Woodland schools deserve better

In response to your recent endorsements for Woodland District 50 school board: There is no shortage of candidates for this race because change is greatly needed on this often dysfunctional board. I was very disappointed to see three incumbents receive endorsements. It appears that the editorial board evaluated the candidates on the basis of short group interviews and the information provided in questionnaires, but did not take the time to review the candidate backgrounds or incumbents' records.

Most concerning is the endorsement for Vincent Juarez for the 2-year seat. Juarez has not done the job he was elected to do. Of the last seven monthly governing board meetings, Juarez has attended only one meeting. In 2015, he was censured by the board for not following proper protocol by filing burdensome FOIA requests that resulted in District 50 staff spending 98 hours filling his request of over 6,000 pages of information that was described as "targeting" a specific Woodland employee. (See Daily Herald Article: "Board member's information quest not cool with District 50 colleagues" 6/25/15).

Juarez did not bother to attend the Woodland Union Candidate forum or the PTA sponsored candidate forum. He has shown that he is not interested in doing the job, certainly not professionally, and that he is not interested in talking with the teachers, staff, parents, or community members of the District.

Our schools and our community deserve better.

Sara Thomas

Gurnee