#QsfortheEISDElection

Here are questions for Ellen Balthazar and Heather Sheffield, incumbents who are up for re-election on the EISD Board of Trustees. Please bookmark this page as I will be regularly adding new questions.

If you would like to discuss these questions or propose additional ones, please send DearEanes an email at protonmail.com. Or join me on Twitter @deareanes. I look forward to hearing from you.

(Recently added questions are highlighted in yellow.)

Diversity of Thought

• If diversity is good, don’t we want diversity of thought on the Board? If not, how can the School Board represent the Eanes community? How is it good for the community to have a far-left School Board that votes 7-0 for woke? To that end, have you, as a current member of the Board, ever disagreed with a decision the School Board made? Has any member of the Board ever disagreed about the DEI decisions that the Board has made?

Gooden’s Survey to District Employees

The Eanes ISD DEI consultant Mark Gooden sent a 50-question survey to all employees. Click here to see Gooden’s survey questions.

• Did you review Gooden’s survey before he sent it out to all the employees in the district?
• In eight of his questions, Gooden asks about “anti-racism.” Please define what Gooden meant by “anti-racism.” Or alternatively, what’s your definition of “anti-racism”?
• Sixteen percent of Gooden’s questions included this term “anti-racism.” Yet he left the term undefined. Can you explain how district employees could answer survey questions when the key term is undefined?

Kendi & Racism Versus Anti-racism

• “Anti-racism” is a term promoted by Kendi and used by Gooden. Do you agree with Kendi’s premise that every policy and institution is either racist or anti-racist?

Questions about Covid Policies, Keeping Schools Open, and Masks

• You were opposed to in-person learning in EISD schools at the beginning of the 2020-21 SY. Looking back, were you right or wrong in that opinion? Was it a mistake to reopen the schools at the beginning of 2020-21?
• You were opposed to removing mask mandates for students in EISD at the beginning of the 2021-22 SY. Looking back, were you right or wrong in that opinion? Was it a mistake to remove the mask mandate for EISD students?
• Parents had to sue EISD in order to get the schools reopened and have the mask mandate rescinded. The School Board members would not have changed the policies without the threat of those lawsuits. How do you feel about those lawsuits in hindsight?
• Given the benefits of re-opening the Eanes schools and removing the mask mandate—both policies that the School Board members opposed—doesn’t that call into question the judgment of the School Board members?
• AISD maintained its mandatory masking policy until March 7, 2022. Eanes rescinded the policy in Fall 2021. Which district made the right decision? (Bear in mind that Eanes ISD has not suffered any adverse effects of rescinding the mask mandates when compared to AISD.) Are you at all concerned about the implications for student learning in AISD?

Regressive Gender Ideology

• The Eanes Chief Learning Officer has indicated that gender ideology may be added to the Eanes curriculum; she has said, “In time, the subject of gender identity may be addressed instructionally . . . .” Can you explain what discussions have already taken place to lead her to believe that gender ideology may be added to the Eanes curriculum? Do you support addressing gender ideology in Eanes classrooms? If not, what steps have you taken to prevent teachers from discussing gender ideology with students?
• Both Superintendent Leonard and the DEI consultant Mark Gooden have indicated that DEI instruction about race is just the beginning of their plans for the Eanes DEI initiatives. What did they mean by that? What are the School Board’s plans for expanding DEI instruction beyond race? Has the School Board talked about expanding DEI instruction into gender ideology?
• Do you believe that there are only two sexes? If so, what efforts have you made to ensure that Eanes teachers teach that there are only 2 sexes? If not, what is your definition of a woman? In your opinion, how many genders are there?
• Do you support a queer-inclusive curriculum?
• Have you read Colin Wright’s recent article about the problem with declaring pronouns? Are you familiar with his work?
• How do you feel about teachers asking students to declare their pronouns? Is this practice acceptable to you? If not, what steps have you taken to prevent teachers from asking students for their pronouns?

