QUESTIONS FROM THE KANSAS CITY STAR
-Full name, age, city you live in
Kristin Schultz, 56, Overland Park, KS
-Some background on your education and career.
I work with non-profit media organizations and strategic communication campaigns as a development consultant. My professional background is in marketing and fundraising. I am in my final year of completing a degree in Enterprise Leadership at the University of Iowa.
-Do you have children in the district? If so, how many?
My two young adult children graduated from Olathe schools (Olathe North and Olathe Northwest).
-Political experience/accomplishments
Two years on the Olathe Board of Education, during one of the most challenging times facing our students, our staff, our administration, and our community. Before that, I served on the Olathe Public Schools Foundation board for six years and have served on boards of other community organizations.
-Political affiliation
N/A. Party affiliation must be checked at the boardroom door. There’s too much party prejudice to introduce it into non-partisan places. We must be open to working together without that identity attached.
-Why did you decide to run for school board this year?
It’s important to protect the work being done by education professionals on behalf of our communities, and they have been under attack. I believe in local oversight, but not in the assumption that we are all suddenly qualified education professionals. We must retain quality professional staff and administrators if our schools are going to provide the experience our community expects. Sadly, they have become a target for the movement advocating to eliminate public education.
-If you were to be elected, what would be your top priorities?
-What are the biggest challenges facing the district in the coming years, and how would you work to address them?
We are at a critical state with resources. We lack a robust supply chain of human and physical resources and access to mental health care in our community. The social, emotional, and behavioral health of our staff and students and their families affects every classroom and the potential for learning that exists there. These two things are intertwined, and solving one is essential to solving the other. It is critical to our success.
The impacts of COVID-19 reverberate throughout our district: students’ academic progress, social development, and mental health have all been affected, and identifying the most vulnerable of them is essential to addressing their needs. The same is true for staff, who have experienced greater demands on their ability to instruct and encourage their students and their colleagues. Every family, workplace, and individual has been stressed in some way by the last 19 months, and those effects show up in the school environment, challenging the efficacy of processes that worked in the past.
The Olathe School District and our Board of Education have a strategic plan in place, designed upon an institutional core framework and our Portrait of a Graduate. These components work synergistically to inform how any given action relates to the outcomes that our community partners, families, and professionals determined are necessary for graduates to be successful once they leave us. It will be the map we rely on to guide us through solutions to the many issues resulting from our COVID-19 experience.
-How do you feel the district has done so far navigating the COVID-19 pandemic? Are there certain decisions that the board made that now looking back you would have voted differently on?
The district has navigated Covid-19 with a healthy measure of flexibility while remaining focused on our core mission of educating students. Our elementary students had very little disruption last year; middle and high school students experienced more of the challenges of hybrid and remote academic and social lives.
The board navigated through very complex decisions in a highly charged and ever-changing environment. I’m proud of the collegial relationships of our members maintain; even when members disagreed, it never became disagreeable. There was support for each other and for action outcomes. That provides stability for our superintendent, his leadership team, and the professionals who are meeting the needs of our students each day.
Looking back, I would change my vote to restrict athletics and activities at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. The measures taken then, and the measures taken since have been acceptable.
-Do you agree or disagree with the district having a mask mandate right now, and why?
I supported the district mask mandate and introduced the motion to extend the county K-6 mask mandate to our high schools. Now, transmission numbers are falling; I’m open to changing my position if there’s an indicator we should. I don’t have a fixed mindset about this.
The last 19 months have shown that COVID precautions are a moving target, so tethering our precautions to any single metric is impractical. The rate of vaccination is a valuable marker. I expect the board to continue using updated information from public health and academic professionals to guide our decisions, and that board members will work constructively and cooperatively to reach outcomes appropriate for our district, regardless of individual preference.
-What is your take on the recent debates surrounding critical race theory and how we teach race in schools?
There’s a pattern of organizations fomenting distrust in public institutions, and no message gets at people’s fear more than corrupting children. That’s the hook in the Q conspiracy. There’s a false narrative that’s been deliberately constructed to make people believe that CRT is going to be taught to K-12 students and that if schools say it’s not in the curriculum, they’re lying. We’re not. We have nearly 35,000 people in our buildings every day; some are working, some are learning, and they all deserve a sense of belonging. That doesn’t happen by ignoring the historical importance society placed on race and the origins of suburban school districts; it happens by investing in DEI plans thoughtfully designed with the students and staff members of our organization. It’s what our corporate partners are doing to improve their environments, and we’re doing the same.
