WENTZVILLE — Officials in Wentzville School District are pushing back on former state senator and congressional candidate Bob Onder’s claims that the superintendent plans to “censure†three whistleblowing school board members — a move the district says is impossible.
On X, formerly Twitter, Onder called Superintendent Danielle Tormala a “wokester†and said she planned to censure three board members who notified Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office of potential open records law violations by the board during a conversation about a potential bathroom policy in the district.
But Brynne Cramer, chief communications officer for Wentzville School District, said Onder’s claim was inaccurate.
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“A superintendent cannot censure a board member,†Cramer said. “Only a majority of the board could choose to do that.â€
Onder later clarified in an interview with the Post-Dispatch that he thought Tormala was organizing board members “aligned†with her against the three whistleblowers.
“It’s a really pathetic power play to try to intimidate duly elected members of the Wentzville School District who are only doing what they were elected to do, which is bring openness and transparency to the governance of the school district,†Onder said.
Onder’s claim comes after three board members — Jen Olson, Renee Henke and David Lewis — notified Bailey’s office that the board had discussed the potential bathroom policy for students in closed session. Bailey’s office then sued the district in September, alleging officials excluded parents from policy conversations about bathroom and locker access for transgender students.
“Tormala behind closed doors was pushing a ‘transgender’ bathroom policy that would endanger our girls,†Onder wrote on X.
Onder, who plans to seek the GOP nomination for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, is a frequent critic of the school board and Tormala. He previously chastised members for the same allegations brought by Bailey and called Tormala a “woke leftist†on radio show NewsTalkSTL last year.
Onder’s comments are just a sliver of the culture wars that have embroiled school boards in St. Charles County over the past few years. In 2022, the board voted to ban Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye†from school libraries, only to later reverse the decision after it attracted national criticism and a civil rights lawsuit from the ACLU.
Wentzville School Board meets Thursday, with no action items to censure any board member on the agenda.
But one new business item, “use of confidential information – discussion,†may be relevant to Bailey’s suit. Board President Shannon Stolle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an email, Lewis wrote he received no “official communication†concerning censures, but “since the sunshine suit started, there are many that have expressed similar concerns about potential targeting against the three whistleblowers.â€
Olson and Henke did not respond to requests for comment.
The fight in Wentzville is among several local school districts that have seen board members pitted against each other in recent years.
The Rockwood School Board stripped one of its members of committee assignments in 2022 after she said teachers are indoctrinated with liberalism in college, called a parent a “libtard†and referenced “transgender crap†in schools.
Jessica Laurent Clark was removed from the wellness committee and as Rockwood’s representative to the Missouri School Board Association after a video circulated of Clark speaking at a Real Talk Radio event in August 2022.
The board also strengthened its ethics policy to require members to refrain from making “disparaging or inappropriate comments regarding students, staff, or the Rockwood community.â€
In early 2020, the Kirkwood School Board drafted and then dropped a resolution to censure board member Julie Backer for allegedly violating conflict of interest rules.
Backer used her influence on the board by accompanying parents to student discipline and special education meetings, promising a school zoning exemption to a potential homebuyer, and contributing to a newly hired superintendent backing out of their contract, according to the resolution.
The board pulled back on the censure after Backer released a statement apologizing for actions that were “inconsistent†with board policies.
Backer lost her reelection bid in April 2020 after saying she was “the victim of a politically motivated hit job to get me off of the board of education by any means possible.â€
Blythe Bernhard of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.