Gary Schnellert
Sartell
I am pleased to see several non-incumbent candidates running for school board in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District. Michael Gruber, Michael Ringstad and Aaron Alexander have all declared their independent candidacy for the 2024 election as first-time candidates ready to challenge the status quo.
In recent years we have seen the district could use some alternative thinking and be challenged. The board is currently divided and as a result dysfunctional. Strangely enough this is a welcome improvement from just two years ago when the board was unified in bringing to the district Diversity Equity Inclusion initiatives that have resulted in a district inflamed with tension. This has brought about year over year declining enrollment, declining academic achievement scores and a looming financial reckoning.
The current members running for re-election supported the failed $80,000 equity audit that inflamed the district in 2021 by supporting a hand-selected, closed to the public committee obviously created to achieve the same results after the audit failure. These same incumbents supported restrictive COVID-19 measures that surpassed that of many other local districts, and they have pushed for a $20-million bond without a public vote, and they have stood idly by while many dozens of books containing shockingly graphic, sexually explicit material have been discovered in our school libraries.
The common-sense approach these candidates represent is what I will be supporting with my vote Nov. 5. In this re-elect-nobody campaign cycle, it signifies it is time for fresh voices and thoughts.