Anti-diversity candidates’ school board wins mean KC-area educators have fights ahead
The fight over racial issues that has divided school boards across the country was sure to impact area school board elections. And it’s clear from the vote that scare tactics about “critical race theory” aren’t going away anytime soon.
Because in some places, they’re working. In Lee’s Summit, two anti-diversity candidates won seats on the school board, so get ready for more arguments about banning books, and history itself.
Sanity prevailed elsewhere, including in North Kansas City Schools, where some parents wanted to ban LGBTQ-themed books from school libraries. Pro-diversity advocates Daniel Wartick and Terry Ward, an incumbent, won seats on the school board. Voters rejected not just bigotry, but panic, as they did in the Park Hill School District
Daryl Terwilleger and Shereka Barnes defeated candidates who criticized diversity efforts in Park Hill schools. Students at Park Hill South High School were suspended for starting an online petition to bring back slavery. A white teacher at Park Hill High School was allowed to retire rather than be fired for repeating a racial slur used by a Black student. After the incident, students protested for days.
There were mixed results in races for the Independence school board. Anthony Mondaine’s historic run for a seat ended in victory. But Mondaine, the first African American elected to the board, is just one vote among seven members. Incumbent Jill Esry, a staunch supporter of Independence school district Superintendent Dale Herl, was elected to her third six-year term.
Herl’s leadership team does not reflect a district where minority students make up nearly half of the enrollment. The voices of minority and nontraditional students in Independence schools have long been silenced. Mondaine, a pastor, could bring a new and much-needed perspective on some of the pressing issues facing the district.
Diversity work finished in Lee’s Summit?
Lee’s Summit voters elected Jennifer Foley and Heather Eslick, who have been critical of the district’s equity efforts. Their win is worrisome to district and community members who’ve been working since 2019 to improve diversity and equity in the district and help close the achievement gap between white and marginalized students.
Equity efforts began in Lee’s Summit under former Superintendent Dennis Carpenter. The superintendent won a fight to get equity work started in the predominantly white suburban district.
The two new board members will likely split the seven-member board, leaving President Ryan Murdock with the deciding vote on equity issues. Murdock won his seat on the board in 2018 running on an equity platform. But his votes have not always reflected that position.
Last year, when openly conservative candidates won seats on school boards in Gardner Edgerton, it led to resignations by more liberal members.
Four winning candidates shifted Gardner Edgerton’s seven-member board to be majority conservative. Just months after the new members were sworn in, two other board members stepped away, saying they had been the target of insults, personal attacks and threats in the community by supporters of the conservative board members. Of course, that left board seats open to be filled by other conservatives.
As more conservative candidates take seats on school boards across the Kansas City metropolitan area, it is important that other board members stick around to fight for positions they believe are in the best interest of the districts.
We understand that no one should have to endure bullying from people with opposing political views, but walking away only makes things worse.