Peter Greene reported the story of West Bonner, Idaho, where a far-right, anti-public school group won control of the school board and began to mess with curriculum and books and to hire a totally unqualified superintendent. When two of the extremists were recalled, the unqualified superintendent remained in place. What will the voters do in Bovember, when they have a chance to restore control to people whose chief interest is the students and the schools?
Greene writes:
The saga of the West Bonner School District and its completely unqualified and unlicensed superintendent continues, with more twists and turns and fairly spectacular dysfunction.
The board had hired Branden Durst, a noisy political wanna-be with a checkered past and zero qualifications, to be superintendent. But his highly unusual contract depended on his procurement of an emergency superintendent certification, and the state board decided that A) he met zero of the qualifications and B) they didn’t have the power to do that anyway.
Some of the story echoes other districts where a conservative group managed to commandeer the school board. People simply became complacentabout board elections, not paying attention to what the board was up to, or not bothering to vote because they assumed the reasonable candidates were shoo-ins.
In the case of West Bonner, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, yet another of those far right groups that wants to do away with public schools entirely, pounced. Dropped textbooks and a curriculum replaced with the far right Hillsdale curriculum and a defeated levy to fund things like books and salaries–those were the prelude to installing Durst as superintendent.
Now, you might think that would be the end of the story, but you’d be wrong.
About the time Durst was hired, a recall effort was under way to remove two of the most right wing board members. Despite any number of nasty tricks, the recall succeeded at the beginning of September. Those seats will be filled in November, but in the meantime, Durst and the board have tried some last minute antics, like moving to dissolve the school board at a board meeting scheduled at the last minute for a Friday evening of a three day weekend. It took a court ordered injunction to stop that nonsense.
The recall has created another problem. It leaves three board members, which means all three must be present to conduct business, and one member, the other third of the conservative coalition, decided not to attend last week’s board meeting, which would have been the first since the state board said that there is “no path” for Durst to become credentialled to fill a superintendent spot. But with only two members present, the meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum.
That means, among other things, that Durst is still in the superintendent’s post and that the district, not the state, will have to pay his salary. One would think he can’t be superintendent on account of, you know, being unqualified and uncredentialed, but Durst has other thoughts.
“But, Durst told KREM 2 he still is the superintendent.
“They don’t make the law,” Durst said. “They aren’t the law. How many people could say that? That they don’t have to follow the laws of Idaho.”
The state board’s action, says Durst, was “pretty discriminatory.” Durst says a lot of things, although nothing about what, other than his ideological bent, qualifies him to be a school superintendent.
There’s a lot riding on the next election for West Bonner, but folks are awake and paying attention now. We’ll see what the next chapter holds.
Greene updated the West Bonner story here: the fake superintendent is still in charge.
Vote! Vote!
The Idaho Statesman writes…
Branden Durst wants ‘amicable’ exit, plans to resign from North Idaho superintendent seat.
Branden Durst, the embattled superintendent of the West Bonner County School District, plans to step down.
In a statement shared Monday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Durst said he’s seeking “an amicable and fair exit” from his job.
“I am fully aware of the challenges and sentiments that have surrounded my brief tenure,” he wrote. “I faced a situation marked by its relentless obstacles thrown my way by those who wished to see me fail, including the Idaho State Board of Education and the superintendent of public instruction.”
The West Bonner County School District’s board of trustees hired Durst in June, following a 3-2 vote. The decision sparked community backlash, primarily because Durst is a controversial far-right politician who had never worked in K-12 education. […]
Before taking the West Bonner superintendent job, Durst worked as an education policy analyst for the Idaho Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that, in its own words, seeks to “make Idaho into a Laboratory of Liberty by exposing, defeating, and replacing the state’s socialist public policies.” Superintendents are often apolitical figures, but Durst has taken strong stances on a wide range of issues.
For instance, he’s said he believes public schools should have to compete with private ones for state funding.
He’s also argued for publicly funded religious schools and said he doesn’t support the separation of church and state. He opposes the teaching of critical race theory — the idea that slavery, segregation and other racial injustices from the past continue to impact Black people today.
On X, where he’s posted more than 19,000 times, Durst has said transgender people are living in sin and Idaho should ban gay pride flags.
Read more at: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article279759269.html
Durst is totally unqualified!