New Members Elected to Robbinsdale School Board
The Robbinsdale School Board will have three new members. Kim Holmes, ReNae Bowman, Caroline Long, and Sharon Brooks Green came out on top of the list of seven candidates, each amassing more than 14,000 votes.
Voters in the district got to elect candidates for four seats. Robbinsdale School Board members David Boone and Michael Herring did not run for re-election, but current board members Sam Sant did. Sharon Brooks Green was appointed to the board to fill the remainder of Pam Lindberg’s term after her resignation, and ran in her first election. Jonas George Courneya and Aileen White also filed to run for school board.
Bloc of 3 Candidates Has Some Success
ReNae Bowman, Kim Holmes and Aileen White became somewhat inseparable this campaign season, as the three candidates teamed up to run for the Robbinsdale School Board. They attended board meetings and community functions together, campaigning for change from the status quo of the current board.
They ran for greater financial transparency and improved communication among other issues.
After election night, running as a “bloc” or “team” might be a tactic successful enough to be replicated.
“It doesn’t take a lot of votes to win a school board election, generally a very small number and it’s very possible that this tactic will work,” said political science professor David Schultz. “I’ve never seen blocs run like this before.”
Schultz says that school board elections have become a new “political flashpoint.”
“We generally think of school board elections as being fairly low key and kind of apolitical,” said Schultz. “What’s really happening now is school board elections are becoming incredibly partisan.”
Schultz says that people are often divided over hot-button topics like critical race theory or a district’s treatment of transgender athletes.
School boards also came under increased scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the 2021 school year began, parents packed a Wayzata School Board meeting to voice differing opinions over masks. That same summer, a member of the Robbinsdale School Board resigned, saying the continued attacks and vitriol from the community were “just too much.”
The Robbinsdale School District race does not appear to be partisan in nature. Bowman is a graduate of 281 schools and a former mayor of Crystal. White is a staff member and has children in the district, as does Holmes.
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