After the National School Boards Association asked President Joe Biden for help this fall addressing a rising tide of threats directed at board members and educators in a letter that likened the vitriol to domestic terrorism, the backlash was swift.

Republicans harshly condemned the group. Some association members bailed. An apology followed.

Now a Kansan is trying to pick up the pieces.

John Heim was the executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards for 11 years and before that the superintendent of Emporia schools for 13 years. But since late November, he’s been leading NSBA through one of the most challenging moments in its history.

Heim is betting he can harness a lifetime of experience in Kansas public education to stabilize NSBA — which advocates on behalf of school boards at the national level — and begin repairing frayed and broken relationships.

The NSBA board unanimously picked Heim and his hiring was announced on Nov. 16. A memo to members said he was the best person to lead the association “during such an important period for the organization.” He began the job on Nov. 23.

NSBA is a “great organization,” Heim said in an interview on Monday. “We just kind of needed to get centered again on what’s important and we can move forward from there.”

Moving forward may not be easy.

The Virginia-based national organization, founded in 1940, has lost trust and credibility among many Republicans. In turn, school board groups in at least 19 states have moved to diminish or cut ties as they scramble to preserve credibility with local conservatives.

The firestorm began Sept. 29 when NSBA sent Biden a letter raising concerns about the safety of board members and educators. It came amid a wave of public meetings across the country featuring angry parents and community members denouncing COVID-19 protocols and Critical Race Theory. Some board members had also reported an uptick in threats.

NSBA requested a joint collaboration between local and federal law enforcement. The Department of Justice then unveiled an initiative to address threats of violence and intimidation directed at school officials.

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the NSBA letter read.

Republicans, including in Kansas and Missouri, quickly pounced. U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said this week that he was all for school officials being safe and said public officials should be treated with respect. Describing the controversy, he said the situation seemed more about politics than security.

“Normally, those safety and personal security concerns would be handled not by the FBI, but by local law enforcement,” Moran said.

In the wake of the letter, Missouri Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, wrote to the Missouri School Boards’ Association demanding to know whether the organization believed parents are domestic terrorists.

Less than a month later, the Missouri group withdrew from the NSBA, part of a wave of membership cancellations by state-level school board organizations.

Melissa Randol, director of the Missouri School Boards’ Association, wrote in an email that Heim is “an extraordinary leader and his experience with the Kansas Association of School Boards will be an asset in his new role.”

MSBA’s decision to withdraw, she wrote, was made by its board and was the result of a number of governance problems brought to the attention of NSBA leadership over the years, “but unfortunately have not been addressed.”

In a first step toward regaining trust, NSBA leaders and state-level members met in January, Heim said. In the long-term, the organization wants to bring back as many members as it can.

“We want to be able to assure them that that won’t happen again,” Heim said.

Heim emphasized the importance of finding areas of agreement and listed several, including broadband access and closing the gap between students with internet at home and those without. NSBA is “not a partisan organization,” he said.

“We support public education and sometimes that means we align with one side or the other a little more or a little less, but the basic idea is we support public education,” Heim said.

Since an early age, Heim has been immersed in public education. His father was a superintendent and the family moved frequently within Kansas. He followed his father into administration, becoming superintendent of Emporia schools before joining KASB in 2010.

“It was always part of our family culture that we talked about helping kids and providing good educational opportunities,” Heim said.

He said his roots have served him well.

“I’m kind of a grinder,” Heim said. “I’m not real flashy, but I guess I learned that in Kansas.”

Friends and former Kansas colleagues of Heim say he’s dedicated to a collaborative approach that emphasizes building consensus when possible. Mark Tallman, a long-time lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said the organization went as far as leasing space to a school administrators association in KASB’s building to foster collaboration.

“I think he does a very good job of defusing situations that other folks maybe would turn away from,” said Sen. Brenda Dietrich, a Topeka Republican.

But Heim — and KASB — are not without critics in the Kansas Capitol.

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said school districts and states are beginning to distance themselves from organizations that describe “parents as the problem.” KASB remains a member of the NSBA, and KASB has called the national group’s apology appropriate.

Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican who chairs the House K-12 Education Budget Committee, said KASB is a taxpayer-funded entity that doesn’t reflect the values of a majority of its board members. (Publicly-funded school boards pay dues to KASB to have full membership.)

Williams and other GOP lawmakers who want conservative-oriented changes to education, including the expansion of programs allowing parents to use public dollars on private education, have often found themselves on the opposite side of KASB on legislation.

“I don’t know how he will lead in Washington, but hopefully it will be more bipartisan,” Williams said.

Tallman said KASB relies on a member-driven process to arrive at its positions. The attitudes of most school board members probably isn’t much different than the average Kansan, he said: a majority are likely conservative-leaning Republicans.

“He is from a Midwestern state, from a Republican state. He understands, I think, those issues and concerns,” Tallman said.

Former Gov. Sam Brownback was in office during Heim’s first years leading KASB. Rep. Fred Patton, a Topeka Republican who spent several years on the Seaman schools board, said Heim was very open about bringing the Republican governor and his staff in for discussions.

“You want to be a player in the discussions. You can’t be partisan and do that,” Patton said.

In a blog post before his hiring, Heim extolled the importance of listening. He recounted how an Emporia school board president patiently heard out parents and members of the public at a particularly contentious meeting over whether to close a school.

The board voted to close the school, but no one could say the board didn’t listen, he wrote.

Controversies surrounding public education have always cropped up, he said, mentioning how his father as a superintendent had been involved in fights over sex education in the 1970s.

“We’ve been able to work our way through those and find common ground,” Heim said. “So that gives me hope.”

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting