For those who don’t recall the 2022 school board election, first of all, there are times I am immensely jealous of you. I realize that most people don’t pay all that close of attention to school board elections, let alone all of the work the board does in the normal course of its duties.
For me, the unprecedented attacks we saw from the campaign of Greg Brown, Jenny Brake and Adam Sharp led me down a rabbit hole of how these attacks are being encouraged and often funded by very specific groups. Those groups generally fall into three categories: 1) people who want to push their extreme views onto our kids, 2) politicians who want to use public education as a culture wars wedge to divide communities, and 3) privatization advocates who want to divert money originally spent on public schools into their own organizations. Seeing all of this is why I spend much of my free time on things like regularly attending CCS board meetings, doing deep dives into data on the Carmel Schools Dad website and advocating for public schools, both here in Carmel and across our state.
Sorry for the tangent. Back to 2022. Between the Brake, Brown & Sharp campaign and its supporters, we saw mountains of misinformation. In the month leading into the election, I spent nearly the entirety of my nights and weekends refuting false claims about enrollment trends, CCS's academic focus, diversity, sex ed, and the academic performance of our kids, a topic that they kept coming back to again and again and again.
We saw communications directly from their campaign attacking our teachers as a bunch of scary liberals.
Not only is that an absurd claim on its face, but after the election, Greg Brown even admitted that the campaign sent it out with no evidence of any teachers attempting to 'indoctrinate children'.
It is shameful that these attacks were rewarded with a seat on our school board. And while this movement has strategically adopted a much less venomous public posture in 2024, it’s the same group of people trying to take over our schools, using whatever messaging they think will give them the best chance of achieving that goal.
If not Carmel Excellence, then who?
If you're proud to live in one of the top school districts in the state...
If you appreciate and support our teachers...
If your kids have benefited or are benefiting from a world-class CCS education...
If you want our schools to stay welcoming to all students and their families...
I hope you'll join me in opposing Carmel Excellence and voting for Jon Shapiro and Kris Wheeler.
Disclaimer:
As mentioned on the homepage, this site contains both facts and my opinions on those facts. I believe the difference is quite obvious, but if you question which category any particular statement falls into, please reach out via the Contact page and I will be glad to clarify.
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