The district is following the appropriate position of teaching history as it exists, without burdening students with personal responsibility or guilt from actions of our country’s ancestors. Guilting kids is counterintuitive to building the trust necessary to establish and build educational relationships. Regarding upper-level social studies, the responsibility of the district and the curriculum is to teach history and critical thinking about it; this is imperative to preparing our graduates for next level studies. It should also engender meaningful conversations in family environments; not dictates or determinations.
-Do you think the district is taking the right steps toward diversity and equity initiatives? Why or why not? Should the work be done differently?
I’m impressed by the leadership of the district’s Diversity and Engagement Department and the initial work of the district’s Equity in Schools Cohort, working in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation. We’re in Year 1 of auditing, designing, aligning, coaching, and training; the outcome should be a three-year plan to address pin-pointed priorities within our district, meeting the needs of our students, staff, and families. It feels like we’re off to a meaningful start; the real benefits will emerge over the next three years, so retaining all key personnel involved in the design of our practices is crucial. We need to keep our team intact and supported.
I’d like to see an effort to develop and leverage meaningful relationships with alumni groups in the Kansas City area to recruit minority graduates, faculty, and administrators from regions outside the Midwest. Collaborations with area economic development organizations and minority chambers of commerce in the greater metropolitan area are essential, with high reciprocal value. Attracting more minority educators to our community builds a more robust and diverse community to live in. Kansas City is a thriving, exciting metropolitan area; attracting young people in search of diverse cultures to live here – provided it remains affordable – should be a metro-wide effort.
-What are your thoughts on the push in recent years to expand school choice/voucher programs? What could that mean for the public school district?
I oppose voucher programs and tuition tax credits. Public funding provides the necessary resources to invest in our community-owned schools. What is the community benefit of paying to operate private schools that can exclude students, in addition to those we operate with oversight and accountability for everyone?
-What sets you apart from your opponent? How do you feel about your opponent's platform?
My opponent supports public funding of private schools. I do not.
Johnson County public school districts have been instrumental in economic growth of the county; siphoning away public funds to schools lacking public oversight and accountability is foolish and reveals his lack of understanding about the role of public education and the responsibilities of a school board member.
My opponent’s platform is thin: most of what he’s expressed is opposition to what our district does or has done, with little to offer as solutions. He wrongly characterizes DEI initiatives as CRT, he wrongly characterizes parents as being silenced, and he wrongly implies that the board isn’t transparent; he hasn’t demonstrated any grasp of the breadth and depth of the real work involved in effectively educating 30,000 students. I don’t think he’s attempted to meet with any key personnel to gain one. How does someone assume a meaningful responsibility without any inquiry into what’s involved?
-What makes you the best candidate?
Leadership development takes time. In a variety of community and civic roles, I’ve had opportunities that prepared me to be an informed, inquiring, and decisive board member. Those preparations have given me the foundation to manage significant challenges in our district’s ability to navigate a community crisis through my first two years. I have the experience of dealing with as many issues as we might usually encounter in two terms.
Investing deliberate attention over more than a dozen years has resulted in my understanding how the Olathe School District has managed steady growth, changes required in technology and infrastructure, demands of professional staff, and outcomes and expectations in a competitive and diverse community. My personal experience with students with IEPs and divergent learning needs has made me aware of how much our families need individualized attention. I’m deeply invested in our strategic plan and committed to developing graduates according to what the community will ask of them.
-Is there anything else you would like to add?
The Dunning-Kruger effect is real. Partisan prejudice is toxic. Effective civic leadership requires immunity from both.
Kristin Schultz, 56, Overland Park, KS
-Some background on your education and career.
I work with non-profit media organizations and strategic communication campaigns as a development consultant. My professional background is in marketing and fundraising. I am in my final year of completing a degree in Enterprise Leadership at the University of Iowa.
-Do you have children in the district? If so, how many?
