Choose Easton Resident Leny Wallen-Friedman for ER9 Board of Education

I’m writing in support of Leny Wallen-Friedman, who is running for a seat on the Educational Region 9 (ER9) Board of Education (BOE).

The ER9 BOE oversees the well-being of the students attending Joel Barlow High School in Redding and works to deliver a quality education to all.

A retired attorney, Leny Wallen-Friedman’s relevant experience involves serving 10+ years on the school board in his prior community before retiring to Easton with his wife. This includes four years as board chair and 10 years on the district’s finance committee. He has coached baseball and soccer, served as treasurer for the parent-teacher association of his children’s elementary school and for the Girl Scouts, and his family has hosted numerous international teaching assistants who worked at his children’s schools. Before retiring, Lenny focused on business litigation in his own firm where he brought a deliberate, analytical approach to decision-making. Leny has just the kind of community-minded spirit and direct experience we need on the ER9 board.

In contrast, Leny’s Republican opponents, while doubtlessly decent, community-minded people, run the risk of establishing Republican control of Easton’s most complex school board. Republicans have too often turned classrooms into battlegrounds for partisan culture wars instead of places of learning. Instead of focusing on improving academics, supporting teachers, and funding schools fairly, many GOP-backed boards push censorship, politicize curricula, and roll back diversity and inclusion. Their “parental rights” agenda frequently sidelines educators and marginalizes students, while efforts to privatize education drain resources from public schools.

Our children deserve classrooms centered on knowledge, truth, and opportunity — not ideology. Vote Row A All the Way for responsible Democratic control of our children’s futures.

L. Fleuette

Easton, CT