Manitowoc school board candidates Paul 'Biff' Hansen and Christopher Able criticized by county supervisor in letters placed in mailboxes. Here's what to know.

Editor's note: This story was updated April 3 with responses from Sulynn Moore, a representative of the Republican Party of Manitowoc County, and Christopher Able.

MANITOWOC - Dozens of Manitowoc citizens found a campaign letter in their mailboxes from County Supervisor Don Zimmer March 29 weighing in on the school board election, less than a week before the spring election on April 4.

The letter, which urges voters to re-elect school board incumbents Kathy Willis and Collin Braunel, was used primarily to criticize Paul "Biff" Hansen and Christopher Able, who are both challengers in the school board race. At the bottom, it says, "Paid for by Don Zimmer."

According to Sulynn Moore, a representative for the Republican Party of Manitowoc County, in an email to the Herald Times Reporter April 2, a group of people prepared the letters by putting them in plastic sleeves designed to be hung on door knobs.

"Everyone who went out was instructed to only put (the letters) on doors where they could hang the flyer," Moore wrote.

"If there were flyers in mailboxes, someone took them off their doors and stuffed them in the mailbox," she wrote.

Zimmer serves on the Manitowoc County Board of Supervisors and is chairman for the Republican Party of Manitowoc County. When asked to comment on last year's school board elections in April 2022, he told the Herald Times Reporter: "I will never give you an interview for any reason, ever."

The Herald Times Reporter did call Zimmer for an interview March 31, but the call went unanswered and there was no option to leave a voicemail.

In the first paragraph of the fliers weighing in on this year's school board elections, Zimmer writes that Hansen is a member of "a group called 'ALLY,' which seeks to undermine the reform measures initiated by the current school board."

The group, called the Alliance for Learning and Leading our Youth, was created in May 2022 and states in their private Facebook group that it was formed "with the intent of working to promote the principles of public education."

On his own Facebook page, Hansen wrote in answer to Zimmer's letter that "questioning policy is not undermining the board. Questioning in this case may be the result of a lack of transparency in the development of the policies."

Zimmer's letter also stated Hansen was part of the "school district administration that failed our children."

In Hansen's response, he said he was proud of the work he did with students during his tenure at Manitowoc schools. Hansen retired from being an assistant principal at Lincoln High School in 2016 and was a special education teacher before that.

Hansen wrote in the Facebook post: "The writer of this letter, to my knowledge, never witnessed my work within the high school, attended any meetings at Lincoln High School, attended any administrative meetings of the district, or attended any curriculum planning meetings of the MPSD. I would love to know where his information and knowledge of 'failure' comes from when making this statement."

Zimmer also wrote about Able's position as the president of the Manitowoc Public Library Board of Trustees and criticized Able's vote to not conduct a board review on the young adult novel "The Haters" by Jesse Andrews.

The Manitowoc Public Library had received a request to consider shelving the book in the adult section last year, instead of Young Adult Fiction. Critics of the book say the profanity and sexual scenes should not be accessible by young readers.

The library staff conducted a review of the book, but ultimately decided to keep it shelved in the Young Adult section.

A request for an appeal of that decision was forwarded to the library board, where Able and seven other members of the board voted to deny the appeal, according to the September library board meeting minutes.

In an email to the Herald Times Reporter April 1, Able said he did not cast a vote in the matter, but was included as part of the prevailing vote in the minutes.

"As a matter of personal practice, I rarely vote on board matters as I preside over the meetings and work with the director to implement board directives," Able wrote.

Able also shared an email he had sent to Zimmer on March 28. In that email, Able asked Zimmer to "cease and desist from statements about me that are false and that you could have known to be false by putting forth even the slightest reasonable effort to ascertain the veracity of them. Failure to do so may compel legal action."

Able also said in a Facebook post that he knew of some people who found the letter in their mailboxes without postage. Able encouraged people to return any letters found without postage to the U.S. Post Office.

Dig deeper:

• Don Zimmer's 2020 comments on Black Lives Matter: Manitowoc County committee takes no action against Supervisor Don Zimmer after contentious three-hour meeting

• Manitowoc school board candidates on the issues: Manitowoc school board candidates on Success for All curriculum, funding, student behavior and more

• Manitowoc school district approves new curriculum: Manitowoc school district's new curriculum will cost taxpayers $1.9M over six years and change how and what teachers teach. Here’s what to know.

Contact reporter Alisa Schafer at aschafer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc County supervisor Don Zimmer circulates school board letters