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Letters to the Editor

Community, communication, transparency

In less than a week, Marietta City School residents will have the opportunity to vote for three new Board of Education candidates. If you attended the candidates’ forum or have read the various stances from those interested in serving on the board, then you are aware that Cody Parman, Eric Reed, and Sam Tuten understand that students and teachers are more than just test scores or grades on a state report card. Not to make excuses, but the truth is there are tremendous burdens that can hinder a student’s academic success on a one-day assessment that measures whether he or she has ...

Lehman and Vessels: The right leadership for MCS Board

During my 30+ years in Marietta I had actively tried to market the Marietta area as a great place to live and a great place for companies to open or expand businesses that offer good paying jobs. This was true as Plant Manager for Chevron, Sr VP and Site Manger for Solvay and continues as a co-founder and Director of Shale Crescent USA. Marietta has many things going for it: abundant natural resources such as natural gas and the river system, it is in the heart of the largest market in the world and it has great hardworking people. The one thing that always comes up early when ...

No time to be timid

Mariettans, the time has come to confront the stark choices for the school board election. Our school system is in tatters. Teacher morale is at an all-time low. State test scores have been sliding for years. Of 863 measured districts in Ohio, our school system ranks 548th—and last in Washington County. Over half of our eighth graders are not proficient in math or English. Parents are pulling their children from our district at an increasing pace. Parents moving to Southeast Ohio avoid Marietta because of the schools. It gets worse. Just this Monday, a distraught mom spoke ...

Commitment to excellence

Marietta City School District has a very important new board member election coming up for vote. This election will pave the way on what we can expect from our new school board and the impact that their decisions will make for the future of Marietta City Schools and our community. During this campaign season we’ve heard the statement “commitment to excellence” by some candidates when expressing how our district can return to providing a high quality education for Marietta’s youth. Marietta City Schools is starved for board leadership when it comes to addressing ongoing problems ...

MCS BOE needs systematic change

I recently retired after teaching 31 years in the Marietta City Schools system. I’m not a bitter ex-employee; I loved my job, the students, and the incredible colleagues I worked with. Why does our current superintendent need a personal PR person to improve the schools’ image? Isn’t that his job: to represent the schools and help the district reach its goals? Our district is failing academically, but the BOE hired this Communication Director at the cost of an actual teacher who could have been working with our students — shows you the BOE mindset. Our district is stagnant, it ...

Supporting Reed

First of all I would like commend all the candidates who are vying to fill the three vacancies soon to occur on the Marietta City School District Board of Education. These individuals all deserve our thanks for caring enough to volunteer their time and efforts to play a major roll in making our school system the best it can be. That being said, I am writing this letter first and foremost to support Eric Reed as one of the very best candidates for the school board openings. From never receiving anything but an “A” in every class in every grade period in every year from the first ...