Lee’s Summit elects its first black school board member, and she leads the pack
Lee’s Summit voters on Tuesday elected the school district’s first African American school board member — the top vote-getter in a nine-way race — and approved a $224 million no-tax-rate-increase bond issue for new school construction.
Megan Marshall, who is African American, captured 21.3% of the 31,064 votes cast, according to unofficial results. She was followed closely by Kimberley Fritchie, the lone incumbent in the race, with 20.5%. Katheryn Campbell received 14.66% of the votes to take the third available seat.
The only other black candidate, Dr. David Thompson, came away with 3.49%, the smallest percentage of the vote.
In addition to the school board race, voters agreed to spend approximately $72 million for a new middle school, and about $80 million for renovations and additions at Lee’s Summit High School. The bond issue also will pay for upgrades to safety and security and other building renovations.
Marshall’s election comes as the district has had its share of racial controversies in recent years.
The board was 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 were “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.
Marshall is retired from the United States Marine Corps and has two children attending district schools and one who graduated last year.
Fritchie is 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.
Campbell is in information technology programming and works as a lead project manager at Cerner. Both her sons graduated from district high schools.
Elsewhere, in the Northland voters said yes to a $155 million, no-tax-increase bond for the North Kansas City school district to build two new elementary school, purchase new space for an early childhood center and upgrade playgrounds along with safety and security.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 10:39 PM.
