Mike Wolanin | The Republic BCSC School Board candidate Whittney Loyd anxiously watches vote totals update election results an election results watch party for BCSC School Board Candidates Leigh Britt, Whittney Loyd and Nicole Wheeldon at Swine and Dine in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.
Whittney Loyd has comfortably won the race for the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board seat for district 3.
Now the president of Turning Point Domestic Violence Services and a graduate of Columbus East High School and Indiana University will hold elected office for the first time. The seat is currently held by Todd Grimes, who did not seek re-election and supported Loyd in the race.
”I am relieved that the race is over and I’m incredibly grateful for the support that the community has shown me,” Loyd said on Tuesday night. “I went into this wanting to support students and teachers and now I hope that—now that the race is over— I will have the chance to get to work and put that goal into action.”
Loyd ran against 54-year-old David Theile who works as an accountant. Theile was running to promote fiscal responsibility on the board and placed an emphasis on increasing parental involvement, he said.
Theile did not return a request for comment on the outcome of the race on Tuesday night.
In the contests for the three open seats this cycle, the six candidates who ran aligned themselves in two groups based on their respective beliefs in how the school board should operate. Voters were able to cast ballots for candidates in all three districts.
Britt, Wheeldon and Loyd have run non-partisan campaigns and been endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats. The three were supported The Columbus Educators Association, a union comprised of BCSC educators, and the Indiana PAC for Education, the political action division of the Indiana State Teachers Association.
They’ve been supportive of BCSC efforts to increase teacher recruitment and retention, improve the foundational reading skills of the district’s second and third-graders, BCSC’s Envision 2030 facilities plan and said they were satisfied with the current district policy regarding the accessibility of certain library materials.
The three have also regularly attended school board meetings over the past year, with Wheeldon serving as the board’s current president.
Bartholomew County voters in 2020 voted to approve a property tax referendum, with the idea being the funds will be used for teacher recruitment and retainment, along with school safety.
In terms of a potential referendum on the horizon in 2028, they’ve said they would be supportive, whereas their opponents Tom Glick, David Theile and Samantha Ison had been skeptical of how the 2020 referendum funds have been used and said they were not sold that another referendum would be necessary.
Loyd also received financial contributions from Community Education Coalition President and CEO Kathy Oren, along with former BCSC Superintendent Jim Roberts.
While races for school board are purportedly nonpartisan, the dynamics of the contests have becomes increasingly imbued with political overtones in recent years, particularly among those running as part of the ideological right locally.
Glick, Theile and Ison have run while identifying themselves as conservatives, claiming that current school board members, with the exception of Jason Major, district 1, and Logan Schulz, district 6, are nothing but a “rubber stamp” for whatever administrators opt to do.
The three have campaigned on more parental involvement as the crux of their agenda and continually expressed skepticism about decisions made by BCSC and the school board on a range of issues. They’ve also engaged in critcism of the Columbus Educators Association.
One of the most discussed topics this cycle has been the accessibility of certain library materials. Books in BCSC libraries have been the subject of two challenges this year and sparked impassioned public comment on both sides of the issue during meetings.
Glick, Theile and Ison indicated they were not satisfied with the current BCSC policy for litigating certain books, along with the state statute that governs the policy. They’ve disputed allegations that they are “book banners” and instead have said they would want additional policies in place to separate certain books deemed age-inappropriate.
The conservatives were joined by Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita and lieutenant governor-elect Micah Beckwith for a fundraiser in October. The event was sponsored by a local PAC called Your Community Partnership that said it was seeking “school reform” on documentation filed with the Indiana Election Division.
Local resident Megan Johnson, who is listed as the PAC’s treasurer, told The Republic its objective is to support candidates that want to improve school safety, help “parents understand what their rights are,” along with making sure BCSC isn’t spending money on things “we don’t need.” Johnson also named ensuring “bathrooms are used based on biology” as one of the PAC’s chief concerns.
