“The first really important thing that all board members need to consider is their superintendent,” said Mische. “Is that superintendent on board? Do they want what you want? If they don’t, then you need to replace them. Either you need to retrain them, get them thinking the way you’re thinking, or you need to replace them. That is not an easy thing to do to replace a superintendent. If you do, you’re going to get a lot of flak from the left.”

(N.B. After a conservative majority was elected to Colorado Springs School District 11’s board in 2021, then-superintendent Michael Thomas was replaced by Michael Gaal, after Thomas stepped down due to “the political divisions, public meltdowns and fighting,” according to reporting from the Colorado Springs Independent.)

“Finding new superintendents is very difficult — conservative ones anyway,” warned Mische. “Only about one in ten nationally is conservative, and as we take school boards across the country, there are going to be fewer and fewer of those. The universities are very, very leftist, very progressive. They are not turning out new conservatives. They are only turning out leftists. So what do we do? Well, there’s a number of different ways to find solutions. One is there are still a handful of conservative universities. There are Christian universities that are usually conservative.”

Mische also suggested hiring ideologically-aligned superintendents over those with experience in education. “We don’t necessarily have to have people in education,” he said. “It’s good if they have a background, but they don’t have to have that background. So business leaders, CEOs who bring in a business perspective into the school districts, because school districts should be run to some degree as a business for saving money — really looking at that money carefully. We can also use military officers, generals who have a lot of experience managing huge organizations and lots of people. There’ll be a learning curve for them. Both of those don’t know a whole lot about education. They’ll have to learn. The question is — you have to make the choice — is that background in education more important than their mindset?”

After replacing the superintendent, Mische recommended that new boards also replace the district’s legal counsel. “After you look at the superintendent, then you need to look at the school district’s attorney,” he said. “Most school district attorneys are very progressive. They will not help you. They will stop you from doing the things you need to do. You can have a majority board, but if you don’t have a superintendent and a [school] district attorney who is on your side you will get nothing done.”

Mische also suggested that new majority conservative boards wait to be sworn into their new positions, in order to collaborate privately without violating Colorado Open Meeting Laws. “Try to make those decisions long before you’re elected, but certainly before you’re sworn in and swear-in date is really, really important,” he said. “By law, you have to be sworn in within 10 days after the election is certified. You can push that back. That’s in Colorado. Different states are different, but in Colorado, within 10 days after the election is certified. Oftentimes, especially if you’re working with a very liberal district, they’re going to tell you you have to be sworn in right away, sometimes within a week of being elected. You don’t in Colorado, you can push that date back, and you should if you have a majority. If you’re a minority, it doesn’t matter so much because you can’t make any significant changes anyway, but if you have a majority, you want to push that date back so you have more time to speak to each other.”

After replacing the district superintendent and attorney, Mische suggested boards work to weaken unions in their districts. “Teachers unions are our opposition, unfortunately, with regards to the campaigns,” he said. “So what can we do? We can defund them. Right. There’s a couple different ways to defund the teachers union. And we’re doing this and I’ve seen multiple districts that are doing this. One is you give them an alternative.”

The alternatives Mische proposed are groups like the Professional Association of Colorado Educators, which has been pushed by education conspiracist Deborah Flora, and Christian Educators. 

“They also provide $2 million worth of liability insurance for $20 a month from a Christian perspective, and they get Christians legal protections,” said Mische. “If there’s religious issues happening in the schools, they’ll protect them from that perspective.”

Mische also suggested conservative boards end payroll deductions for union dues. “The second way is, in almost every school district, the school district does a direct deposit of the teachers union dues, so that teachers never see the money in their paycheck,” he said. “For the most part, it goes directly from the district to the unions, and the teachers never write a check. They have no idea how much money is being taken from them every month or every year. So what we can do if we’re elected and we have a majority is we stop doing that. The teachers actually write the check and every single month they will leave. They will leave the teachers union when they see how much money they have to pay in.”

Should changing the superintendent, attorney, and interfering with union activity prove unpopular, Mische suggests making changes to the district’s communications team. “Once you flip that board, the left is coming at you like you would not believe,” he said. ”You have to have somebody who is exceptional with communications, somebody who has experience in it and hiring full time because you’re going to need it and person is going to push back on all the negativity that comes towards the district and they’re going to present positive things and things that you as a board are accomplishing on a regular basis, at least twice a week, sending out information either through social media or through the regular media as well. But make sure that information is getting out there. Oftentimes what I see in school boards, conservatives get elected, they do fantastic work, and the public has no idea what they’re doing.”

Mische also urged new board members to cultivate a network of conservative informants amongst the district faculty. “Conservative teachers are in the closet and they don’t want to come out,” he said. “They’re scared, but those are the ones we need to work with. We need to find out who they are. We need to get them to report what’s happening in the classrooms and in the hallways and what other teachers are doing. If it’s bad. If it’s not bad, then good, things are going well, but we have to have those things reported to the board members so the board members can make those changes.”

Should these tactics lead to contentious public comment sessions during board meetings, Mische assured the audience not to worry. “It is not really the public,” he said. “These are paid activists.”

Hm....just like any Facist country?  Hitler come to mind?