Choosing among candidates vying for a position on the Canandaigua City School District board of education usually rises to the intensity level of deciding between a small or medium coffee with your Meal #1 at McDonald’s. Typically, every candidate promises to support the teachers and students of the district and to be a prudent custodian of the budget. Expressions of affirmation and good will abound. A few letters to the editor offer heartfelt endorsements to various individuals. On the appointed day for voting, the school budget is adopted by a large margin, two candidates win by similar margins, and the district proceeds on its steady course.

This year’s election provided a cautionary tale for anyone not interested in simply saying “Everything’s fine, and I want to keep it that way.” In the run-up to the election, a local Facebook page lit up with allegations that two of the candidates were by turns book banners, right-wing extremists, theocrats, fronts for Christian nationalist groups (reviving a bigoted religious trope reminiscent of pre-JFK days), allied with a cult of transphobic maniacs, and ultimately intent on “infiltrating” the board of education. The attacks would, of course, not be complete without at least one reference to Nazi Germany.

In a rather unusual letter to the editor (not the standard plain vanilla), a former district employee accused the two candidates of being “obsessed” with a single issue (unnamed in the letter) and indulging........

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