Kevin Leverenz
Non-Partisan | Texas
Candidate Profile
Conservative
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Kevin Leverenz
Party
Non-Partisan
Election Year
2022
Election
General
Race
Leander ISD Board of Trustees Special Election, Place 5
Incumbent
No
Links
EDUCATION
Murray State University, Murray, KY, BS - Economics, 1992
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, MS - Criminal Justice, 2007
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, PhD - Criminal Justice, 2019
WORK & MILITARY
US Army, Specialist 4, 3
Army National Guard, Sergeant, 5
AFFILIATIONS
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Candidate did not provide
Race
ENDORSEMENTS
CONSERVATIVE (1)
Texas Parents United
REPORTED BY CANDIDATE (1)
Texas Parents United
OTHER INFORMATION
Election Voting History for Kevin Theodore Leverenz from the Williamson County Elections Department during time of residence in district and/or at current address:
- 2022 Primary Election: Republican
- 2020 Primary Election: Republican
- Voted in three Republican Primary elections 2008 - 2018
- Voted in nine General elections 2008 - 2021
**Voter history is not considered during panel evaluations.**
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not be a resource for instruction or services in the school.
Strongly Agree
Human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage until natural death.
Strongly Agree
ECONOMY
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Strongly Agree
School districts should be able to use taxpayer money for lobbying the state legislature.
Strongly Disagree
What is your position on government funding of public education from Pre-K through college?
Public schools should receive government funding and support while every reasonable government effort to demand performance from those schools should be undertaken. Existing laws insist on compliance from school districts in a number of areas while not all of those laws impose specific sanctions for noncompliance. Noncompliance with state regulations should not be comfortable for school districts and government funding should have enough strings attached to hold school districts accountable for noncompliance - I am in favor of hinging two levers to compliance with existing laws: 1. Hinging government funding to full compliance with existing laws, and 2. Hinging superintendents' performance metrics to full compliance with existing laws.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
At school, students should be able to speak freely and civilly about matters of conscience and faith, including Christianity.
Strongly Agree
School districts should not discriminate against individuals, organizations or small businesses because of their belief that marriage is only a union of one man and one woman.
Strongly Agree
LISD Ethical Principle #8 - Respect for Others - honoring the rights of others and treating others with courtesy and decency.
Students should not be allowed to pray in school.
Strongly Disagree
LISD Ethical Principle #8 - Respect for Others - honoring the rights of others and treating others with courtesy and decency.
EDUCATION
What is the function of the local school board?
To provide direction for the district's efforts to deliver quality education and provide citizen oversight to ensure that LISD's leadership is ensuring the district's service delivery is reflective of the priorities of the community it serves. The board carries out these functions with three broad tactics - directing the district’s focus through policies, procedures, and governing documents, managing the budget process to fund LISD efforts, and holding the superintendent accountable for how the school district is led. In this regard, the board has only one employee: the superintendent. Engaging these tactics requires precision and competence – board members must take measured, decisive action to affect change and they must have a plan. Voters should choose board members who have demonstrated an ability to work with others, who know how to craft and implement policy down through layers of bureaucracy, know how to cut through red tape, and who know how to help the superintendent lead through change and hold him accountable for his own success.
Who should have the authority to set curriculum and determine resources used in those curricula?
This is the responsibility of the education professionals hired to serve the community's students and their decisions should reflect best practices (aligned with either SBOE and TEA curriculum standards) and the priorities of the community it serves. The curricula should stay focused on providing quality education to ensure that students develop a mastery of the English language, how to read and understand complex texts, how to competently engage testing assessments, a mastery of mathematics, a bias-free comprehensive understanding of US and World history, and a mastery of science. Curricula should not engage social issues in a manner that attempts to install a child's opinion on the issue; curricula should only teach children how to think (not what to think).
When should parents be restricted from speaking in school board meetings?
The school board should insist on a reasonable level of decorum. Parents should not otherwise be restricted from speaking at a school board meeting. The standard that should be upheld is documented in the Texas Penal Code, section 42.05, which states: "A person commits an offense if, with intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting, procession, or gathering, he obstructs or interferes with the meeting, procession, or gathering by physical action or verbal utterance." However, the board should work with a coalition of parents and other community members to devise effective strategies to effectively respond and address parents’ concerns for the district’s failing and areas of concern. In decades’ past, the police across the nation have worked to engage the communities they serve. It is long past due that this school district, like many others, decide to take community engagement seriously. If our school district was even somewhat effective at addressing parents’ concerns, then people would not see the kinds of outbursts from community members at board meetings that have caused controversy; such outbursts are borne of frustration by those not feeling like they have been heard. I suggest that we would have decorum if the board and the district were sufficiently responsive to the community they serve and by providing such service, earned the respect of the community. This is merely a symptom of the district and the current board not respecting parents’ rights to be reasonably engaged in the education of their students.
Please list in order the following priorities in relation to the role of a K-12 public school (omitting any that do not apply): Mathematics, Information Technology, Science, Political Activism, Personal Finances, Gender Identity, Physical Fitness, American History, Critical Race Theory, Language Arts, Art & Music, Vocational Learning, Sexuality, Foreign Language, Social Emotional Learning
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, American History, Information Technology, Physical Fitness, Personal Finances, Vocational Learning, Art & Music, Foreign Language.
American civics education should emphasize our nation's founding principles of liberty and equality.
Strongly Agree
Before students are taught courses such as Comprehensive Sex Ed (CSE) or Social Emotional Learning (SEL), they must opt-in with written parental permission.
Strongly Agree
The loss of local control in education is too high a price to pay in exchange for federal dollars.
