Nixa School Board Candidates

Josh Roberts, Megan Deal, and Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk responded to our Voter Guide. Listed in order they appear on the ballot. Jason Massengale did not respond.

Survey sent by Pray for Christian County February 2024

Josh Robert’s Responses to the Voter Guide Questions

David:

Thank you for reaching out. The formatting of this email may be odd because I am answering your questions on my phone in a gym in Kansas City watching Nixa perform at state competition. Nonetheless, my answers are below.

Joshua K. Roberts via iPhone.  

On Feb 24, 2024, at 1:21 PM, David Rice <david.j.rice@me.com> wrote:

Dear Josh Roberts,

I am writing on behalf of Pray for Christian County, a nonpartisan group of concerned parents and community members. We are creating a voter guide focused on key education issues ahead of the upcoming school board elections.

We humbly request your perspectives on several questions regarding district policies. We aim to provide voters with helpful information, not to push any agenda. Your thoughtful responses will help inform our guide.

If you are willing, please share your views on the following:

1. Will you support schools removing violent students from classrooms?

Yes. 100%. 

2. Will you support academic success of students as a high priority for school policies?

Yes. 100%  I always have, and always will. As the current board president and board member for nine years, our recent annual performance review reflected that our academic performance was in the top 1% of the state. 

3. Will you support separating students in sports competitions, locker rooms, and bathrooms by biological sex?

Yes.  Again, I always have, and always will.

4. Do you support school policies and instruction that teach children they can choose their own gender? 

No. The school has no place in such discussions.

5. Will you support public transparency measures including but not limited to publicly available online reports showing school expenditures? 

Yes. Again, always have, and always will. Nixa already makes disclosure of all such information. 

6. Do you agree that parents have the right to be informed of Their child’s social, mental, and educational needs? 

Yes. 100%. Parents should already be fully aware of their child’s social, mental and educational needs, and however the school can further assist in that area is an important part of the crucial partnership between the district and parents.Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk’s Responses to Board Candidate’s Questions

Megan Deal’s Responses to the Voter Guide Questions

1. Will you support schools removing violent students from classrooms? Yes

2. Will you support academic success of students as a high priority for school policies? Yes

3. Will you support separating students in sports competitions, locker rooms, and bathrooms by biological sex? Yes

4. Do you support school policies and instruction that teach children they can choose their own gender? I do NOT support schools teaching children they can choose their own gender. That needed more than a yes or no, because it has been asked in different ways by different groups. 

5. Will you support public transparency measures including but not limited to publicly available online reports showing school expenditures? Yes

6. Do you agree that parents have the right to be informed of Their child’s social, mental, and educational needs? Yes

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Review of Be With Jesus by John Mark Comer.

Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk’s Responses to the Voter Guide Questions

Hi David,

I put my answers below. I am honest in these answers and understand that not everyone will like them. 

All my best, 

Elizabeth

If you are willing, please share your views on the following:

1. Will you support schools removing violent students from classrooms?

I am unsure of anyone who would want to keep violent children in a classroom. I believe in removing them until they can be rehabilitated or found a place in alternative programs. This permanent removal, however, I consider to be used only in extreme cases.

2. Will you support academic success of students as a high priority for school policies?

Academic success is my most important priority and I believe academic success comes with the proper support from parents and teachers and school administrators.

3. Will you support separating students in sports competitions, locker rooms, and bathrooms by biological sex?

I have to be honest here and say I do not often understand how this is a question. It is social convention to use separate bathrooms and I've never witnessed someone going into the "wrong" bathroom. With kids, as with adults, I believe the following:

In bathrooms, locker rooms, and the like, yes, there is a biological difference that we should not cross. However, if a girl wants to play boys football or a boy wants to be on the girls' swim team, or whatnot, as long as they abide by the uniforms, social, and activity's norms, then why not? Locker rooms and bathrooms should be separate for children especially.

However, I DO NOT advocate adults or anyone at all looking, feeling, or testing someone's biological sex to satisfy their own curiosities. To me, that would also cross a line.

So if a boy "looks" like a girl and goes to the girls bathroom and dresses like a girl, I do not see a reason for my speculation that they have a penis to allow me to verbally ask or touch them or try to figure it out. There is no call for that. Along with how God made me, I believe he also made me to make choices for myself. Free will is part of the kit, in short.

