In Shawnee Mission, a school board election with ‘the soul of the district’ on the line

Shawnee Mission School Board candidate Heather Ousley said she was struck by a moment that happened twice during her campaign for a school board seat.

Two educators called her at separate times this year and echoed the same tearful concern: That the “soul” of the school district is on the line in the upcoming Shawnee Mission Schools election to determine three open seats on the School Board.

Patrons dismayed by a what some have called a “culture of intimidation” fostered under former superintendent Jim Hinson see electing fresh school board members on Tuesday as the best way to ensure a new direction. For them, this election is a make-break moment in Shawnee Mission education history.

The board — with potentially three new members to be seated this January — will vet superintendent candidates this winter and choose a finalist by March.

“We need someone who is a bridge builder, a communicator, a positive person,” said board candidate James Lockard, a retired environmental science teacher. “Someone who can improve the climate and working conditions in the district.”

Hinson, who retired in June after abruptly announcing his resignation in April, was chosen to lead the district in 2013. But the former Independence, Mo., superintendent’s management style, called “autocratic” by some, soured relationships with parents and created tension between administrators and staff.

Hinson has consistently refused to discuss his departure.

This year, a new crop of first-time candidates joined a loud community chorus calling for leadership with a management style that is less top down. And they also painted the current board as complicit in problems that have plagued the district, calling longtime board members out-of-touch and disconnected from changing needs in the district.

“I think the board got complacent,” said candidate Mandi Hunter. “We’ve had people who were on there for 20 or 24 years. I think it’s probably human nature to become complacent...But it’s come to a head. People are ready for a change. I think they want to feel like they are represented.”

Hunter, an attorney and founder of the Hunter Law Group, faces off against Ousley, a civil rights attorney and education advocate, for the position 6 at-large seat held currently by Cindy Neighbor, who was defeated in an August primary.

Mary Sinclair, a Shawnee Mission Area Council PTA legislative co-chair, and Lockard will battle for the position 2 Shawnee Mission East seat to be vacated by Donna Bysfield, who did not seek reelection.

The election’s only incumbent, longtime board member Craig Denny, is challenged by Laura Guy, a former teacher and current pastor, for the Shawnee Mission West position.

The election, candidates told The Star, will determine how a district with a proud record of academic excellence weathers changes such as increased diversity in the district, insufficient state funding and a dissatisfied workforce.

“I feel like it’s almost a tipping point,” Guy said. “A watershed moment in our district in which we’re trying to figure out how to protect this wonderful tradition we’ve had of high quality education and high quality teachers.”

Building trust with a disillusioned staff

When Hinson started in the district, he was hailed as a visionary that could help update aging infrastructure, initiate a district rebrand and expand special programs.

But rapid changes — from quickly rolling out a 1-to-1 technology program in which every student received a laptop to transitioning to a new free math curriculum, meant teachers had few chances to offer input or adjust, many said.

“It had a dramatic impact on what everyone was expected to do,” said Sinclair.

On top of that, the culture in the district between staff and administrators began to feel adversarial. There was a perception held by many that Hinson’s new expanding cabinet were friends or associates. Teachers who had felt the effects of state funding cuts in their classrooms bristled as administrative salaries swelled.

School patrons were dismayed when Hinson banned staff members from wearing safety pins as a sign of support for marginalized communities after the election. The district received further criticism from the ACLU for its handling of a immigration incident involving a student.

Ousley said she has spoken to teachers who witnessed colleagues be yelled at or shamed for asking questions or pushing back against rapid changes. Others watched building staff, including principals, abruptly let go.

In district surveys, patrons have asked for a new superintendent who would be more visible, hands-on and willing to hear both input and criticism.

Denny said he didn’t necessarily think that dissatisfaction could be laid at Hinson’s, or the Board’s, feet. And he points out that in the past four years the district has expanded its signature programs, passed a bond issue, and rebuilt schools.

“No teacher has ever come to me and said I feel intimidated,” said Denny, a senior consultant at a engineering firm. “With any group, like my own employees, we have some folks who are chronically unhappy and complain about anything we do, and we have some that enjoy tremendously what we do and we have a large group that comes in and goes to work.”

His opponent, Guy, disagrees.

“Hinson came in with some visionary ideas,” Guy said. “I think the price we paid for his management style has brought us to the brink of losing some of our best teachers.”

Creating a transparent district

Concerns about transparency quickly emerged as a major issue in this year’s campaigns. At public meetings, parents criticized the current board for not being prompt or thorough in answering questions about district decisions.

“There’s no public discussion,” Ousley said. “There’s no opportunity for input. There’s no back and forth. No pros and cons. No meeting minutes recording the gist of what happened. You are left to try and guess on that.”

Denny said some have made an issue out of informational meetings, a practice in which Hinson met privately with a few board members at a time to get them up to speed on board issues before meetings. No business happened in those meetings, he said.

“I don’t agree with the premise that we’ve not been transparent,” said Denny. “We do all of our business in the public’s eye. “

But some candidates say that parents and teachers want more than that. Several candidates have strongly supported exploring advisory committees, which the district maintained from 1969 through 2004.

Lockard previously served on the public advisory committee that were organized by areas. He said he’d bring them back, but focus groups by topics, such as technology.

“For instance,” Lockard said. “In my opinion we wouldn’t be stuck with all these Apple products because we would have had more input, and we’d know that Google Chrome is a better deal.”

Hunter said communication and transparency are the most frequent concerns she’s head from constituents, one she hopes to possibly curb with town halls, advisory boards and improved mass communication from the district.

“It’s got to come down to communication,” Hunter said. “You have to give the public, parents, the teachers and even just taxpayers that live in our Shawnee Mission neighborhood the opportunity to have a line of communication with the board. I think that’s been missing.”

A shift in values

Sinclair says she attributes much of the climate issues and excessive workload to the legislature’s failure to properly fund public education. The district has seen cuts in special education, lost support staff and increased workloads for teachers.

But she also said Shawnee Mission patrons needed a leader, and especially board members, to be more vocally opposed to policies that are harmful to public education.

“We were asking our school board members to speak more directly about the kind of policies that were being promoted,” said Sinclair. “School boards don’t like to engage in politics. But the politics of public education have changed.”

Hinson’s role in legislative debates over school funding in recent years further disillusioned some members of the school community.

He was one of the only superintendents in the state to back Gov. Sam Brownback’s push to repeal the state’s school funding formula in 2015 and replace it with block grants, a policy that sparked criticism from education advocates and was later ruled unconstitutional.

“I think there is a way you can still engage in the conversation from a non-partisan perspective,” Sinclair said. “It’s an intimidating thing to do. It’s not comfortable. But I think our School Board needs to engage more with all our legislators.”

Ousley agrees that establishing priorities means a much more engaged board, one that is not just more communicative but open to questioning leadership when its appropriate.

“(Previous school boards) had the benefit of serving under quality superintendents and did not really face a situation in which they had to act as a check, and when they were called to act as a check, they did not have the ability.”

Ousley said how the district charts the next few years will indicate “who we are as a district.”

“You cannot be paying attention to this election cycle and walk away and think patrons of this district are happy,” Ousley said. “People are hopeful the next superintendent will be able to get us through this transition.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 7:39 PM with the headline "In Shawnee Mission, a school board election with ‘the soul of the district’ on the line."