York school board majority suppresses public criticism
The York County School District ranks third among public school systems in Virginia. Its excellence makes it competitive with the educational juggernauts of the state’s Washington, D.C., suburbs. It may need a few tweaks. It does not need an extreme right-wing makeover that turns it into a partisan political spectacle instead of a point of community pride.
A new majority of conservative school board members on the five-member York County School Board seems determined to ruin the county schools’ reputation by using its power to wage a culture war that will only hurt students the board is sworn to serve.
As a York County resident, I got a taste of the new conservative approach to citizen participation at the school board’s March 25 meeting. Concerned about the school system’s reputation, I filled out a speaking request. I was number 19 of 28 people who signed up to talk.
But when the meeting’s “Comments of Citizens” portion came up, new
School Board Chair Lynda Fairman said the public comment period would be limited to 30 minutes at three minutes per speaker. That meant 18 of us — mostly upset parents of students — would not be heard even though we followed all the rules. Fairman refused to use her discretionary power to waive the limits, which she said were county policy. Then, she placed the same arbitrary limits on those of us who waited hours until after the meeting ended to be heard.
The whole thing reeked of a tactic to suppress criticism of the new majority and its self-destructive distractions that will drive good teachers away and attract bad publicity. Extremists who have gained control of school boards across the U.S. also hope to substitute a culture war for public education. They deny racism and science, ignore non-traditional families, discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, and ban books from school libraries.
What sets York County apart as it faces such intolerance is the risk to its stellar academic reputation. The new majority —
Fairman, Vice Chair Kimberly Goodwin and Zoran Pejavic — pushes issues that will only undercut respect for York County schools. On social media, Goodwin has proffered the idiotic notion that she doesn’t know whether slaves were happy because she has not seen evidence. At the March 25 school board meeting, Goodwin refused to apologize for her happy-slaves post when presented with a slave narrative by an African American historian and parent of York students. The two other newly elected members refused to renounce Goodwin’s post. Goodwin has also promoted a debunked movie that spreads Donald Trump’s 2020 election fraud lies.
During their campaigns for office, the new majority talked about firing
York School Superintendent Victor Shandor, who has kept the system great. They continue to demonize diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and fight against teaching students about institutional racism
Fairman sent a member of a local “constitutional militia” to monitor a recent meeting on the Family Life curriculum. The extreme right wing scrutinizes Family Life courses because those courses recognize nontraditional families and different kinds of gender identity.
The new school board majority is now contracting for policy-writing assistance from the School Board Member Alliance, an ultra-conservative start-up. Two people forced from other school boards for insensitive comments about race or gender identity are associated with SBMA. Campaign records show Fairman paid to attend a seminar by SBMA shortly after her election.
Through it all, Fairman, Goodwin and Pejavic have steadfastly suppressed the free speech and rights of parents worried about their children’s education.
Members of the new York County School Board majority have forgotten who they work for. They have neither the duty nor the right to impose their private beliefs on public school students.
What sets York County apart as it faces such intolerance is the risk to its stellar academic reputation.