Submitted by Pablo Nava Duran
Washoe County School Board Trustee Jeff Church has filed two lawsuits against the school district. The first is for denied access to public records, and the second is because the district didn’t investigate allegations of sexual harassment against him by two district employees. He denies the accusations, and he says they were politically motivated by school board President Beth Smith.
He sent an email to school board candidate Christine Hull for a debate before the filling period and asked for an apology for a false statement about him. Now the school district needs $500,000 to hire an outside law firm to defend itself against Church.
As a Washoe County resident, I stopped attending many school board meetings in person, but I do follow the school board meetings to stay up on issues that affect me and my sister in the school district. Now I will have to attend the school board meeting this Tuesday for Church’s accusations of misconduct to speak during public comment.Â
I have three takeaways:
First, Trustee Church is unelectable. He won the school board seat in 2020 against Scott Kelley by nearly 20 points. Kelley was accused his former wife of having affairs and used a GPS device to track where she went and allegedly had a sexual relationship with a person he identified as a stripper. Before winning the school board seat, Church lost to Jacqueline Calvert by 10 points for an at-large seat in 2018.
Second, Church wants to spread disinformation about WCSD, the City of Reno, and the Washoe County Commission into our community. He wants to settle his political score, and he thinks doing that can help him win his reelection. He and Robert Beadles formed SaveWCSD to recruit their candidates with the same ideology to take over the school board after there were school board issues across the country over mask mandates and critical race theory controversies.Â
These controversies echo those that plague WCSD–from the revolving door of superintendents, to banning books. They follow a blueprint as MAGA candidates fill local government roles and turn nonpartisan positions into a battleground for enacting a harmful culture war agenda that will harm students, parents and teachers. Church wanted to flip Washoe County school board seats just like the Douglas County school board, and it has so far failed.
Third, he wants to run again and wants the electorate to think of him as a fiscal conservative. He encourages SaveWCSD candidates to run for school board again to take it over. It’s clear that most voters don’t want his ideas and his leadership. They don’t want any SaveWCSD candidates that will harm students and teachers.
Consider what it would be like if Church swallowed his pride. If he worked with school officials, students, teachers and communities in his district, stopped spreading disinformation, and he replaced complaints with ideas that most constituents supported, he might gain some traction. Maybe one day he will earn his colleagues’ respect to become the school board president.
As a taxpayer, it is an absolute waste of money for Washoe County residents to defend lawsuits filed by Church. The school district needs to protect its employees; otherwise, these issues will never be reported again.
Pablo Nava Duran is a Reno resident and substitute teacher.
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