Edmond School Board District 1 up for Election

The Edmond general election is set for April 6, and the District 1 seat on the Edmond Public Schools Board of Education is up for grabs.

The incumbent is Lee Ann Kuhlman. Her challenger is Margaret Best.

The Edmond Way Editorial Board reached out to both for interviews to help voters decide for which to vote. Kuhlman agreed to participate. Despite multiple attempts to contact Best, the editorial board received no response.

Kuhlman is the only former teacher currently on the school board. She has been on the board 10 years.

She was asked three questions. The first concerned an incident which took place at Heartland Middle School, involving a teacher allegedly making racially insensitive comments to a student. She was asked how she would address ensuring inclusivity and diversity in the schools.

 “That incident was not just unfortunate, it was terrible,” Kuhlman said. “It was terrible for that child. It was terrible for those children in the classroom, as well as our community as a whole. Because I feel like our community is very diverse and welcoming. We have policies in place, and we are addressing it… I think we do need to have more diversity training for our teachers. We do provide that… One teacher does not speak for our district.”

Secondly, Kuhlman was asked if she was aware of any teachings some could consider controversial, such as the “1619 Project” or “Critical Race Theory” in EPS. She was also asked if she would support any controversial topics being taught in the future.

“I think that there’s a place for controversial issues, absolutely,” Kuhlman said. “I think that’s how we educate our students to be more acceptable of people with differences. We’ve had some controversy over some of the books that have been assigned. In those cases, a lot of times, if a parent does not want their child reading a certain book, we have given them an alternate choice… Education needs to address all issues, and I believe we do. I think our schools have gone so much farther in the last five years to address things like the LGBTQ community and their needs and the needs of our minorities.”

EPS Superintendent Bret Towne is retiring at the end of the school year. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Angela Mills Grunewald was named as his replacement. Kulhman was asked what she expects of the new superintendent.

“Angela Grunewald is someone that has been in the district and worked with both Dr. Goin and Bret Towne,” Kuhlman said. “However, we are looking for new ideas. I think we have to venture out a little bit. We have to bring in some new ideas, new faces. Dr. Grunewald was the best qualified candidate for this position… She is excited. She loves Edmond. She brought new ideas to us in the interview process. We need to be the state of the art in technology. We need to be the leader in every area. In some ways, we have. Academically, we’re on top. We want to maintain that.”