My two young adult children graduated from Olathe schools (Olathe North and Olathe Northwest).
-Political experience/accomplishments
Two years on the Olathe Board of Education, during one of the most challenging times facing our students, our staff, our administration, and our community. Before that, I served on the Olathe Public Schools Foundation board for six years and have served on boards of other community organizations.
-Political affiliation
N/A. Party affiliation must be checked at the boardroom door. There’s too much party prejudice to introduce it into non-partisan places. We must be open to working together without that identity attached.
-Why did you decide to run for school board this year?
It’s important to protect the work being done by education professionals on behalf of our communities, and they have been under attack. I believe in local oversight, but not in the assumption that we are all suddenly qualified education professionals. We must retain quality professional staff and administrators if our schools are going to provide the experience our community expects. Sadly, they have become a target for the movement advocating to eliminate public education.
-If you were to be elected, what would be your top priorities?
- Implementation and execution of our Strategic Plan: Continuous assessment and development of our Portrait of a Graduate model. Support for our Superintendent’s Leadership Team in its evaluation and reiteration process. Emphasis on staff quality, recruitment, and retention.
- Ensuring that all graduates exit with at least one Market Value Asset, and the soft skills to succeed on the academic or business path of their choosing.
- Commitment to an educational culture where all belong, it is believed that all can and want to achieve, and social/emotional understanding is in practice.
- Increasing student preparedness and engagement between Olathe high schools and Johnson County Community College.
- Planning for the financial health of the district with clear-eyed understanding of the changes ahead, and for the community’s need for predictability and stability.
- Working constructively as a board, respectfully and diligently, with decorum and civility.
-What are the biggest challenges facing the district in the coming years, and how would you work to address them?
We are at a critical state with resources. We lack a robust supply chain of human and physical resources and access to mental health care in our community. The social, emotional, and behavioral health of our staff and students and their families affects every classroom and the potential for learning that exists there. These two things are intertwined, and solving one is essential to solving the other. It is critical to our success.
The impacts of COVID-19 reverberate throughout our district: students’ academic progress, social development, and mental health have all been affected, and identifying the most vulnerable of them is essential to addressing their needs. The same is true for staff, who have experienced greater demands on their ability to instruct and encourage their students and their colleagues. Every family, workplace, and individual has been stressed in some way by the last 19 months, and those effects show up in the school environment, challenging the efficacy of processes that worked in the past.
The Olathe School District and our Board of Education have a strategic plan in place, designed upon an institutional core framework and our Portrait of a Graduate. These components work synergistically to inform how any given action relates to the outcomes that our community partners, families, and professionals determined are necessary for graduates to be successful once they leave us. It will be the map we rely on to guide us through solutions to the many issues resulting from our COVID-19 experience.
-How do you feel the district has done so far navigating the COVID-19 pandemic? Are there certain decisions that the board made that now looking back you would have voted differently on?
The district has navigated Covid-19 with a healthy measure of flexibility while remaining focused on our core mission of educating students. Our elementary students had very little disruption last year; middle and high school students experienced more of the challenges of hybrid and remote academic and social lives.
The board navigated through very complex decisions in a highly charged and ever-changing environment. I’m proud of the collegial relationships of our members maintain; even when members disagreed, it never became disagreeable. There was support for each other and for action outcomes. That provides stability for our superintendent, his leadership team, and the professionals who are meeting the needs of our students each day.
Looking back, I would change my vote to restrict athletics and activities at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. The measures taken then, and the measures taken since have been acceptable.
-Do you agree or disagree with the district having a mask mandate right now, and why?
I supported the district mask mandate and introduced the motion to extend the county K-6 mask mandate to our high schools. Now, transmission numbers are falling; I’m open to changing my position if there’s an indicator we should. I don’t have a fixed mindset about this.
The last 19 months have shown that COVID precautions are a moving target, so tethering our precautions to any single metric is impractical. The rate of vaccination is a valuable marker. I expect the board to continue using updated information from public health and academic professionals to guide our decisions, and that board members will work constructively and cooperatively to reach outcomes appropriate for our district, regardless of individual preference.
-What is your take on the recent debates surrounding critical race theory and how we teach race in schools?
