*See link below for Mr. Bones letter to the editor.
Mr. Bones! AKA Moses. Yes it is good to hear from you. It has been a while since our paths have crossed and I would welcome your support and involvement with the Tillamook County Retired Educators and Teachers PAC! This group started just a few weeks ago with an eye on the May 16 Special Election and we have been working hard to reconnect with colleagues and friends. It’s surprisingly difficult to track down retired teachers and I am sorry that you were not personally invited to join (I still can’t find a phone number for you but would happily meet with you to talk about your concerns).
Though we haven’t been able to contact every retired educator in the county, so far there are 160 teachers, educators, and public education supporters who have joined our efforts. We even held a TREAT social last month and had over 30 people gathered and reconnected. We are a non-partisan political action group, and our goal is to educate and inform voters about school related issues in the county. Your political party affiliation is not a criterion for joining and I hope TREAT will continue to grow as a community even after this election cycle.
Obviously we do not speak for ALL retired educators, and that’s ok. Even among TREAT’s endorsement committees, we had rigorous debates over which candidates to endorse. Our goal is to highlight the candidates who we believe will do the best job in supporting our students. In the spirit of the mission of TREAT, I do hope that no one will vote for these important school board positions based on a misunderstanding of our group. Instead I hope voters will cast their votes based on candidates’ qualifications, skills, and demonstrated support of public education.
Warm regards,
Patty Brown
Retired Teacher (28 years) Tillamook and Neah-ka-nie School Districts
Taught at Bay City, Garibaldi, Liberty, Wilson and East Elementary Schools
