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Dear Editor:
Currently, school board elections in Indiana are supposed to be nonpartisan. Those who support this policy commonly justify their position by expressing a desire to keep politics from influencing the decisions of school board members.
During the most recent legislative session, Representative J.D. Prescott, a Republican from Union City, introduced a bill requiring school board candidates to designate their party affiliation in an attempt to create more transparency for voters. Terry Spradlin, the executive director of the Indiana School Board Association, said politics may compromise school boards’ ability “to put kids first” and make school board members “feel conflicted about where their allegiances lie.”
Somebody might want to share this information with Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen. The mayor, who ran as a Republican but has governed more like a Democrat, has repeatedly used the power of his public office to support two of the candidates running for Noblesville school board, Joe Forgey, an incumbent, and Chuck Haberman. In fact, Jensen publicly endorsed Joe Forgey on Facebook on March 7, citing no specific accomplishments; he referred to Joe as a friend.
For those who don’t know, Chuck Haberman is the Assistant Director of Economic Development for the City of Noblesville. It is an obvious conflict of interest for Jensen to support Chuck’s campaign for the school board. Are we really expected to believe that the Mayor’s Office will not influence Mr. Haberman’s decisions should he be elected?
And what about these candidates that the mayor is supporting? Joe has yet to do anything to prevent progressive ideologies like Critical Race Theory (CRT) from being incorporated into classroom assignments. He failed again when given a chance to prevent little kids from accessing pornographic material found in Hamilton East Public Library. Regarding Chuck’s candidacy, he recently demonstrated how unprepared he is for the position during a public forum, which readers can learn more about here. I have attended multiple school board meetings over the past 18 months, and I don’t recall seeing Chuck in attendance, let alone speaking on any of the challenges facing our public schools. I’m sure he’s a great guy, but this is no time to be uninformed.
I prefer to have school board members who are not beholden to the mayor’s endorsement and/or possible campaign donations.
Standing in direct contrast to Joe and Chuck, Misti Ray and Melba Kiser have been and continue to be heavily involved in returning Noblesville Schools to institutions of academic excellence. Misti and Melba are committed to improving academic achievements for all Noblesville students. They stand for parents’ rights, competitive teacher compensation, reasonable spending, keeping political agendas like CRT and gender ideology out of the classroom, and unlike the mayor’s friend, Joe, they will fight to protect kids from inappropriate, pornographic content.
Elijah Condellone
Noblesville