This is other side of a mailer, financed by Oregon Family Farms Association, that was sent to Crook County residents as part of the political campaign against the incumbents running for the Crook County School Board in May. 

PRINEVILLE — The election for Crook County School Board is usually a boring, nonpartisan, procedural affair, and some of the incumbents have held their seats for over a decade. But the campaign for the three seats up for grabs in the May 16 election has become a political spectacle chock-full of insults, accusations and attack ad campaigns.

The three board members running for reelection were surprised when they learned three right-wing candidates would vie for the positions. They were also surprised to learn the challengers were backed by a top Oregon political consultant whose wife is the Republican leader of the Oregon House.

The challengers were included in campaign ads that were invariably harsh, negative and sometimes lacked any citation for who paid for them. One ad states the current board has “invited the sexualization of our kids into our schools.”

Eddy Howard, the lone candidate on the school board ballot who isn’t an incumbent or allied with an insurgent slate, said the tone and tempo of the campaign is unlike anything he has seen in half a century.

“I’ve lived in Crook County since I was 7 years old,” Howard said. “Since the ’70s. I went to school and graduated here and I have never seen this animosity and hatred for others.”

The ‘Mama Bears’ vs. the incumbents

The current Crook County board members on the ballot are Doug Smith (Zone 1), Patti Norris (Zone 3) and Jessica Ritter (Zone 4). Ritter has served on the board for almost two years, and Smith and Norris have served on the board for 14 years each.

The trio is being challenged by three women who are known locally and referred to in campaign material as the “Mama Bears.”

• Cheyenne Edgerly, a small business owner and substitute teacher who serves on the Crook County Library Board of Trustees, is running against Smith.

• Jessica Brumble, a stay-at-home mom and former tutor at Crook County High School, is running against Norris.

• And Jennifer Knight, who formerly worked as an instructional assistant at Crook County Middle School, is running against Ritter.

Current Crook County School Board members are concerned their challengers are leveraging national political divides in a coordinated statewide effort to place right-wing candidates into local positions. They said their opponents lack a cohesive plan for the school district, which they said has flourished over the past decade.

The Crook County races highlight a changing segment of Oregon’s political landscape.

The Oregon School Boards Association reported in 2021 that between 2005 and 2017, most school board members ran unopposed and members with decades in the position were common. Now, conservative groups, sometimes working with Oregon Right-to-Life, have begun running candidate slates in Bend, Albany, Hillsboro, Newberg and elsewhere in the state.

Edgerly, Brumble, and Knight did not respond to requests for comment but campaign materials state they are running to fight against an alleged sexualization of materials and attitudes in schools.

The campaign materials also state they want to put an end to discussions that consider American history through the lens of racism — known in college academic circles as “critical race theory.” They claim those lessons put tensions between white people and people of color at the center of the national narrative.

The three candidates have said the current board is “driven by agendas that have been designed to divide us and our kids.”

Edgerly is known in Crook County for being involved with a failed attempt to segregate LGBTQ+ books at the local public library. Edgerly was featured in March in an article published by the website Church Militant that described her efforts to “rid her rural Oregon town’s library and school of crude books and gender ideology.” The article stated Edgerly, along with Brumble and Knight, are running for the school board seats to “take back the woke school board from the Left.”

Knight, however, attempted to distance herself recently from some of the campaign material put out in her name.

Knight objected to material mailed to community members that included some of the same claims against the current school board as other campaign materials. According to a Facebook post from Knight in late April, she was unaware of the ad that was sent out on her campaign’s behalf.

“Let me start off by saying that I am disgusted, mortified, humiliated and heartbroken by this mailer,” Knight wrote. “In no way shape or form is this how I wanted to be perceived in our community. I DO NOT stand by this, I DO NOT approve it and I DID NOT give permission for this. This is not the image I want to be painted into the parents’ heads of this community as we try to move forward in the school board and better the education of our kids.”

In Knight’s Facebook post, she said the mailer was sent by an “unknown third party,” which turned out to be the King City-based Oregon Family Farm Association PAC, whose treasurer is listed as David Hunnicutt, according to Oregon Secretary of State records.

Bears helped by bigtime backer

In one campaign ad for the “Mama Bears,” which according to Oregon Secretary of State records was paid for by Crook County for Better Education PAC, photos of the women appear above the statement: “We don’t co-parent with the Government. Let’s restore wholesome education in Crook County.”

The ad states the trio hope to educate, not indoctrinate, ensure parental rights in education and curriculum transparency, and they reject use of critical race theory.

Another ad, specifically for Edgerly’s campaign, accused the board of excluding parents from the decision making process.

The curriculum that the challengers are critical of is known as the Wit and Wisdom English language arts curriculum. According to board members, it was chosen because it is a strong phonics and reading program and is superior to the current program. They also said it has nothing to do with critical race theory or any of the other topics the “Mama Bears” claim it contains.

The Secretary of State Election Division reports that Crook County for Better Education PAC is operated by longtime Prineville political consultant Bryan Iverson. His wife and former partner in the campaign management business is Oregon House Minority Leader Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville. Bryan Iverson was paid over $1.8 million from Republican legislative candidates and political action committees in 2022. Along with the legislative races, Iverson was the consultant for Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone’s successful 2022 re-election.

As of press time, Bryan Iverson had not responded to questions from the Bulletin regarding his involvement in the Crook County school board races.

Critical race theory not a school topic

Scott Cooper, school board director representing Zone 2, said critical race theory has no place in a high school classroom. Cooper, who is not up for reelection, said the district has never incorporated that in its curriculum and never will, and that the accusations lobbed against the board are unfounded and only complicating the work at hand.

“I believe that the role of the school board is to be boring,” Cooper said. “And that we should not solve cultural issues at the board table. We should be solely and exclusively focused on schools and community and parents and staff. We should be looking at what is good for teaching kids to read, write, do science and social studies and those conversations don’t generally lend themselves to being really exciting and that is fine with me.”

The board members running for re-election have collectively banded together as Crook County Together for Kids.

“This has unfortunately become a very divisive election and I pray our community can re-unify and take a collective sigh of relief once it is all over,” said Jessica Ritter. “The incumbents are doing all we can to keep the race dignified.”

A concerted political effort

Norris, a business owner and professor of business and computer science at Central Oregon Community College, said the ads in the challengers’ campaigns are off topic when it comes to K-12 education in Crook County. She said the campaign message is limited.

“It doesn’t state a plan or anything positive for kids going forward,” she said. “It just complains about their perception of a bunch of politically motivated things that those of us that know what is going on in the schools know aren’t true.” Norris said this upcoming election will be her fourth and only once before does she recall having an opponent.

“I just want to do the work. I don’t want to play the politics game,” Norris said. “There is a political agenda here to take over all of the nonpartisan positions. And it is not just local.”

Board member says he advocates for students

Doug Smith, 66, retired as vice president of product strategy for Les Schwab Tire Center after 42 years with the company, and has been on the school board since 2009. Smith, a Republican, has deep roots in rural Crook County, and will serve this year as the Grand Marshall at the Crooked River Roundup in Prineville this summer.

Smith, who touted his role in balancing the district’s finances and improving graduation rates, has been the target of attack ads against his reelection to the school board.

“When I go into the school board, I take all my political stuff off, and I advocate for students. And I don’t pick and choose students. I am there to advocate for something that will work for all of them,” Smith said.

Despite the attacks he is confident he will prevail in the election with his reputation intact, Smith said.

“I’ve been here a long time,” Smith said. “I have a lot of friends and a lot family in Crook County and I’ll probably be hard to beat.”