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Dear Town Residents,

My name is Gayle Harris and I am running for the Board of Education in November. I’ve lived in West Hartford most of my life. I’m a physician who has practiced for over twenty years in town.

I was raised here, and I raised my four children in West Hartford. I love the small town feel of West Hartford even though we have grown considerably through the years. I believe my children got an excellent education in the public private and religious schools in our town and area and I’m committed to make sure that excellence in education continues for the next generation.

I believe that we should be focusing on basics in education and making sure that each child in our school system is afforded an outstanding education to help them succeed in life.

My children were afforded this type of education in town, and they’ve all thrived and succeeded.

Some of the issues that concern me is that we sustain the quality of education in town schools and that we continue to prepare our children for the future. I want to make sure that our schools are teaching math and science and English and history and that we don’t spend time energy and money on issues that aren’t going to help prepare our children for the future. As the world becomes a more complicated place, we want to ensure all of our children are going to thrive.

I’m also concerned that we don’t allow the divisive political climate in our country to invade and filter into our schools in any shape or form.

Taxes are high in our town and the biggest budget expenditure by far is on education. We want to make sure that our town doesn’t become unaffordable and that we make prudent decisions to keep quality education at an affordable price.

I’m excited and energized by this opportunity and hope to meet many of you in the coming days and during the campaign.

Dr. Gayle Harris

Editor’s Note: Dr. Gayle Harris is a Republican candidate for the Board of Education