ELIDA — The most consequential election in years is underway at Elida schools, where voters will decide whether to keep three incumbent school board members or elect three newcomers who vow major changes to the district’s accommodations for transgender students.
Voters will also decide whether a permanent improvements levy that funds building and technology projects for Elida schools should be renewed, months after rejecting that levy amid backlash to the district’s handling of transgender issues.
Meet the candidates
Incumbents on the ballot this year are board President Brenda Stocker, Vice President Ira Collier and Ben Troyer, who was appointed to the board in June following the resignation of Jason Bowers.
They face newcomers David Peters, Jaired Birks and Jeffrey Point.
Voters will choose between Troyer and Peters to complete the remaining two years of Bowers’ unexpired term, and will select two candidates from Stocker, Collier, Birks and Point.
The winners of the latter race will serve full four-year terms on the board.
‘We need to examine God’s word’
Peters, Birks and Point, who are campaigning together to gain a majority on the school board, have centered their Christian faith in their campaigns.
“We need to examine what God’s word says in a lot of our decisions,” Point said during a candidate forum in October, “and we’re not doing that right now.”
The trio pledges to remove “woke ideology” from Elida schools by reviewing library materials and reversing an anti-discrimination policy that allows transgender students to use the restroom of their chosen sex.
Instead, they suggest a policy that would see all students use the restroom of their biological sex, while students who aren’t comfortable doing so would have access to a family restroom.
“I think that’s more than reasonable,” Birks said.
“We don’t feel that that’s discriminating against sex,” Peters said. “There’s two sexes: male and female. As long as you’re letting male (students) go in the male restroom and female (students) go in the female restrooms, you’re not discriminating against biological sex. That’s what the law states.”
‘An oath to uphold the law’
Stocker said the district’s anti-discrimination and harassment policies for transgender students are rooted in federal case law as set forth by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Failure to provide those accommodations risks costly litigation “that we would certainly lose,” she said during the October forum.
“I have sworn an oath to uphold the laws regardless of my opinions,” she said. “We cannot pick and choose which laws we want to follow.”
Still, Stocker said the district redesigned its locker rooms and restrooms to make the stalls more private.
She, Collier and Troyer have focused their campaigns on other issues like teacher retention, mental health, school funding and assisting students who fell behind during the pandemic.
“I’m not running for re-election because it’s the popular thing to do, nor am I fixated on one, single hot-button issue,” Collier said in October. “I am here because I have a genuine, abiding love for the Elida school district.”
Troyer, whose parents died while he was a student at Elida High School, said he was once an at-risk child himself. “If it wasn’t for the services provided by this school, and the teachers of this school, I would not be where I am,” he said.
Levy renewal faces second test
A renewal levy first adopted in 2008 will also appear on the ballot — months after voters rejected that levy.
The one-mill levy, which is renewed every five years, raises about $370,000 each year for building and technology improvements.
Treasurer Joel Parker said the funds are used for roof repairs, bus replacements, new laptops and other projects. He estimated the district’s assets are worth $126 million. Deferring maintenance can lead to more costly problems like mold or water damage, he said, noting that district’s surplus only covers about three months of expenses.
“This levy is critical to keep everything in working order,” he said.
