While Ohio鈥檚 school board races are nonpartisan, with no 鈥淒鈥� or 鈥淩鈥� next to candidates鈥� names on the ballot, elections in North Royalton, Mentor and elsewhere in Northeast Ohio this year have been fraught with controversial political and cultural issues.
Additionally, several conservative political organizations have endorsed candidates and even paid for mailers, while conservative state and local politicians have endorsed candidates in Northeast Ohio as well.
The candidates endorsed by these groups and politicians say they believe schools are ignoring parents鈥� rights around how their children are educated and have staked out various claims: that schools are indoctrinating students to liberal ideologies, that they should remove sexually explicit and other offensive content in their libraries and that they are teaching critical race theory.
Mike Telep, a lawyer in North Royalton who is running for one of three open seats on the North Royalton Board of Education, is running a campaign that heavily focuses on concerns about critical race theory and anti-racist philosophy creeping into curriculum, at the expense of the quality of education in the district. His website argues that schools are teaching white students to feel guilty for their race.
The NAACP's Legal Defense Fund defines critical race theory as an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society. It has become a hot button issue, with people flooding school board meetings in recent years to complain, despite districts maintaining it鈥檚 not part of their curriculum in Ohio.
Telep himself says he鈥檚 not sure if it鈥檚 actually being taught in North Royalton鈥檚 classrooms; he says parents don鈥檛 have a good window into what鈥檚 going on in the classroom since online learning ended through the pandemic.
"They're doing this in school systems in this country, particularly out West and other places," he said. "So we want to make sure that stays out. It has no place here."
Telep, whose daughter graduated from North Royalton, is part of a ticket with Mirona Florian, a local mom of four who sends her children to private schools. They鈥檝e been endorsed by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, which is prominently featured on mailers that have been sent out to North Royalton homes by the 1776 Project PAC, a national political action committee that raised almost $3.5 million in the last election cycle to
Telep and Florian鈥檚 opponents include a three-person ticket: former North Royalton Board of Education Chair Jackie Arendt; John Higgins, an IT professional and parent of two North Royalton students; and Christina May, a former business owner and parent of two recent graduates. There are six candidates total running for three open seats. The final candidate is Jim Confer.
While Arendt, Higgins and May's ticket has mixed political leanings with two registered Republicans and one Democrat, Higgins says they鈥檙e united as an apolitical ticket focused solely on the business of operating the district.
鈥淚 was reached out to by the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey asked me if I wanted sponsorship. I declined to attend any of those meetings because it's a nonpartisan race.鈥�
Newspaper ads taken out by Telep and Florian鈥檚 campaign committee accuse their opponents of being against parents鈥� rights, in favor of 鈥渨ithholding information from parents about a child鈥檚 transgender 鈥榩erceptions鈥欌�� and promoting 鈥淢arxist school curricula."
Arendt in response called that 鈥渋nflammatory wording,鈥� based off a position statement she supported as past president of the Ohio PTA, which advocated against several bills in the Ohio Legislature. That includes HB 454, which proposes a mandate for teachers to notify parents if a student is experiencing gender dysphoria, distress resulting from feeling like one's gender identity does not match one's sex assigned at birth, and bars gender-affirming care for young people.
"We condemn any legislative efforts that do not support and care for LGBTQIA+ youth or silences important conversations about sexual orientation, gender identity, systemic racism, anti-racism, or diversity, equity, and inclusion," the PTA wrote in its statement.
Higgins said Telep and Florian are trafficking in misinformation to encourage people to vote out of 鈥渇ear.鈥�
鈥淚'm not really sure where parental rights have been taken away," Higgins said. "I've only noticed an abundance of information being provided to me as a parent in our district.鈥�
A distraction?
Lauren Marchaza, a first-time board of education candidate for Mentor Public Schools, said she was inspired to run after watching board meetings become overly 鈥渃haotic鈥� since the pandemic, with dozens of parents showing up angry about issues running the gamut from masking to the content of books in the library.
鈥�I feel very strongly that over the last couple of years, we鈥檝e at our school board meetings spent an incredible, like way too much, time on controversial topics and the stuff of culture wars,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I feel that it is a terrible distraction from the real issues, The real issues as a parent that I have observed, have been things like our bus driver shortage, classroom sizes.鈥�
Vladimir Kogan, a professor of political science at Ohio State University, is currently writing a book called No Adult Left Behind, about the tension between education policy dictated by adults, versus what students actually need. His research suggests that in the wake of major controversial incidents that consume a district and its board meetings, students see a small but significant decline in some academic performance measures.
