What this election means for the Douglas County School District — and it’s chaotic board

The Douglas County School Board has made a number of headlines both regionally and nationally since the 2022 election leading to a new majority taking hold.

This new majority, composed of Trustees Susan Jansen, David Burns, Kathleen Dickerson and incumbent Doug Englekirk is staunchly and vocally alt-right. They began planning their take over long before the first day at the dais, as shown by text messages located during a contentious public records request.

They were very clear with what they wanted their first actions to be: create a policy banning transgender students from engaging with sports within the district, and hire Joey Gilbert as the board’s new attorney. This led to a number of complaints and issues on its own, as Gilbert has no background in educational law, and the previous board attorney advised the board not to pursue a transgender sports ban as they would inevitably be sued.

Following the previous counsel’s advice, they quickly fired that law firm, which had served the district for decades, and were successful in hiring Gilbert.

Gilbert told the board he would create an anti-transgender policy and would fight it in court on behalf of the district if they were sued.

That policy never came to fruition.

He has since racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills to the district, which could even amount to half a million by the end of this year, with over $100,000 billed during the first two months alone. The district’s yearly budget for legal counsel was only $160,000 total at the time.

While the anti-transgender policy has not happened, what did happen since the 2022 election was:

• An unsuccessful attempt at firing the long-standing superintendent, who later resigned;
• The board majority, through Gilbert, refused to hand over cell phones and computers for a public record’s request and were later sued;
• The board asked for a settlement over that case, and then later rejected it;
• The board gave all public records requests to Gilbert instead of the superintendent. This is important because records requests were included in the superintendent’s workload, while Gilbert now charges $325 per hour to review them;
• The board initiated a new, possibly illegal records request fee for the public at Gilbert’s request;
• The board paid Gilbert to attend a meeting during which he scrolled Twitter and refused to answer legal questions from the board;
• The board voted to hire a new superintendent who had a long history of mismanagement and criminal behavior and lied on his application;
• During different meetings, Trustee Jansen called members of the public a “piece of shit” and “retarded” during public meetings;
• The board attempted to withdraw from the Nevada Association of School Boards;
• The in-fighting of the board led to one trustee resigning;
• and much more.

In the lawsuit, it was revealed that the trustees were being coached and directed on how to vote by four outside individuals:

• Nick Maier, who has spent nearly $80,000 to date on backing candidates throughout the region;
• Virginia (Ginny) Starratt
• Lynn Muzzy
• Jan Muzzy

While Trustee Englekirk has mostly sided with the the board majority, only going against them on a few items such as choosing not to fire then-superintendent Keith Lewis, recovered conversations between the new board members and the four outside individuals discussed the fact that they should "not trust him," as he had given Lewis a positive yearly review.

Now, it seems with the running of candidate Antoinette Marie Casselberry, these individuals have found a new candidate to back. Maier has already donated thousands to Casselberry, but Englekirk is absent from his list of beneficiaries despite being challenged by Erinn Miller, who is running to unseat Englekirk for District 3 within Lake Tahoe.

So far, Casselberry has brought in a whopping $16,672 in donations, with Maier at the top of her list of donors, and Jan Muzzy’s name can also be found on her list.

Casselberry is running against Melinda Gneiting for Linda Gilkerson’s seat, who together with Trustee Carey Kangas, has been consistently outspoken against the board majority since its 2022 inception.

While Englekirk may not have the backing of these four behind-the-scenes individuals, the Douglas County Republican Central Committee did endorse Englekirk as well as Casselberry for the positions, similarly to their endorsement of Burns, Jansen and Dickerson in 2022.

The board seats are meant to be non-partisan, and this endorsement breaks from tradition of keeping party politics out of the non-partisan campaigns.

Meanwhile, candidates Miller (District 3) and Melinda Gneiting (District 5) are being backed by We Deserve a Better Board, a group that came into existence after contentions with the new board majority began to rise in 2022.

The board majority has often called the group “Marxist” and “liberal” despite the majority of its members also being registered Republicans. All of the board candidates the group is endorsing are described as “conservative Republicans.”

The new candidates

Erinn Miller (District 3) is a resident of Lake Tahoe with three children enrolled in the district and is running against incumbent Englekirk. She serves as a parent representative on the district’s Family Life committee, and has served on a number of other district committees. She and her husband are involved with Douglas Pop Warner, and has spoken against the actions of the board majority a number of times, stating that Gilbert’s law firm has overcharged the district, overreached in its duties, and failed to represent the district in an effective manner. She has said she is concerned with the lack of civility and decorum displayed by the board majority during the meetings, and hopes to represent the needs of all schools, especially lake schools with the issue of declining enrollment. You can read more about her on We Deserve a Better Board.

