Place 6 Candidates
Mindy Bumgarner: She is currently working on her psychology certification and has a daughter at Flower Mound HS. She has been involved in her community by teaching dating violence classes, alcohol and drug awareness class, and a Shattered Dreams program.
She said she is running for office to help parents and teachers have a voice in schools.
“I have seen and overheard many of our teachers complain of feeling that they are not given proper time to teach core education while constantly battling an ever changing grading system with state testing,” she wrote. “This has become one of the big issues that is contributing to many educators leaving the profession. While all student’s personalities are forming and evolving through their educational career some issues should be addressed at home and allow our teachers to teach.”
Her top three priorities are allowing parents to have a voice, transparency in educational programs, and helping teachers get more classroom materials. She believes the biggest problem facing LISD is teacher turnover and the reason many are leaving is because of teaching social education.
“A portion of every teacher’s class time is being dedicated to teaching a social education while also increasing the requirements of the core education,” she wrote. “This is an impossible battle for teachers to battle and have positive outcomes, and the current educational scoring in the district shows the drop in literacy and numeracy. As a school board our job is to make sure our students are prepared for the future no matter what that may be, immediately entering the work force, trade schools, or college. However, if we do not focus on ELAR, Mathematics, History, and Science we are doing each child an injustice as they graduate.”
Bumgarner also believes in strong parental involvement in education and advocated for curriculum based on age and maturity. When it comes to making sure traditionally marginalized students are safe and welcomed in LISD she emphasizes equality.
“I think it is important to note “All Students” without placing one group over another,” Bumgarner wrote.
She is also the wife of state representative and former Flower Mound Town Council member Ben Bumgarner(R) and endorsed by Congressman Pat Fallon(R) and Constable Danny Fletcher(R).
Michelle Alkhatib: She is a former elementary school principal and 13 year LISD PTA member, who served on numerous committees. She has four children enrolled in LISD schools and has been involved in her community through working as a LEF Board member, tutoring for students and volunteering at local schools and the Flower Mound Public Library.
She said she is running to be an advocate for all children and staff.
“Lewisville ISD is a district that cares about all students, staff, and families. It is a district that empowers learning and growth,” she wrote.
Her top three priorities will be to listen to the community, ensure that all students have access to the best education and are safe within their schools and advocate for all students, teachers, and staff in the district.
Alkhatib says that the biggest issue facing LISD is continuing to provide funding for our current programs.
“We need to continue advocating for the needed resources in our district. We currently are giving $54 million dollars of our local property tax dollars back to the state in recapture,” she wrote. “We are having to find creative ways to fund teacher retention, classroom resources, and safety and security measures.”
Teacher retention is another issue Alkhatib wants to address if she were to be elected as a school board member.
“Lewisville ISD is the best school district in Texas and voted as the top employer in Denton County. We need to make sure that our teachers, administrators, and staff are being praised as such,” she wrote. “Our teachers have been on the frontlines of education and incurred multiple stressors professionally and personally. We need to continue to listen to our employees and find ways that will keep them wanting to stay in LISD.”
Alkhatib says that parents are currently a valuable part of the content and curriculum process.
“LISD has processes in place. For example, parents can review any new textbooks before they are adopted and voice their opinion on the options. This allows parents to be aware and involved with what their children are learning,” she wrote. “We also must rely on the professional expertise of our teachers. Parents currently have the right to opt out of curriculum and resources that families do not want them learning at school.”
She is endorsed by Dr. Kevin Rogers, former LISD superintendent and currently place 6 board member Krisit Hasset.
Place 7 Candidates
Ashley Jones: She is a stay at home mom and also a licensed vocational nurse. She believes her medical expertise would be useful to the board. She has volunteered with the LISD Angel Tree Christmas Wrapping event, Keep Flower Mound Beautiful, and the PTA.
She is concerned about many of the ways the district is currently operating “because our children’s innocence is at risk due to the over sexualization of today’s literature in school libraries and the indoctrination of America’s youth,” Jones wrote in a letter to Denton County Republican Party Precinct Chairs.
She wants to see the Republican party take a greater role in governing education, like it has in Southlake-Carroll ISD and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD.
“We are seeing a lot of positive direction in those school districts,” Jones said.
Jones wants to see more parental involvement in both curriculum and in the classroom. She wants parents to be able to visit schools and teachers at any time without notice instead of the current system of setting up appointments beforehand.
“We need to develop a policy that allows communication,” Jones said. “That way if a parent is concerned about something on that day, they can come and sit down with the teacher and have a conversation that day.”
Jones has faced criticism after removing her children from LISD schools because of what she called a lack of communication and respect from the district.
