One by one, the parents gathered around Lisa Maisano’s kitchen table and shared their political parties:
Maisano, a Sykesville mother of three, was a Democrat. Julie Walsh, a two-time PTO president, was a Republican. An independent was in the group, too.
That February night in 2025, they were united by one goal: convincing Maryland lawmakers that their gripe with state-mandated education reform wasn’t an issue motivated by partisan politics but a problem that was hurting their children’s schools. That winter, they banded together with legislators, school system leaders and union organizers to get Carroll County Public Schools a reprieve from rules that nearly cost 92 educators their jobs.
Now Maisano and Walsh are teaming up to run for seats on Carroll County’s school board, pitching themselves as a slate who can steer the conversation away from national politics and back to local issues like budgets, school renovations and appropriate use of technology in classrooms. Though Maryland school board races are nonpartisan, candidates are often endorsed and funded by groups on one side of the political aisle, a trend gaining steam nationally as voters become more curious about candidates’ political backgrounds. In Carroll, party loyalty often carries into the boardroom, where elected leaders have argued over school library books, lessons on gender identity and immigration enforcement in schools.
“We are being transparent about the fact that we come from two different sides,” Walsh said. “We care more about these issues that we’re talking about than we do our sides.”
Partisanship shouldn’t be in schools, Walsh and Maisano said. But since it is, they want to show voters that a Democrat and Republican can come together for the sake of students.
How it started
People are often surprised Maisano and Walsh have only been friends for a year and a half, Maisano said. Their parallel lives only intersected the night they met at Maisano’s kitchen table.
Maisano, 45, was an engineer before she had her three kids, who are now in middle and high school. She transitioned to a stay-at-home mom when her oldest was a toddler, volunteering for Scouting America and serving as a PTA president.
Walsh, 47, lobbied for the Maryland Catholic Conference in Annapolis before she had her five kids, ages 8 to 16. She was leading two parent-teacher organizations at her children’s schools when she learned that budget cuts were coming last year.
Though it promised to make public pre-K more accessible and raise teacher salaries, the Blueprint for Maryland’s future changed the way schools are funded, and districts like Carroll struggled to adjust. To balance its budget, the school system planned to cut 92 jobs.
The Mount Airy resident emailed other parents, looking for help preventing the drastic cuts. Maisano accepted and offered her home as a brainstorming spot. The two founded the Carroll Education Coalition, and Walsh testified before the General Assembly. Eventually, Carroll was granted extra time to adjust to the Blueprint’s funding requirements, and avoided laying off educators.
“I’m not saying it was just us, but all of our efforts combined succeeded,” Walsh said.
The political battleground
Walsh said she remembers when local politics was focused on well-paved roads and well-functioning schools. Now it looks just like national politics.
Carroll County, with a population of over 176,000 people, is dominated by Republican political leaders, including most members of its five-person school board. As national debates made their way into Carroll schools over the last few years, its school board’s decisions often aligned with MAGA Republican stances. In 2024, for example, amid a nationwide wave of school book bans, the board barred from classrooms and libraries books it deemed sexually explicit after a campaign by Carroll’s conservative Moms for Liberty chapter.
Partisan politics figured prominently in the last school board race. Board members Greg Malveaux and Kristen Zihmer won their seats in 2024 after receiving endorsements from Moms for Liberty and donations from local Republicans. Malveaux had told voters he believed in equality over equity for students, and Zihmer said “divisive theories on race” shouldn’t be pushed on students.
Like 90% of school board races across the country, Maryland’s are nonpartisan, meaning candidates don’t run on a party ballot. But in a 2025 survey by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the majority of board members in large school districts said partisan politics played an important role in school board elections.
People used to say politics didn’t belong in education, said Amber Northern, senior vice president for research at the think tank. But the survey showed researchers that voters in larger districts may want more transparency about candidates’ politics, she said.
“So you might as well have truth in advertising,” said Northern.
At first, Maisano and Walsh turned down suggestions that they should run for school board, they said. But by late last year, they were unsatisfied with the candidates for November’s race who, Walsh said, seemed to be focused on the same “divisive hot-button issues” driving the current board.
All the while, PTAs are purchasing projectors for schools who can’t afford them, kindergarten teachers don’t have certified assistants and buildings are in desperate need of upgrades, the pair pointed out.
Maisano and Walsh decided to step up and run together as a slate advocating for smaller class sizes, adequate funding and more thoughtful technology use in the classroom.
Across the aisle
The women are running against four other candidates for the three open seats in November’s election. The four other candidates are Cleveland Christopher Friday, former Carroll board member Marsha B. Herbert, Shannon Hinkhaus and Sharon Wilhide.
Hinkhaus, whose campaign website advocates for classrooms as “places of learning, not activism,” said in a statement that she applauds anyone who finds common ground with someone of an opposing party.
“Unfortunately, many of the issues facing our schools have become political, whether we like it or not,” she wrote. “The Board of Education should adopt policies that reflect the priorities and values of the community it serves.”
The other candidates did not return a request for comment.
When it comes to the “hot button” topics, Walsh and Maisano said they agree on most education issues. Both think educators should be trusted to do their jobs, like picking appropriate school library books for students, and that uncomfortable parts of history, such as American slavery and the Civil Rights movement, should be taught truthfully.
“It’s extremely important that our curriculum be based in fact,” Maisano said. “I don’t believe that that should be considered divisive or controversial.”
They see a middle ground on the health curriculum, which made waves in Carroll when the state directed school districts to teach about gender identity.
Walsh said the moral issues attached to matters of sexuality means it’s understandable that parents would want a say on whether their kids should learn about it.
Maisano said she thinks it’s reasonable for Carroll to give parents choices for the health curriculum “with the caveat that any curriculum that’s taught in Carroll include ... being respectful to everyone.”
It’s not as if the candidates have to agree on every board matter if they were both elected, said Walsh. They have to use their own judgment to make decisions and would respect one another if their opinions differed, she said.
“We are each our own person, and we will each need to be comfortable with our own votes, whatever the matter,” Walsh said.
The pair doesn’t lead with the fact that they’re a Republican and Democrat when talking to voters, but they mention it. Their party affiliations are on a joint campaign website.
The county teachers union endorsed Maisano, Walsh and Wilhide, who has campaigned around staff retention and fiscal responsibility.
Several Republicans support their opponents. Hinkhaus’ donors included the Republican Carroll commissioner Susan Krebs and the Republican Women of Carroll County. Krebs also donated to Herbert, who previously supported cost-of-living raises for staff and limiting Pride flags in schools. So did state delegate Chris Tomlinson.
Steve Whisler, a current Carroll board member and a Republican running for a House of Delegates seat, endorsed Hinkhaus and Friday, who has said she wants high standards for students and responsible budgeting.
Walsh hasn’t heard from Carroll Republicans, she said. “I’m sure they didn’t like that I was going to be on the slate with the Democrat.”
The Republican Club of Carroll County and Carroll’s Republican Central Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s become more difficult to run on your own merits in Carroll’s politically divisive landscape, said Muri Dueppen, a member of Carroll’s Democratic Central Committee who twice ran for school board and lost. Speaking as an individual and not as a committee member, Dueppen said the elections have become more partisan and polarizing, so it’s great to see people of two different parties running together.
“Regardless of party affiliation, I think our best leaders are always leaders who can work across the aisle,” she said.
About the Education Hub
This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.
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