Oh my. The editorial column School Board President Eric Lawson wrote about himself, and was in last Saturday’s News, was so self-aggrandizing. An “Ode to Himself” that could only have been written by himself, and a grand work of fiction with hardly a whiff of reality. Lawson used a lot of words but said very little of substance. He made vague references to the things he has accomplished without saying what those “accomplishments” are. Nothing he said aligns with the reality of what he has done, or has tried to do. For example:

– Lawson made our school board a state-wide talking point when he stationed Deputies at board meetings to physically remove attendees for clapping.

– He threatened community members with defamation lawsuits and advised the public to seek legal counsel before speaking at meetings.

– Lawson voted down a rain garden project without providing any rationale for rejecting this unique opportunity in ecological processes for our 3700 APS students.

– Lawson added an extremist 2-person law group to the APS payroll who have an agenda to dismantle public education. By adding Kalman Law to the payroll, Lawson created a direct pipeline from the APS bank account to the pockets of these opportunists.

– Lawson has been on the school board for 6 years. How is it he didn’t know that awarding a contract to a higher bidder, as he did, violates state law and discourages future competitive bidding, which will result in higher costs.

– Lawson is moving to add an unnecessary bathroom use policy that the ACLU and Thrun Law (APS legal counsel for 65 years) said will result in an expensive and prolonged lawsuit.

For years, in words and actions, Lawson has revealed himself to be pushing a political agenda while in a nonpartisan position. Last Saturday he put that in writing.

Diane O’Connor

Alpena