The Electoral Trustees pulled the rug out from under

The Electoral Trustees pulled the rug out from under the people in Wakefield District on Monday with the appointment of Robert W. Eastham to the Rappahannock School Board.

At an advertised public hearing held last week for considering School Board appointments, Wakefield citizens who attended were unanimous in their support for incumbent Paul Nichols. No other names were mentioned. Nichols has represented Wakefield for 20 years. Maybe that’s too long. It’s probably a good idea to limit consecutive terms to three, as the Trustees announced they would do in the future. But if they felt that Nichols had stayed past the time for him to leave, they should have announced that they wouldn’t consider him for reappointment. Or, in view of the support he’s earned from people in his district, the Trustees could have named Nichols to a two year term and served notice that he wouldn't be reappointed at the end of that period. Either way, Wakefield residents could have rallied behind an alternative candidate, knowing that the man who had ably represented them for so long was no longer in the running.

The Trustees did not indicate at the public hearing on Thursday that they were recessing to consider any other names than the ones presented that night. How could they expect to have input from Wakefield citizens on unnamed candidates?

Robert Eastham may be a fine man and he may turn out to be an excellent choice for the School Board but he certainly doesn’t fit many of the criteria by which the Trustees supposedly judge prospective board members. He’s a native of Rappahannock but has only just returned to the county after a longtime residency in the Virgin Islands. He’s been back for a little over two years and in that time, has attended one School Board budget meeting. How does that demonstrate a genuine interest in our public school students and system? It’s true that he’s a taxpayer but he’s not yet a landowner