“The second I announced that I was running, the very first question I got was, ‘Where do your kids go to school?’” Jones said. “That was instantly a red flag for me. I told my husband that had my kids been in school, I would have instantly pulled them out that day for their protection.”
Jones also explained in her letter that she has had a bad personal experience with the district’s book review policy.
“Virtual learning also presented our first instance of reading material designed to groom children into believing immoral characters in a story are heroes,” Jones wrote.
Jones wants to see parents’ views of morality brought into the book review process.
“There’s not any kind of morality clause in the process,” Jones said. “I would want to see a layer of common decency and morality and a shared decision with the parents.”
One of her biggest changes would be to eliminate Social Emotional Learning. At Marcus, SEL includes suicide prevention and mental health lessons in Marauder Time.
Some of this content came from an interview.
Endorsed by Moms for Liberty, Denton County Conservative Coalition, True Texas Project.
Jacob Anderson: He is a real estate agent with Keller Williams. He attended Abilene Christian University and UNT for his bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. He obtained his masters in Education Leadership from Concordia University. He taught special education at Central Elementary for four years and 3rd grade dual language for three years. He was Vice Principal at Lakeland Elementary from 2020-2022.
Anderson has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Keep Denton Beautiful, Communities in Schools; Meals on Wheels and taught Sunday school class. He also serves as a Dallas County CPS (Child Protective Services) Investigator.
“As a CPS investigator, interviewing caregivers in their homes, I quickly realized there were very few dads in the homes I visited. Most often kids were being raised by a single mother or their grandparents. Knowing many of these children were growing up fatherless, I felt compelled to become a teacher and be that stable male role model for my community,” he wrote.
After working in education, he wrote he soon found his initial purpose “diminished and eventually disappeared with so many ‘extra’ state mandated responsibilities.”
“My heart is still with my LISD family and running for a school board position allows me to continue to utilize my knowledge, skills and experience to serve…. We don’t deserve to have a politician in the board seat, we deserve to have a highly qualified and knowledgeable servant leader in the seat,” he wrote.
His top three priorities are teacher recruitment and retention, budget and student achievement. The greatest issue facing LISD, he wrote, is the teacher shortage.
“I believe Dr. Rapp has a good grasp of this issue and I appreciate her efforts to focus on the culture of the district and the amount of ‘extra items’ proposed to be on a teacher’s already full plates…These teachers share a giant heart for their students, but no amount of money is worth more than spending a quality moment with their family at home” Anderson wrote.
Anderson and his wife have been foster parents for the last five years and do not currently have kids in LISD.
“My wife and I adopted our beautiful boy (Nov. of 2021) and our precious baby girl (Oct. of 2022) from the foster system…We are excited to send our young pups to the elementary school in our backyard, Memorial, as soon as they are of age,” he wrote.
He is endorsed by Dr. Kevin Rogers, former LISD superintendent.
Dr. Staci Barker: She is a Research and Strategic Priorities Analyst at the Region 10 Education Service Center with a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington, MA in English Education from NYU and a BA in English from Texas Tech. She is a former English teacher and currently serves on the vestry of her church.
“My mom always told me that education is the one thing no one can take away from you. With a daughter in LISD, I know what a great district it is. As an educator, I know that we can always make things better. That’s my goal, to celebrate what is working well in the district and problem-solve around challenges the district faces,” Barker wrote.
She is running to increase school safety, provide opportunities to students regardless of their background and provide teacher support.
“I want to ensure all students have access to a variety of high-quality core classes, extension and advancement options, career-focused experiences, and extracurricular activities,” she wrote.
Barker’s priorities are teacher support, student opportunity and making sure students feel safe.
She believes the biggest issue facing LISD is recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers.
“Teaching has been one of the hardest and most rewarding roles I’ve held within my career, and I want to listen to teachers in the classroom today to find out how we can continue to reap those rewards, but make the job a little less hard,” she wrote.
Barker believes that parents should be partners with educators, and they have the right to know the student curriculum.
“I have had the pleasure of collaborating with parents when I was in the classroom and collaborating with teachers as a parent myself….As far as curriculum, the State Board of Education determines the standards (TEKS) that teachers must teach in the state of Texas, and I support the teaching of that state-adopted content,” she wrote.
Barker said she is thankful for the safety measures in place at LISD, including protocols for front door entry, locked door protocols, School Resource Officers, and anti-bullying measures.
“I believe that one root cause of safety concerns is mental health, and we could investigate our resources in that area to see if we could improve those supports, examining the possibility of additional counselors or mentors for students across the district,” she wrote.
