alike to produce positive outcomes.

Recently, members of our community have viewed and received divisive communications regarding individual candidates running for the Board. These messages falsely make non-factual, hateful claims, which is appalling and dangerous. We have seen the consequences of such messaging repeatedly, recently with the horrific events in Buffalo, where conservative talking points spurred a massacre. In that instance the “great replacement theory” was used to justify the murder of unarmed American citizens. These hateful messages and dog whistle conservative talking points have no place in our community.

And yet within our community, these same dog whistles are being used to try to divide us with anti-CRT fear mongering. To be clear, CRT is a graduate-level concept not taught in Pelham schools nor advocated by this Committee or any candidate running for the School Board. We can all agree that the district needs to continually review its curriculum to ensure students have the tools to meet the demands of an evolving world through increased technology in the classrooms, support for all learning types and lessons that prepare them for the future. We can and must continue to do so to maintain our status as a high performing district where all students are provided opportunities for success.

With such a heavy lift, school board elections are imperative to support those goals. These Board races exist to ensure that we select the best candidates, whose decisions should be on developing the whole student and representing all student voices.

Tomorrow, when you vote for our community’s next Board of Education members, we ask you to disregard divisive politics, name-calling, and fear-mongering, and vote for the candidates you believe will best serve all of Pelham’s students. That is what we plan to do and hope you do the same.

See you at the polls.