What this election means for the Douglas County School District – and its chaotic administration

The Douglas County School Board has made a number of headlines both regionally and nationally since the 2022 elections, leading to a new majority.

This new majority, consisting of Trustees Susan Jansen, David Burns, Kathleen Dickerson, and incumbent Doug Englekirk, is staunchly and vocally alt-right. They began planning their takeover long before the first day on stage, as evidenced by text messages located during a contentious public records request.

They were very clear about what they wanted their first actions to be: create a policy banning transgender students from participating in sports within the district, and hire Joey Gilbert as the board’s new attorney. This in itself led to a number of complaints and issues, as Gilbert has no background in education law, and the previous board attorney advised the board not to pursue a transgender sports ban as they would inevitably be sued.

On the advice of the previous counsel, they quickly fired the law firm, which had served the district for decades, and succeeded in hiring Gilbert.

Gilbert told the board he would create an anti-transgender policy and challenge it in court on behalf of the district if they were brought to trial.

That policy never bore fruit.

Since then, he has sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills to the district, which could reach as much as half a million by the end of this year, billing more than $100,000 in the first two months alone. The district’s annual budget for legal counsel at the time totaled just $160,000.

While anti-transgender policies have not happened, the following has happened since the 2022 election:

The lawsuit revealed that the trustees were coached and directed on voting by four outside individuals:

Nick Maier, who spent nearly $80,000 thus far on supporting candidates across the region;
Virginia (Ginny) Starratt
Lynn Muzzy
Jan Muzzy

Although Trustee Englekirk has largely sided with the majority of the board, he only goes against them on a few issues, such as choosing not to fire then-Superintendent Keith LewisRecovered conversations between the new board members and the four outside individuals discussed the fact that they “shouldn’t trust him” since he had given Lewis a positive annual review.

Now it seems that these people have found a new candidate to support in the nomination of Antoinette Marie Casselberry. Maier has already donated thousands to Casselberry, but Englekirk is missing from his list of beneficiaries despite being challenged by Erinn Miller, who is running to unseat Englekirk for District 3 in Lake Tahoe.

So far, Casselberry has brought in a whopping crop $16,672 in donations, with Maier at the top of her list of donors, and Jan Muzzy’s name can also be found on her list.

Casselberry is running against Melinda Gneiting for the seat held by Linda Gilkerson, who, along with Trustee Carey Kangas, has consistently spoken out against the majority of the board since its inception in 2022.

While Englekirk may not have the support of these four behind-the-scenes individuals, the Douglas County Republican Central Committee endorsed both Englekirk and Casselberry for the positions, similar to their support of Burns, Jansen and Dickerson in 2022.

Board seats are intended to be nonpartisan, and this approval breaks with the tradition of keeping partisan politics out of nonpartisan campaigns.

Meanwhile, candidates Miller (District 3) and Melinda Gneiting (District 5) are endorsed by We Deserve a Better Board, a group that formed after contention with the new majority on the board began to rise in 2022.

The majority of the board of directors has often referred to the group as “Marxist” and “liberal,” despite the majority of its members also being registered Republicans. All of the executive candidates the group supports are described as “conservative Republicans.”

The new candidates

Erinn Molenaar (District 3) is a Lake Tahoe resident with three children enrolled in the district and is running against incumbent Englekirk. She serves as a parent representative on the district’s Family Life Committee and has served on a number of other district committees. She and her husband are involved with Douglas Pop Warner and have spoken out a number of times against the actions of the majority of the board, saying Gilbert’s law firm has overcharged the district, gone too far in its duties and has failed to represent the district effectively. manner. She has said she is concerned about the lack of civility and decorum displayed by the majority of the board during meetings, and hopes to represent the needs of all schools, especially lake schools with the problem of declining number of registrations. You can read more about her at We deserve better governance.

