RANDOLPH –  The Facebook page of three candidates seeking to oust incumbent school board members includes a lengthy statement on the need for schools to celebrate the “American experience, culture and tradition.”

Click around the internet to the page of the township’s Democratic Committee and you’ll find an essay explaining and defending an unvarnished, and at times, critical teaching of history. A “selected” reading of history, the writer asserts, teaches children that “George Washington’s dentures were made from wood, rather than (some of his) teeth from slaves.”

Political polarization has seeped down to the school board level.

School elections in New Jersey used to be held in April and were known for lousy turnout; 20 percent was considered good.

Moved to the fall under then-Governor Chris Christie, school races were usually obscured by contests for higher office – president, Congress, in fact, just about anything comes to mind. That was a bit counterintuitive given the fact school boards control the bulk of property tax dollars.

But this year, there is new-found interest in school boards, and the main reason doesn’t seem to be property taxes.

It’s the culture war.

And Randolph has emerged as the epicenter.

The school board here, quite infamously now, truly botched a decision a few months ago on renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day on the school calendar. The board eventually returned Columbus Day to the calendar, but the drama was just beginning.

Critics capitalized on the calendar issue – and really, that’s all it was – to lambaste just about everything they dislike about the “liberal” public school system.

Sex education was brought up, as was “critical race theory” and even the reading in some classes of “It Takes A Village,” which Hillary Clinton wrote more than 20 years ago.

For Republicans, this is the definition of low-hanging fruit.

Jack Ciattarelli often refers to the craziness in Randolph during his stump speech.

The Morris County Republican Committee publicly solicited school board candidates prior to the July 26 filing deadline and a number of people stepped forward.

This does make a mockery of the non-partisanship nature of school elections. No party labels are on the ballot.

On the other hand, let’s not overlook that many public interest groups and unions routinely endorse candidates, perhaps unofficially. So, Morris Republicans are just doing – a bit more transparently – what others have done before.

Meanwhile. Chip Robinson, the Morris Democratic chair, said a week or so ago that he plans to stay out of school races. He said he’d rather commit resources to municipal and legislative races.

OK, but Democrats in Randolph may see things a bit differently.

Talking to party members at a Thursday night meeting, chair Meghan Lynch left little doubt where she stands.

“We have to prevent the other three … from getting on the board,” she said, although the party may not make an official endorsement.

The other three would be the team of Tom Duffy, Peggy Kurtz and Mike LoCascio.

Energized by the Columbus Day fiasco, that trio is running under the apple pie slogan, “For the Kids.”

The team’s Facebook page says parents should have a say on so-called sensitive curriculum matters. It also says that the candidates “will make it a priority to enact policies that ensure students are taught love for their country based on its founding principles, an understanding of its history and shared heritage and their responsibility to treat each other as equals …”

Speaking a bit blunter at a recent school board meeting, Duffy said critical race theory was akin to communism.

Regarding a key issue of the day, the “For the Kids” team says they oppose the state’s recent mandate that students begin the school year wearing masks. They say masks should be optional.

Also running are incumbents Allison Manfred and Yong Wang and newcomer Mike Giordano.

Giordano, who spoke at the Democrats meeting, said he doesn’t know if he will run in conjunction with the two incumbents but you have to figure that’s a possibility. As for the mask mandate, Giordano said he’s willing to accept the judgement of health officials.

The debate over critical race theory leads to a more general discussion about diversity. Giordano said those who don’t see that people are at times treated differently because of their race probably don’t get out much.

He says his campaign is about 2040, which is about the year children born today will graduate high school.

From what he’s seen so far, Giordano said his opponents sound like they want to take a step backward – perhaps to 1940.

Welcome to school board politics 2021.