About – G’s Plan Z

I’m the only Mom in my Race

And I’m being outspent by my opponents’ dark money PACs 100 to 1.

One of those PACs is tied to election deniers, MAGA extremists and SPLC-designated hate groups. The efforts appear to be coming from out of state. I filed a complaint with KREF on Sept. 9, but to date, they have not been able to locate the entities and individuals behind the deceptive campaigns in order to serve them with the allegations against them so the 15-day response period can commence. The right-wing extremist candidate they are supporting pulled his child from JCPS when he did not get his way with regards to masking, returning to school safely during a pandemic, the teaching of accurate history and the harms that racism causes to this day, to the point of bullying his child’s teachers. He wrote numerous letters to board members showing us exactly who he is.

Another PAC that is endorsing the incumbent has been led by the same man for over two decades. Over the years, he has been embroiled in numerous controversies when it comes to campaign violations, including recruiting someone to run for school board in a district that they did not live in and lying about their address, to sabotaging efforts of authentic concerned parents who wanted to run. But the greatest reason for concern, in my opinion, is how tightly he controls who serves on the PAC, how the clandestine election process benefits entrenched white leaders, and how the vote tabulation software can be easily manipulated to show whatever results he claims. This board chooses which candidates to endorse (or not endorse) and how much money to spend on their campaigns. For example, BSK is currently spending five times more on TV ads for the white incumbents who voted with him on the mask mandate, than they are on the Black incumbents who voted with their constituents. Teachers who are members of JCTA pay dues, and some of the dues money goes into BSK. They tell me their input on who to endorse is never sought, and there have been numerous incidents where members were outraged by their endorsements.

I’m just a PTA mom trying to be part of the solution. These individuals running to represent my community are latecomers to the public education scene, who don’t have the slightest idea what’s at stake, nor do they have a clue about how to address the crises that face our schools. I’ve been in the trenches literally doing this work for over a decade. When my current board member showed us that he either can’t or won’t hold district leaders accountable, and more recently, has refused to stand up to the bullies who continue to disrupt our meetings, I knew he needed to be replaced. When I couldn’t find anyone else to do this increasingly hostile, thankless, unpaid job, I stepped up. I don’t ask people to do things I’m not willing to do myself.

Below is the press conference held in front of Van Hoose befor the JCPS Board meeting Tuesday night, where one of the organizations I lead, Dear JCPS, announced the launch of our new Political Action Committee. Now JCPS teachers have a choice.

Inside the board meeting, the topic of the legislative priorities was on the agenda. I also spoke about my experiences over the past decade.

You can watch my speech here.

Adelmann addresses the JCPS Board on Oct. 25, 2022.

Please help this PTA Mom have a fighting chance to save Kentucky’s schools. We are the largest district in our state by nearly three times. We are the largest state in the country that is not decimated by charter schools and vouchers, yet. My race is not the only linchpin, but it is A linchpin because our board’s voting margin on important issues tends to be 4-3 and it tends to be divided along racial lines. If we lose just one seat to right wing extremists, we will lose our district to fascist ideologies. My board member has already shown us which side he’s on. In the other races, the incumbents are

Without some kind of hail Mary miracle play, incumbents are most likely to win, especially when they have hundreds of thousands of dollars of ill-gotten funds funneled into their race. The ONLY way we are going to win this is through word of mouth. I’ve been asking students to participate in a social experiment. Please help us spread the message by donating to our campaign, volunteering and telling everyone you know to vote #GPA4JCPS!

My JCPS Board Member is a Bully (and he lies).

Before you head to the polls on election day, (or mail in your ballot, or vote absentee), I’d like to share with you some factual information that might influence your decision. I’m just sharing the facts. Feel free to research them for yourself.

Not only did James Craig side with right-wing extremists recently when he flip-flopped on the district’s masking policy, he has a pattern of deceitful, bullying behavior.

Below are some more examples:

During the April 26 Board Meeting (clip shown above), James made a motion to adopt a redistricting scenario that would put Steve Ullum’s address in District 3. Prior to his motion, Ullum’s house was in District 2 and would not have been eligible to run in this year’s election. Did he even know? WFPL states that District 3 was one of the least impacted districts, so why does he even care. Now they are trying to tell us that Ullum moved into that house just so he could run. That’s not what our research shows. But that still doesn’t change the fact that James’ motion made Steve’s address eligible.

In July, he told an audience that there were “two groups” involved in the tax petition efforts and “both groups” had to be taken to the Kentucky Supreme Court. This is a lie. No wonder he turned his back on me when I went up to ask him who the other group was at the end of the meeting.

Here’s a link to the livestream. The lie starts at around the 17-minute mark, and I go into a great more detail here:

Tax Increase Timeline of Events

As I go on to explain in the timeline, he doubled down on the lie with his Fellowship of Reconciliation candidate survey response. I screenshot it here.

