To the editor:

I like my local government served like a classic New England dish—cold, boring, and sensible. Give me a heaping plate of transparency, a side of cost-effectiveness, and a dash of common sense. 

In Barrington, once upon a time, that’s exactly what we got. Throw in any combination of Klepper, Califano, Arico, Guida, Gasbarro, or Brule, and you had a government that knew what it was doing—like a well-oiled, unremarkable machine. Yes, that’s a compliment!

Yet somehow, we veered off course. What we’ve had for the past dozen years or so feels less like governance and more like a never-ending episode of "How to Lose Friends and Alienate Taxpayers." 

Let’s start with the School Committee. They decided to swap out a top-tier Gold Ribbon curriculum—crafted by none other than Dr. Betty Calise, arguably Barrington’s finest curriculum director ever (IMO), and in collaboration with the BTA —for Common Core, a curriculum so proven that... well, no one knows if it works. And then they moved on to the "sleepy science" debacle. The Douglas School Committee decided to rearrange school start times based on—get this—practically zero evidence. And the kicker? There’s still no data proving this change helped anyone, let alone our kids. Is it any wonder that almost no other districts in the state adopted this scheme?

Then came labor unrest. We lost three of our finest teachers, all while watching our classes get de-leveled and honors courses slashed. But hey, at least we got the equity agenda, complete with “transing” the school bathrooms. Social-emotional learning? Uh, I guess so. But what happened to the focus on merit and measurable student improvement? The School Committee’s valorous support of the DEI agenda may be winning gold medals—but not for student outcomes. The current SC is marginally better as Douglas and Basse have partnered with McCrann, Peck and Bell to nearly bankrupt the town with the hiring of Superintendent Wargo and the $250M school building boondoggle.

Not to be outdone by the SC, the Town Council made sure to join in on the chaos. The dynamic trio of Speakman, Carroll, and Brier were on a mission to turn our town into a "progressive utopia." Let’s recap: budget increase over 4 percent? Check. High-density affordable housing that benefits nearly zero Barrington residents? Check. A baffling, taxpayer-funded acquisition of the Monastery property? Check again. Let’s not forget the unnecessary feud with the BUVC, which has been around since 1954 (way longer than the current crop of councilors, none of whom were even alive back then). The cherry on top? The flagpole fiasco and the over-the-top climate activism. Apparently, governing a small town isn’t exciting enough without some good old-fashioned virtue-signaling. The progressive experiment has left taxpayers, especially seniors, feeling frustrated, confused, and neglected. 

Final thoughts on candidates? I won’t vote for anyone associated with these past traumas, and I sure won’t support anyone who’s been swimming in the progressive soup for more than a minute. What I want—what we all need—is a return to common sense. 

Let’s start with candidates who prioritize taxpayers, especially our seniors. Let’s elect people who will apologize to both the BUVC and the BTA for the way they’ve been treated. I desire candidates who are independent thinkers (not party identifiers). I support candidates that won’t gobble up every liver snap offered up by the state and national masters at the CDC, RIDOE and all the other presumed “experts.”

And finally, let’s find leaders who are willing to govern, plain and simple, without all the lecturing.

Scott Fuller

Barrington