Boone County Voices for Change
We are a nonpartisan, grassroots group of individuals advocating for progressive causes in Boone County, Indiana.
23/10/2023
Have you made a plan to vote?
https://boonecounty.in.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Vote-Centers-General-2023-10-04-2023.pdf
05/10/2023
If you were unable to attend the Zionsville Town Council Forum last night, below is a link to the recording.
Zionsville Town Council Candidate Forum - Zionsville Chamber of Commerce
04/10/2023
Zionsville Town Council debate tonight.
https://www.facebook.com/100064761728555/posts/720628176772567/?mibextid=cr9u03
The must anticipated candidates forum for Town of Zionsville Town Council elections will be live streamed on our YouTube Channel. Here's the link 👉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZi8OM_t9y4
19/09/2023
Today is National Voter Registration Day! The upcoming election is November 7, 2023. The deadline to register to vote is October 10, 2023 ☑️
Check your voter registration status to make sure you can vote in the upcoming elections: https://indianavoters.in.gov
07/11/2022
It is troubling that Alex Choi would not respond to WFYI’s request for candidate positions. Maybe he didn’t want to answer the question about abortion on the record?
Meet the candidates running for Indiana Senate District 29 Two candidates are running to represent Indiana Senate District 29, which includes portions of Marion, Hamilton and Boone counties.
04/11/2022
The slate of anti-CRT school board candidates running for Carmel Clay schools Some suburban school districts are seeing a slate of candidates that say they want to beat back CRT in schools and a "getting back to academics."
03/11/2022
Zionsville school board candidate says 'All N***s weren't 'bad'' in social media post In a Monday comment on a post from September, Dr. Matt Keefer said "All N***s weren't 'bad,'" and that "they were in a group frenzy."
03/11/2022
The slate of anti-CRT school board candidates running for Noblesville schools Some suburban school districts are seeing a slate of candidates that say they want to beat back CRT in schools and want to "get back to academics."
03/11/2022
The anti-CRT slate of Hamilton Southeastern school board candidates Some suburban school districts are seeing a slate of candidates that say they want to beat back CRT in schools and a "getting back to academics."
The following article was published in the Lebanon Reporter Oct. 13, 2022. It has since been shortened on their website. Here is the longer version, which provides additional information.
Meet Zionsville's School Board Candidates
Oct. 13, 2022
Candidates for the Zionsville Community Schools Board of Trustees faced off Tuesday, Oct. 4, in a community forum at Zionsville Town Hall.
The eight candidates addressed issues ranging from the board’s role and school funding to safety concerns and mental health. About 150 people attended, and an additional 150-plus tuned in to the livestream.
Rocky Killion, former superintendent of the West Lafayette Community School Corp. served as moderator. The event was hosted by Boone County Voices for Change, a grassroots organization that seeks to bring balance to the local political conversation.
The complete recording of the forum is available at www.facebook.com/BooneCountyVoicesforChange.
Residents of the Zionsville schools district vote for three candidates, one each from the At-Large, Eagle, and Union districts. At-Large candidates include Matt Keefer, Sarah Sampson and Christy Wessel-Powell. Eagle candidates are Michael Berg and Tim Hardt. Union candidates include Mike Coussens, Marcus Such and Jen Valentine. (See bios in sidebar.)
The moderator first asked candidates what their top priorities would be if elected.
Incumbents Berg and Coussens, as well as Wessel-Powell said the board would need to help with the transition as longtime superintendent, Scott Robison, retires and is replaced by Rebecca Coffman early in 2023.
Several candidates said they would focus on improving communication between the school board and parents. “Too often over the last two to three years, parents were showing up at school board meetings to express concerns over a wide variety of things, and those comments were effectively…unheard,” Such said.
Such, Hardt and Sampson are endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools (PFAS), a political action committee that was formed in 2021 to help elect school board members who embrace accountability and transparency. PFAS believes that several school board members did not take seriously concerns about mask mandates during the covid pandemic, according to its website, www.accountableschools.org.
A few candidates also said they would like to return teachers’ focus to academics. Keefer said he would like to “empower teachers to educate, not indoctrinate.” He added, “We need to simplify the teachers’ workload so it’s focused on educating the kids and not satisfying the state.”
Hardt said he wants to make sure that “teachers have the time and the ability to focus on their core content.”
