A recent school board candidate forum in Oakland County is highlighting divergent views on diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom, and whether it’s more important than core subjects.

Eight candidates vying for seats on the Oxford Community Schools’ Board of Education were posed with a question about the importance of DEI and related critical race theory teachings at an October candidate forum, where several were unable or unwilling to answer.

Those who did offered insight into how the candidates view the role of schools in preparing students for life, and priorities in the classroom that shape both their future and how they view the world.

A little over an hour into the forum, moderator Mike Spisz posed the question: “Do you favor DEI and CRT teaching in classrooms at the expense of core studies such as reading, writing, sciences, and civics?”

Incumbent board member Mike Aldred posed his own questions instead of answering directly, making it clear he’s unsure where students, teachers and administrators stand on the issue.

“What is relevant to our children in the schools that we put them in here in our district? What do our teachers, our administrators, the folks we hope we empower to lead our kids to be better humans after Oxford, what do they say?” Aldred said, referencing an Oxford High School shooting in 2021 that killed four students and injured seven, including a teacher.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“What is the administration, do our teachers feel?” he said. “And I would back that before I would venture into answering specifically that question.”

Others were equally as evasive.

Candidate Sara Beth Campagiorni said she “would have to look more into that.”

“If you’re talking about that as part of the training or core classes, that might be a little more distracting,” she said. “I would feel better if I learned a little more about it.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Several argued core studies and DEI and CRT principles are not mutually exclusive, and should be tackled together.

“So I think instead of do you favor one over the other, I think what we could look at is they’re equally important,” candidate Shane Gibson said. “We need to make sure our kids can read, write, do arithmetic, you know, those kinds of things. … But our job within the schools is to prepare them to go out into this world that includes a whole lot of diversity.”

“I think that there’s a way, again leaning on our teachers and our administrators to figure this way out, is how do we include those into our core classes and make sure it’s available and equitable for everyone,” he said.

Roger Kreger, one of six candidates vying for a full four-year term on the board, argued DEI and CRT “opens up the classroom to better learning because every student can come in and say I feel safe there, I have friends that are helping me, I am learning how to help others, I am learning how to help myself.

“This is what we want from our schools,” he said.

It was a similar message from incumbent Board President Erin Reis, who claimed “when you use terminology like DEI and CRT you’re weaponizing what we’re already doing in schools, which is being inclusive to the many different learners that we have.”

“I think they absolutely go hand in hand,” said Ann Acheson, incumbent facing off against candidate Rich Schneider for a partial term that runs through 2026. “This is a no brainer to me that we want to encourage our students to have that success out in the world and to be aware of what’s out there that’s perhaps different from the perspective that they might already have had and grown up with at home.”

“It’s a wonderful thing in my mind,” she added.

Only two candidates suggested schools should focus more on academics, noting how the current system is already producing students without the academic knowledge and life skills necessary for success.

Oxford Community Schools student testing data shows 50% of elementary students, 48% of middle school students, and 51% of high school students are proficient in reading, while those percentages for math are 41%, 34%, and 25%, respectively, according to U.S. News & World Report.

“In respect to DEI and CRT, I’m totally against it. I’m more involved in meritocracy,” Schneider said. “Three of my children graduated from Oxford, but some of them came up short on what I would consider some basic life skills.”

“In looking through the curriculum and the handbook, I noticed that functional life skills is an elective,” he said. “My thing is when they come out of the high school, they should know how to do their own finances. They should know what taxes are, things of this nature, to help them in their life.”

“We have to really look at our reading and writing, first and foremost,” candidate Christopher Zitny said. “DEI and CRT can be used as electives.”

“I know for a fact … my two children – one boy and one female – each had a hard time with exams once they got to college,” he said. “So I think we need to look at (improving) scores of our core values first and foremost.”