LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Newly elected, politically conservative members joined others on the Lakota Local School District’s school board on Monday evening in unanimously choosing a board veteran as president.
Lynda O’Connor — who first won a seat on the Lakota board in 2008 — will lead the board for the next year. O’Connor is joined by two conservative newcomers — who share some of her long-standing philosophies. Previews of the board’s possible changes in its approach of overseeing Ohio’s ninth largest school system were revealed during the new board’s first meeting of 2022.
Darbi Boddy - who campaigned in opposition to some of the district’s policies - was sworn in on the five-member Lakota Board of Education prior to the start of the regular board meeting. Boddy, a first-time member of the board, wasted little time in addressing some of her campaign issues as she promised to propose student COVID-19 mask and quarantine changes during the board’s next policy committee meeting on Feb. 4. She said school parents should have the final say in whether students wear masks in school. She also promised to try and change Lakota’s COVID-19 policy, which she described as containing “divisive language regarding the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.”
Lakota's current policy 'strongly recommends' students wear masks, even though some area districts like Middletown have returned to mandatory masking during the recent jump in COVID-19 Omicron cases.
Some parents in 2021 complained and protested the periodic intervals when Lakota officials ordered all students to wear masks during COVID-19 surges.
Boddy said her four-year term on the board will focus on claims that school parents were left out of some conversations regarding masks and other issues. She also promised to push for more “transparency” regarding some curricula.
She and fellow new board member Isaac Adi — who was chosen by unanimous vote to be the board’s vice president in 2022 — had campaigned together and pledged to rid the district of Critical Race Theory, but Lakota officials have repeatedly said the district doesn't teach the theory.
“I got involved to be a voice for those not being heard,” she said.
Lakota officials recently sent a notice to school families alerting them to the possibility of schools going back to mandatory masking or remote, at-home learning as early as later this week should staff absences — and a lack of substitute teachers — continue to rise due to the sharp climb in COVID-19 cases.
“If at any time we see this trending upward district-wide or in a particular building, we will consider the option to temporarily close or reinstate masks to help slow the spread,” wrote Lakota officials.
Boddy was the lone board vote in opposition of the renewal of its annual membership in the Ohio School Board Association, which requires the spending of $8,081.
The board took no action on major policy or other issues during its meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 24.
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