Minnesota’s affiliate is breaking away from the National School Boards Association in the wake of a controversial letter asking that federal law enforcement help protect school board members from angry constituents.
The NSBA’s Sept. 29 letter to President Biden said school board members across the country were “under immediate threat” from community members who objected to race-related curriculum and instruction and mask mandates imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the NSBA’s president and CEO wrote, asking for the FBI and other federal agencies to investigate and prosecute.
Three weeks later, the association apologized to its members for “some of the language included in the letter” and for not consulting with the state-level associations before sending it.
Since then, 19 state affiliates — including Minnesota’s — have terminated their membership, according to a letter from MSBA Executive Director Kirk Schneidawind to school board chairs and superintendents.
“Prior to the letter to the Biden administration, we had ongoing concerns regarding the value of membership with the NSBA,” Schneidawind wrote last week.
He said the MSBA was looking into joining a new consortium of state school board associations.
Schneidawind said in an interview Wednesday that the September letter was “a symptom of the problem that we had with the overall operation and value of NSBA to our association.”
He said state associations have been pressing for reform for about a decade and “haven’t seen much progress.”
Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, and six other Republican state lawmakers had urged the MSBA to split with the national association.
“This shocking and unprecedented federal intervention is aimed squarely at parents and other local school district residents with the clear intention of bullying and intimidating them into silence,” the lawmakers wrote in a Nov. 4 letter to Schneidawind.
The 15-member Minnesota board’s vote to leave the NSBA was unanimous, except for her own abstention, said Michelle Yener, who chairs the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale school board.
Yener said the move pretty clearly was a response to the September letter and ensuing backlash, but she acknowledged other board members worked more closely with the NSBA and had additional concerns.
“When they brought it for a vote before MSBA, they said that they don’t want to make it seem like we’re doing this because Sen. Chamberlain asked us to,” Yener said.
Yener said the NSBA has held “some of the best conferences I’ve been to in my life.”
As to the content of the NSBA’s September letter, Yener said she and others on her local school board have been subjected to “very little intimidation” from the community, but she knows that’s not been the case everywhere.
“I’ve always liked NSBA, and I also do think it’s problematic when people come to school board meetings and threaten school board members,” she said.
Schneidawind said the MSBA has helped local school boards manage angry constituents during the pandemic, but he said the problems the NSBA described are “not widespread.”