To the editor:

My name is Stephen J. Hemenway, a retired Deputy Sheriff of 32 years, currently living in Northport, producing a national family educational public access tv show called The Children’s Corner, which is also on Youtube. I decided a few months back to leave my little retirement “safe zone,” and run for State House Representative for District #39. Why would I do such a thing?

It wasn’t the 2019 expansion of renewable energy laws that are currently devastating miles of woods with toxic and caustic solar panels or the now current LD2003 law that allows developers to build low income housing, aka “projects”, in the suburbs. It was the 2021 law, LD864, that takes away the rights of parents and guardians to watch and listen to what’s being taught to their children when being taught at home over the internet, ie: “remote instruction.”

Parents and guardians are “not authorized” to watch, listen or record the instruction and are only “authorized” to help the child gain access to the instruction, per this law. This law was sponsored by my opponent, Jan Dodge, the current Representative for District #39. She supported everything else I mentioned above as well. It is imperative that all voters know what their representatives are doing in the House before they vote! I do not support Jan Dodge and hope to win this seat this November 8.

Stephen J. Hemenway
Northport

To the editor:

Having known Jen Tuminaro for the last 7 years, I have witnessed many exemplary qualities of a true leader.

We initially became acquainted when Jen organized and began directing a local campus of Classical Conversations – a classical homeschool program designed to support families home educating their children, through an intentional and community-based approach. Being that this Classical Conversations community was a novel campus to the area, there were innumerable responsibilities Jen had to undertake as it came into existence.

Jen took on the role of personally engaging local families who had a common interest in such an academic program. Jen was responsible for hiring tutors to work within our classroom settings – even dedicating time to tutor some of our classes herself. Jen was relationally engaging with our families on such a genuine level that she would offer her time to help in our home projects, make regular phone calls to keep open lines of communication, and even help to fundraise to offset costs for families in need of financial assistance. Her abilities to delegate tasks and be an assertive director of our campus allowed the program to be a smoothly run, academically challenging and rigorous community, that helped our students and parents to learn and grow in ways that pushed and nurtured our gifts and talents.

As the needs and desires of our campus began to change, Jen was attentive and proactive in changes that began to take shape. Stepping away from Classical Conversations allowed us as a community of families to design a more desirable and suitable cooperative setting for the likes of those involved. Jen again did a fantastic job heading up our co-op.

In all of my experiences under Jen’s guidance and direction leading an academic program my family has been part of, I have extremely benefited from her level of precision, authority and organization. She has exceeded my personal expectations of a leader in this avenue, and it has been a blessing to be a part of these programs.

Bonnie Haiss
China