Boe Piras
Sartell
Michael Gruber, Michael Ringstad and Aaron Alexander indicated at a forum that they support recent efforts that threatened to shut the district down to force a change in the procedure for how contracts are voted on (against the advice of the district’s legal counsel), instead of working cooperatively to build consensus for the proposed change.
Gruber’s website indicates his motivations for running are the old masking policy, the equity audit and vetting library resources. Ringstad’s website says he’s running because of the old masking policy. (Alexander tellingly doesn’t have a website or any substantive information on his Facebook page.)
These stated motivations may sound like they are specific to our district, but they just so happen to be in lockstep with the top priorities of the many secretive, ideological groups that have sprung up across the country. Such groups rehash old, long-ended COVID disagreements, to direct from afar whether districts should try to address student equity, and to dictate what books should be banned from the library. They are happy to use shutdowns to force the agenda through instead of building consensus for change.
Chelsea Thielen, Tricia Meling and Matt Moehrle are not ideological. They are present in our schools and are committed to building consensus to address the issues that directly impact our kids, our teachers and our limited resources.
We’ve entrusted our kids to some of the best educators in the state. When they tell us Thielen, Meling and Moehrle will be there for our kids too, we should listen.