Meet the candidates running for Center school board in Kansas City
Kansas City residents will have a say on the next local leaders of their communities for the April 7 elections. This includes selecting the next board members of the Center 58 School District.
The district serves over 2,400 students in southern Kansas City. Four candidates will be on the ballot, with three spots up for grabs out of the eight available.
Ira Boydston IV is the incumbent running for the Center 58 School District board. Joining him on the ballot is Melissa Bellante, Marsha Brown and Kristin Stokely. Incumbent board members Marcie Calvin and Dr. Ronald Fritz will not be running for reelection.
The Kansas City Star reached out to all four candidates to get some background on who they are and what they believe they can bring to the board as the election creeps up. Here’s what they had to say.
Melissa Bellante
Current occupation: Medicaid specialist with the Blue Valley School District.
Roles held prior to running: Has worked in public education for around 15 years, including roles as a teaching assistant and other administrative positions. Worked for Center School District from 2015 through 2023.
Why are you running: Bellante believes that Center is starting to go into a better direction, but she feels that there’s still room for improvement and that she can bring a fresh perspective to the board. She feels that her connections within the district and community show that she’s someone people can come to with questions and concerns.
What makes you think you’re the best candidate: “With me being able to see different sides of everything, I can see from multiple different lenses throughout the district, and what could easily be needed. I still have very deep ties to people that still work for the district. With being a parent, I’m pretty involved with the district because of my son. He’s in a high school now, and so I can have a really easy, open dialog with a lot of the people within the district, both staff and parents. We can work together to see what we can do to better the district.”
Which issues are most important to you: Bellante wants to get student success back on track, as she claims the district’s testing “has not been where it needs to be.” She wants student scores to get back on track so that they and the school can get full accreditation.
Another point Bellante mentioned was the staffing at Center. She wants to keep up employee retention in the district, while also keeping a diverse staff.
“We have a lot of minorities in our district, and (students) need to be able to see that when they come to school, that they have staff and teachers that look like them, because when they can see themselves in their teachers and the staff that work in their district, they can relate to them a lot better,” she said.
Ira Boydston IV
Current occupation: Partner in a trucking company and board member of Center 58 School District.
Roles held prior to running: Previously worked for Oracle Health. Was a track coach at a local charter school. Previously volunteered with 100 Black Men of Greater Kansas City.
Why are you running? Boydston has two children who don’t currently attend Center schools due to difficulties with getting access to more rigorous classes. He said he’s seeing parents dealing with the same thing as his family and wants to erase those problems for those dealing with similar issues.
What makes you think you’re the best candidate? “There is no best candidate. It’s about collaboration and understanding the processes. In that respect, I do have a couple years of learning how things work. I do have a little bit of time with our current administration. But I applaud anybody who wants to volunteer to help youth, so I won’t hold it against anyone who doesn’t choose me as the best candidate.”
Which issues are important to you? Boydston wants to advocate for all students, including those with learning disabilities, making sure they all have the resources they need to achieve. He also wants to make sure the new administration for the district is in a good position to be successful.
“We can all assume that they’re going to be doing their best to address academics. So for us as a board, we can wrap our arms around them and let them know that we are investing in their success,” he said.
Marsha Brown
Current occupation: Retired educator
Roles held prior to running: Brown was a teacher for 50 years, which includes time at Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph, Hickman Mills, Cristo Rey and others. She also was a teaching assistant at Blue Valley Visitation Catholic School and the Center School District.
Why are you running? “When I had retired, some of the teachers there thought that it’d be nice if I ran for school board. It’s really important to me. I love the Center School District. I’ve lived in it for 37 years. I don’t have a hidden agenda; I just want what’s best for the district. The middle school was really an incredible place to be. They’re really making strides; they have a really good core of leadership.”
What makes you think you’re the best candidate? “I could always look out of what needs to be go on in the schools. I have a good voice for that. I think all my experience didn’t do me wrong. I think it’s given me an interesting gift, but that gift goes with other people that are going to be on the board. It’s not me alone.”
Which issues are important to you? Brown brought up the money within the school district, specifically with budgeting it better. “We have to be creative with that, because only so much money comes from the state, and that’s not going to change,” she said.
She also brought up student achievement and keeping them engaged in the classrooms. She believes that’s something she can help with due to her background in middle school education.
Kristin Stokely
Current occupation: Stay at-home mother
Roles held prior to running: Spent 11 years working for the state of Missouri as a licensed attorney. During that time, she was legal counsel to four different state boards and commissions. In her last five years of her career, Stokely was the general counsel for the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, where she was legal counsel to the Coordinating Board for Higher Education and the State Workforce Development Board.
Why are you running? “I care about all the kids, and I want to make sure that everyone’s children, not just my own, graduate with the same educational opportunities as peers from around the metro. Right now, the school district has been through some turmoil lately. And given my specific and unique set of skills and qualifications, I will bring a level of a unique set of skills to help bring stability to the board and to the district.”
What makes you think you’re the best candidate? “Across those four boards and 11 years, I have a lot of experience about how governing boards should function. I’ve seen functioning ones and I’ve seen dysfunctional ones. I just understand how they function and how relationships are important in them and their duties and obligations to the taxpayers, and to the entities that they govern.”
Which issues are most important to you and how would you address them? Stokely said that she hears from the community that they are worried about academic achievement. She cited that test scores are “not great right now,” and she wants students to take testing more seriously.
“I think that that’s a big problem in this district, that our students aren’t personally engaged. They don’t understand why this is important and how it applies to them. I think even just doing that would improve our scores,” she said.
Her other priorities listed on her website include teacher satisfaction, college/career readiness, fiscal responsibility, early childhood education, equity, anti-bullying, mental health support and AI literacy.
For more information on the April 7 election, visit the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners website.
This story was originally published March 26, 2026 at 12:59 PM.
