Paso school district voters will get to choose between recently ousted board member Kenney Enney and community volunteer Angela Hollander in an upcoming special election to fill the seat Enney was booted from.
Appointed in October 2022 and removed via a voter petition in December, Enney upset community members with anti-transgender comments he made on social media. In comments he posted in the PRotect Paso Facebook group, he claimed that transgenderism was “an attempt to recruit and convert children.”
But getting removed from office hasn’t deterred Enney’s desire to serve as a Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board member. He said he wants to improve students’ academic performance.
“What the district needs is we don’t need people hugging and patting each other on the back. We don’t need pay raises for superintendents and staff,” Enney said. “We need strong leadership that’s going to hold people accountable and enforce standards. That is the only way you’re going to improve performance.”
Enney compared his challenger to the status quo, pointing out her endorsements from previous superintendents.
“If you like things the way they are, vote for Mrs. Hollander. If you want to fix things, vote for me,” Enney said.
As candidates begin receiving endorsements from various organizations, Enney called out the Paso Robles teacher union. Paso Robles Public Educators (PRPE) Executive Director Jim Lynett explained that it’s customary for the union to send out letters to candidates inviting them to participate in the union’s endorsement process. On Jan. 24, Enney took to Facebook to accuse the union of having “wildly radical anti-American and anti-family beliefs” and for taking a stance against veterans.
“There are good, patriotic teachers within the PRPE, but they are afraid of retaliation or retribution if they speak out against the union’s ideology that has been pushed by you and the union leadership,” Enney wrote to Lynett. “I look forward to working with PRPE when their primary focus is on student achievement of basic skills as opposed to the divisive social justice agenda they are currently pushing.”
Lynett told New Times that he was “appalled and insulted” by Enney’s desire to create a “atmosphere of confrontation.”
“The most important thing about this is it shows that he has absolutely no understanding of how a school district works. The teachers union represents employees and contractual matters,” Lynett said, adding that he wanted to see the evidence backing up Enney’s claims.
Lynett said that Hollander would go through an interview with the endorsement committee before deciding whether or not to endorse her.
After a long career in neonatal intensive care, Hollander told New Times, she decided to put her hat in the ring because she is “passionate about education.”
Over the past 20 years that Hollander has called Paso home, she’s been an active community member. From volunteering in Paso Robles school classrooms to managing scholarships for the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County, Hollander told New Times that all she wants to do is make sure that “our children achieve their best potential.”
“I think what a lot of people don’t realize is it’s not a place to get your political agenda addressed. It’s more about setting goals for the district. And then you want to increase student achievement,” Hollander said. “So I would start looking at this year’s baseline and how we can improve those and we hold the superintendent accountable for those goals. And we closely monitor the budget.”
Ballots go out in March, and the special election is April 18. While Hollander declined to comment on Enney’s campaign, she did say that she’s “not running against Enney; I’m running for the position.” Δ
This article appears in Feb 2-12, 2023.
I reached out to Angela Hollander because I was interested in scholarships for a deserving student. I had no idea she was going to run for School Board. She decided not to answer my request I am sure because i am quite open about my conservative leanings. I had no idea what her political inclinations were but I thought wrongly that should not matter. I am afraid if she gets on the board we will have another woke progressive who puts loyalty to the unions and ideology above the welfare of the students. At any rate I am working on behalf of Kenney Enney, he is needed to help make sure that the board concentrates on academic, standards and keeping kids from be indoctrinated.
Oh Gary Lehrer, just stop. Stop making up things. She probably didn’t answer you because she doesn’t work for the foundation anymore. Not because of “political”agendas. Contact the foundation people. They can answer your questions. And go and support your candidate, we will do the same.
The fact is that Kenney Enney is needed to keep an eye on the budget, help make sure that academic standards are met, the district focuses on education over ideology and that there is leadership on the board to counter the influence of the new trustees who will just rubber stamp whatever the teachers and the teachers union proposes. We see that progressives want control over the school not to educate but indoctrinate. We see that fentanyl is an issue but progressives fight efforts to seal the border, which would also help stop human trafficing. It is obvious to us that normalizing abberrant behavior leads to genitally mutilating surgery and questions about sexual identity. The last time Joel Peterson was on the board he failed to exercise proper oversight was very chummy with disgraced Chris Williams and we need Kenney to help mitigate the influence of Joel Peterson. If you look at the state of the union with inflation, on the brink of world war iii, food shortages, energy shortages, an out of control border, mismanagement of Covid, failing school systems, an increase in crime we clearly see that progressivism is a failure across the board. We dont need progressives running schools either. Their entire agenda goes counter to the welfare of federal, state and local government. Vote for Kenney Enney!