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Dear Editor:
I attended the School Board Forum on Monday evening, Oct. 24, and was happy to hear all five Noblesville School Board candidates don’t support CRT in the classroom.
Sounds familiar. Where have I heard that before?
In May 2021, I attended one of the community meetings on DEI in which the former Superintendent Beth Niedermeyer officially stated that CRT was not supported or taught in Noblesville Schools. Yet at the Oct. 24 School Board Forum, Joe Forgey, current President of the School Board seeking re-election, admitted that CRT was indeed being taught in a few instances going back to 2018. To further confuse matters, during a prior forum on Sept. 26, Joe Forgey denied that CRT was taught in Noblesville Schools.
Which is it?
Furthermore, at the Oct. 24 Forum, Forgey stated that he brought CRT to Dr. Niedermeyer’s attention starting in 2018 and they started looking for evidence of it in classrooms. I attended many School Board meetings the summer of 2021. I remember several parents providing Joe Forgey and the School Board with current evidence of CRT that seemed to fall on deaf ears. Joe Forgey never mentioned any prior occurrences and he did not offer to investigate further. If Joe Forgey was focused on keeping CRT out of the classrooms in 2021, he did an excellent job of keeping it a secret.
I also found it interesting during the Forum Forgey’s statement that on his watch several links to CRT were found on the Noblesville School website and “bumped out.” Again, there were links to CRT identified by parents during the summer of 2021 that were simply moved to a different spot on the website … not bumped out. Interestingly enough, those links are currently back in their original spot under the DEI section of the school website.
Editor’s note: On the NoblesvilleSchools.org website, under the “Our District” tab there is a category for “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.” On that page there is a “Noblesville Diversity Coalition” (NDC) link which goes to the following page: noblesvilleschools.org/Page/8750. That page has a text hyperlink to NDC’s website: noblesvillediversitycoalition.org. On that website, in top navigation there is a “Resources” link to a page with a category labeled “On Race” which contains the information the author of this letter if referring to. It does not exist directly on the Noblesville Schools website, but rather on a subpage of the NDC website which can be accessed from the school corporation’s site.
Noblesville voters: don’t be fooled. Joe Forgey is not tough on CRT. Despite all the reassurances by school leadership that CRT was not being taught, somehow it managed to sneak in and stay in while Joe Forgey was on the School Board and President for the last two years. He may be a nice man and a good dentist, but we need to use facts, not feelings, as we choose the next members of the School Board. Maybe Joe is against CRT in K-12 education, but his actions certainly haven’t demonstrated that.
Candidates Melba Kiser and Misti Ray have seen the decline in Noblesville education over the past several years and are running on increasing academic excellence and getting political agendas such as CRT out of our schools.
Vote for Melba Kiser and Misti Ray.
Alison Hanley
Noblesville parent
Has there been anyone that claims instead of imaginary CRT concerns, we need to think about why the candidate, Melba Kiser, you promote for a school board position supports charter schools to take funding away from the school system.
I want to thank the writer for attending board meetings and informing the public about these issues.
Correction to the editor note: learning about different ethnicities and race is not the same as Critical Race Theory or CRT. Your attempt to clarify perpetuates needless confusion and misinforms and misrepresents the resources available on NDC’s website.
Thank you for an accurate and informational letter. Thank you for attending the meeting and bringing us the information. We all know and have seen that CRT is being used in Noblesville Schools. Anyone saying it is not is not being a serious person. The evidence is there and has been brought to the forefront. Ignoring the truth does not repair the damage that has already been done to the children of this district.
Thank you for attending meetings and voicing valid concerns.
The hysteria over CRT acts to prove out the theory. Any refusal to allow middle or high school students access to the primary source material provided in books like The 1619 Project or Stamped From the Beginning deny students a proper education in American history, a history rampant with past and present racism. Education was never limited to math and science courses. Thise arguing they want to teach kids how to think, not what to think, seem intent on just that, not allowing kids the opportunity to think at all by censoring what the can and cannot read.