State Board of Education Unanimously Approves North Omaha Private School After Four Day Delay
by Lewis Thune
(Picture credit Lewis Thune)
Four days after postponing its approval vote for Identity Preparatory Academy, an all-girls school in North Omaha, the Nebraska State Board of Education voted Tuesday to approve the school’s application for Rule 14 nonpublic school status.
The approval vote took place virtually in the aftermath of Friday’s meeting, in which the board voted 6-2 to postpone a motion to approve until members could meet with chief executive Dr. DerNecia Phillips and staff over concerns over a radical educational framework.
The controversy began due to a since-deleted phrase on the school’s website that appeared to endorse the abolitionist framework of education, the subject of a book by Columbia University professor Bettina L. Love that draws criticism of anti-Americanism, potentially in violation of the Nebraska statutes for civic education. After Dr. Phillips appeared at the Friday meeting to distinguish the school’s use of “abolitionist” from that of Professor Love, board members Maggie Douglas, Kirk Penner, and Sherry Jones toured the school and met with staff on Monday.
Subsequent issues arose concerning whether the board had power to deliberate on a curriculum-specific matter, which was the objection of board member Kristen Christensen. Board member Deborah Neary objected to the uncertainty it would cause just one week from school’s start and the optics of imposing an unusual delay on a girl’s school in the African-American hub of North Omaha.
Lengthy Public Comment Section
In light of the publicity the delay received, the public comment section which preceded the vote lasted nearly 90 minutes, with 17 speakers addressing the board including three pastors, two state senators, a Nebraska NAACP representative, comedian and author Lacey Lamar, and finally Dr. Phillips herself.
All speakers voiced support for the school and took issue with the board’s decision to delay their vote. Many, such as Omaha business owner Candace Price, took issue similar to Christensen with the procedural grounds of the delay.
“I’m very unsure why we’re here today,” she said. “I do respect that the board’s responsibility is to ask questions. But after you’ve asked those questions, you do need to get back to the matter at hand, and that would simply be: did identity prep meet the requirements for conditional approval of rule 14? From everything that I’ve understood, that’s absolutely ‘yes.’”
Bishop K. Jevon Chambers of Omaha agreed.
“Vague alarm is not due process,” he said. “And raising concerns without articulating them doesn’t serve our families. Identity Prep had complied with every requirement.”
A few others stressed Neary’s point that the eleventh-hour delay of a nearly two business days harmed the school by causing undue stress.
“You didn’t understand that that would cause harm to Dr. Phillips — possibly losing financial supporters, potential students, jeopardizing her reputation, even her future,” said Reverend T. Michael Williams of Omaha.
“You fixated on that word and you wasted so much precious time,” said Lacey Lamar, a former comedy writer and New York Times bestselling author. “They’re still fundraising so every minute that she has is precious.”
Some, including Lamar, opted to bring up the racial angle as well.
“It’s nationally embarrassing,” she said. “If you were to tell a stranger in any of those cities [New York and Los Angeles], they would be like ‘that happened in 1923, not 2026.”
State senator Terrell McKinney spoke in a similar tone.
“Even the conversation about the abolitionist language, people weaponize words to fit their own narrative,” he said. “What’s disappointing is that individuals on the board, I assume, feel some type of way about young black girls being educated by black women.”
“It’s unfortunate that we have people in positions that continue to hinder the growth of our children through vertical racism,” said entrepreneur Virginia Smith.
Still others defended the abolitionist framework altogether, while qualifying that whatever the case, the school had removed any specific endorsements of abolitionist education. Dr. Phillips spoke last to address the board in the aftermath of their Monday meeting, this time addressing some public concerns that such a meeting was unfruitful.
“We talked about intellectual curiosity and humility, all of that was expressed yesterday,” she said. “I am excited that I was able to explain in more detail — probably more detail than they wanted, because I’m very loquacious… the framework that was worried about is not the framework that we’re using.”
She stated definitively the intention and meaning of the school’s use of “abolitionist” regarding its curriculum:
“What we were talking about is abolishing the school to prison pipeline… that will still be happening. We will still be cultivating joyful learning spaces for girls and ensuring that there is not a school to prison pipeline. We are using an appreciative framework to do so.”
She also asserted that the delay did present some problems for the school.
“We have had families who are worried — they didn’t understand what was going on — some have decided not to attend, because this was really scary,” she said. “We are still fundraising, and this did affect that as well. However, what I will say in conversation yesterday, I expressed that, and I think that point was also well taken.”
