Re-elect incumbents to board of education

To get right to the point, Jon Andes, Elena McComas and Donald Smack have our endorsement in this year’s Worcester County Board of Education election.

These three incumbents have done their jobs over the past four years — through some exceptionally tough times — and should be returned to serve four more.

Andes, who was the school system’s superintendent for 16 years, is running in District 3, the Sinepuxent District, which encompasses the South Point/West Ocean City area and a sliver of Berlin. McComas is running in District 5, the Ocean Pines District, and Smack is running in District 2, the Central District, which stretches from Berlin to Pocomoke City.

As it happens, these same three candidates have been endorsed by the Worcester County Teachers Association, which recognizes the work these members have done during the school board’s acrimonious budgeting battles with the adversarial Worcester County Commissioner majority.

Given the commissioners’ nickel-and-diming of the school budget the last couple of years, their apparent lack of enthusiasm for public education in general, and their desire to dictate school spending and, to some extent, the curriculum, the last thing this county’s schools need is school board members who agree with them.

Andes, McComas and Smack do not and therefore not only deserve to be reelected but should be returned to office to help protect the public school system from the commissioners’ annual inquisition.

It is also worth mentioning that the challengers in these three districts did not make themselves available for interviews by the teachers association, nor did they show up at the District 3 and District 5 forum last Thursday.

We can only speculate what the reasons were for their no-shows, but we do know where this trio of incumbents stand, which is why we stand with them.