An individual running for the Board of Education has submitted letters to local papers casting aspersion on the work of the school district and its leadership. He most recently asserted that the District ranks poorly academically, that student attendance is down, teacher turnovers are up, and the graduation rate is low. He laid the blame for these supposed failings at the feet of the district leaders and the Board of Education. He has also complained that free and reduced lunches for poor children were somehow keeping parents from being involved in their children’s education, and has twice accused the District of providing no vocational opportunities to students.
 When I ran for the Board, I did my homework first.
 If Joseph Marinello had done his homework, he would know that student attendance is up—not down—in the District. Most recent data show an average attendance rate of more than 90% for all our schools. He would know that as of this writing, there are five students on suspension from Niagara Falls High School. That’s five out of 1928. That’s .025% of the student body and, I’ll add, though it’s not desirable to have to suspend any student, there will always be some who have earned it. The 99.75% percent of the student body at NFHS who are not serving suspensions probably don’t appreciate being painted with that brush by someone who wants to sit on the Board of Education.
 Mr. Marinello purports a very high turnover rate for teachers in the District, but the fact is very few teachers willingly leave the District. Over the past two years or so, in an effort to meet an ever-dwindling budget, positions were cut that largely affected teachers in their probationary periods; many of these returned to positions as regular substitutes. They didn’t leave, they just cost taxpayers less and student achievement was not impacted.
 In fact, if Mr. Marinello had done his homework, he would know that the district ranks well above similar districts across the state and far exceeds the state average for graduation rate. He would know that the graduation rate has risen steadily in the last 10 years and, in fact, our District outranks Utica, Binghamton, and Schenectady, among others. In every “No Child Left Behind” accountability measures, the NFCSD ranks first in student achievement among districts with similar demographics.
 Mr. Marinello is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own truth. He might have done some fact-finding before he did some loud-mouthing.
 Furthermore, the rise in student achievement has been overseen by the very people accused of incompetence by the author of these negative and nonsensical rants, in which he seems to hold the public school system responsible for everything from job creation to family values. Our job is to educate students to be college - and career ready. We do that job.
 This District’s alumni attend academically elite colleges and universities all over the country, including Harvard, Syracuse, and each of the Little Three, despite the fact that many of them grew up in poverty.
 Had Mr. Marinello done his homework, he would know that more two-thirds of our students live in households struggling well below the poverty rate and that for many, the meals they are served at school are the only meals they get all day. Some of our elementary schools have more than 80% of children qualified for free or reduced meals; you better believe we are going to provide those meals.
 If he struggled to feed children or knew how it felt when poverty looked at him out of his own child’s eyes, he may well know appreciation for every meal that child received.
Helping children receive nutrition does not keep parents from being involved with their children or their children’s education. It may well provide a little relief for families who can barely pay the rent. I am astonished at the suggestion he has made that the responsible thing to do is to let children go hungry. If Mr. Marinello sent his children to public schools, he may actually see the children he’s complaining that we feed.
 As for his accusation that no vocational opportunities are provided, he must have missed the busloads of students going to BOCES to study automotive, skilled trades, culinary arts, computer technology, machine technology, HVAC, health occupations and a slew of other programs offered on route 31.
 I am not an educator, but I have been around the field long enough to know about something called DBQs or Document Based Questions. These require a student to read and analyze information and then write a response.
Looking at Mr. Marinello’s letter, I would give him an F for research and analysis and suggest his desire to be elected superseded his desire to be honest.
 In any case, he didn’t do his homework.