Conservatives add to their majority on Johnson County school board with a new member

The Gardner Edgerton school board on Monday appointed a new board member, a resident who has long fought what he calls the school district’s “agenda-based” COVID-19 decisions and criticized the district’s former superintendent.

The board approved Nick Robinson, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and a father of four, to fill one of two seats left vacant by more liberal members who recently resigned from the divided board.

“I have no background with school district operations,” Robinson wrote in his application for the position. “It was only when the schools started locking down, forced masking and forced removal of healthy children from school that I became involved and an advocate for the kiddos and their parents!”

The school board shifted majority conservative following the November election, where four board members won seats after campaigning against mask mandates and for the removal of former Superintendent Pam Stranathan. The superintendent resigned before the new members took office, with a $425,000 severance package.

Second-term member Robin Stout stepped down in January, accusing the board of “unethical behavior.” Then last week, Kristen Schultz, who served more than six years on the board, resigned, saying that she had been harassed by a few supporters of her fellow board members, and that she received no support from the rest of the board to condemn such behavior.

Now the school board is left with one lone liberal, Katie Williams. And the board has been tasked with appointing two members to fill the empty seats. More than a dozen candidates submitted applications.

On Monday, the board voted 4-1 to fill Stout’s seat by appointing Robinson. Williams was the only “no” vote.

Member Greg Chapman, who won election in November, said Robinson has been “very involved,” attending nearly every school board meeting.

“The same community that voted us in seemed to support him pretty well,” Chapman said. “So I think that represents a majority of the citizenry anyway. But it shows how dedicated he is that he was here at every single meeting leading up to that and very involved.”

At a school board meeting after the November election, Robinson congratulated the four winners, saying that candidates who supported personal choice and transparency had “rolled” their opponents.

He also said that other board members had “blindly followed” the former superintendent “and her agenda over the cliff and your overwhelming defeat is the price that you’ve paid.”

The board will next fill Schultz’s seat at a future meeting.