‘Scare tactics,’ a censure and a lawsuit: Crowded Olathe school board race heats up
A crowded Olathe school board primary race has dwindled to three active candidates, after two stopped campaigning and threw their support to fellow conservative Jennifer Gilmore — a second-time candidate who is suing the district because she was removed from a board meeting for hurling accusations at members.
Gilmore calls her lawsuit against the district a stand for First Amendment rights and is campaigning for more transparency. One of her opponents countered that “scare tactics and sensationalist views” should not hijack the board.
Voters districtwide on Aug. 1 will advance the two top vote-getters to the general election in November. The winner will replace at-large board member Joe Beveridge, who is not seeking reelection.
In addition to Gilmore, the other active candidates in a race that is technically nonpartisan are Troy Snyder, a Republican, and Will Babbit, who considers himself a moderate and is supported by the Johnson County Democrats and Olathe teachers union. Charles Carter and Vince Weston have both stopped campaigning.
The Olathe school board race is one of the most heated in a set of primaries scattered around Johnson County on Tuesday. Other races are for city council seats in Olathe, Overland Park, Lenexa, Merriam and Prairie Village.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Gilmore said she is a mother of two Olathe students and works in finance. She said her top priorities are “transparency, engagement and curriculum,” saying on her website that there is a “clear lack of trust between parents and the school board.” She also is pushing for parents to have greater access to learning materials and career-readiness curriculum.
She told The Star, “We are in a pivotal time in public education and need people who really care about children and their education in our public schools.”
Snyder, who said he’s had four daughters graduate from Olathe schools, serves as director of holistic wellness and spiritual life at KidsTLC, which offers treatment and other services for children with mental and behavioral health challenges. Snyder is prioritizing academic excellence, aiming to close learning gaps and teacher vacancies, transparent budgeting and auditing, and safe schools.
He said he is running to stop the “false narrative circulating in our community that our district is being mismanaged, and that our schools are somehow failing our students” and to “protect the long heritage we have in our community of exceptional public schools.”
Babbit said he has an incoming Olathe third grader and is a veteran who now works as director of business engineering at Stinson LLP. His priorities include lobbying for increased school funding, expanding career-readiness programs, addressing the substitute teacher shortage, safe schools and empowering teachers.
He said he is running for office for the first time because he has a “special affinity for education, coming from a family of teachers. I’m running because I moved here for the great schools and diverse community and I want to ensure that continues for all the kids and families here.”
Gilmore is taking another stab at getting on the board, after she lost her race for the 3rd District seat by only 65 votes to Julie Steele, a Democrat, in the fall of 2021. Gilmore ran with a slate of conservative candidates campaigning against mask mandates. Gilmore questioned the integrity of the election in social media posts but did not request a recount.
She is now suing the district and then-school board president Beveridge after she was kicked out of a January 2022 school board meeting, where she accused Steele of “buying” her seat and Jim Randall, Steele’s father and a former Olathe City Council member, of lying. Randall is also Beveridge’s father-in-law.
A U.S. District Court judge in June threw out most claims brought by Gilmore, but sided with her on her primary claim, saying a jury could reasonably conclude she was prevented from speaking during the meeting because officials did not like her views. The parties have been in mediation, but if a settlement is not reached, the case could go to a jury trial this fall.
When asked about the case, Gilmore replied in an email to The Star, “I believe in my first amendment right and hope a jury of my peers will also agree.”
Snyder pointed out that Gilmore’s lawsuit has cost the district “over $200K. This grows every day. I fail to find how a candidate can claim to be in this process to put students first?
“These scare tactics and sensationalist views have gotten old. Radical elements cannot continue to be allowed to hijack the good work that is being done for our wonderful students and families. Our board meetings need to return to ‘normal.’ The drama needs to be voted OUT not IN,” Snyder said in an email.
Gilmore’s lawsuit had cost the Olathe school district nearly $205,000 as of last week, according to district records provided to The Star.
A divided school board
The primary election comes amid other controversy on the board, after it voted 5-2 to censure member Brian Connell, removing him from committee assignments and barring him from leadership positions.