4. Do you support school policies and instruction that teach children they can choose their own gender? I support school policies that do not tell children who they can be. This question is a bit of a misnomer of the actual way school works: If a student asks me to call them him or her, I don't care, I will call them that. Much like there are people who call me Liz or Beth or Dr. Dudash-Buskirk. But I do not agree with going to a student and saying "you can choose whatever gender you want, so what do you want to be?" And I don't believe that anyone should be talking about the questioning of gender at all in the classroom unless it becomes an issue in the classroom to be dealt with. I don't see a kindergartener or even a 5th grader making an issue of it in the classroom. If they do, I believe that students should be allowed to discuss that with a trusted adult (by the way, trusted adults are not always the parents).

5. Will you support public transparency measures including but not limited to publicly available online reports showing school expenditures? 

Yes, I believe all school expenditures should be public. 

6. Do you agree that parents have the right to be informed of Their child’s social, mental, and educational needs? 

I believe parents should be informed, but I also think parents should be informed because they have made themselves informed by communicating with their children. Students who are afraid to tell their parents they are or are not something  should not be forced to tell them their feelings. School is where they are supposed to learn to live in the world, not where they are forced to be put into uncomfortable or dangerous situations. I find more often than not that students whose parents "need to be informed" by an outside person (teacher, counselor, etc.) are in situations where informing their parents could be detrimental to their social, mental, and biological health.  For example, if a parent makes it clear that being gay is unacceptable, then a child who is gay, should not be outed to their parents unless they want to be. 

As a general statement, as a Catholic, I find it hard to pray for anyone who preaches disgust or hate against God's creations. If we are all his creation, then I must love them or at least respect them as such. Sometimes being a Catholic has been hard for this very reason, but it's getting easier at least. I have been called queer even though I am not, I have been questioned because I was single until I was 40, adopting a child who had a rough start in life is apparently not exactly acceptable by my nuclear family, and marrying a pagan who has been married twice before goes against almost all Catholic teachings. So maybe I'm a bad Catholic, but I consider myself a good Christian because I accept all of these things and know where I stand with God. 

Children... children are the ones we are here to protect and that means a heck of a lot more than being worried about gender identity. These are far worse problems:

Bullying, hating the poor, making light of someone's illnesses or abilities, daring children to hurt themselves or others, hitting, beating, sexually assaulting each other, drugs, smoking, eating disorders, gun violence, making dangerous TikTok videos, lack of empathy, ... just to name a few. If someone wants to wear cat ears to school, or if a girl wears a shirt and tie, or if someone says to call them by a different name... okay, I did all of those when I was in Highschool. School uniforms didn't allow us to be us, so we did some things like that. 

It never once... never... made it impossible for any of us to learn. Ever. And I was taught by nuns. 

Oh, and I was allowed to play soccer with the boys team, too. 

Anyway, that is a very long response, but short answers will not cut it. These questions have to be dealt with in each situation. Sadly, there isn't one single policy that fixes everything. 

Elizabeth’s Activism

Right: Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk, Left: Unknown Person

Elizabeth speaks at 1:08:30 into the video. The previous speakers, including myself for full disclosure speak at 44:39 into the video.

@right2winozarksNixa school board candidate and activist has double standards.

Original Email Sent to each Board Member Candidate

Dear Candidate,

I am writing on behalf of Pray for Christian County, a nonpartisan group of concerned parents and community members. We are creating a voter guide focused on key education issues ahead of the upcoming school board elections.

We humbly request your perspectives on several questions regarding district policies. We aim to provide voters with helpful information, not to push any agenda. Your thoughtful responses will help inform our guide.

If you are willing, please share your views on the following:

1. Will you support schools removing violent students from classrooms?

2. Will you support academic success of students as a high priority for school policies?

3. Will you support separating students in sports competitions, locker rooms, and bathrooms by biological sex?

4. Do you support school policies and instruction that teach children they can choose their own gender? 

5. Will you support public transparency measures including but not limited to publicly available online reports showing school expenditures? 

6. Do you agree that parents have the right to be informed of Their child’s social, mental, and educational needs? 

We sincerely appreciate your time in considering these questions. Please let us know if you have any other feedback on how best to represent your positions. Our goal is to provide voters with fair, factual information to make informed choices.

Best regards,

David Rice

Pray For Christian County

Copyright © 2024 by David Rice