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In the spirit of this holiday season, it’s time for the Lunenburg County School Board and Board of Supervisors to stop the needless squabbling over how and when the School Board provides its report at the monthly Board of Supervisors meetings.

For the past several months, the two boards have been at odds over school system representatives not appearing before the Board of Supervisors but sending a letter instead. This comes after a meeting when members of the public asked questions directly to the School Board Chairman and School Superintendent. Afterwards, the School Board sent a letter saying they would not return to the meetings due to a lack of masks and COVID-19 precautions and mentioned the unsolicited comments as a reason as well.

It’s true the Board of Supervisors need to make their meetings as COVID-safe as possible and may be well served by starting a virtual option for those who do not wish to attend in person. But the irony of school officials sending children to school in a COVID environment, but not wanting to attend public meetings has been pointed out by at least one supervisor.

It seems the threat of COVID is actually being used by the School Board as a reason to shield itself from public comment. The School Board has only responded to the Board of Supervisors by letter. They also have not responded to requests for comment from the Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch about the meeting issue.

In this time of uncertainty about our children’s learning environment, it is paramount that the School Board take every opportunity to communicate with the public and keep everyone up to date on its plans. The Board of Supervisors meeting is a good opportunity to respond to questions from the supervisors and the citizens. The Chairman of the Board of Supervisors was absolutely correct in allowing citizens to ask questions of, or make comments to, the school representatives. They are taxpaying citizens who deserve to have a voice in the process.

The bottom line is, we are in a mess. We have a pandemic, a struggling economy and a school system attempting to educate children in new and challenging ways. Nobody has time for petty disagreements that will only hurt the children and taxpaying citizens of Lunenburg County. They voted for this School Board and this Board of Supervisors with the expectation the two boards would be adult enough to communicate effectively and work out any difference they may have.

If the two boards cannot solve this simple matter among themselves, it is a sad commentary on the state of citizen leadership in Lunenburg County.