This school election season, Kansas City area candidates debate race and equity
School board races in both Lee’s Summit and Kansas City have been heating up, with candidates pushing for immediate action to reverse years of racial inequities — disparities only exacerbated during the pandemic.
They are among the most notable school elections on the Missouri side of the Kansas City area on Tuesday. In addition, residents in eight districts will decide whether to be a part of the taxing district of Metropolitan Community College. And other school districts are asking voters to approve millions of dollars in bonds to fund new schools and other projects.
All polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Here are some of the races to watch:
Lee’s Summit school board
Top priorities for candidates running for Lee’s Summit school board are addressing racial inequities and improving outcomes for students of color — in a district that only last year elected its first Black board member.
Five candidates are running for two seats on the board, including incumbent board president Ryan Murdock. Also in the race is Christine Bushyhead, who last year lost to Megan Marshall, the board’s first Black member. The other candidates are newcomers Michele Andrea Surber, Rodrick King Sparks and Monte Helm.
But Helm, a professor at Metropolitan Community College, decided to stop campaigning and instead throw his support to both Murdock and Sparks. He will still appear on the ballot because he missed the deadline to officially leave the race, but because his family plans to be out of the country in the coming years, he decided to drop out.
The district has faced several controversies in recent years over race and inequity. Dennis Carpenter, the district’s first Black superintendent, resigned in July 2019 after clashing for several months with the then-all-white school board over diversity training. Last year, the board named David Buck the new superintendent.
In January, Danielle Nixon, a Black woman, won a $275,000 settlement from the school district after she filed a lawsuit claiming she wasn’t hired because of her race.
All of the candidates agree that the district should be doing more to hire and retain staff members of color, plus improve outcomes for the district’s Black and brown students. And they agree that the pandemic has made it more difficult for students to succeed.
But they have different views on whether the district is on the right track to meet those goals.
The incumbent Murdock said Lee’s Summit has made progress by crafting an equity plan, although the pandemic has hampered some of the work to implement it. Now is the time to act on it, he said.
“There are two areas where I do think we can really move with some urgency. That is opening up access to all the opportunities within our district where we currently have major disparities in participation. And we can work hard on our recruitment, hiring, and support of a diverse staff,” Murdock said. “Both of these goals would also help lead to increased student achievement, something we should always be focused on.”
Murdock is a former high school teacher who now serves as emergency management director for the city of Raymore. He has twin sons who are 10 years old and attend Longview Farm Elementary School. His other priorities include advancing workforce development programs, improving reading and writing initiatives and completing renovations to school buildings.
Surber was highly critical of the district’s equity plan, saying that it falls short of addressing disparities in students’ education.
“Will the plan created work? I doubt it, since writing it has created more division than inclusion,” Surber said. “And I don’t believe it touches on the heart of what needs to change: and that is the relationships that students have with each other, creating inclusive environments for all so that no one feels forgotten, create opportunities for shared stories and vulnerable conversations which bring about understanding and compassion, and a strong line against hate speech of any kind. So I think the plan needs work.”
Surber has a background in behavioral health and health care. She has three children, including a 9-year-old and 6-year-old who attend Trailridge Elementary School. She believes the district needs to improve transparency with families, diversify the district’s curriculum, plus restructure school days to allow for flexible hours or online learning to better reach all students.
Sparks, on the other hand, said he thinks the district is moving in the right direction by working to hire and retain more teachers and administrators of color, and by hiring an assistant superintendent focused on equity and student services last year.
“When students see themselves in leadership roles, not only do they learn better, but it just creates a much better learning environment for the student,” Sparks said. “So we must focus on that if our goal is to make sure all of our students succeed at life.”
Sparks is an accounting specialist for Hendrick Automotive Group. He has an elementary-aged child and high schooler who both attend Lee’s Summit schools. He believes the district needs to improve communication with parents, and hopes to better represent their voices on the board. He also wants to expand summer school and night classes to offer flexibility to students who might not succeed in the traditional school day structure.
Bushyhead argued that there are flaws in how the district is trying to improve diversity and inclusion.