• Would it be acceptable for an Eanes School Board member to write in her Twitter bio “Born Again. Have you accepted Jesus as your savior?” and then attempt to embed Christian theology across Eanes curriculum? If no, then why is it acceptable for an Eanes School Board member to have pronouns in his bio and embed DEI (including gender ideology) in the Eanes curriculum?
• Do you agree w this statement: Gender ideology is a type of metaphysics that speculates about the relationship between the mind & the body. Because it is unscientific speculation, it has no business being taught in public school. Teachers should not be teaching their personal metaphysics to our kids.
• Have you read Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage? (No time to read? Here’s a podcast to catch you up.) Do you think it’s okay to sterilize children caught up in a social contagion? Are you concerned that many autistic children are being caught up in this social contagion?

• EanesISD has a recent grad who’s made national news as a Penn swimmer. Do you believe that this graduate is female? As an EISD student, was this student female? If so, please explain the metaphysical process by which the student switched from male to female.
• Following up about this Penn swimmer: Was this student “born in the wrong body”? Should Eanes teachers teach that this student was “born in the wrong body”? If not, what policies or pronouncements have you made regarding this topic?
• Here’s a blunt article about the Penn swimmer. Do you agree with this author’s assessment? If not, which parts do you disagree with? What should be taught in Eanes schools?
• EISD is getting a fabulous new swim center. If a current member of the Eanes boys swim team decides that he’s female, will that swimmer be allowed to swim on the Eanes girls team? Change in the female locker room? Does this policy apply to all Eanes sports?

Social and Emotional Learning

• In 2019, Eanes sent a group of teachers to SEL training sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The intent was that those teachers would then provide inservice to all Eanes teachers. Were you aware of the SPLC training at the time? Did you authorize it? Who is charged with choosing and approving teacher training? Given the far-left politics of the SPLC and its questionable reputation, was it appropriate to use the SPLC for teacher training?
• Eanes ISD uses Second Step as the primary resource for teaching SEL to students. Are you aware of the controversy surrounding Second Step? Have you taken any steps to see which Second Step resources Eanes uses? How do you feel about lessons that encourage students to be social-justice activists?

School Board Meetings

• In order to encourage school-board accountability, shouldn’t public comments come before executive session at Eanes School Board meetings?

TASB Qs for Heather Sheffield

• You are a member of the TASB Legislative Advisory Council, which means you know a lot about TASB. TASB once recommended these resources to school boards for discussing DEI issues: Racial Equity Tools; Dismantling Racism Works: Teaching Tolerance (from the Southern Poverty Law Center: and Intercultural Development Association. These are partisan far-left organizations. Do you think it’s appropriate for TASB to have recommended these sites to Texas school boards? Would you recommend these resources to parents?
• After TASB received negative attention for recommending these sites, they were removed from the TASB website. But other resources remain, including a video in which the speaker defines equity: “Equity means people get what they need in order to get equal outcomes.” This is the standard definition of equity. Do you agree with this definition? If not, how would you define equity? (This question is important because you and the other members of the Eanes School Board have replaced “excellence” with “equity” in the District’s Mission Statement & Instructional Goals.)
• Here’s a handout that TASB prepared to explain the alleged difference between Critical Race Theory and “equity work.” The handout, while assertive, fails to address how CRT flows into classroom through “equity work” and DEI. Experts in the subject call this classroom instruction CRT praxis. Do you think this handout is incomplete (misleading, even) because it fails to address praxis?
• The National School Board Association sent a letter to the Biden administration urging the Department of Justice to target parents who speak out at school-board meetings. NSBA has also referred to parents as domestic terrorists. Do you agree with the NSBA’s statements? Should TASB maintain its membership in NSBA?

Other specific Qs for Heather Sheffield

• How do you square your claim that you think a school board should be nonpartisan with the far-left partisan policies that the School Board has adopted these last two years? You supported the partisan teacher training by the SPLC, the partisan, racist resource list, the hiring of a partisan DEI consultant. Are you unable to see how far-left political these choices are? Or do you now disavow these partisan choices?

Specific Qs for Ellen Balthazar

• The District is spending resources of time and money on DEI because the School Board is convinced that EISD has a problem with Race&Racism™️. If this premise is true, given that you’ve been a member of the School Board for 21 years, aren’t you a part of the District’s systemic racism problem? At this point, you practically are the system. Why is everyone else the problem, but somehow you are not?