BY MIKE FUHRMAN
The fate of Iredell-Statesville Schools may well rest on the outcome of next week’s District 2 primary election.
Voters in Tuesday’s GOP primary will decide if they want to entrust the fate of the district’s 20,000-plus students — and the annual budget of Iredell County’s largest employer — to local Moms for Liberty loyalists.
Laketha Bobish, an officer in the Iredell County Moms for Liberty Chapter, is running in the Republican primary for the District 2 seat against Kevin Angell. The winner will be favored to defeat Democrat Natalie Ramos in the November election.
Aside from Bobish’s affiliation with a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as an extremist organization, there are also legitimate questions about whether she is actually a resident of District 2.
I-SS officials have received complaints that Bobish recently moved into District 2 — from the Mooresville Graded District — and is living part time in a travel trailer parked in the driveway of a home off Summertree Drive near Troutman. District officials have referred concerned residents to the Iredell County Board of Elections Office.
Elections Director Susie Jordan confirmed this week that the Elections Office received a challenge to Bobish’s candidacy in January, but that challenge was dismissed because it was filed one day after the statutory deadline.
Current board members Mike Kubiniec, Anita Kurn and Brian Sloan, all favorites of the Moms for Liberty, have dragged the I-SS board down into a perpetual state of dysfunction since they joined the board in December of 2022.
For those who haven’t been paying attention to this group’s exploits:
♦ Kubiniec was stripped of his vice chairmanship and censured by the board in 2023. Among his transgressions were bringing a convicted drug offender — his campaign manager — along on school visits. He also faces a misdemeanor stalking charge in connection with a criminal complaint filed by board member Abby Trent.
♦ Kurn has made a name for herself by suggesting unruly Statesville High School students fight in a Thunderdome. Trent’s attorney has also sent Kurn a cease-and-desist letter in response to comments Kurn has directed at Trent.
♦ Sloan, who has no professional training or experience as an educator, created a stir by suggesting that he was qualified to serve as principal at Statesville High. He also suggested the district could make money by selling tickets for fights in Kurn’s Thunderdome.
♦ Kubiniec, Kurn and Sloan are also at the center of an Iredell Free News lawsuit alleging that board members conducted illegal meetings by text message starting in December of 2022 and continuing throughout 2023. Despite being sued and advised by Chairman Bill Howell to halt the practice, a quorum of board members continues to discuss school business privately.
I-SS does not need more of this type of leadership. District students, teachers, administrators and support staff deserve much, much better.
It’s not difficult to imagine what will happen if Bobish is elected as the District 2 representative and Moms for Liberty members gain control of the seven-member board. Kubiniec, who has donated $500 to the Bobish campaign, undoubtedly will be elected board chairman.
Do you think Superintendent Jeff James and other top district officials will stick around for the circus that will follow? What reasonable person would want to work for a board controlled by the Moms for Liberty? What types of applicants will the district get for critical positions? The district’s already strained relationship with the Iredell County Board of Commissioners certainly would not improve under Kubiniec’s special form of leadership.
Fortunately, registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters in District 2 have an opportunity to prevent this nonsense from escalating.
Bobish’s opponent, Kevin Angell, has dedicated his professional life to working to help at-risk children. A former youth pastor, he currently serves as executive director of Children’s Homes of Iredell County. He has clearly stated what his priorities would be if he’s elected. If elected, he will bring dignity and decorum to a board that could use more of both.
If your kids attend Cool Spring Elementary, East Iredell Middle School, Third Creek Middle School or Third Creek Middle School or you live in the areas surrounding these schools, take 15 minutes out of your day to vote. (You can find out if you live in this district and your polling place by using the NC Voter Tool. Here is the link: https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/.)
If the future of Iredell County is important to you and you live in District 2, there is only one sensible choice in this race: Kevin Angell. More than 20,000 students and 2,000 employees are counting on voters to get it right.
Mike Fuhrman is the editor and publisher of Iredell Free News.
This is so embarrassing. The fact that we have situations such as this which is literally tearing apart our school systems. No wonder more and more parents are pulling their kids out of public schools. Our board is nothing but a laughing stock and it’s evident that the ignorance of this board will definitely be the end of ISS school system. Because of the stupidity and arrogance of this board, our schools are suffering. OUR STUDENTS DESERVE BETTER!!!
