For much of the last year, some of us from the old No Lakota Levy group have been looking for a way to replace the school board at Lakota with fresh new faces. We heard from the school board that they had wasted all the surplus money from declining enrollment and that Brad Lovell was pushing for a property tax increase in either 2021 or 2022. So rather than get the gang back together to throw money at fighting an eventual tax increase because the school board couldn’t manage their money, we started having meetings looking for school board replacements. These people would be interested in becoming a school board member but weren’t sure how to get there. This year, in 2021, three school board seats are coming up, all flat-line liberals. And I’m happy to hear that we now have three Republican-endorsed candidates to challenge them. Butler County will see that they are voting for conservatives instead of the usual closet liberals. The latter is always the teacher unions’ pick to grease the skids for the next contract negotiation for mandatory pay increases, which Lakota doesn’t need. I’ve written articles on two of those three Republican-endorsed candidates. But there is one that I’m happy to announce who received her endorsement at the end of August, Darbi Boddy. I first met Darby at one of those early meetings, and since then, she has impressed me with her diligent work ethic. She is sharp and is running for all the right reasons, and I can say that she would be great on the Lakota school board. Instead of just fighting the current school board’s bad decisions, Darbi will be part of the solution with a few more votes.
One of the big tricks is that the school board candidates have been sold to us as non-partisan. That has essentially allowed Democrats or people who call themselves Republicans to get elected in Butler County. But they vote and manage as liberals, which is why Lakota has been a mess for so many years. No matter how much money we have given them, they have wasted it as all significant government types do. It’s one thing to get angry at how the rest of the world is, but school boards are local and are some of the parts of our government that we are supposed to have the most control over. But when you can’t even get a school board to do the right thing, you know government is hopeless. However, this year we finally have a choice. We’ve tried before to get conservatives elected, and when we do, it’s been one here, one there. Then they get attacked because they are outnumbered, and it’s just been an absolute disaster.
For the old No Lakota Levy folks, it’s all about money. We all have grown children, and we don’t want Lakota asking for money over their bad decisions. We want the local community who want the free babysitting service to do well, have nice kids and have an overall asset to our neighborhoods. But there comes a price where that sentiment expires. Lakota hasn’t been asking for money since 2013, when they finally passed their last levy after we fought them on it for four years, and it was sometimes bloody. My policy was to leave Lakota alone for the most part so long as they weren’t asking for money. But now, in 2021, Brad and the gang have spent their surplus. Now it’s time to deal with it. The best way to do that is with a management change of the board now that a majority of the board is up for re-election.
I know all the candidates running as Republicans very well. And one thing about Darbi Boddy specifically is that she works hard. In almost every event I have been to over the last several months, she has been there shaking hands and introducing herself. I’ve seen her pressed under contentious conditions, and she has conducted herself exceptionally well. She has always been cool and intelligent, and the more I have come to know her, the bigger a fan I have become. I will say I am voting for her without hesitation. She is conservative in every way I can see; she is the opposite of our current school board. And in speaking with her, I am sure she can help manage the budget, which is very generous for what we already give Lakota. All this Critical Race Theory nonsense starting in Columbus by the DeWine administration will be overturned at Lakota by Darbi. She is also solid on the transexual issues that have been trying to creep in through the current board members, especially with the pick your sex bathrooms that progressive politics has been trying to sell us with old radical progressive activists like Sandy Wheatley and Joan Powell.
But further than those negative factors, I think Darbi cares about the school system. She cares about it in ways I don’t. I believe public education is a disaster that needs to be completely fixed, starting with everything John Dewey built it with. Darbi reminds me a lot of Lynda O’Conner. Lynda is the only Board member at Lakota who has been trying to make things better, but she’s outvoted 4 to 1. And the peer pressure against her by the other progressive disasters has been reprehensible. Darbi would be a good compliment to Lynda on the board.
What’s best that I have learned about Darbi is that she is very engaging, friendly, and knowledgeable. When I have talked to her, I have thrown her lots of curveballs, little things that I use to measure character, and she always hits them. She has been great at speaking with lots of different types of people without being fake about it. Her sincerity is unquestionable. Since I first met her, I’ve been a fan of hers, but you never know how things will turn out. On this little journey, which was to get things started, it’s nice to see someone like her running as an option. I always say that you have your favorite people about these types of projects, but things don’t often go the way you’d like them to. Things happen; people don’t get along for this reason or that. But at the end of it, you want to get the lawnmower started, and it needs to run on its own. The intent from the beginning was never to micromanage the school board members. We needed people who would be their own people and run things as reasonable people would on their own. We started the conversation, and of those, Darbi has turned out to be one of the best and most potent candidates, and I’m happy to see her on the ticket. I’ve known many politicians, and of them, I can’t say I’ve ever seen one who works harder than Darbi Boddi. And it’s not just been for a week or two here and there. With Darbi, it’s been hard work for months and months. If that’s what she’s like, imagine what she could do on the Lakota School Board. I can’t wait to find out.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter's Guide: 