There’s a pattern of organizations fomenting distrust in public institutions, and no message gets at people’s fear more than corrupting children. That’s the hook in the Q conspiracy. There’s a false narrative that’s been deliberately constructed to make people believe that CRT is going to be taught to K-12 students and that if schools say it’s not in the curriculum, they’re lying. We’re not. We have nearly 35,000 people in our buildings every day; some are working, some are learning, and they all deserve a sense of belonging. That doesn’t happen by ignoring the historical importance society placed on race and the origins of suburban school districts; it happens by investing in DEI plans thoughtfully designed with the students and staff members of our organization. It’s what our corporate partners are doing to improve their environments, and we’re doing the same.
The district is following the appropriate position of teaching history as it exists, without burdening students with personal responsibility or guilt from actions of our country’s ancestors. Guilting kids is counterintuitive to building the trust necessary to establish and build educational relationships. Regarding upper-level social studies, the responsibility of the district and the curriculum is to teach history and critical thinking about it; this is imperative to preparing our graduates for next level studies. It should also engender meaningful conversations in family environments; not dictates or determinations.
-Do you think the district is taking the right steps toward diversity and equity initiatives? Why or why not? Should the work be done differently?
I’m impressed by the leadership of the district’s Diversity and Engagement Department and the initial work of the district’s Equity in Schools Cohort, working in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation. We’re in Year 1 of auditing, designing, aligning, coaching, and training; the outcome should be a three-year plan to address pin-pointed priorities within our district, meeting the needs of our students, staff, and families. It feels like we’re off to a meaningful start; the real benefits will emerge over the next three years, so retaining all key personnel involved in the design of our practices is crucial. We need to keep our team intact and supported.
I’d like to see an effort to develop and leverage meaningful relationships with alumni groups in the Kansas City area to recruit minority graduates, faculty, and administrators from regions outside the Midwest. Collaborations with area economic development organizations and minority chambers of commerce in the greater metropolitan area are essential, with high reciprocal value. Attracting more minority educators to our community builds a more robust and diverse community to live in. Kansas City is a thriving, exciting metropolitan area; attracting young people in search of diverse cultures to live here – provided it remains affordable – should be a metro-wide effort.
-What are your thoughts on the push in recent years to expand school choice/voucher programs? What could that mean for the public school district?
I oppose voucher programs and tuition tax credits. Public funding provides the necessary resources to invest in our community-owned schools. What is the community benefit of paying to operate private schools that can exclude students, in addition to those we operate with oversight and accountability for everyone?
-What sets you apart from your opponent? How do you feel about your opponent's platform?
My opponent supports public funding of private schools. I do not.
Johnson County public school districts have been instrumental in economic growth of the county; siphoning away public funds to schools lacking public oversight and accountability is foolish and reveals his lack of understanding about the role of public education and the responsibilities of a school board member.
My opponent’s platform is thin: most of what he’s expressed is opposition to what our district does or has done, with little to offer as solutions. He wrongly characterizes DEI initiatives as CRT, he wrongly characterizes parents as being silenced, and he wrongly implies that the board isn’t transparent; he hasn’t demonstrated any grasp of the breadth and depth of the real work involved in effectively educating 30,000 students. I don’t think he’s attempted to meet with any key personnel to gain one. How does someone assume a meaningful responsibility without any inquiry into what’s involved?
-What makes you the best candidate?
Leadership development takes time. In a variety of community and civic roles, I’ve had opportunities that prepared me to be an informed, inquiring, and decisive board member. Those preparations have given me the foundation to manage significant challenges in our district’s ability to navigate a community crisis through my first two years. I have the experience of dealing with as many issues as we might usually encounter in two terms.
Investing deliberate attention over more than a dozen years has resulted in my understanding how the Olathe School District has managed steady growth, changes required in technology and infrastructure, demands of professional staff, and outcomes and expectations in a competitive and diverse community. My personal experience with students with IEPs and divergent learning needs has made me aware of how much our families need individualized attention. I’m deeply invested in our strategic plan and committed to developing graduates according to what the community will ask of them.
-Is there anything else you would like to add?
The Dunning-Kruger effect is real. Partisan prejudice is toxic. Effective civic leadership requires immunity from both.
