Letter: Election candidate forum was just corrupt

To the Editor:

The May 17 forum regarding candidates for Mitchell’s School Board was sad. It was put on by the Mitchell Chamber of Commerce and held at Dakota Wesleyan University, two entities that have the most control over what goes on in our public school. The media was in charge of putting forth questions that fit the Chamber’s establishment agenda.

The first question regarding leadership and “collaboration,” demonstrated the search for a School Board member who would join with a unanimous rubber stamp on whatever the administration wanted. Note that the superintendent is on the Chamber boards, along with a high-ranking administrator of DWU. The Mitchell Establishment wants a school board that does what it is told to do.

The second question came straight out of the Woke’s playbook and subtly entered Critical Race Theory into the discussion by pushing for the hiring of teachers based on skin color. Again, what role does the school board play in hiring of teachers? We have DWU partnering with public education by providing teachers who have been adequately indoctrinated.

The last question on the new high school, where concerns were on the many questions out there about the project that have not been addressed. By law, there was supposed to be a public hearing, advertised twice in this paper, so that full details could be provided to the public. Instead the current board illegally approved nearly $25 million in new debt, based on the direction of the highly paid business manager, who stood behind a couple lawyers who appear to have a conflict of interest.

Deb Olson, who earned the position of board chair by going beyond rubber stamping, repeats the falsehoods of the administration by saying the additional debt will not increase taxes. In her closing, she asked for out vote, even though she refused to allow us to vote on a $40 million plus high school that may be priced beyond the budget due to the record high inflation that was caused by Covid stimulus, of which over $6 million is budgeted for the new high school.

Steve Sibson

Mitchell