The shameful vindictiveness of the County Commissioners
The Commissioners are denying food to hungry children because of a four year old political vendetta over mask mandates. This is shameful.
Note: This is an open letter to the Monroe County Commissioners, sent on November 14, 2025.
This is why I believe both city and county government should abolish their respective social services funds. These are inherently political decisions when made by elected officials, rather than a neutral process based on objective qualifications. We should allow the people of Bloomington and Monroe County to decide for themselves which charitable organizations to support, rather than have politicians make that decision for us.
Commissioners,
I am deeply disappointed in your decision to reject the appropriation of $1800 to Seven Oaks Classical School through the Monroe County Council’s social services fund.
The Monroe County Council, who were elected to be county government’s fiscal body, had already approved the grant. It had gone through the application process, was chosen by the social services funding committee while many other applications were not chosen, and passed 7-0 by the County Council. The Council could have easily separated the grant to Seven Oaks Classical School like they did with Planned Parenthood, and chose not to do so. That decision should be respected.
I supported the county mask mandate in 2020 and 2021. I always personally wore a mask in a public place in submission to the county’s lawful authority. I believed then, and still do now, that temporary pandemic mitigation measures were wise. I did not agree with Seven Oaks’ decision to resist the mask mandate.
After the rest of the state dropped their mask mandates in the summer of 2021, Monroe County held on to the authority, only ending the mask mandate when the state of emergency was lifted in March of 2022. You have not had a mask mandate for over three and a half years, yet you are still bitter about the fact that Seven Oaks resisted the mandate. You are behaving exactly like President Donald Trump, who also is known to hold petty grudges.
Was this about public health or about compliance? From the September 21, 2021 edition of the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Shipp asked Caudill if the number of COVID-19 cases reported at Seven Oaks is disproportionate relative to the number of cases reported by other schools in the county that are enforcing a universal mask mandate. Caudill said no, as far as she knows.
Whether you agree with the lawsuit or not, the school has every right under our laws and the Constitution to seek relief from the courts for a policy they feel is unjustified. Your decision to punish SOCS for exercising their due process rights under the law shows a nasty authoritarian streak that should be anathema to elected officials who have sworn to uphold the law. The fact that you are still pursuing this vindictive policy three and a half years after the county’s mask mandate expired shows how little regard you have for due process.
In rejecting the decision of the county’s elected fiscal body, you are literally taking food out of the mouths of children for political reasons. This grant would have helped feed hungry children by sending food home with them. Your personal vendetta is not punishing Seven Oaks, it is harming hungry children. This is shameful.
I strongly urge you to reverse this decision, respect the Monroe County Council’s budgetary authority, and abandon this needless and petty grudge.