These lies are easily disproven. Here’s a link to the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding “the” petition. My name or petition was not mentioned once.

Here’s a quick explanation for our petition.

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxj5EcYvBizs5P4yIlQxvSocPxKTVfuG-Q

Not only is he misrepresenting our efforts, he’s flat out wrong to say our signatures were fraudulent or that they took us all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court. They simply didn’t.

There’s enough bullying going on in our schools without more of it coming from the top. There’s enough lies and deceit in our government without public school board members adding to the mix. This is one of many reasons why I decided to challenge my school board member in his campaign for re-election. We cannot afford to allow those who do not recognize what’s happening, or worse, see it and still refuse to stand up to these bullies and liars, but instead become more like them, to remain in leadership during these dangerous and tumultuous times.

Please help me replace him on November 8.

I Won’t Turn My Back on You

My JCPS Board Member is James Craig. I voted for him four years ago, and I encouraged others to, as well. I started Louisville’s first and most notorious pro public education, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-privatizer advocacy group, Dear JCPS in 2015, so, as you can imagine, a lot of people follow my guidance when it comes to who to vote for.

He seemed like an okay enough bloke. He’s a local defense attorney, who seems to understand cause and effect and speaks progressively enough that I figured, “surely he’ll vote right.” Plus, he had teachers’ union backing (back when their endorsement still meant something). There was no reason to think that he wasn’t going to win, and I saw no reason to go against him.

Fast forward to last January, when I tagged him in a post under an alternative Facebook account I was forced to use, due to my primary account always being on lockdown. Using the alias Nikki Bidness, I made an observation that he had voted against all three Black board members when it came to following CDC guidance. But it was even funnier, because he blocked my primary account, which I wasn’t even using at the time.

But this wasn’t the first, and it wouldn’t be the last time James blocked or ignored me.

Here’s a text message I sent to him in December of 2020, along with an email I sent to the entire board. He assured me then, that he not only agreed with one of my recommendations, but he would look into the others.

When the painfully delayed student assignment plan finally made it onto the board’s agenda, there was outcry from the Highlands families (an eccentric pocket of wealthy liberals living in close proximity to Downtown Louisville) who were upset their littles would have to travel outside of their neighborhoods to attend their favorite schools, so guess what. Changes were made. The proposal was tweaked. Just like that.

Black and brown community members, and those who support them, marched in the streets. It wasn’t the only message, but addressing root cause issues certainly can’t be done if we’re not talking about equity in our public schools. There was an entire tax increase that needed our community’s attention and support. But instead of considering the multi-layered and ongoing protests and objections from grassroots groups and impacted community members, we were ignored. When we objected to being ignored, we were thrown under the bus.

When I did an open records request to try to learn more about the allegations of racial discrimination in the district’s maintenance department, I was once again dragged through social media by my own board member.

A lawyer, of all people, should know that accessing public records is crucial to transparency that goes along with holding board members and district leaders accountable. When elected leaders object to due process, it really begs the question, “What are they trying to hide?”

Then there was the time I had to dip into my own pockets to purchase “VOTE YES” yard signs to counter the “No Tax Hike” petitioners “VOTE NO” yard signs. Too much was at stake to assume “Support Public Schools” yard signs would convey the message that people needed to vote for the tax increase. We had, in fact, put together a scalable proposal and met with Dr. Pollio about our vision and strategies on more than one occasion. Our proposal was not accepted, but many of our strategies were in play, such as the formation of a 501(c)_ to organize the efforts. Since we supported the tax increase, we just wanted them to run an authentic campaign that would garner the support of the voting public, in case the petition was successful in garnering enough signatures. But we also felt that a counter campaign was important, and yard signs with a clear call to action were necessary. When I asked people to pay for their yard signs (I sold them for $20 so that I could donate one for every one that was purchased), he made a post discrediting my efforts and saying people didn’t need to pay for what they could get for free.

I countered with a question, will they say “VOTE YES” knowing the answer was no. I eventually was able to badger the district’s 501(c) to create yard signs that said “VOTE YES for JCPS,” and our team of volunteers ended up being the ones who distributed and put most of them in the ground.

A coalition I was in had been trying to run a “pro public education” pledge drive, to try to counter the No Tax Hike group as “anti public education.” We were already building momentum when not once, but twice, district leaders choked the wind out of our sails and told us to stop. We even took our complaints to Dr. Pollio.

(Insert video)

I will have to check my notes to see if I can remember why James blocked me on Twitter, but it just adds to the list of growing concerns that I tried to bring to his attention, which were met with hostility, disrespect and who knows what else?

I’m a mother, a taxpayer, and a voter in his district. And I not only have valid concerns, but I also bring valuable feedback, suggestions and good ideas from others in the district who face retribution or retaliation when they speak up, as my teacher friend, Tiffany Dunn, will attest. Did James ever bother to consider that THAT’s the reason I do so many open records requests? I didn’t think so.