Vote Angell!!! Moms of Liberty are evil.
Hoping the state board of elections or the attorney general steps in. This is fraud. Every person that breaks the law should be held responsible. If this lady is breaking the law now, what will she do if she gets elected?
Educating our children should NEVER be political. Kevin Angell is one of the finest people I know!
Laketha is being blocked from from being able to refute this nonsense….
Laketha Bobish is a fine person. Have any of you slandering her actually taken time to meet her? Also the Southern Poverty Law Center in many people’s opinion is the the facilitator of liberal think tank “hate groups”. By the way, Laketha is no longer part of the Mom’s for Liberty in Iredell. This hit piece tops all the trash this worthless free news crap Furman has ever dished up. This is disgusting. Kevin Angell is a very nice man. He speaks about his rough upbringing but it pales in comparison to what Laketha has gone through and is currently going through. And she is residing in district. If you knew half the story about Laketha that you think you do you all would be completely embarrassed. She is taking a chance running for office by putting herself out in the public and would make a great school board addition. She will offer the balance this board needs. Kevin Angell has never refuted his involvement into divisive DEI which is known to indocrinate our children. So then would you reading this hit piece really vote for that? Look. Laketha Bobish is the diversity the Iredell School board needs.
If Laketha Bobish is a member of an organization listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group that is more likely to be a badge of honor than an issue. To be listed by the SPLC, all a group needs to do is oppose the far left progressive anti-American agenda, and support family values with children being allowed to be educated rather than indoctrinated into mindless citizens following the will of Democratic party leadership elites.
In regards to the residency of Ms. Bobish, if anyone took the time to look up her voter registration in Iredell County, one could see that she has been a registered voter within District 2 since 1/25/2018. Those who want to stir up trouble and question her residency need to know that she has been cleared by the Board of Elections as a legal resident of District 2. If there was an issue with respect to her being qualified to run for school board in District 2, she would have been removed from the ballot. So can we lay this issue to rest? Oh, I forgot…not if you are one of the many readers who refuse to believe anything other than what Mr. Fuhrman prints and considers the truth. Let’s not forget that he likes to obfuscate his opinion as fact, and he’s happy to know that many of his readers fall for his narrative.
As for Mr. Kubiniec, there seems to be a continuous need by IFN to drag this guy’s name through the mud with no opportunity to hear the other side of the story, not in regard to his censure nor the ginned-up stalking charges by board member Abigail Trent. Wait until the truth comes out about Ms. Trent’s baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against him (see Staff Reports 11/22/23). Since when does tracking a piece of mail equate to stalking? She knows Mr. Kubiniec sent packets to all board members via tracking to confirm delivery of confidential information. She knows he never contacted any family members by any means possible to gather personal information in order to defame her. Not text, email, phone call, nor social media. And who in their right mind is going to pull in her driveway in the middle of the night, several times according to Ms. Trent, to take pictures? Her day will come in court, and everyone will know that it was Ms. Trent who defamed and retaliated against Mr. Kubiniec.
The so-called news printed here is just one side to the story. An opportunity to refute any of this is never given by IFN. Unfortunately, people are only going to believe what they want to, without any chance of changing their minds.
Jill Schooley, you and your son are obsessed with Trent & Matthews and it is truly disturbing. You both need hobbies and to move on!
Josh, you prove my point exactly because it is highly unlikely that you could even entertain the thought that you could be wrong about IFN’s one-sided narrative or your narrow-minded view. And I think it is you who is obsessed with Ms. Schooley. That seems to be the only person you ever address in your comments. Nothing of substance from you except your disdain for her. No thought-provoking commentary. It is you who needs to move on. Better keep your day job, too, because you are no detective.
Pavlovian Device:
Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity of communicating dissent and opposition. This is the simple formula for political conditioning of the masses. Manipulate the public to vote a certain way.
Shew! Looks like common sense won out in this District 2 primary as well as the Iredell Board of Commissioners. Thank goodness the voters seem to be waking up to the cray-cray in our midst.