Standing Up to Extremism in Carmel, Indiana

Democracy and Education
Written By Ben Walker

In Carmel Clay School District in Indiana, the fairly new superintendent pledged he would do something to address the fact that many students and parents of color had experienced racist incidents or racist assumptions. He hired a diversity, equity, and inclusion coordinator.

That prompted a backlash from a group of people, many of whom had no children in the schools and some of whom didn’t even live in the school district. People from neighboring towns flooded school board meetings, yelling and disrupting the meetings. They said Carmel had no problem with racism and complained not only about the DEI coordinator and the superintendent but about LGBTQ children and the social emotional learning program in the district.

All of this was leading up to the 2022 school board race, where groups like Moms for Liberty and Purple for Parents Indiana put up candidates for the three seats that were contested that year who claimed that Carmel Clay schools were no longer focused on academic achievement.

Residents who were concerned about the attacks on their schools started a Facebook group that quickly gained thousands of followers, but they knew that wasn’t going to be sufficient to counter the flood of outside money that paid for signs, mailers, ads, and even a banner flown by an airplane over a high school football game.

So Nicky McNally and Carmella Sparrow started a PAC—Support CCS (Carmel Clay Schools). The PAC vetted candidates and created a slate of three. McNally convinced many potential candidates to instead support the slate and avoid splitting the ticket. She says in many ways that was the “best thing” the PAC did. They developed a message with six basic pillars that most people could understand and support:

·       Academic Excellence

·       School Safety

·       Global Preparedness

·       Mental Well-Being

·       Parent Partnership

·       Supporting Teachers

They let it be known that if the other side won, they would fire the DEI coordinator and probably the superintendent, and teachers would probably start leaving.

The PAC raised $40,000 and paid for signs, mailers, T-shirts, and ads. At the suggestion of fellow activist Todd Crosby, they held dozens of “driveway parties” where hosts introduced their neighbors and friends to the school board candidates. They texted and knocked on doors. They carried endorsements by dozens of parents—and a former superintendent and principal—of the PAC’s slate. By the election, it was near impossible to be a resident and not be aware that there was a contested school board election. In what is considered a Republican stronghold, the Republican Party openly campaigned for the other side, even though school boards are non-partisan in Indiana.

The Support CCS PAC remained non-partisan.

And they won two of the three seats, losing the third very narrowly. This has meant, McNally says, that the majority are still committed to supporting public education.

Meanwhile, the same phenomenon was happening in nearby Hamilton Southeastern. A similar Facebook group had attracted even more people than in Fishers, but the same kind of effective PAC was never formed and the community didn’t mobilized to support candidates to counter extremism. The candidates supported by Moms for Liberty won the majority of the school board. Their first action was to try to reject a $5 million federal grant to address mental health issues in the schools. A public uproar and legal limitations kept them from succeeding, but they have since cancelled a student survey, costing the districts thousands of dollars. And the PAC behind them, Fishers One, has made it clear that firing the superintendent—the district’s first Black woman superintendent—is a priority. Even though many in the district are horrified, they are stuck until the next election.

The fact that they have such a cautionary tale in a neighboring district may be a spur to residents in Carmel Clay as they gear up for the next election.

To hear lot more about what folks in both Carmel Clay and Hamilton Southeastern are doing, listen to “Standing Up to Extremism in Carmel Indiana.” If you prefer to read the transcript, click here.

Click below to find news stories and links that explain more:

Ben Walker
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