These statements echo a national movement in which groups similar to PFAS, such as Moms for Liberty, have called for returning teachers’ focus to “traditional” or “core American” values. PFAS advocates for limiting social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and keeping concepts including “systemic racism” and “white privilege” out of classrooms, according to its website.
Berg and Valentine said mental health is a top priority coming out of the pandemic. “It’s extremely important to address it and to normalize it to help these kids and teachers through these times,” Valentine said.
Killion next asked candidates about the role school boards should play with regard to classroom curriculum.
Hardt and Keefer advocated for the board to take an active role in managing curriculum. “The state has empowered school boards with great authority and autonomy to make sure what’s going on in the classrooms and in the schools is reflective of the community,” Hardt said.
But Wessel-Powell disagreed. “It is not the purview of the school board to direct curriculum,” she said. "That is in the hands of professionals—the teachers that we have hired that are guiding the activities in classrooms according to state standards.”
Such said teachers need to have a stronger partnership with parents and publish curriculums more widely, especially when it involves “mature and controversial topics.” Sampson said she supports offering an “alternate book” for people who don’t agree with the curriculum.
Regarding transparency, Sampson and Coussens pointed out that curriculum plans are already posted online, and parents have a chance to review them every spring. There is also a form on the school website in place for parents to submit curriculum objections, Valentine said, adding that the board needs to educate parents to know that these mechanisms exist.
Asked about tax referendums, most candidates agreed they would support them if needed to retain teachers after considering other budget options. Keefer said he would look at “administrative bloat” and possibly thinning the ranks of administrators as an alternative to a tax increase.
“I would look for areas that are able to be cut that don’t impact the students as much,” Sampson said. She said she would look into having parents drive their kids to school instead of busing.
Wessel-Powell said she would like to see the Zionsville community advocate for additional funding from the state.
Both incumbents, Berg and Coussens, agreed referendums are absolutely needed under the current state funding formula, which results in Zionsville receiving one of the lowest per pupil funding levels statewide.
“We do all these due-diligence checks to make sure that we are in a position where we need those referendums,” Coussens said, "and I do 100 percent agree that we do have a need for it.”
When asked about school safety measures, most candidates said they appreciate the school resource officers (SROs) Zionsville already has in place, as well as lock-down drills that are routinely performed.
Most strongly opposed arming teachers. “I think that’s an accident waiting to happen,” Wessel-Powell said. “So please no, never. That is a horrible idea.”
Sampson, however, indicated she would consider arming teachers. “I don’t want to make anybody a security guard that doesn’t want to be one,” Sampson said. “I can’t say that I would be against if a vetted and licensed carrying gun holder was asked to have one in the west wing and one in the east wing. I don’t know.”
Valentine and others also supported improving traffic safety for pedestrians and bike-riders on their way to and from school.
Berg, Keefer and Such said safety measures should also include a focus on mental health to prevent school shootings. Berg added that’s where SEL has its greatest impact.
“School shooters, as people have mentioned, are disenfranchised students. They don’t feel connected to their community; they don’t feel like they have friends,” said Berg, a professional mental health therapist. “So a big part of safety ultimately boils down to all of the things we do to help people feel like they belong here.”
More broadly, all of the candidates agreed mental health is an area that needs more resources, especially given the increased needs of students and staff, as well as the national shortage of mental health professionals.
Berg said that the schools have gone from a contract with one therapist for the district to having a therapist for each school.
However, the candidates disagreed sharply about the role of SEL in school. Zionsville’s social-emotional learning curriculum is called Second Step, and it includes lessons about empathy and managing emotions at the elementary level, as well as goal-setting, bullying and social conflict at the middle school level.
Berg, Valentine and Wessel-Powell said they support SEL’s role in school, but other candidates suggested social-emotional lessons should be handled by parents at home.
“There’s a number of instances where SEL can go too far—where it starts to, rather than identifying implicit bias, it actually builds in bias into our students,” Such said. “It also covers a number of complex and very mature topics which are not necessarily what all students at a certain grade level are ready to hear.”
Keefer said he believes that SEL should be limited to “troubled students” and students whose parents wish for them to be in an SEL program. “I believe that SEL is a waste of mainstream kids’ time to actually get educated in the classroom,” he said.
Coussens pointed out, however, that SEL is a state mandate. “So that’s pretty easy to say yes, we should do it,” he said.
The event concluded with candidates giving closing statements. Hardt claimed to be “the only candidate here with any really significant public-school teaching experience,” although Wessel-Powell was also a teacher.
