About Us

---

The biggest issue facing Hartland Consolidated Schools (HCS) is difficult to single out. Is it the declining enrollment, or the lack of transparency? Is it staff and student safety, or perhaps teacher support and retention? What about diminishing parental rights, or curriculum chosen by the administration that is placing ever increasing emphasis on the latest social issues rather than the basics of reading, writing and math? Or is it the recent administration comments at the school board meeting that they are “hoping” to return kids to pre-Covid academic levels over the next 2-3 yrs. To choose just one is difficult indeed. However, one concern that impacts all taxpayers, parents, teachers, and students in the district is the issue of failing student proficiency scores. This issue was recently highlighted by County Commissioner Wes Nakagiri. Overall, the district’s schools ranged from 41.1% - 63.6% of kids that have achieved academic proficiency. Yet, despite these results, they are given grades of A’s and B’s (https://www.mischooldata.org/school-grades/). Are the residents of Hartland truly getting what we pay for? How can the community stakeholders of HCS feel that it is acceptable and worthy of honor roll accolades to turn out students where nearly 1 in 2 is not proficient in the basics? Is this fair to send our kids out into the working world without the skills needed to thrive? Perhaps this is why at one recent school board meeting, a Hartland business owner expressed his concerns that many of the recent graduates are unable to sufficiently measure and cut a piece of plywood. But unfortunately judging by the recent contract extension for the superintendent and his +12% total compensation increase compared to 2020 (https://www.mackinac.org/depts/epi/salary.aspx), the current HCS school board apparently feels this type of performance is not only acceptable, but worthy of praise. However, if elected this November 8th, myself, along with my fellow clean slate members, Michelle Blondeel, Glenn Gogoleski and Bob Merwin, will make educational proficiency a priority, while holding the administration accountable, increasing transparency, advocating for parents’ rights, and will provide a safe learning environment for staff and students. 

- Greg Keller

The Clean Slate is comprised of Hartland residents who have a combined experience of over 100+ years as active community members and taxpayers.  All four Clean Slate members know and understand how valuable the state of our schools in Hartland is in keeping the community an attractive area for new families and businesses.

Our focus is on academics and achievement for our children, not social engineering and the social justice causes of those HCS personnel who work with them.  We feel that the best environment for the children of Hartland is to be exposed to endless opportunities in STEM areas as well as the skilled trades.  We wish to ensure that Hartland graduates are looked at as being well ahead of others in both academics and trade experience.  

There are seven seats on the HCS board of education.  Four of those seats are on the November 8, 2022, ballot.  Clean Slate members Glenn Gogoleski, Greg Keller, and Bob Merwin are running for six-year terms.  Michelle Blondeel is running for a two-year term which exists because of a mid-term departure of a former board member.  So please take a good look at the Hartland School Board section of the ballot which has two voting sections - a 6-year term and a 2-year term.

The greatest asset HCS has is the incredible staff of teachers, many of whom live in the area.  But there seems to be a wedge being driven between parents and teachers by out-of-district agitators, political activists, and union representatives. All three would benefit greatly from a chasm in the parent-teacher relationship.

We want this to be as CLEAR as possible and leave no room for interpretation on this subject.

First, the Hartland School District has been fortunate to have some of the most dedicated, selfless teachers ANYWHERE.  We can state this as fact as we have made good friends with many teachers and other personnel in the district. 

For those teachers that have done any of the following:

• Became a mentor, role model, and supportive emotional counselor, 
• Dealt with horrific domestic situations involving your students, 
• Spent your own money on food or supplies for your students, 

To those teachers we have just described, we are here to speak not just for the Clean Slate, but for many parents within this district who pledge to you our full appreciation and support.   You are owed the highest regard, you are superheroes, and should be lauded as such.

And if that is the type of teacher you are, read no further.

THAT BEING SAID, if you are in the minority of Hartland School personnel, whether teacher, administrator or other that feel entitled to any of the following:  

• imprint your personal political beliefs on our children, or have the authority to realign our children’s moral compass, 
• teach our children how to be completely accepting of ANY and ALL behavior, no matter how abhorrent it may be to family values, 
• divide our children into identity groups where some are permanent victims and others are continual oppressors,
• force our children to acknowledge and accept a pretend world where kids can switch genders at will or can be barnyard animals, 
• use the infantile definition of the word “hate” to any child or parent who dares to resist leftist orthodoxy,

We want to let you know we are parents who are watching, and we are prepared to put a stop to it.

