Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Dozens of Nashua Parent Voice members turned out despite Tuesday evening's rain to rally in support of returning to full in-person learning in the city's schools.

NASHUA – While several dozen members of Nashua Parent Voice, a recently formed group advocating for the return to full in-person learning in Nashua’s schools, donned hats, hoods, umbrellas and signs and braved Tuesday’s rain for a rally on City Hall Plaza, a war of words was underway on social media between some members and a Board of Education member.

Gloria Timmons, a BOE member since 2017 who is also the president of the Nashua NAACP, referred in Facebook posts to the group’s Oct. 5 rally in front of School District offices on Ledge Street as “priviledged, white upper-class women bitching, led by Jessica Brown.” Brown is a Board of Education member elected in 2019.

“A member of our school board along with others with Trump colors organized a rally … they are trying to force reopening of schools,” Timmons wrote in a subsequent post.

She also said she “didnít see a person of color in the crowd,” referring to the Oct. 5 rally. “Those parents were working and trying to protect their children.”

Kelly Dinoff, a Nashua Parent Voice organizer and spokeswoman, was one of the first to respond to Timmons’s comments and allegations.

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Umbrellas numbered right up there with signs and hand drawn posters at Tuesday evening's rally by members of the recently formed group Nashua Parent Voice. The group advocates for the immediate return to full in-person attendance in Nashua schools.

“As a parent, I’m personally appalled by her public commentary that focuses on race, gender, class and politics rather than the issue at hand,” Dinoff wrote, referring to Timmons.

Dinoff posted several screenshots of some of the exchanges, including one in which Dinoff states that Timmons “openly disparages and insults Nashua parents.”

The social media back-and-forth at times referred to Nashua Parent Voice’s core mission – to convince the school board and Superintendent of Schools Jahmal Mosley to develop “a reasonable and comprehensive plan for return to in-person learning for our students.”

Mosley said following the Oct. 5 rally that he and the district are committed to “a methodical, pragmatic rollout” toward the goal of full in-person learning.

That approach, he said, “is something I’m doing, and is something I’m going to do.

Balancing their signs with umbrellas, members of Nashua Parent Voice rally in front of City Hall Tuesday evening on behalf of their efforts to convince Superintendent of Schools Jahmal Mosley to fully reopen all city schools.

“I do not apologize for not putting the children and staff at risk,” he added.

At the time, city health department officials had just upped Nashua’s community transmission rating from “moderate” to “substantial,” a development that Mosley said is an example of the unpredictability of the spread of the COVID-19 virus – and one of the reasons he supports the district’s “step-by-step” approach to resuming full in-person learning.

But Parent Voice members argue that even with the upgrade to “substantial,” the risk of children contracting the virus is minuscule.

At Tuesday’s rain-soaked rally, several of the many signs toted by Parent Voice members showed numbers claiming that the “survival rate (for children) ages 0-19 (is) 99.997%” with the message “safely open schools now.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.