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An Indiana school district's drift away from bolstering academics prompted the launch of a grassroots community-based organization to train school board candidates and motivated parents to run for school board seats.
Diane Eaton, the founder of Fishers One, the group that trains school board candidates, told Fox News Digital that the organization’s goal is to "restore academic excellence" in Hamilton Southeastern Public Schools (HSE). The group was founded on April 21, 2021.
Diane Eaton, the founder of Fishers One, the group that trains school board candidates, told Fox News Digital that the organization’s goal is to "restore academic excellence" in Hamilton Southeastern Public Schools.
"I did not realize that they were making a shift until COVID-19 hit in 2020. And that's when I questioned what was happening in our school," the former school board member who served from 2006 to 2014 for Hamilton Southeastern School District said.
Eaton said that Hamilton Southeastern schools, which serve more than 21,500 students, were not opening and other schools in the surrounding community were able to open during the coronavirus pandemic. HSE consists of 13 elementary schools, four intermediate schools, four junior high schools, and two high schools.
The Fishers One founder said when she attended a school board meeting in January 2021, she asked how the school district has changed since she left her post on the school board.
"The one person told me the school boards are now mostly interested in social justice," Eaton said.
Furthermore, Eaton explained that the school district started to drastically change after grant money was used to "buy curriculums from third-parties."
"Many people believe that this grant impacted education in Indiana since it was heavy on counseling, tracking social-emotional learning surveys, and moved more resources away from teachers who focus on academic subjects to support staff such as mental health counselors, social workers, and equity officers that are not academic focused," she said.
The data from the social-emotional learning survey, administered by a company called Panaroma Education, is used to help educators address students' needs.
The survey states: "In selecting survey topics and interpreting data about social-emotional learning, it is essential for educators to consider how situational or systemic forces, such as racism and racial bias, shape students’ lives and to recognize that students’ social-emotional growth is the shared responsibility of students, educators, families, and their broader communities."
A private philanthropic organization called Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded HSE $1.2 million as part of a statewide comprehensive counseling initiative for K-12 students.
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"Parents don’t know that their children’s personal information is owned by a company," Eaton continued. "School corporations are purchasing third-party programs that now state they own the data and their information is proprietary. Therefore, parents aren’t able to have full access to the information which increases the lack of transparency in schools across the county."
Hamilton Southeastern Public Schools has since updated a microaggression section to their handbook, causing some parents to push back at the June 8 school board meeting at which the measure was approved.
The school district defines microaggressions as "everyday, subtle, intentional or unintentional interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward stigmatized, or culturally or historically marginalized groups."
The new addition to the student handbook is listed under the student conduct section of the handbook.
The two parents who blasted the student handbook for its "subjective approach" to addressing microaggressions, Dawn Lang and Juanita Albright, vow to run for school board and are backed by Fishers One.
Hamilton Southeastern school board candidate Dawn Lang
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Lang, who wants to run for Hamilton Southeastern School Board, District 3 in Fishers, Indiana, told Fox News Digital that Hamilton Southeastern Public Schools' approach to addressing microaggressions is indicative of its lack of focus on "academic excellence."
Lang, a mother of three, also said the school district needs to be focused on math, reading, English, and history.
"I think we're getting redirected on issues unrelated to what our schools should be about, and I learned that test scores definitely reflect that," Lang said.
"[Hamilton Southeastern Public Schools] were ranked fourth in the state in terms of our scores or graduation rates. Now we're 16th. So I can honestly say that we are not, we are no better now than we were eight to ten years ago.
Albright, a medical professional, vows to run for Hamilton Southeastern School Board, District 2 in Fishers, Indiana, because she noticed what her children "were learning and not learning" during COVID-19.
"I just became a little more alert to the fact that I didn't think the academics were as rigorous as they once were," she said.
Hamilton Southeastern school board candidate Juanita Albright
The mother of three stressed that the school's approach to addressing microaggressions would add more burden to an already overwhelmed school district with a staff shortage.
"It came out of nowhere," Albright said. "All of a sudden this is being presented to the school board and I found it very disturbing."
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"I believe that parents in this area are ready for a change. They are ready to see their students return to an academic focus. We, I believe that we need to focus on preparing our children to enter the workforce, to go to college to do whatever they want to do in life. And that's my goal to be prepared."
HSE released a statement to Fox News Digital saying that the school district "has and will continue to be one of the highest-performing public school districts in the state of Indiana" and is an A-rated corporation, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
HSE went on to say that "94 percent of the more than 1,500 HSE students tested have mastered foundation reading skills by the end of third grade" and "juniors’ SAT scores ranked third in both reading and writing and mathematics when compared to school districts similar enrollment size."
"As we continue to make strides in core academic subjects, it is important to remember our students are more than a test score," said HSE Superintendent Dr. Yvonne Stokes. "Our teachers and staff work diligently every day to ensure our students are well-rounded, innovative thinkers capable of meeting the demands of an ever-changing world community."
Parents all over the country have been speaking out against coronavirus-related mandates in schools and progressive curriculums that have been associated with critical race theory or gender theory.
Yorba Linda, CA, Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - The Placentia Yorba Linda School Board discusses a proposed resolution to ban teaching critical race theory in schools. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The issues prompted parents to rise up to run for school board seats after concerns over educational content during the coronavirus pandemic. Some parents who had little political experience pulled off victories.
Similar groups to Fishers One emerged to speak out against indoctrination.
A new parent's rights group in Minnesota called the Minnesota Parents Alliance launched an effort to train and support school board candidates, and get parents involved in their schools and communities.
Minnesota Parents Alliance has hosted trainings for school board candidates across the state, and plans to provide support for new school board members after they are elected.