This is the hot-button issue of the day.  Schools across the country are instituting new rules for allowing any child who claims an opposite gender identity to utilize restrooms, and locker rooms, and participate on teams based on biological gender.  

This has a tremendous effect on girls' sports in particular.  How many scholarship opportunities will be taken from biological females because of the illusion that a boy feels he is a girl?  

We are also convinced, after speaking with literally hundreds of parents, that an overwhelming majority are not really happy with the concept of gender-shared restrooms, and locker rooms.  

There has been an effort by certain media outlets and local school districts to vilify concerned parents who question certain reading material found in their children’s schools. There have been accusations of parents wanting to “ban” books in schools and libraries as if their next action will be to burn books like these parents were religious fanatics or controlling authoritarians.

These accusations are not only untrue but intellectually lazy and void of any real merit. To say that books should be reviewed for age-appropriate access is the equivalent of “banning” is not only sophomoric but also a cheap veil from which to hide a real hidden threat. Children should not be pawns in a push to further some adults’ social/political agenda or to fulfill a need for displaying their “wokeness”, through symbols like BLM or Pride flags.

The list of questionable books available to children in all grades is mind-numbing. 

• It’s one thing to talk about natural sexuality, and completely another thing to describe - in raw detail - acts that only 20 years ago would be labeled as hard-core pulp fiction porn. 
• It is one thing to discuss the horrors of slavery and racism in a historical context – which should be discussed and studied – but an altogether travesty to claim that children today only fall into two categories of either oppressed or oppressor.
• It is one thing to discuss some very poor decisions made in our country’s history – which should be examined, but a complete distortion of truth to claim that one group is likely to repeat these errors of judgment.

That being said, standards for age-appropriate material should be reviewed and revised with the input of parents at the local level. We now live in an age where all schoolwork and material is digital and can be easily hidden from the eyes of parents. 

This lack of true transparency needs to stop, and parents should be made aware and approve of what is put in front of their children.  

INDOCTRINATION - [inˌdäktrəˈnāSHən], NOUN - the process of introducing topics that will be accepted without question

After recently speaking with many Hartland parents about the growing chasm of values between HCS and the community it serves, people are worried that public schools are becoming antithetical to family values. But many still wonder what specifically is meant by when we use the term “indoctrination”. 

Here are some examples that have happened under the current HCS administration's watch:

• When elementary students are asked as to their preferred pronouns – that’s indoctrination.
• When a teacher tells her high school class she will refer to school shooters as simply white males because she thinks they all are – that’s indoctrination.
• When a child asks why we only talk about black history in February as opposed to all year long with other American history, then asked why she hates black people – that’s indoctrination.
• When students must sit next to other students who wear costumes and wish to meow in class without consequence – that’s indoctrination.
• When students can come into school, change their clothes, and assume an identity their parents know nothing about - that’s indoctrination.
• When students can use the restroom of the opposite gender without consequence,
• When students are taught that white privilege is real, and America is a systemically racist country, 
• When words that have origin in Critical Race Theory (e.g. - systemic racism, white privilege, social justice, inequity, unconscious bias, micro-aggressions, etc.) are used in the curriculum,
• When BLM signs and other partisan political signage can be openly displayed in a classroom, 
• When students are told that their parents don’t need to know EVERYTHING, 
• When students are told that a USA-themed sports event may be offensive, yet students are exposed to pride flags throughout the school, THAT'S INDOCTRINATION!

            And these have happened ON OUR CURRENT BOARD’S WATCH.

We want parents to have full access to what our children are being taught. HCS has wholly adopted SEL curriculum (please see our blog for some great explanations of Social Emotional Learning) which, in and of itself, is not necessarily bad. It can be a wonderful tool for those children that have certain behavioral issues. But the extended form of SEL that is being used (as created by the CASEL Group) includes a category called Social Awareness. This is a very broad category in which many things can be brought up that may go against individual family values and personal beliefs. 

Luckily, Hartland is fortunate to have an abundance of teachers that know the boundaries of what should be taught at school and best left for the home. However, there are certain elements within the ranks of both administrators and educators that wish to introduce social awareness concepts taken from Critical Race Theory (CRT) such as “white privilege”, “systemic racism”, and "inherent white bias" that are extremely divisive and group children into identity-based political categories of oppressed and oppressor. This serves no value in bringing a community together for the common good.