She said the equity plan “is not inclusive enough and lacks tangible action items to support equitable access to education opportunities for all marginalized groups. … I believe the district’s approach to equity training is not inclusive enough.”
She is an attorney and former Lee’s Summit City Council member. Bushyhead has a son attending Our Lady of the Presentation a parochial school in Lee’s Summit. She said the district should reduce class sizes, improve transparency and invest in more programs for students with special needs, English language learners and others.
Kansas City school board
Usually a quieter election, the Kansas City school board races have brought strong competition and big money this year.
Four seats are up for election, with two of the races contested. Incumbent board chair Pattie Mansur is facing a challenge from Tanesha Ford for the at-large seat. And newcomers Kandace Buckner and Bruce Beatty are vying for the seat in Sub-district 5. Incumbents Rita Cortes and Manuel Abarca are uncontested.
An unusually large amount of money has been pumped into the two contested races. The nonprofit Blaque KC, short for Black Leaders Advancing Quality Urban Education, has spent more than $100,000, according to reports with the Missouri Ethics Commission. The group is backing both Ford and Buckner.
Ford, executive director of Kauffman Scholars, is campaigning on the need for the district to be more transparent in releasing data and communicating with the public, and is advocating for more urgent change to improve student achievement.
Mansur was first elected in 2014 and works as the communications and health policy director for REACH Healthcare Foundation, a health philanthropy in Merriam. She said that during her time on the board, the district has made steady progress to improve students’ education, enhance curriculum and hire more teachers of color, and should continue down that path.
In Sub-district 5, in the southeast part of the school district, Buckner, a teaching coach for Kansas City Teacher Residency, said that officials have “accepted less than mediocrity in this district for far too long” and need to “press turbo” to improve student test scores and graduation rates. She said the district isn’t doing enough to improve education for its students of color, and said that needs bold leadership to solve the “crisis on our hands.”
Her challenger, Beatty, is retired after working as a financial analyst for the city for 33 years. He said his priorities include increasing teacher pay and closing the achievement gap for students of color. He believes the district needs “stable leadership” to continue improving graduation rates and test scores to move the provisionally accredited district toward regaining full accreditation.
Metropolitan Community College
Voters in eight Kansas City metro school districts will decide whether they want to become a part of Metropolitan Community College’s taxing district.
Officials say the broader tax base would give MCC more resources to expand programming, update buildings and provide services.
In turn, residents would qualify for the in-district tuition price, which was $107 per credit hour for the spring semester. That’s compared to the out-of-district price of $198 per credit hour.
The school districts that could join MCC are: Grain Valley, Harrisonville, Kearney, Liberty, Oak Grove, Platte County, Raymore-Peculiar and Smithville.
Residents would pay a higher property tax. MCC has a tax levy of roughly 21 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
The measure requires a simple majority to pass in each district. Each school district vote is separate from the others.
Platte County schools
Residents in the Platte County school district will be asked to approve a $73 million bond issue to build a new middle school and renovate several other buildings.
There would be no tax increase.
The new middle school could serve up to 600 students and would be built on 80 acres that were donated at Missouri 152 and Platte Purchase Drive.
The bond would also fund the first phase of renovations at Platte County High School, which will include a two-story addition on the southwest side of the school. It will add 26 classrooms and learning labs, a new main gym, cafeteria commons, a baseball field and parking. The rebuild of the high school will be funded by three separate bond issues, officials said.
The district also would renovate and convert both Pathfinder Elementary School and Barry School, to serve Kindergarten through fifth grade. And several facilities would receive technology and security upgrades.
Independence schools
Voters in the Independence School District will be asked to approve a $43 million bond issue, with no tax increase.
The bonds would help fund safety and security improvements — “ensuring that every school in the district has a vestibule with double door secure entrance,” officials said.
In addition, auditoriums, as well as choir, band and orchestra rooms, would be renovated at the district’s middle and high schools. Playground equipment at elementary schools would get upgrades. And the district would repair and renovate several other buildings.
The bond would also fund tennis courts and a softball field at Truman and William Chrisman high schools and stadium seating at Van Horn High School.
This story was originally published April 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
