Board of Education Candidate Profile: Lance Pollard

     Lance Pollard is running for a seat on the Grain Valley School Board, and while he understands it may take a bit of explaining, he looks forward to being a part of “the band”.
     Pollard and his wife moved to Grain Valley 12 years ago and are raising their five children in their “forever home” they’ve built on the north side of town. Pollard operates plumbing and property management businesses out of Grain Valley and is an independent Nashville country music recording artist through Sony.
     Pollard said he is a third generation pastor’s son, and had studied biology and then accounting before the band he was a part of got signed. Pollard said that family and business commitments now keep him off the road for extended periods of time, but he does get out for the occasional mini tour.
     “The music industry is a huge part of my life. It allows me to meet new people from all walks of life. The band isn’t about playing music. It’s about hanging out. You play music for one hour a day, and you hang out for 23 hours a day.”
     In talking about his approach with employees and board service, Pollard said he pulls inspiration from the dynamics of working in a band.
     “I’m not going to say the school board is a band,” Pollard said. “What I’m referencing is, a group of people like minded or not, that are all moving in the same direction.”
     Asked about his reasons for running for school board, Pollard said, “Since I fell in love with the Grain Valley community, I felt like I saw some things, not from a lack of leadership, but from a lack of direction for the community. I think in our ever changing society, there has to be a foundation that can be built upon.”
     Pollard identified four priorities he would focus on if elected.
     First, teacher pay and benefits are at the top of his list.
     “Being a small business owner, I understand inflation firsthand when I am dealing with my employees’ payroll. I also understand the hours and commitment that it takes to be a teacher.”
     “Why isn’t there money for a raise? Why can’t we do better? I want our Grain Valley school district to be the envy of Jackson County. If we have the best pay, if we have the best benefits, I believe that will attract more teachers.”
     Second, Pollard plans to recommend what he terms a “Student Personal Privacy Act”.
     “In an ever changing society, I understand communities change, and obviously culture changes. I believe that change can be done without affecting the foundation of the community.”
     Pollard explained that the proposed policy is intended to further clarify the privacy rights of all students, and accommodate all students equally. Pollard gave the example of locker rooms as an area in which he feels the policy would be helpful, providing privacy for female, male, and transgender students equally.
     “Every student has to be accommodated equally. No bullying, no set apart,” Pollard said.
     Pollard shared the district’s current policy on transgender students in a campaign Facebook post on February 25th with the statement, “We need to stop accommodating stupidity.” The post resulted in many comments and back-and-forth, and Pollard said the post illustrated the difficulty of having conversations on social media.
     Pollard said he has since reached out to several of the commenters and invited them to coffee or to meet with him at upcoming candidate forums.
     “I believe people are way more similar than not. At the end of the day, we all care about our community. We all care about our children. I don’t think there’s anybody out here that does not care about kids. I just want to make sure that all of our kids’ privacy and rights are protected.”
     The third priority for Pollard is to ensure that sexually explicit content remains out of the elementary grades.
     “I just don’t feel those types of books have any benefit to young kids.”
     Pollard said he understands that content needs change as students enter middle and high school grades, and once explicit content policies are addressed at the elementary level, “we could then look at policies that would make sense for the middle school and high school students. I would absolutely support this.”
     “I do not believe that currently any person is purposefully allowing material in. I think we have great teachers and great staff. But I think if there was an oversight committee that would look through some of the content to look at where that content is coming from (it would help). It’s not that an accident won’t happen, but we make sure we correct it when it happens. There’s not a policy on that now, but I would like to see a policy written or some sort of wording created that would make sense.”
     “I believe a policy like that would absolutely benefit the students and the district.”
     Finally, Pollard believes the board needs to continue to focus on supporting the growth of the district. Pollard supports the bond issue on the April 2023 ballot.
     “As our community continues to grow, we have to keep up with the demand of the growing community. The high school renovation is going to be incredible. That (bond issue) benefits students, the community, the staff.”
     A cursory Google search of Pollard not only reveals his Nashville connections, but links to a Fox4 article identifying Pollard as having attended the rally which preceded the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
     Pollard said he took a bus trip to Washington, D.C. to attend the rally but had no part in the attack and was not near enough to the Capitol building to know what was happening until he began to receive texts from family members inquiring about his safety.
     Asked for comment regarding his attendance at the event, Pollard said,
     “I’m an American citizen. I went to the capital city on January 6th to support a sitting president. Everyone has the peaceful right to assemble, and everyone has a right to assemble no matter what the assembly is. I do not in any way, in any way, agree with the stupidity that took place at the Capitol building. I was not involved in it. I do not know anyone who was involved in it. People were hurt. I have five kids and a wife at home. Even if I didn’t, I would never participate. If I had, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
     “I hope that clarifies. I believe that people assume things without reaching out.  I’ve been called many names over the last few weeks, but I was prepared for that because I knew that the foundation that I believe in, that I stand on, of supporting all of the community, depending on how that was worded might be viewed as a disruption.”
    “Again, I appreciate healthy dialogue. I enjoy meeting all the residents of the community, and I just want to see our community continue to get better.”
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Valley News will profile each candidate on the ballot in the weeks leading up to the election, provide a voter guide, and plans a candidate forum on March 21st at Grain Valley South Middle School. To search for all election related articles, click on “Elections” under the categories on our News page. For voter information and links to resources, visit our Voter Resource page. 
 
     

Lance Pollard is running for Grain Valley School Board. Photo courtesy of Lance Pollard.