As a former Concord School Board member and a member of the 2021 charter commission that drafted the current rule that has excluded Ms. West, I have always been an opponent of ward voting for the board. Unlike the city council, school issues are not ward issues. But I lost that battle both at the board and the charter commission. While I oppose ward voting, if that is the rule, it makes sense to require candidates to live in their ward, and there was no public sentiment expressed to the commission to return to all at-large voting.

Ms. Ward’s unfortunate removal from the board is therefore the result of voter choice. I don’t know all the circumstances of the board’s decision, but it seems that there might have been room for some reasonable period (which the board may in fact have given) for her to find housing in Ward A. She is free to run again in the next election if she finds housing in the ward or at-large if she does not. Simply put, Ms. West’s situation is the result of a rational rule implementing a bad policy.

Bill Glahn

Concord

]]>