Conroe ISD School Board Candidates: Books, Bathrooms, & Pronouns
September 6, 2024 | Conroe, TX
From the Shenandoah Sentinel
In 2022 three conservative ‘mama bears’ with no prior political experience were elected to four year terms on the Conroe ISD Board of Trustees. In 2024, there are two incumbents and nine other candidates competing for four positions on the November ballot.
Four of the 11 candidates issued a joint statement promising to “join forces with the ‘mama bears’ to further improve” the educational experience. They are Nicole May, Lindsay Dawson, Melissa Semmler and Marianne Horton. Both Semmler and Horton have teaching backgrounds. Local mom and activist Michele Nuckolls endorses these four candidates.
Nuckolls has written extensively about school board meetings and documented sexually explicit books. She explained her support and said, ”I began watching the Conroe ISD school board meetings shortly after the three conservative moms were newly elected in 2022. The unprofessional behavior of the progressive incumbents attempting to shut out all discourse, is troubling. I have spoken at length with the four candidates running as the Conservative Slate for Conroe ISD, and I am confident they will work diligently for our community values, while lending an ear to all concerned citizens.”
In stark contrast, Josh Webb and John Robichau, along with incumbents Datren Williams and Stacey Chase, are identified in campaign material as the slate of four progressives. They believe ‘all’ means ‘all’, teachers know best, and promise to fight for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. They refer to the four on the conservative slate as “right-wing radicals” who want to “impose conservative ideologies” in the district.
The Sentinel asked nine candidates to respond to questions focused on three issues: 1) sexually explicit books, 2) bathroom use by the opposite sex and 3) pronouns. Incumbents Williams and Chase, along with Scott Buzbee did not respond to the Sentinel’s survey. Webb and Robichau did not receive a survey because they did not provide a public email address on their applications.