Coussens, an engineer, joked “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do this job, but it does help.” And Keefer gave a shout-out to Such, calling him a “kind, brilliant man.”•
Candidates:
At-Large
Matt Keefer has been a practicing anesthesiologist for 36 years. He describes himself as an independent candidate who he says is disliked by both the “extreme left” and “Republican leaders” because he “can’t be controlled" and is “not compliant with outside interests.” Keefer said he thinks critically and has experience leading people through stressful times. “I’ve been described as wanting to dismantle the system,” Keefer said. He added, “I am the biggest ally of children, teachers and parents of anybody up here.”
Sarah Sampson, the current president of Zionsville high school’s parent teacher organization (PTO), has a background as an accountant working for Deloitte. She said as a board member she would be fiscally responsible and transparent. Additionally, she would like to add electives in industrial arts and consumer science to the high school. “We’d be giving skills and dexterity to this generation while simultaneously working to help address the limited supply of trade labor in the current workforce,” Sampson said. She is endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools.
Christy Wessel-Powell is an assistant professor of education at Purdue University where she teaches and conducts research on literacy and school equity. She also is the principal investigator for a literacy grant with the Indiana Dept. of Education. Previously, she was an elementary school teacher in Chicago, St. Louis, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Gary, Ind. “I’m excited to bring my background as an education researcher and former teacher to the board to enhance the good work that they already do,” Wessel-Powell said. She is endorsed by current school board member Debbie Ungar.
Eagle
Michael Berg, an incumbent school board member, has a background as a mental health therapist. He oversees the non-medical HIV program for a large hospital system. Berg said he’s running for re-election because he’s come to love and respect Zionsville teachers and administrators. “I feel like there are folks who are trying to cut down on their autonomy,” he said. He added that he wants to protect property values. “Schools are the No. 1 reason people move to this community,” Berg said. “If we drive the teachers out and the [administrators] out, we’re going to lose that.” He is endorsed by current school board member Debbie Ungar.
Tim Hardt, a sales training manager at Angie, has a background as a coach, nonprofit board member and teacher, including being a former chair of the English As A New Language department at North Central High School. “I feel it’s really important we restore some transparency and accountability as well as communication with the board to families,” Hardt said. “I’m also very excited about the opportunity to get back to refocusing and allowing our teachers to refocus on the core academic content that they went to college to learn how to teach.” He is endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
Union
Mike Coussens, also an incumbent school board member, is an engineer at Peerless Pump Co. Coussens said he’s focused on academics, school safety and financial responsibility. In particular, he is interested in helping facilitate a smooth transition as longtime Superintendent Scott Robison retires and is replaced by Rebecca Coffman in early 2023. “I want to ensure that Mrs. Coffman has the team in place to help support her with her new initiatives that she’s going to bring to the school corporation,” Coussens said. He is endorsed by current school board members Debbie Ungar and Jeff Papa.
Marcus Such is an actuary who has experience with data analytics, finance and statistics, as well as managing teams and budgets. He said he would like to see a stronger partnership between the community, parents, and the school board. “I’d also like to see increased transparency and accountability from our school board so we can better understand motivations and planning underlying some of the decision-making that goes on at the school board meetings,” Such said. He added that he would like to help empower teachers to “refocus themselves back to academics and teaching.” He is endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools.
Jen Valentine, who has a degree in human resource management, worked for 15 years at an accounting firm in the Detroit area overseeing software implementation, budgets, and staffing as well as report-writing and team-building. She and her family moved to Zionsville in 2014 primarily for the schools, and she has become an active volunteer in the schools and elsewhere. “I’m a doer,” Valentine said. “I am enthusiastic about learning and educating, and I love our teachers and our administrators. I will do everything I can to support them and all of our kids moving forward.”
Boone County Voices for Change We are a nonpartisan, grassroots group of individuals advocating for progressive causes in Boone Coun
03/11/2022
ZIONSVILLE SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE BIOS
(from BCVC candidate forum Oct. 4)
At-Large
Matt Keefer has been a practicing anesthesiologist for 36 years. He describes himself as an independent candidate who he says is disliked by both the “extreme left” and “Republican leaders” because he “can’t be controlled" and is “not compliant with outside interests.” Keefer said he thinks critically and has experience leading people through stressful times. “I’ve been described as wanting to dismantle the system,” Keefer said. He added, “I am the biggest ally of children, teachers and parents of anybody up here.”
