Boise school board candidate Greg Woodard responds to former trustees, superintendents

My name is Greg Woodard and I am running for the Boise School District Trustee, Race 1.

I am a dad to 5 kids who are or have been in the Boise School District and a husband to a wonderful wife. I have been falsely smeared by my opponents as a “far-right extremist,” a “public education opponent,” “divisive,” and “distracting.”

I am here to set the record straight.

I am running because I feel the current board has failed to listen to many, if not most, of the parents in the district and has failed to be a transparent board, which should be the most basic requirement of any publicly elected body.

Significant policy decisions like the dress code, full-day kindergarten and mask mandates were made with little to no parent or other stakeholder input.

The board’s typical M.O. is to have a workshop on a Friday a week or two before the regular board meeting during the day when most parents cannot attend. Board decisions are debated at the workshop, and nearly every board vote at the board meeting is 7-0.

Even when the board allows public comment at their meetings (they suspended public comment for well over a year without taking a vote to suspend public comments), it appears that their minds are already made up, and parents and others who take time out of their busy lives to attend the meetings and comment on the policies are largely ignored.

My adopted son has significant trauma from his past, and he needs the structure that comes with his regular school and athletic schedules. While I understood that the board had an incredibly difficult task when in-person learning was canceled during the beginning of COVID, the board ignored many parents’ pleas to get students back to in-person learning as soon as was safe and feasible.

The West Ada School District, the largest in the state, was back to hybrid and in-person learning well before the Boise School District. West Ada also went to a mask-optional policy well before Boise, and their COVID numbers were very similar to Boise’s while Boise continued to mandate masks, to the physical and mental detriment of the students.

For well over a year, I sent emails to the board members, met with district staff to discuss board policies and attended board meetings, just to have my voice heard. Every time, I was ignored. So I decided I would make them hear my voice by running for a spot on the board, if only during the campaign period.

I have spent a lot of my time and resources running a serious campaign. I have spoken against my opponents’ board decisions and policies, but I have not smeared their character.

Unfortunately, my opponents have not shown me the same respect. I do not have the tens of thousands of dollars they have raised from their wealthy friends and supporters to send out multiple communications (some of which have been used to smear me). I am running a grass-roots campaign. Writing this is one of the ways I can respond to the false claims against me, and I would encourage anyone who does not know me to go to my campaign website at www.greg4bsd.com to see my platform, and contact me with any questions. I have no hidden agenda. My goal in running is to make the Board more responsive to all parents and be as transparent as possible in all of its decisions.