It is good to see that Stonington First Selectman Rob Simmons has realized that he probably has neither the time nor the inclination to do the work that is required of a member of the Stonington Board of Education, and I am publicly appreciative that he has chosen to withdraw, “Simmons withdraws from Stonington school board race,” (Aug. 20). 

I am confused by the comment in the same article announcing that Heidi Simmons, his wife, also a candidate for the Board of Education, considers experience in "retiree issues" a qualification for the local BOE since those issues have little if anything to do with the board and, once a teacher retires, they deal directly with the State Teacher Retirement Board. It would seem that either  Simmons or his wife do not understand how the local school board functions, which is unfortunate for a candidate. 

I hope that The Day is planning on running a brief synopsis of the qualifications for all the rest of the Stonington Board of Education candidates up for election since it was entirely unnecessary and irrelevant to this article to include the information about Mrs. Simmons when discussing her husband's decision to not seek election. It became a free election advertisement. Appropriate equal time protocol certainly calls for similar coverage.

Frederick Souza

Stonington