Board Members Trade Fire Over Delay and Reception
Lisa Schonhoff of District 3 was the first to speak after public comment had concluded, responding to the first objection to clarify that the board’s four day postponement for the sake of a meeting was actually far ahead of schedule
“You have to have your application for Rule 14 in by May 1st,” she said. “We had all except one turned in on time. June 4th, as a discussion item, we had one added late because they did not meet the deadline… we had one month less time for that one school.”
That school was Identity Preparatory Academy, which altered the board’s standard timetable.
“It goes through information month, a discussion month, and then an action month. This one school skipped one of those months, and we let that go, and we only gave up a month and then asked for four additional days.”
Sherry Jones commented that her concerns over Rule 14 were satisfied by that meeting, and that she would support the school’s approval.
Schonhoff also thanked “those members who refrained from seeking out social media and the press” on the issue, a shot at Deb Neary after the events of the weekend. After recounting his satisfaction with Identity Preparatory Academy, Kirk Penner of District 5 had some choice words for Neary.
“I asked point blank about abolitionist education framework. I received consistent answers that backed up what she [Dr. Phillips] said on Friday and even a couple weeks back,” Penner said. “Identity Preparatory Academy is going to change education for young scholar in North Omaha. I am such a believer that I have sent a check to help support their mission.”
“I would like to conclude with this: I’d like to request board member Neary stop the bull****. In our meeting on Friday, Miss Neary took a swipe at rural schools and their inability to educate their students about diversity. Over the weekend, miss Neary accused the four conservative members of being racist, and I quote ‘they have no clue they have done something racist or inappropriate – or maybe they do.’”
He also observed that had the other four members – Neary, Christensen, Renner, and Douglas —voted as a block on the Friday motion to postpone, the school’s application would have been shot down altogether by a 4-4 tied vote. As it stood, he credited Renner and Douglas’ votes to postpone for allowing him to address his concerns adequately.
“Because two board members voted for the postponement, it allowed me to get the answers to the question I had, and I am prepared to vote in favor.”
While Neary did not respond directly to Penner’s request, she repeated her criticism of the four conservative board members’ concerns and her incredulity at perceived dysfunction in the committee process, which her and Sherry Jones had butted heads over on Friday.
“Bringing surprise votes and disinformation at the last meeting, at the last minute, is not what elected officials should be doing,” she said. “Those board members chose to disrespect everyone involved with the school. I hope we can find a time to, in the future, utilize our committee meetings.”
“I for a month now have been hearing behind the scenes that this school wasn’t gonna pass because there were some racist concerns involved, but yet no board member brought that forward in a committee so that their misinformation and misunderstanding could be discussed and corrected” she said.
She expressed her displeasure at the need for emergency meetings, stating once again that the committee process should leave no need for them.
“Our job is to bring our thoughts and beliefs to our committees and discuss them and vet them so that we aren’t creating this extra chaos for individuals.”
She closed by applauding the public speakers and stating she would be gifting the other board members a copy of Mrs. Lama’s book.
Liz Renner echoed Neary’s thanks to those in attendance, reasserting that while she had disagreed with the need for postponement, she had supported it out of confidence that a meeting between IPA and board members would result in a resounding approval.
Board President Elizabeth Tegtmeier delivered closing thoughts before opening the vote, referring to her Friday comments to The Plains Sentinel:
“I didn’t see this as a step back; I saw it as a step forward. A step back would have been a no vote, but instead, when new information was presented during public comment, the board was willing to reconsider.”
She defended the concerns of radicalism as both well-founded and well-addressed.
“The four of us who were concerned about the following of state statute, we were not uneducated, we were not uninformed, about abolitionist framework. We researched carefully what abolitionist framework is in education, and we had concerns that state statute would be followed. As a member of this board, which is an oversight or a governing board, it’s our duty,” she said.
“I do support what I’ve heard, and I’m excited for the start of school for Identity Prep.”
The meeting concluded in the following seconds, as the board swiftly voted 8-0 to approve Identity Preparatory Academy’s conditional Rule 14 nonpublic status, and closed the virtual space.
Their next meeting, September 3 and 4, is sure to draw similar attention as the board discusses amending the state’s social studies standards, another prominent point of contention between Sherry Jones and Deb Neary.
— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.