鈥淓very minute and every dollar that you spend arguing about critical race theory or arguing about LGBT issues is a dollar and minute that you're not spending improving your math and reading curriculum,鈥� Kogan said. 鈥淚t's a dollar and minute spent not improving your teacher instruction.鈥�
Kogan said that while it might seem like politicization of education and school boards is a recent phenomenon, it can be traced back decades. For example, pro-temperance politicians pushed states to enact curricula teaching the harms of alcohol in the years leading up to prohibition in the U.S.
However, what's changed in recent years is these conflicts are falling more along national-level "partisan divides," Kogan said.
Suburban Mentor and North Royalton schools have long received high marks on Ohio's annual report card, with North Royalton in particular receiving five out five stars in almost every category this year.
Gil Martello, a parent of a Mentor High School student and a senior engineer at a local parts manufacturer, is also running for the school board in Mentor. Martello, a self-identified conservative, said he鈥檚 running a campaign focused on school safety, fiscal responsibility and academics. Lauren Marchaza said she's focused on similar issues.
But Martello, who's on a ticket with fellow candidate Rose Ioppolo, also takes stances on hot-button topics. , Ioppolo and Martello argue bathrooms and locker rooms use should be "based on the biological sex of the individual," and that the district must prevent 鈥渟exually explicit content鈥� from entering schools.
Martello argues a course correction is needed to preserve a strong public school system; he said his perception is the district is getting involved in matters of 鈥渕orality.鈥�
"The population is aging," he said. "So I want to protect the enrollment and I want to grow the enrollment. Now, to do this, you have to have mass appeal. You know, the school system has to appeal to everybody across the demographic kaleidoscope."
Martello and Ioppolo are endorsed by the Lake County Republican Party as well as statewide Republicans like Frank LaRose and State Senator Jerry Cirino, as well as the national 1776 PAC. Marchaza, meanwhile, says she has not accepted any political endorsements.
"This is not a position where we only serve a section of constituents," she said. "We have to serve everybody. So that's why my approach has been very nonpartisan."
There are a total of five candidates running for the two open seats in Mentor. The other two are Christine Henninger and Lyndsie Wall.
Battles over books, and education philosophy
Several books have been challenged in Mentor in recent months, including Toni Morrison鈥檚 The Bluest Eye. Martello cited that book, which has a graphic depiction of incestual sexual assault, as inappropriate for children.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to ban books,鈥� he argued. 鈥淭hat is an incorrect term. What we're advocating for are age appropriate (books).鈥�
Other books challenged in the district, according to a post on board of education member , include two books about gender and sexuality from the perspective of transgender people and a biography about Colin Kaepernick.
Ralph Case, who owns a general contracting company, is running as a first-time candidate for the Plain Local Schools Board of Education in Stark County. He's one of five people running for two open seats, a race which includes incumbents Eugene M. Cazantzes and Monica Rose Gwin as well as Deb Lea and Dan Wales. Case, a conservative, contended he鈥檚 successfully gotten books removed from his son鈥檚 school, although Plain schools officials didn't respond to a request for comment on that assertion.
"I actually brought it to the attention of the... assistant superintendent, and he actually found two of them (allegedly explicit books) in my son's school," he said. "And he told me he removed those."
Case is one of nine candidates in Stark County endorsed by the national political group, Moms for Liberty. It has been identified as an advocating for book bans and restrictions on teachings about race, gender and sexuality.
Case says he believes schools are indirectly 鈥減iecemealing鈥� lessons on critical race theory and gender identity into instruction, while getting involved in things they shouldn鈥檛, like providing healthcare and mental health supports.
He said he views his campaign as a battle for the soul of public education; he said schools should simply focus on the core of instruction.
In North Royalton, candidate John Higgins said teachers are focused on that. But also, they鈥檝e come to realize that 鈥渨e all don鈥檛 come from the same place.鈥�
鈥淪ome people don't get a good meal before school,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome people live in, you know, different family environments where they might not have the same resources as others, along with socioeconomic disparities. When when they come to school, we need to give them the opportunity to succeed no matter what their starting point is.鈥�
Higgins noted that social-emotional learning 鈥� on helping students manage emotions, which acknowledges their differences - and other supports for students has been unfairly demonized by those supported by groups like Moms for Liberty.
鈥淣ot many kids stay in their same hometown the rest of their life,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey're going to meet different people from different backgrounds. We want them to have that advantage where they understand what happens in the real world.鈥�
Despite their differences, all of the candidates interviewed for this story in Mentor, North Royalton and at Plain schools had some similarities in key priority areas: a desire for safe schools, strong academics and fiscally responsible leadership.
