The New Berlin Taxpayers Alliance supports honest and full disclosure from candidates for local office. We believe those who seek elected positions should be transparent with their political beliefs and social values so voters can individually decide who will best represent them as an elected official. While school board is a non-partisan election, it is clear from local, regional, and national news reporting, that political issues have been ever present in our schools. Race-focused curriculum, politically driven health and safety mandates, biological males competing in female sports and utilizing female bathrooms, and the imposition of the ‘social values’ of teachers and administration that contrast with the family values of students are relevant topics the New Berlin School Board will likely have to address in the future.
In the past there has been a sentiment that school board issues are independent from the larger political discourse in this country. We disagree and think the events of the last 2 years have proven how representative a candidates partisan political ideology is in predicting their policy decisions on local issues. We establish this context to explain our decision to share the information that has been provided to NBTA, pertaining to school board candidate Meg McKenzie, from our local sources. NBTA contacted McKenzie for comment but she did not respond.
New Berlin West and Eisenhower High Schools both have school resource officers. Some school districts have opted to eliminate school resource officers. In addition, decisions regarding the summoning of police to schools for disciplinary issues varies from district to district and is the subject of much debate. For this reason, the disposition of a candidate towards police is relevant to school board candidates.
In the spring of 2021, New Berlin Police were present at a school board meeting where political activists from outside the district and Milwaukee television news media were present. Meg McKenzie shared the following statement on social media regarding the police presence (note DEI = Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) https://dei.extension.org/:
Does McKenzie believe police presence is meant for “intimidation”? Does this statement demonstrate her true belief on police resource officers in school? Would she be against calling police when students commit crimes?
On April 10th 2021, candidate McKenzie posted the following assertion to her Twitter account. We conclude based on reading this post that Ms. McKenzie is referring to police as ‘racist dangerous criminals who operate with impunity’ and that the law enforcement system is broken. Some share this view, some do not. Voters should be aware of candidate McKenzie’s attitude towards law enforcement.
Also note in the prior image McKenzie makes the assertion “black people don’t swim”. NBTA believes this is an incredibly racist statement. We encourage Ms. McKenzie to do a google search for black Olympic swimmers, of which there are many medal winners. She could also visit any of the great Milwaukee County Park System pools to see many black children swimming. McKenzie has a habit of accusing others of racism. While NBTA recognizes hypocrisy and double standards are normal operating procedure for many politicians, we think McKenzie should have some introspection on her own racist statements.
New Berlin is a diverse community with middle class, suburban, rural, and wealthy households. By demographics many of those wealthy households are ‘white’ and identify as, or tend to vote republican. In a tweet from April 7th 2021 McKenzie makes very pejorative accusations towards ‘white wealthy Republicans’.
NBTA attempted to contact candidate McKenzie to ask if she was seeking the votes of wealthy white republican residents of New Berlin and/or how those who fit that category could expect fair representation on the school board for themselves or their students within NB schools. We did not receive a response.
Many residents of New Berlin have concerns about election integrity and voter fraud. Meg McKenzie has shared her disposition on this subject as well. After the Georgia legislature passed election reform that expanded voting opportunities while making fraud more difficult, school board candidate McKenzie cast a KKK reference towards those who supported the legislation.
The New Berlin Taxpayers Alliance would ask candidate McKenzie if she also thinks New Berlin residents who support election reform “might as well be wearing hoods”, but she did not respond to our request for comment.
Cancel culture and false accusations against conservatives are also notable issues in this country. Many New Berlin residents tend to be strong 2nd Amendment supporters. In a tweet from April of 2021, McKenzie characterized Kyle Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist, killer, and murderer”.
There is no evidence Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist. Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of the charges filed against him after a diverse jury declared him not guilty. In addition apparently Ms. McKenzie thinks that police officers shouldn’t be allowed to donate to support wrongfully accused citizens. NBTA wanted to ask candidate McKenzie if New Berlin residents should expect this kind of rush to judgment, and incendiary false accusations against a person who is presumed innocent, from her as a school board member, if elected. She did not respond to our request for comment.
The New Berlin School Board election is on Tuesday April 5th. Voters should be aware of the 6 candidates for the 3 seats, Meg McKenzie, Kate Unger, and Scott Jentsch have aligned themselves as having shared views. See image capture from Kate Unger’s election website.
The New Berlin Taxpayers Alliance will be reaching out to Jentsch and Unger to ask if the views Meg McKenzie has expressed over the last year align with their views, as indicated on candidate Unger’s website. We will provide future updates as appropriate.
New Berlin Taxpayers Alliance 