Competitors
In this election cycle, the incumbent candidates, Sally Feistel and Josh Karl, will compete with Mike Campbell and Samantha Hoffer for their respective positions on the school board. Campbell and Hoffer have had a prominent presence on social media regarding their campaigns. The following information addresses a few of their misleading claims.
"Hey Kaukauna schools, what is illegal in some states is being promoted in our schools in Kaukauna! Let's remove policy 411.1 allowing for boys in girls locker rooms and stop our school board from spending our tax dollars like they did last year..."
- Mike Campbell, Twitter
Mike Campbell post is simply misleading. Policy 411.1 does not promote the idea that boys should be allowed in the girl's locker room or vice versa. Instead the policy actually provides a case-by-case process. to address concerns students may raise regarding the use of locker room facilities. The policy has been designed to respect the privacy concerns of all students. Under no circumstances does this policy allow boys in the girl's locker rooms or encourage students to "pick" what locker room they want to go in of their free will.
Further, this board policy has been developed, not only to respect the dignity of our students but also to comply with the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision which ruled that school policies that force students to use only those facilities based on their assigned biological gender at birth violates Title IX non-discrimination requirements. Therefore, if the district followed Mike Campbell's reckless Twitter post, the board would not only find itself in violation of a federal court decision, but would risk Title IX funding. Such a decision would be rash, costly, ill-informed and unlawful.
UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court Allows Appeals Court Decision to Stand
"Ensure curriculum transparency." - Samantha Hoffer, Facebook
This sentiment appears to be one of the pillars of Samantha Hoffer's platform, yet a quick Google search into KASD's curriculum policies clearly indicates that this is a topic that hardly needs addressing:
High school teachers are required to send home a syllabus outlining the content of each class at the beginning of each trimester, for parents to review
Middle school teachers provide syllabus links for parents to access
Elementary and middle school teachers frequently send emails and flyers home with students to keep parents updated with the events and activities related to their classes.
The curricula of the Kaukauna Area School District is aligned with the educational standards adopted by the State of Wisconsin. These standards are readily available to the public and can be accessed at the link below.
If a parent still has questions regarding their child's learning, the district and its teachers are always open to conversation.
The district has worked tirelessly for years to build this transparency thanks in large measure to the efforts of the school board. Thus far, Hoffer has offered no policy suggestions, nor any specific concerns.
Curriculum at KASD: https://www.kaukauna.k12.wi.us/academics/curriculum.cfm
"Remove politics from the classroom" - Samantha Hoffer, Facebook
"Create a political free school zone and not allow political ideologies to dictate our school policies and curriculum"
- Mike Campbell, Facebook
Both Samantha Hoffer and Mike Campbell claim they want to keep politics out of the classroom. Yet, two years ago Hoffer was the first Kaukauna School Board candidate to ever seek out and accept an endorsement from the Republican party during her first campaign.
Mike Campbell sought and accepted the same endorsement last year as a write-in candidate.
This year they both have again sought and accepted endorsements from the Republican Party.
A bit ironic, no?
The image on the left was taken from the Republican Party of Outgamie's Facebook page. It not only shows hypocrisy in the platform on which both Hoffer and Campbell are running, but also a lack of thought. They never explain to what extent they want politics removed from the classroom. A reasonable person will probably conclude that they truly don't want politics removed from the classroom. They just want it to be limited to their politics in the classroom.
Nonetheless, even if we consider their claims sincere, their goals will prove detrimental to the education of Kaukauna's students. It is undeniable that political parties play a significant role in American history, and that they still have great influence over the actions of our government at all levels. To entirely remove education about political parties from a classroom, specifically high school classrooms, would leave students with an inaccurate view of American history and basic civics. Additionally, we would send out students into our democracy with no idea how they can participate in it. Our students deserve an unbiased education on political parties and the history surrounding them, as well as what they advocate, and how they shape American discourse. This way, students can make educated choices about how they will participate in our American democracy, and whether they will, or will not align themselves with a political party. Our candidates understand that regardless of what party a student may choose-be it Republican, Democrat, independent, etc.- they can all still benefit from discussion and exploration of political parties in a school environment that celebrates a marketplace of ideas.
"The book this legislator reads from is in our Kaukauna Middle school library. The democrats in the house erupts and won't let him read and continue. Yet they fight for the right to continue to supply this garbage to our children. This is one of the reasons I am running for school board." - Mike Campbell, Twitter
The first book the legislator quotes is "Gender Queer", an illustrated memoir by Maia Kobabe. A quick search of the district's public catalogs shows that this book is not, in fact, in any KASD library. It does indeed contain graphic imagery, which is why it is not included in any of the collections.
The second book the legislator quotes, which is far less graphic, is in the middle and high school libraries. Fifth and sixth grade students cannot check out this book unless they have a signed parent permission form. It is important to note that this book ,entitled "Speak" has won the following awards:
National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature
Edgar Allen Poe Award Finalist
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Time Magazine Best YA Book of All Time
Cosmopolitan Magazine Best YA Books Everyone Should Read, Regardless of Age
The district has developed a comprehensive policy for selecting library materials. This policy is overseen by our district's dedicated library professionals.
As a parent, Mike Campbell, like all Kaukauna parents can ask the library to not allow their students to check out certain books based on their parental judgment. That is a reasonable and necessary policy. What is not reasonable is for Campbell to believe he should be the judge and jury who decides what your child or grandchild can read or not read in the school library based on his own beliefs. He claims that people need to respect his views as a parent, but he does not seem comfortable extending that courtesy to other parents, whose views are also worthy of respect.