WESTBOROUGH – Candidates vying for office stated their cases for election during the Westborough Democratic Town Committee’s candidate forum at the Willows at Westborough on March 3.
The forum featured candidates in contested races for School Committee and Trustee of the Public Library.
Andy Toorock, who is running for a veteran seat on the Trustees of Soldier Memorials also spoke. He is running against Lee Strout.
Three non-veterans are hoping to be elected to two seats on the Trustees of Soldier Memorials. Incumbent Mark Brady and Donald Gilbert will be on the ballot; Geoffrey Spofford is running as a write-in candidate.
Uncontested candidates for the Select Board, Planning Board, Assabet Valley Regional Vocational School Committee and Housing Authority also participated.
School Committee
Tim Askew and Boyd Conklin are vying for the one available seat on the School Committee.
The candidates were asked how they would advise their own child regarding the topic of acceptance if they hypothetically came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Askew, who doesn’t have children, said he imagined it would be “incredibly difficult,” but he added that he would work through it with his child and support them.
“I think it is no secret here … there are people in the LGBTQ+ community. To pretend that there aren’t and that they don’t need help and especially additional support, as it can be a tough journey with them, I think that is really doing everyone a disservice,” he said.
Conklin said, “Whatever they want to be is what they want to be, and I support them in it.”
He went on to allege that Westborough schools were giving students links on lesson plans to “third party” LGBTQ+ sites so students could talk with adults from the organization. Conklin also stated that he and others met with school leaders, including Superintendent Amber Bock, who allegedly said they would remove the links off the curriculum.
Bock told the Community Advocate that the core curriculum in health was not changed or altered. She said there was one lesson in one class in which the teacher modified sharing full website links, and the department decided to pull in selected resources from the sites as opposed to open sourcing the links.
Library trustees
Jeanine Mindrum, Mary Christensen, Conklin, Michael Karp and Gregory Moberg are seeking election to the three seats on the Trustees of the Public Library.
The candidates were asked what the most important issue was facing the library.
Several candidates identified repairing the library as the most important issue.
Christensen said the library is “beyond waiting.”
She said the library was so far down the list “because we have seen it for so long, it has become like an old friend that we don’t even notice anymore.”
“We can’t take the time. It will disappear, … and no one will really want to move to a town that has such a poor example, not because of wanting, but because of going too slow,” she said.
According to Mindrum, the library is not just a building with books, but a community resource.
She said the Library Building Committee has been working hard to determine what systems needed to be replaced now. Mindrum said she would support their work by bringing information on the project to the community.
“If we take care of our library, it will be able to continue to take care of us in the future,” she said.
Moberg said that increasing the town’s awareness of the “gem” they had in the library together with outreach from the library staff would build communication and value.
“When it comes time for its upkeep, we will understand the value of it and hopefully be not so caught unawares of ‘Oh, this big building over here needs a lot of help,’ which indeed it does,” Moberg said.
Other candidates identified additional concerns.
Conklin said, in regards to the Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement, “only the current technocracy view is presented at the Westborough Public Library.”
Conklin said he was for inclusion of all viewpoints, “not just what people in the current library deem as acceptable for the people of Westborough to take as the dogma that they should be following.”
Karp said he was concerned about the “assault” on the library through the removal of books and “attempted intimidation” of staff.
“This is absolutely something that we can’t tolerate,” he said. “The idea that we should listen to what everybody has to say is nice in theory, but what we have to listen to is legitimate, well-thought out issues, not doctrinaire nonsense from fringe groups.”
The full forum can be viewed here.
