I got involved in the Mars School District about a year ago and was active at the polls on election day, May 21. I was appalled at the nasty tricks that the Republican Party, my party for 70 years, used to get their candidates elected — most of whom had not been to school board meetings and were running with no position other than party loyalty.

School boards are set up to avoid party polarization just like judges. It is a terrible lesson in civics for students to see such blatant disrespect for others.

The status quo has to go if we are to move the school ahead in all areas of education, and kindness should be the credo, not “dirty tricks.”

I appreciated your article of May 28 on the School Board election regarding Rachel’s Challenge for greater kindness in the community at large.

At 21, I voted in 1952 for the first time to elect General Eisenhower. I was finally old enough to vote — a rite of passage to citizenship and adulthood. In grade school civic classes, we voted as a learning process.

We were encouraged to read about public events from newspapers which were then discussed in class. Usually, we voted like our parents, but as we got older in the upper grades, we began to make our own choices. It was a great discipline and I have voted in primaries and general election for 68 years. Keep up the enlightened writing.

Bill Ewart Valencia