The presidential campaign may be over, but leaders of the Missouri effort for President Barack Obama have set their sights on a new goal: improving the Kansas City School District.</p><p>Spark Bookhart, a deputy field director of Obama&#8217;s Missouri campaign, is leading a fight against state legislation that would transform the Kansas City school board from an elective body to an appointed one.</p><p>The notion of replacing the elected school board with an appointed group has begun circulating lately. Bookhart pointed out that state Rep. Jonas Hughes, a Kansas City Democrat, has said he supports such a plan.</p><p>Bookhart&#8217;s campaign vehemently opposes such an idea.</p><p>To gather support, the group will hold a &#8220;Hands off the Kansas City School District&#8221; campaign launch rally Thursday night at the Paseo Academy, 4747 Flora Ave. The group&#8217;s motto: &#8220;Our voice. Our vote. Our district.&#8221; Doors open at 5:30 p.m.</p><p>The group met Saturday at the Brush Creek Community Center, where it reviewed the district&#8217;s turbulent history. While the school board receives much of the criticism for the struggles, Bookhart&#8217;s group prefers to place many of the district woes at the feet of the desegregation monitoring committee and the court&#8217;s intervention into the district.</p><p>&#8220;This is not a whisper campaign,&#8221; Bookhart said. &#8220;We intend to let the world know that we will not tolerate an appointed board, and we collectively are going to say hands off our school district.&#8221;</p><p>The group also has started a letter-writing campaign to convince members of the state Senate that an appointed school board would be undemocratic. The letter-writing effort is targeting state Sens. Yvonne Wilson and Jolie Justus. The women, both Democrats, represent districts that include the Kansas City School District.</p><p>When the General Assembly is in session, Bookhart hopes that any bill that would have an adverse effect on the school board will be shot down.</p><p>&#8220;And trust me, there are not less than 46 bills out there that affect the Kansas City School District,&#8221; Bookhart said.</p><p>&#8220;But after May 15 (when the legislature adjourns), do we sit back?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;No. With the same fervor that we&#8217;re going to use to beat back any type of adverse legislation, we have to be about the task of building world-class schools.&#8221;</p><p>Airick West, a school board member, attended Saturday&#8217;s meeting and said the idea of public engagement to address the ills of the district made sense to him.</p><p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t have said it better,&#8221; West said. &#8220;We can&#8217;t wait around for elected officials to save us. We can&#8217;t wait around for some wiser individual to come along. Public engagement is a must.&#8221;</p><p>While most were in agreement, several people at the meeting questioned the merits of opposing an appointed school board.</p><p>&#8220;This is not an endorsement of any school board member,&#8221; Bookhart said. &#8220;This is an endorsement of the democratic process. This is an endorsement of your voice. If you don&#8217;t like a school board member, organize and get rid of that school board member. Put one in that supports your interest.&#8221;</p><p>We&#8217;re all desperately searching for good ideas that will positively affect the Kansas City School District. Replacing a democratically elected school board with an appointed one sounds way too desperate.