Election 2023: Stacey Casteel runs for Greeley-Evans School District 6 board of education

By Kelly Ragan

Stacey Casteel is running for the Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education. 

She first thought about running for a spot on the board in 2021 when, she said, she saw a need for someone on the board to listen to the  voices of parents, students, staff and community members. 

For Casteel, public education is an opportunity to teach and help grow young minds, encourage children to believe they can be anything they want to be, and prepare the next generation for life after school. 

She described her own experience with public school as a time when educators taught without activism. 

Stacey Casteel

“We didn’t know our teachers’ sexual preferences or even those of our peers, especially not in elementary or middle school,” she said. “We also didn’t know their religious views, ideologies, political positions, or what their personal medical choices were. We learned how to treat people with respect no matter what, and especially without having to use race or sexual preference as a reason to be more respectful of someone.” 

Casteel regularly speaks at District 6 school board meetings and has helped to challenge and appeal several books available at the school libraries. Most recently, Casteel spoke out at the June 14 school board meeting in which the book review committee evaluated “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and “The Kite Runner.” 

At the meeting, Casteel said she preferred to have an option that allows parents to opt students into reading controversial books, essentially putting the onus on them to ask permission to read them, rather than parents asking to opt out, which is the current district policy, according to a report by the Greeley Tribune. 

“I know I personally have already sent three emails to opt my children out of books, and that’s going to get overloaded really quick,” Casteel said. “I have a list that I’ve been reviewing and reading each and every book on that list myself … we’re killing each other with bureaucracy.”

At another book review committee meeting in May, Casteel spoke out against a book titled “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. 

At the meeting, she said the book had problematic messaging. 

“I see it as a tool for groomers,” Casteel said. “It starts to normalize the sexualization of children.”

Casteel has two children inside District 6 and one who attends private school, she said.   

“Having my children split between public and private schools, I get to see what works in both,” she said. 

Having children in the district is the most important experience to qualify her for a position on the board, she said. She also serves on the board for the Weld County Human Services Advisory Committee, which serves as a community advisory group to the Weld County Department of Human Services. The group advises on Community Services Block Grants, a federally funded program that provides resources to address the causes and conditions of poverty. The group also serves as the Placement Alternatives Commission, which works with Weld’s foster care system. She also serves on the Weld Faith Partnership. 

Casteel also has a master’s degree in business and an emphasis in accounting and works in finance. 

Top priorities 

If elected, Casteel said her top priorities would include: giving power back to parents so they feel they have a say in their children’s school and classroom, focusing on academic achievement by working on the basics to improve test scores, and pushing for accountability from students, parents, teachers, staff, administrators, and other school board directors.  

Biggest challenges facing education

Casteel said one of the biggest challenges facing education today is social media. 

“It is a major distraction for students whether in the classroom or at home, potentially taking attention away from homework,” Casteel said. “It is another tool to perpetuate bullying and other inappropriate behaviors between students, teachers and parents.” 

Social media, she said, is contributing to rising mental health concerns among children. 

Getting back to the basics 

Casteel said she considers getting back to the basics to be the most exciting possibility in education today. 

Test scores throughout the country and in the district are alarmingly low, she said. 

Indeed, U.S. reading and math scores have dipped. According to a report from NPR, average test scores for U.S. 13-year-olds fell 4 points in reading and 9 points in math compared to tests given in the 2019-2020 school year. 

According to NPR, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the scores reflect the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“In a time where there is a focus on social emotional learning, Critical Race Theory, and comprehensive sex education, we can see from reading and math proficiency rates, along with a higher than preferred percentage of students who need remedial classes, we can see what we are doing is not working,” she said. “We now have an abundance of curriculums that we can review to find ones that are the best fit to help our students truly become college- and career-ready.” 

(Context checkpoint: Click to learn more about social emotional learning and Critical Race Theory and comprehensive sex education from sources we trust.)

Casteel said she sees an opportunity to re-focus on civics education, including making sure students understand the U.S. is a constitutional republic. 

Language 

Casteel said another possibility in education she’s excited about is the ability to use technology to provide students opportunities to become fluent in more than one language. 

“The United States as a whole fails our students by not pushing them to learn multiple languages like other countries do,” she said.