Posted on 11/08/2005 11:05:11 PM PST by jennyp
Dover CARES swept the race for school board Tuesday defeating board members who supported the curriculum change being challenged in federal court.
After months of fierce campaigning that included some mudslinging from both sides, new members of the board are Bernadette Reinking, Rob McIlvaine, Bryan Rehm, Terry Emig, Patricia Dapp, Judy McIlvaine, Larry Gurreri and Phil Herman.
The challengers defeated James Cashman, Alan Bonsell, Sherrie Leber, Ed Rowand, Eric Riddle, Ron Short, Sheila Harkins and Dave Napierskie. Results are not official until certified by the county.
“We’re still in shock because we were expecting to have some wins,” said Dapp, who won a two-year term. “We weren’t expecting to have all eight.”
Dapp said “we recognized very quickly that we were a very cohesive, well-working team. I think that is one of our many strengths of what we will bring to the board.”
Candidates weigh in
Board members Bonsell and Harkins, who had voted in favor of adding intelligent design into the ninth grade science curriculum, received the least amount of votes, with 2,469 and 2,466, respectively. Bonsell and Harkins did not return phone calls about the results Tuesday.
Reinking, who was running for a four-year term, received the most overall votes with 2,754.
“It’s a nice thing,” she said. “I’m very flattered and very humble about the whole thing.”
During the campaign, the eight Dover CARES candidates had questioned the incumbents’ truthfulness and fiscal responsibility, while the eight incumbents touted their achievements in keeping taxes in line and the ability to provide quality education.
Cashman, who was running for a four-year term, had said during the day Tuesday that “I expect to win, but it’s not a big celebratory thing.”
About the loss, Cashman said, “We put our effort into this and we tried to manage the school district as conservatively as we could. I have nothing to be ashamed about.”
Rehm said he believed the voters responded because of the challengers’ combined efforts. It wasn’t one thing. They went door-to-door, held public meetings and didn’t exclude anyone, said Rehm, who won a four-year seat.
A major topic in this year’s race was the 2004 curriculum change that added a statement about intelligent design to the ninth-grade science curriculum.
The elected board members oppose mentioning intelligent design in science class. Rehm was one of 11 parents who sued the board in U.S. Middle District Court. The trial concluded Friday and Judge John E. Jones III hopes to have a decision before the year’s end.
Effects on ID Case
Regardless of the election results, those six weeks of the trial have not been lost, according to attorneys on both sides.
“The suit goes on,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Steve Harvey of Pepper Hamilton. “The mere election of a new board does not change anything.”
Harvey and defense attorney Richard Thompson of Thomas More Law Center said Jones has a set of facts to use to determine his ruling.
Harvey said he did not want to speculate on the fallout of what the new board might do. Thompson gave several scenarios.
The new board could change the policy and determine how it will handle legal appeals. It could keep Thomas More or choose another firm if it wishes to continue the case to keep intelligent design in the curriculum.
If the judge rules against the board, Thompson said, the new board could decide not to fight and could therefore be stuck with the plaintiffs’ legal fees, as requested in the suit.
“What is done is done,” Reinking said about the court proceeding, “but to take it to the Supreme Court? To me that won’t be an issue.”
ACLU attorney Witold Walczak said if the board abandons the intelligent design statement, the plaintiffs want a court order stating the new board won’t re-institute it.
“It actually is a way to conclude the litigation,” Walczak said. “The parties sign essentially a contract that says they will stop the unconstitutional conduct.”
Outside ID
Though intelligent design has captured international attention, it was not the only issue in the election.
For example, Dapp said looking at the district budget is one of the new board’s first challenges.
Property taxes, fiscal responsibility, a teachers contract and full disclosure of board members’ actions arose during the campaign.
Roughly 200 teachers attended the board meeting Monday night to show their support for a new contract. Their old contract expired in June.
Sandi Bowser, president of the teachers union who lives outside of the district and didn’t vote for board members, said the union didn’t officially support one group, but the teachers who have been vocal supported Dover CARES.
“I think that the people who are working with Dover CARES have children in the district and are concerned about some of the things that are going on including intelligent design in the science classroom,” she said.
100
That wouldn't include Michael Behe, who says that if you want to consider ID science, you have to expand the definition of science to include things like astrology.
And better not try the 'scientific illiterate' schtick on me, laddie. BTW, I'd don't think you've ever told us where you got your Ph.D..
Thanks, loads, cretoids. You managed to get a full slate of Democrats elected to the school board in Dover. Now you not only get evolution but revisionist history, environmentalism and loads of other liberal crap as well.
Yours is the first post on this thread that hit the nail on the head.
Thanks. Also interesting. Sort of a coalition of the middle.
Sounds to me like the people served by that school district wanted a little say in the matter, too.
No more than 5-10.
They already tried that. It soon fizzled, but for awhile there was an effort by creationists to pass of "abrupt appearance" as a non-religious alternative to evilution. This strategem was devised by ICR attorney Wendell Bird.
No, not the same thing.
A person could honestly believe in ID, probably as Biblical literalism, and not get dumped if they were honest about it and their other positions were in accord with the electorate.
Two board mwmbers were caught , not just lying, but commiting perjury.
I suspect another factor is the number of frustrated parents out there who've had various run-ins with the educational establishment.
I GOT FIVE CATS IN HERE ALREADY, DONT GIVE EM ANY IDEAS.
PARDON THE 'ID' IN IDEAS. YOU DON'T LIKE TO WIN ELECTIONS..ARE YOU A SEMINAR BLOGGER?
Why are you yelling? And more important, why are you yelling so incoherently?
Harvey started off with an admittedly tough question for Minnich: “are there objective, quantitative measures for design?” This is a hard question for Minnich to answer because Minnich’s arguments were analogical. But that doesn’t mean the evidence for ID couldn’t be there, and Minnich replied that the argument is more intuitive than quantitative. Other ID proponents (like Dembski) might make more quantitative arguments, but Minnich’s arguments are more analogical in nature.
To paraphrase Minnich -- "I don't have any evidence for ID, and I don't know of any methodology for locating any evidence for ID. But that doesn't mean the evidence for ID couldn't be there. Somewhere. Maybe Dembski has some."
Please inform us as to what the Theory of Intelligent Design is, what that theory can be used to predict, and how it is testable and falsifiable.
Then I'll consider it science, along with 99% of the rest of the scientific community.
That's the trouble with creationism. It's a fuzzy-headed attempt to not hurt people's feelings with facts they don't like.
It's Political Correctness for social conservatives, and it's both as silly and as dangerous as the leftist version.
Ouch. That's about the most concise eulogy I've seen for ID.
Love your tagline...
Ahhhhh; "abrubt appearance" ... aka "sudden emergence" -- an ejaculatory theory of the species ("it was, like, SPLOOSH! and suddenly they were there.")
Something tells me they are going to have to find a different name, before it gets laughed to death while it's still in the intellectual crib.
Sorry...bad manners perhaps..I'm emailing and blogging at the same time and not really thinking about etiquette...
The people in the township outside of Dover Township gave
the GOP incumbents a 100-vote margin..interesting. I'm also on the county election site checking the precincts, too.
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