Could Lee’s Summit voters elect the district’s first black school board member?
The Lee’s Summit school district, which has had its share of racial controversies in recent years, has never had a black member of the school board. An election on Tuesday could change that.
Of the nine candidates vying for three seats on the board, two are African American.
“I would represent a portion of our patrons who haven’t had a member of their population represented before,” one candidate, Dr. David Thompson, said during a candidate town hall session earlier this year. Megan Marshall is the other candidate who is African American.
In addition to the school board race, voters will decide on a $224 million no-tax-rate-increase bond issue that would pay to build a new middle school, upgrade safety and security and renovate schools, including the oldest high school.
The election was originally scheduled for April but was postponed because of COVID-19.
The board has been deeply divided on crucial issues, including how to implement equity training in the predominantly white district. The district’s first African American superintendent, Dennis Carpenter, resigned last July over what he said then was “philosophical differences with members of the board.”
The district hired a firm to implement a diversity plan. And then in January the board named a new superintendent, David Buck, from the Wright City School District. That district, just west of St. Louis, is nearly 10 times smaller than Lee’s Summit. He officially starts July 1.
Two board members whose votes tended to support Carpenter’s push for equity training, Jacqueline Clark and Dennis Smith, did not file for reelection, leaving on the board a majority of members who typically had voted against the former superintendent.
The candidates:
▪ The only incumbent in the race is Kim Fritchie, a retired school district employee who joined the board in 2017. She has two daughters who graduated from a district high school, and one now is a teacher in Lee’s Summit.
▪ Lawrence “Larry” Anderson is a former Butler School District board member. The engineer returned to live in Lee’s Summit in 2017. He has two children attending a district high school.
▪ Brian Austerman is assistant chief of administration and support services for the Lee’s Summit Fire Department and has three children attending district schools.
▪ Christine T. Bushyhead is an attorney and former Lee’s Summit City Council member. She has a son attending Our Lady of the Presentation a parochial school in Lee’s Summit.
▪ Kathryn Campbell is in information technology programming and works as a lead project manager at Cerner. Both her sons graduated from district high schools.
▪ Mark Alan Leetch is the director of Midwest risk control for CBIZ Insurance Services and has two children who graduated from a district high school in 2017. His wife teaches in the district.
▪ Megan Marshall is retired from the United States Marine Corps and has two children attending district schools and one who graduated last year.
▪ Matthew Niewald, a Lee’s Summit dentist, has three children.
▪ David E. Thompson is a retired physician.
The bulk of the bond issue, approved by a unanimous vote of the current board, will go to construction projects: approximately $72 million for a new middle school and about $80 million for renovations and additions at Lee’s Summit High School.
North Kansas City
The North Kansas City school district also has a bond issue on the ballot Tuesday.
The district is asking voters to decide on a $155 no-tax-increase bond issue that would replace elementary schools — Maplewood and Davidson — both more than 60 years old. It would also complete stadiums at Oak Park and Winnetonka high schools, build new playgrounds, and install safety and security upgrades at all facilities.
The district also plans to buy the former Gladstone Hobby Lobby and Price Chopper in Prospect Plaza and use the 121,000 square feet for pre-K and special education programs.
Other elections
Other school board elections in the area include:
▪ Blue Springs: four candidates vying for three seats.
▪ Center: six candidates for three seats.
▪ Fort Osage: four candidates for three seats.
▪ Hickman Mills: seven candidates for three seats.
