A new Indiana law — Public Law 195 — has brought potentially big changes to local school boards and school board elections.
School board member seats have been non-partisan positions. But as of this year, school board candidates can declare their candidacy and claim a party on the ballot. Candidates now need to choose Republican, Democrat, independent or non-partisan.
Mike Duckworth, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) Board president, is running for school board trustee again. While he’s a former County Republican Party Chair, he’s choosing to remain a non-partisan candidate in 2026.
“I spent 53 years in the Republican party,” Duckworth said. “I was vice chairman for six years and chairman for four years, so I feel like I've done my due diligence in helping the party.”
Republicans David Hollingsworth and Chris Kiefer are also running non-partisan. Democrat Melissa Moore hasn’t declared yet.
“Politics shouldn't be in the school board room,” Duckworth said. “I think that you need to set that aside and do what's best for the schools, regardless of how it falls politically.”
Current Vanderburgh County Republican Party Chair Kyhle Moers feels that politics are already in the boardroom.
“The toothpaste is already out of the tube on that one, and I think that not affiliating with a party at this point is just not transparent — you're just not being transparent and telling people what you think and why you think it.”
If a candidate chooses one of the main parties, they can also get support from the parties. Moers said more candidates for office can mean more “churn” on the board — more new faces.
“I think that anybody who's been in those elected positions for 20 plus years, regardless of their, their party, or their, their work ethic, or whatever it might be, they get stagnant, and it's time to kind of move them on and let people in with fresh ideas.”
Moers said Republicans don’t have to follow the party platform, but he does have suggestions for campaign topics — mainly school safety.
Above video still: Vanderburgh County Republican Party Chair Kyhle Moers
Moers disagrees with the $215,000 safety audit of the EVSC. He thinks spending the money on metal detectors would be wiser. All the incumbent school board members supported the ongoing study.
Duckworth points to board police experience, and his experience as a school resource officer in regards to school safety.
“So I think I have a little more understanding of what it takes to keep a school as safe as possible to implement policies and procedures that will help guide our administrators and our teachers to keep our children as safe as possible.”
Duckworth said that metal detectors, at least metal detectors in all 40 buildings, isn’t feasible.
But school safety aside, there aren’t any partisan candidates, at least not yet.
Unlike with other races the county Democrats are not actively recruiting to necessarily unseat the incumbents.
“What we are looking for are candidates who are not necessarily running because of the party, but because of the want to support public education,” Cheryl Schultz, Vanderburgh County Democratic Party chair said. “We're looking for candidates that want to see money being used for our students and teachers.”
Another wrinkle, is that this partisan option may bring outside PAC money to the normally sleepy local school board race. Moers thinks this is a good thing.
“When you think about the amount of money coming into a race, that also improves a candidate's ability to share who they are and share their talking points, share their platform, and it goes a long way towards voter education.”
Schultz would personally rather see school boards stay non-political.
“I don't think it's necessary to bring national and statewide Issues into a local school board election," she said. "I think those elections should be free of all of the other issues that we have surrounding us in these other elections. We should be focused on our teachers and our students and what we can do to make these opportunities better for our children.”
Interested School board candidates have until June 18 to gather enough signatures to run for the four seats up for reelection.
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