Disagree
Local control is important but government guidelines imposed to ensure quality in education, as a necessary prerequisite for funding (in the form of a process of checks and balances), do not seem problematic. Many government funding opportunities include prerequisites - this is not new.
I support the teaching of curricula (such as the 1619 Project, No Place for Hate, Second Step, etc.) that emphasizes slavery and racism as the foundation of American history.
Strongly Disagree
Slavery and racism are a disturbing part of our nation's history, and I categorically disavow them both. But, the 1619 Project, No Place for Hate, and Second Step are programs have underpinnings that I, also, categorically disagree with. LISD has 10 Ethical Principles and 7 Standards of Conduct - they are listed in the Code of Conduct. They should teach and enforce them in a concerted effort with parents to end bullying behavior, then meaningfully hold bullies accountable for transgressions.
Parents are the ultimate authority in their child’s education and should be able to freely pursue whatever educational options they deem best for their child.
Agree
Parents are primarily responsible for the education of their child(ren). The district, when children are registered to attend public school, also have a responsibility to educate the children. The school district should include a student's parents in their efforts to educate students and the parents should have meaningful involvement. The district should focus on subjects that give students competitive advantage in their adult lives while leaving parents to teach children character traits.
VALUES
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
Baptized and confirmed Lutheran, I believe that I am saved from my sins by God's grace, through faith, on the basis of Scripture. God created all things. After his son, Jesus Christ, lived a life free of sin, he gave his life for the sins of all man.
I support allowing public high school students to participate in athletic competition based on the gender with which they identify instead of biological sex.
Strongly Disagree
Who is responsible for teaching sexual education to children, and what is the appropriate age when it should be taught?
Parents are responsible for teaching sex education to their children. This topic should be taught beginning at age 10.
If you support the teaching of Sex Ed, please answer the following question: Sexual education should include these topics (list all that apply and add your own, if needed) -- Physical and emotional health outcomes; contraceptive methods; consent; abstinence; sexual orientation and gender identity; human anatomy/the reproductive system; abortion methods and side effects; stages of pregnancy and fetal development; sex acts and pleasures of sex
Physical and emotional health outcomes; contraceptive methods; consent; abstinence; human anatomy/the reproductive system; stages of pregnancy and fetal development.
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality that is necessary for our system of limited government.
Strongly Agree
No healthcare diagnosis or treatment, whether mental, reproductive, or otherwise, should be given to a child without first receiving written consent from the parent.
Strongly Agree
No school official should be involved in the sexual transitioning of a student, including the use of alternative names and pronouns.
Strongly Agree
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
ABOUT YOU
Which of the 11 objectives specified in the Texas Education Code is your highest priority?
Objective 8: "School campuses will maintain a safe and disciplined environment conducive to student learning" is the first priority, but not the highest priority. You cannot attain any of the other priorities without, first, rendering a school safe and conducive for learning. All of the objectives rank equally high for me.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized in either civil or criminal court for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
No.
A candidate's personal moral values should not be relevant when considering a candidacy for elective office.
Strongly Disagree
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and immigration, which of the following best describes you overall?
Conservative
Please provide publicly available information, including interviews and media reports, validating your answer to the previous question (other than your website).
I have a conservative voting record in Texas.
Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you?
I am married with one son who attends school in LISD. I am a college educator with a Master’s and PhD in Criminal Justice, an Army veteran, a retired police lieutenant from the Austin Police Department (serving the 11th largest metropolitan area in the US), and have served as an interim police chief at a small municipal police department. With more than 2 decades as a public servant, I have developed a number of skills sets that translate well into an ability to serve on the school board. I work with others to build consensus and I take sophisticated approaches to solving complex problems. I also understand that board members must take deliberate, yet precise action to affect change in specific areas without disabling the entire structure. If elected, I will demonstrate how to help the superintendent lead change through layers of bureaucracy. I know how to cut through red tape, how to listen well, and how to craft and implement policy. I also know how to do all these things without being needlessly divisive. I want to help change course to focus the district academic excellence in bias-free, safe schools. I want to do this in a fiscally-responsible way that places a primary focus on competitive teacher salaries that keeps property taxes in check. Focusing on academic excellence is cutting through the noise of radical ideologies and giving children the education that will prepare them for adult life; schools should be teaching children how to think (not what to think). By adopting this focus, then underpinning that focus with LISD’s 10 Ethical Principles, we can realize a safe environment for our children. This only happens with deliberate action that demonstrates support for teachers. This includes: - Developing a graduate profile with measurable goals, - Adding objective measures of academic success for each subject at each grade level, - Supporting teachers to maintain discipline in classrooms, and - Providing teachers with the time they need to meet the children’s academic needs with instruction and time to prepare lesson plans. Teaching in a bias-free, neutral environment to me means teaching children to respect others and their differences without taking sides on social issues or engaging in political activism. By focusing on academics and character development, we can develop our children into conscientious, productive, successful adults. If we can work together, we can restore LISD to match its extraordinary reputation – the reputation that attracted so many families to the district in years past.
2ND AMENDMENT
Teachers who are licensed to carry should be allowed to carry guns at school.
Agree
Any teacher who would elect to carry would have to be deliberate in their decision and deliberately engaging in a substantially rigorous, ongoing training regimen developed by the ALERRT center, remain bonded and insured, and teacher would have to be willing to keep the weapon in an approved lock box. The district would have to have direct knowledge and accountability for all weapons on campus at all times, and this measure should, first, pass as a referendum vote to the public.
OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES
Under what circumstances (if any) should schools be allowed to require vaccinations?
Parents are required by law to ensure their children are vaccinated for certain diseases. I believe that the district should ensure that parents are following the law.
I support mask mandates.
Strongly Disagree
