‘Culture wars,’ police in schools are election issues
people who voted in last year’s school board election.
Shenendehowa
In the Shenendehowa Central School District, a Democrat leader sent out a warning urging voters to do their research before Tuesday’s election.
In an email with the subject, “Vote May 17th to stop extremism on Shenendehowa School Board,” Clifton Park Democratic Committee Chairman Patrick Lyons said some candidates could embroil the district in “culture wars.”
The platform for some candidates is “simply too extreme for our community and will inject politics directly into our classrooms,” he wrote, before recommending voters choose among four candidates for the three available seats. He recommended Deanna Stephenson, Tom Templeton, Joe Weber or Petra Holden.
“I urge you to learn about all the candidates by visiting their web pages and Facebook pages,” he wrote. “I think you will be shocked by those who are running under the ‘Take Back Our Schools’ banner.”
Republican town Chairman Jeff Jones said he was appalled that the Democratic party leader would enter the race.
“If political leaders want to label parents exercising their right to run for office as extremists, they better have some facts to support such a slanderous claim,” he said in a statement opposing Lyons’ email. “I hope the people of the Shen school district see this for what it is, political interference in a race where they are afraid of losing control over our children.”
Seven people seek three seats: Stephenson, Templeton, Weber, Holden, Jason Little, Jennyfer Gleason and Amanda Siska.
Schenectady school board race
In Schenectady, the GOP city committee chairman entered the race to oppose two candidates that he said would bring more liberal extremism to the Schenectady board. He doesn’t want Kristen Holler and Emily Willey-Aulet to win.
At a meet the candidates forum, the four candidates largely agreed, except on two main issues: teaching “critical race theory” and banning books.
On both, three candidates said the city schools need to teach history — including racism — and should provide a diverse set of books for all students. Disagreeing was candidate Vivian Parsons, who said critical race theory had brought a “toxicity” to city classrooms.
“Teaching children that they are inherently and born as a racist and dividing our children into classes of either oppressed or oppressor,” she said. “And it is not based in true historical fact and really getting to the roots of the issues our country has faced historically in the past and the moves our country has made since then to really move us away from the blot on our history.”
Current board president and candidate Cathy Lewis noted critical race theory is a legal theory developed in the 1980s that isn’t taught in primary or secondary schools, but spoke in favor of teaching about diversity, equity and inclusion.
Candidate Holler agreed, saying the controversy over CRT is illusory.
“I believe that this is an issue that’s being used to be inflammatory where it doesn’t need to,” she said.
But on the issue of teaching about racism, candidate WilleyAulet said the district can’t whitewash it.
“To ignore historical facts and not educate everybody on historical facts is very ignorant and very dangerous for a school district to do,” she said.
Likewise, on banning books, Parsons offered a different perspective from the other three.
“I firmly believe it really circles back to the need for parental involvement and the district’s respect for parental authority over what material their child is exposed to,” she said. The others said that they did not want to ban books.
The candidates also discussed the issue of “community engagement” police officers in the schools, which the board narrowly approved in March. Parsons and Lewis support the measure while Holler and Willey-Aulet said they wanted to make changes to the contract.
Tax cap impact
With such substantive issues in most school board races, voting on the budget may be an afterthought. Only 16 districts in the state, out of 673, are trying to exceed the cap, said School Boards Association spokesman Dave Albert.
In the five years before the tax cap was enacted by the state, the average school tax levy increase was 3 percent per year. This year, the average tax levy increase is 1.78 percent, Albert said.
While districts aren’t limited in how much they can increase the tax levy, they must get a supermajority approval if they want to go above the tax cap, which is calculated each year based on varied factors, including inflation.
The association has tracked the passing rate for budgets that ask voters to exceed the cap. There’s about a 60 percent success rate, he said.
“It is difficult to get the 60 percent supermajority passing rate,” Albert said. “I think that is one of the main reasons why you see not many districts attempt an override. There have been districts who have come so close — 59 percent, 58 percent, and yet their budget is defeated. It is very difficult.”
Several school districts also have propositions for capital improvements and in the case of the Albany city school district, a land purchase question.