Sarah Sampson, the current president of Zionsville high school’s parent teacher organization (PTO), has a background as an accountant working for Deloitte. She said as a board member she would be fiscally responsible and transparent. Additionally, she would like to add electives in industrial arts and consumer science to the high school. “We’d be giving skills and dexterity to this generation while simultaneously working to help address the limited supply of trade labor in the current workforce,” Sampson said. She is endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools.
Christy Wessel-Powell is an assistant professor of education at Purdue University where she teaches and conducts research on literacy and school equity. She also is the principal investigator for a literacy grant with the Indiana Dept. of Education. Previously, she was an elementary school teacher in Chicago, St. Louis, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Gary, Ind. “I’m excited to bring my background as an education researcher and former teacher to the board to enhance the good work that they already do,” Wessel-Powell said. She is endorsed by current school board member Debbie Ungar.
Eagle
Michael Berg, an incumbent school board member, has a background as a mental health therapist. He oversees the non-medical HIV program for a large hospital system. Berg said he’s running for re-election because he’s come to love and respect Zionsville teachers and administrators. “I feel like there are folks who are trying to cut down on their autonomy,” he said. He added that he wants to protect property values. “Schools are the No. 1 reason people move to this community,” Berg said. “If we drive the teachers out and the [administrators] out, we’re going to lose that.” He is endorsed by current school board member Debbie Ungar.
Tim Hardt, a sales training manager at Angie, has a background as a coach, nonprofit board member and teacher, including being a former chair of the English As A New Language department at North Central High School. “I feel it’s really important we restore some transparency and accountability as well as communication with the board to families,” Hardt said. “I’m also very excited about the opportunity to get back to refocusing and allowing our teachers to refocus on the core academic content that they went to college to learn how to teach.” He is endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
Union
Mike Coussens, also an incumbent school board member, is an engineer at Peerless Pump Co. Coussens said he’s focused on academics, school safety and financial responsibility. In particular, he is interested in helping facilitate a smooth transition as longtime Superintendent Scott Robison retires and is replaced by Rebecca Coffman in early 2023. “I want to ensure that Mrs. Coffman has the team in place to help support her with her new initiatives that she’s going to bring to the school corporation,” Coussens said. He is endorsed by current school board members Debbie Ungar and Jeff Papa.
Marcus Such is an actuary who has experience with data analytics, finance and statistics, as well as managing teams and budgets. He said he would like to see a stronger partnership between the community, parents, and the school board. “I’d also like to see increased transparency and accountability from our school board so we can better understand motivations and planning underlying some of the decision-making that goes on at the school board meetings,” Such said. He added that he would like to help empower teachers to “refocus themselves back to academics and teaching.” He is endorsed by Parents for Accountable Schools.
Jen Valentine, who has a degree in human resource management, worked for 15 years at an accounting firm in the Detroit area overseeing software implementation, budgets, and staffing as well as report-writing and team-building. She and her family moved to Zionsville in 2014 primarily for the schools, and she has become an active volunteer in the schools and elsewhere. “I’m a doer,” Valentine said. “I am enthusiastic about learning and educating, and I love our teachers and our administrators. I will do everything I can to support them and all of our kids moving forward.”
14/10/2022
Meet Zionsville's school board candidates Candidates for the Zionsville Community Schools Board of Trustees recently faced off in a community forum at Zionsville Town Hall.
09/10/2022
A link to the YouTube video of ZCS School Board Candidate Forum: https://youtu.be/U5MYbcVqw8E
Video recording of the ZCS School Board Candidate Forum.
ZCS School Board Candidate Forum
20/09/2022
20/09/2022
The 2022 election vote center locations and dates have been published by the Boone County Clerk’s office.
Check your voting status at: https://indianavoters.in.gov
02/05/2022
Election day!
04/04/2022
Today is the deadline to register to vote in the May 3, 2022 Primary Election. Use the following link to register, check you voting status or find you voting location. https://indianavoters.in.gov/
:: Indiana Voters :: I just registered to vote using Indiana's Voter Portal. Update voting registration, see who's on the ballot, get election results, and so much more. Indianavoters.com
09/02/2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/02/09/suburban-women-voters-organize/
‘Blue’ suburban moms are mobilizing to counter conservatives in fights over masks, book bans and diversity education “We believe it’s time to get off defense. Why should we be the ones explaining ourselves? This is not why we moved to the suburbs. We moved to the suburbs for high-quality schools," said Katie Paris, founder of Red Wine and Blue.
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