To the Editor:

At the time of this writing, an investigation unanimously supported by the Board of Education may be on hold, pending further discussion.  The investigation was triggered when a confidential BOE email and a text were leaked and then posted on Facebook.

I encourage the BOE to proceed with its investigation.  For too long, elected officials in Newtown have either been complicit or have looked the other way as a handful of Republican Town Committee die-hards consistently violated the public trust and worse.

The influence and power of the RTC leadership over our town and schools has made it difficult, and in some cases dangerous, to stand up against those who resort to underhanded and deceitful actions in municipal and education related matters.

This is not a Democrat versus Republican issue.  The RTC’s actions are just as harmful to Newtown’s Republicans, especially those who support quality education.  It’s about a handful of elected officials who resort to discrediting those who disagree when they can’t make an effective argument. This is not opinion or hearsay.  The evidence is overwhelming.

Because other town and school officials find it easier to simply look the other way, or pass it off as business as usual, this kind of behavior has been allowed to continue for years.  Today, nearly every board, council and commission is affected.    For example:

1 - Something is wrong when the town attorney can overturn the voting public’s overwhelming sup-port to limit the seven-member BOE to a maximum of four members from one party.  Today, the BOE has five Republican members.

2 - When board members get away with stealing and misusing documents that are covered under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, something is wrong.

3 - When only certain Newtown officials and RTC loyalists are allowed to delete their government email records, in violation of the state’s two-year retention policy, something is wrong.

4 - When the first selectwoman, an RTC leader, picks the State’s Tea Party Patriots Spokesperson to be the chairperson of Newtown’s Ethics Commission, something is wrong.  Yes, you read that cor-rectly….the Ethics Commission.

5 - When Newtown’s deputy registrar, a town employee, who happens to also be the secretary of the RTC, is allowed to post confidential information on the social networks without immediate disciplinary action, something is wrong.

6 - When the Legislative Council chairperson and Board of Finance chairperson can get away with scheduling a meeting with the schools superintendent to discuss the future of Hawley School without informing the BOE chairperson and without authorization to represent their members, something is wrong.

7 - When the BOE chair arrives to the meeting at the request of the superintendent, and the LC chair refuses to let him in the room, something is very, very wrong.

This long overdue and courageous investigation by the BOE is a good start. I hope all of Newtown will support this effort.

Kevin Fitzgerald

24 Old Farm Hill Road, Newtown     November 4, 2015