Julie Steele is seeking reelection on the Olathe school board this November, four years after a bruising and at times personal campaign that ended with Steele pulling out a 65-vote victory.
She represents position 3 on the board, which covers the northwestern area of the district, overseeing primarily the Olathe Northwest and Olathe West High School feeder patterns.
Her opponent this year, Scott Enge, a tennis coach and former professor at Ottawa University, has announced he has withdrawn from the race, though his name will still appear on the ballot.
The Post originally was set to feature this Olathe school board race alongside two races for Olathe City Council at a forum on Wednesday, Oct. 15, but with Enge’s decision, the Post decided to remove it from the lineup.
Still, the Post wanted to offer Steele a chance to speak to voters since she is seeking the office.
There are two other current Olathe school board members on the ballot this year who do not have opponents: Becky Johann and Robert Kuhn.
Watch the full interview
Post editor Kyle Palmer interviewed Julie Steel in a recorded Zoom call on Monday, Oct. 13.
The full video has been published on the Post’s Facebook page as well as at our new YouTube channel.
You can also watch the full video embedded below:
What follows is an outline of the interview, with the questions paired with timestamps so you can jump around more efficiently to issues that matter most to you:
- Opening: If this were a forum, I’d give you a chance to make an opening statement, introducing yourself to readers. So let’s do that in a manner of speaking. Tell us a bit about your personal and professional background and how it qualifies you to sit on the Olathe school board. [1:08]
- Biggest challenge: Another question I’ve been asking of candidates, in school board and other local races, is: what do you see as the biggest challenge facing Olathe schools in the next four years and what would you do to address it? [4:11]
- Teacher pay/retention: The biggest chunk of annual spending is on instruction, which includes teacher and staff pay. Starting teachers in Olathe make about $50,000 per year. More veteran teachers, especially those with advanced degrees can make more than that. From a reader email, “What specific policies will you advocate for on the board to maximize teacher pay and retention that is different from other local districts where we compete for talented educators?” [7:13]
- Classified staff: In the last year or so, classified staff — including custodial workers and paraeducators — have pushed to unionize and pressed to be able to collectively bargain with the board in the way certified teachers and administrators get to do. In board meetings, some classified staffers have said they feel overworked and underpaid. Do you think classified staff should get paid more and get more on-the-job benefits? How would the district pay for that? [12:00]
- Budget and spending: The school board recently approved the budget for the 2025-26 school year that estimates per pupil spending in Olathe at about $18,700… that’s in line with statewide averages. The budget also includes a mill levy, or property tax, decrease of roughly two mills down to 61 mills. Still, the biggest portion of Olathe homeowners’ annual tax bills, as they always do, will go to Olathe schools. Do you think the district is spending effectively on instruction that drives student outcomes? Why or why not? Use specific examples. [14:39]
- Property taxes: What do you say to homeowners in Olathe who may not have students in Olathe schools? Maybe they’re retired and live on a fixed income… maybe they don’t have kids … or maybe they homeschool or send their kids to private school. And they pay a big chunk of their annual taxes to the K-12 schools. This is a perennial question, but what do you tell those voters who say, “I shouldn’t have to pay this much for a service I don’t use.” [17:25]
- Artificial intelligence: From a reader email, “What is your position on student use of AI for homework and school projects?” You can certainly share how you feel about the use of AI in education but to broaden the scope of this question, I’ll ask: what do you see as the school board’s role in guiding schools and teachers on how to use AI, if at all, in class? [18:58]
- Transgender students: There has been much scrutiny in recent years on schools’ policies regarding transgender students. As a school board member, it’s partly your job to set policies that guide how schools accommodate all students. If a student wants to use alternative pronouns or a different name at school … or use a bathroom that doesn’t conform to the sex assigned to them at birth, do you have a problem with that? What should be the school board’s role, if any, in these matters? [22:08]
- Federal funding and DOE investigation: Olathe is one of four Kansas public school districts currently being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education over its policies regarding transgender students. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has said districts like Olathe are potentially violating federal Title IX law by allowing students to play sports or use bathrooms of the sex other than that assigned to them at birth. Is this worth losing federal funds over? [24:55]
- Politics/last campaign: You faced a tough race in 2021, you won by 65 votes … and your opponent made some accusations against you that got personal at times. That election was part and parcel of an era of school board races and debates in public schools that were fractious and highly partisan in the wake of COVID-19. Is Olathe Schools past that now? What can you tell readers who may still worry you won’t represent their interest on the board? [26:24]
- Qualifications: A final closing statement if you will: what qualifies you for this job and why should voters vote for you? [28:19]
