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To the Editor:

The past several months, losing Isle of Wight School Board candidate and former School Board member Renee Dial has shown just how unprofessional she is by attacking local citizens and airing her own personal grievances. 

Although I’m a private citizen, with a child at IWCS, Ms. Dial has brought my name up in three of the last four meetings. I currently attend School Board meetings and while she was on the board. I emailed her with concerns. She ignored all of my emails and now admits that – in her capacity as a School Board member— she regularly laughed at me while sitting on the board. It is unclear why she feels the constant need to talk about me at the meetings. 

It is also unclear why she accused Mr. Maresh of smirking at her, which I didn’t witness as I watched him during the School Board meeting. Most people who get up to speak are more concerned with reading what they wrote than looking at the board to see what their facial expressions are. 

For example, I had no idea that Ms Dial had been laughing at me while she was a sitting School Board member. Her comments appear to be an effort to disrupt and disregard the process. In my opinion, they are often unhinged personal attacks rather than real concerns about the school system.  

Based on her behavior, I have deep reservations about her judgment and question the quality of the candidates she endorses. For example, she helped qualify Timothy Mallory and Tracy Hendrix to become candidates to run for School Board and Board of Supervisors, respectively.  

If those two candidates are elected, they seem to follow in her footsteps because they too seem unable to put the proper disclaimer on their signs or accurately complete campaign finance reports. 

Then there’s Laequinla Hunter in Windsor who appears to abuse the nonprofit 501(c)(3) rules by using nonprofits she founded as a fund for her campaign. For those reasons, I recommend voting Wooster and McCarty for District 2! And, of course, Maresh, for my District 4 on Nov. 7!

Heidi Swartz

Windsor