Melinda Gneiting (District 5) is a 24-year-old Douglas County resident with a bachelor’s degree in social work and has four children enrolled in the district, two of whom have since graduated. She, too, said she is concerned about the current administration’s spending and the fees Gilbert’s firm continues to collect. She wants a law firm qualified to work in education to replace Gilbert’s office. She said she would like to see “balance and normalcy” return to the district. Gneiting said she is concerned about students with special needs, parents’ rights, fiscal responsibility, building positive relationships and not allowing “boys to participate in girls’ sports.” You can read more about Gneiting on her website website.

Antoinette Casselberry (District 5) competes against Gneiting and moved to Douglas County from Santa Cruz, California in 2020. She attended private Catholic schools through college before graduating and moving into the dental field. She received a degree in Dental Hygiene from Loyola Dental School and a BS in Health from the University of St. Francis. She is a member of the Elks Tahoe/Douglas Lodge and serves on the advisory board of the Douglas County Community and Senior Center. She has served as a volunteer assistant coach for after-school programs for the Santa Cruz Track Club, raised money to end child trafficking in Madagascar by running marathons, and served as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) in Santa Cruz for three years .

Casselberry said she wants to help DCSD regain its status as the state’s top school district, noting that academic scores have declined over the past decade. She said she will be a “moderating force” who will bring “balance and respectful dialogue” to the administration. One of her goals is to keep transgender students out of sports, stating “no boys in girls’ bathrooms or girls’ locker rooms. Protect girls’ sports.” She said she also wants to bring back the DARE program. You can read more about Casselberry on her website website.

Yvonne Wagstaff will continue to hold her appointed seat as she is running unopposed.

Trustee Carey Kangas is not on the ballot and his seat goes to Markus Zinke, who is also running unopposed.

Marcus Zinke is a district parent and co-founder of the Parent Group, which aims to bridge the gap between the school board and the parents. He spoke to the Record Courier in March 2023 after the Parents Group was formed. During that interview, Zinke said the Parent Group was created because they are often unable to attend school board meetings, which are held on Tuesdays at 4 p.m., and often don’t even know what the board is voting on.

Co-founder Stephanie Christensen told the RC that many of the board members have never had students in the district, meaning they may not have a parent perspective on some issues. Parents were able to view the agendas and provide surveys to the group, who then presented them to the school board as a whole. However, the group does not appear to have been active since 2023.

What the elections mean

From a cursory search of Zinke, not much is known about his position on current board actions. However, he is not supported by Maierr, the other four individuals behind the scenes who dictate their wishes to the majority of the board. Although, since he’s running unopposed, he has no donations registered during his candidacy, and has not been endorsed by the Douglas County Republican Central Committee nor the group We Deserve a Better Board.

Linda Gilkerson and Carey Kangas were the most outspoken anti-majority members of the board, both of whom will leave in January after the election. If Casselberry is successful in capturing Gilkerson’s seat, the board could transition to a supermajority of Maier-backed members and Englekirk.

However, if Gneiting manages to win the seat and Miller can dethrone Englekirk, a supermajority would not be on the table unless Zinke were to join forces with the current majority on the board. He has not been endorsed by the Douglas County Republican Central Committee or the group We Deserve a Better Board.

If Gneiting and Miller can win their seats, it will all come down to which way Zinke falls: toward the current majority, or a newly formed majority.

Gneiting and Miller have made it clear that if elected, they plan to find new counsel for the district and remove Gilbert from his position. The reasons they give for this are the fact that the district paid out $400,000 to his firm in just one year, and that he has no background in education law.

If Zinke sides with the current majority, or if Casselberry and Englekirk retain their seats, the board will continue as it has since its inception in 2022: four members essentially make all the decisions, with Englekirk occasionally going rogue, and three board members oppose almost every issue brought forward by the majority of the board.

So far, Douglas County has registered more in this election than any other county in Nevada. Currently, 21,205 votes have been cast during early voting, representing 51% of all active registered voters in the county.

Election night is November 5. Only time will tell what the future of the board and the Douglas County School District will hold.