Melinda Gneiting (District 5) is a 24-year resident of Douglas County with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work who has had four children enrolled in the district, two of whom have since graduated. She, too, said she is concerned with the spending of the current board and the charges Gilbert’s firm has continued to rack up. She wants to see a law firm that is qualified to work in education replace Gilbert’s firm. She said she wishes to see “balance and normalcy” return to the district. Gneiting said she is concerned with special needs students, parents’ rights, fiscal responsibility, building positive relationships, and not allowing “boys to compete in girls sports.” You can read more about Gneiting on her website.

Antoinette Casselberry (District 5) is running against Gneiting, and moved to Douglas County in 2020 from Santa Cruz, Calif. She attended private Catholic schools through college, before graduating and moving into the dental field. She holds a degree in Dental Hygiene from Loyola Dental School and a BS in Health from the University of St. Francis. She is a member of the Elks Tahoe/Douglas Lodge and is on the advisory board of the Douglas County Community and Senior Center. She has served as a volunteer assistant coach for after school programs for the Santa Cruz Track Club, raised money to stop child trafficking in Madagascar through running marathons, and served as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for three years in Santa Cruz.

Casselberry said she wants to help DCSD regain the status as the best school district in the state, and noted that academic scores have been declining over the past ten years. She said that she will be a “moderating force,” bringing “balance and respectful dialogue” to the board. One of her goals is to keep transgender students out of sports, stating “no boys in girl’s bathrooms or girl’s locker rooms. Protect Girl’s sports.” She said she also wants to bring back the DARE program. You can read more about Casselberry on her website.

Yvonne Wagstaff will continue to hold her appointed seat as she is running unopposed.

Trustee Carey Kangas is not on the ballot, and his seat will go to Markus Zinke, who is also running unopposed.

Marcus Zinke is a district parent and a co-founder of the Parents Group, which seeks to bridge a gap between the school board and parents. He spoke with the Record Courier in March 2023 after the Parents Group was formed. During that interview, Zinke said the Parents Group was formed because often are unable to attend school board meetings, which are held on Tuesdays at 4 p.m., and frequently don’t even know what the board is voting on.

Co-founder Stephanie Christensen told the RC that many of the board members have never had students attend the district, which means they may not have a parents perspective on some of the issues. Parents were able to review the agendas and provide surveys to the group, who then presents them to the school board as a whole. However, the group does not appear to have been active since 2023.

What the election means

On cursory searches for Zinke, not much is known about his stance on the current board handlings. However, he is not backed by Maierr the other four behind-the-scenes individuals dictating their desires to the board majority. Although, since he is running unopposed, he has not logged any donations during his candidacy, and has not been endorsed by either the he Douglas County Republican Central Committee, nor the We Deserve a Better Board group.

Linda Gilkerson and Carey Kangas were the most outspoken members of the board against the majority, who will both be leaving in January following the election. If Casselberry is able to win Gilkerson’s seat, the board could tip into a supermajority of Maier-backed members and Englekirk.

However, if Gneiting is able to win the seat, and Miller is able to unseat Englekirk, a super-majority would not be on the table, unless Zinke were to join forces with the current board majority. He has not been endorsed by the Douglas County Republican Central Committee, nor the We Deserve a Better Board group.

If Gneiting and Miller are able to gain their seats, it will all come down to which way Zinke falls: towards the current majority, or a newly formed majority.

Gneiting and Miller have made it clear that, if elected, they intend to seek new counsel for the district and relieve Gilbert of his position. The reasons they give for this is the fact that the district has paid out $400,000 to his firm in just one year, and that he has no background in educational law.

If Zinke sides with the current majority, or if Casselberry and Englekirk retain their seats, then the board will continue as it has since its 2022 inception: four members essentially making all the decisions, with Englekirk going rogue every once in a while, and three board members opposing nearly every item brought by the board majority.

So far, Douglas County has shown up for this election more than any other Nevada county. Currently, 21,205 ballot have been cast during early voting, which is 51% of all active registered voters in the county.

Election night is Nov. 5. Only time will tell what the future of the board, and the Douglas County School District, holds.