Board members cited a pattern of Connell yelling and storming out of meetings. Connell, who won in 2021 as part of the conservative slate, has apologized for getting heated, but also defended himself and criticized other members for shutting him down as he raises policy concerns.
Babbit said he stands by the majority. “Treating one another with professionalism and courtesy is an important example to our students in how to deal with disagreements and frustration,” he said.
“I think an important step in the future will be to further flesh out the board rules and board code of conduct so the process is more straightforward and transparent in the future. As a governing body, the school board has an obligation to hold themselves to the highest standard of ethics, as I will when I am on the board,” Babbit said in an email.
But Gilmore has stood behind Connell, saying she would like the board to remove the censure and “get back to the basics in education.”
“A few board members took away one elected official’s voice for the 12K+ voters that elected him,” she said. “They did not censure Joe Beveridge on the numerous outburst he has had over the years. Brian has publicly acknowledged he could have handled the situation better. We can’t work together, if we just take away one’s freedom to speak, represent or commit.”
Snyder said he agrees with the board’s censure of Connell and argued it “needed to be done months before.”
“An educated adult in an elected position of authority cannot behave in the manner in which he has conducted himself without consequence,” he said. “I am absolutely for diversity of thought and fully support civil discourse. Listening to dissonant ideas, thoughts, and opinions from the dais. … But once a person has said what they have to say and a vote is taken, it is time to move on. Instead, Mr. Connell has tantrums and meltdowns like we’ve never seen in Olathe before. We would never allow our students to behave in this manner in the classroom (or anywhere in the district), why should Mr. Connell be allowed to do so without consequence.”
Diversity and equity
The Olathe school board in recent months also has seen a larger push by students to address racist incidents in schools and do a better job of tackling inequities.
Students have been demanding stronger discipline against racism, saying the use of slurs and hate speech by fellow students is not handled seriously enough. The push came after Olathe South High School sophomore Kirubel Solomon this spring shared with the media the racism and harassment he endured, sparking protests.
District officials have touted recent steps toward improving equity and inclusivity, including creating a diversity and engagement advisory council in 2020. The group has formed several staff affinity groups to help employees bond, and it helped push for broader recruitment efforts to increase diversity among staff. And the district hired an outside company to conduct an equity audit, reviewed earlier this year.
The school board recently approved an updated student code of conduct that made racial harassment and hate speech a more serious offense.
But many students continue to call on leaders to investigate district policies to ensure racism is better addressed, implement stronger diversity programs and training, and hire a more diverse workforce.
During her 2021 campaign, Gilmore spoke against critical race theory, writing in a Facebook post that, “we should not be instilling racially divisive ideas to our impressionable youth.” Critical race theory is not taught in K-12 schools, but is a college-level concept that examines the role of institutions in perpetuating racism. The phrase became shorthand among hard-right conservatives for lessons that delve into systemic racism.
When asked about the district’s diversity and equity work last week, Gilmore said, “I don’t feel it should be an all or nothing. Let’s first just have some open conversations and set measurable goals. Stop hand picking the committees would be a great start.
“Let’s open the room for anyone that wants to join in. Let parents see the curriculum and where they want to refine lessons. Let educators give their input about what they see and hear in the schools. The district paid money for an equity audit and have done nothing with it. We need to start investing in conversations that help children thrive in schools and stop with the biased agendas.”
She said the district’s priority must be to “teach ALL children of any race, gender, etc. that academic freedom is the highest priority.”
Babbit said there is “always room to grow and learn in the equity space.”
He said he supports “the fact that the district is committed to DEI work, and I think the steps to continually improve in this area depend on our families’ and students’ needs. I would propose that we work together to map out the direction DEI work will go next.”
Snyder said the diversity and equity work is important in the district where students speak more than 90 languages and come from “many different rich cultures and heritages. The DEI work helps us meet our students and staff members where they are and to learn from them and their life experiences.”
“Diversity makes us stronger and we are better for it. When each of my children transferred to Olathe North, we were told that it was a ‘melting pot,’” Snyder said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a conglomeration of each being given the space to hold and celebrate their cultural differences. Identity is important. We learn from one another and are better together. Please understand, I am fully supportive of our approved curricula, not hidden agendas.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2023 at 10:42 AM.
