Four school board candidates critical of controversial school boundary changes in Eden Prairie were elected, according to unofficial results Tuesday, putting the fate of this year's changes in the balance.
The community banded together winners Karla Bratrud, John Estall, Dave Espe and Holly Parker in a widespread campaign dubbed "BEEP," the acronym of their last names, beating out four other candidates.
"Whether this was a BEEP alignment or not, the community chose individuals they want," said Estall, an incumbent who wouldn't say if the plan could be dismantled. "We're going to look at it and see where things are at ... and maybe a review of the whole thing or not."
Espe said the turnout at the polls was "huge" -- twice the participation as past elections. "They've spoken," he said. "They want us to go to work."
The election caps a controversial year for the district. Superintendent Melissa Krull left her post early after her widely watched plan redrew boundary lines, busing hundreds of students to new schools largely so low-income students weren't concentrated at one school.
The changes sparked a storm of parent opposition to the loss of neighborhood schools, drew threats of a lawsuit that were later dropped and fueled concerns over the district's lack of communication and acceptance of input. While the BEEP candidates didn't directly say they'd overturn changes, they were critical of it; Estall and Parker voted against the plan when it passed 4-3 last December.
In neighboring Minnetonka, a similar widespread acronym campaign, though, proved less successful. The four candidates of a STEM campaign lost to incumbents Lisa Wagner and Karen Walkowski and challengers Charlie Kanan and Lisa Sumner.
In Anoka-Hennepin, the state's largest district, incumbents kept their seats. Six candidates vied for three seats in the district, which faces a federal investigation and lawsuit over its handling of the bullying of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Scott Wenzel, the only outspoken critic of the district's sexual orientation curriculum policy, was reelected with incumbents Tom Heidemann and Marci Anderson; Anderson didn't get a majority of the votes in her ward, which split between two challengers who wanted to rescind the policy.
