4 people are on the ballot for Bonner Springs school board. Who are they?
Four candidates are on the ballot for the Bonner Springs Board of Education, and voters within the Wyandotte County district can pick who they want representing them Nov. 4.
Two candidates are incumbents, including one who’s the current vice president of the board of education. The two newcomers looking to claim a spot on the school board have kids who attend the school district and say they want to make things better for the future.
There are seven members in total on the school board, and two of those seats are up for election. The election will decide which members are included on the board, and then the board will vote on who becomes the new president and vice president.
Here are the four candidates on the ballot this Election Day.
Voters in Wyandotte County can cast their ballots in-person at early voting locations from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, then Monday, Oct. 27, through Saturday, Nov. 1
Only the Wyandotte County Election Office, 850 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, is open Monday, Nov. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon, and then Election Day polling locations are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Find more coverage of Wyandotte County politics on KansasCity.com, or sign up for a free newsletter with news for the county.
Bonner Springs Board of Education Member At-Large
Kimberly Beets (incumbent)
Kimberly Beets is the vice president of the Bonner Springs Board of Education and is running for re-election. She has been on the board for at least eight years.
Beets is also the senior global library manager at Overland Park-based construction company Black & Veatch, a role she’s held for last two years of her current 10-year run with the company.
Before moving to Black & Veatch, she served as a library director at Bonner Springs City Library for 16 years. She earned her Master’s of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Missouri.
Her priority is to help better the community, according to her bio on Bonner Springs’ Board of Education website.
“I believe in the power of education with my whole heart and I want to make a difference in my community,” she said in a statement. “Together we are a team that is always working hard to do what is best for our students. What makes USD 204 so great is the people and the support we get from our community.”
Ashley Razak (incumbent)
Ashley Razak is a current member of the Bonner Springs Board of Education and has been a member for six years. She also works as a communications coordinator for the Basehor-Linwood School District.
She plans to ensure that the best decisions are being made for the Bonner Springs school district and believes that the school district is important because it helps bring together both the Bonner Springs and Edwardsville communities, according to her biography on the school board website.
Razak has a marketing degree from Kansas State University previously served as a technology assistant with the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville School District.
Bonnie Mejean
Bonnie Mejean is running to claim a spot on the Bonner Springs Board of Education. She has two kids in the school district and is a high school English teacher with the Shawnee Mission School District.
She decided to run for the board to address issues with students not feeling like they’re part of a community and combatting the use of AI in classrooms, according to her Facebook page. She wants to encourage wider and more meaningful community engagement between the school district and its students, and wants to educate children on the social and ethical implications of using AI in their work.
“I believe all kids can learn and deserve to learn in an environment that fosters creativity and original thinking,” Mejean said on her website. “Education is not some temporary season of our lives, it instills in us lifelong skills which follow us into both our professional and personal lives.”
John McCaughrean
John McCaughrean is running to claim a spot on the Bonner Springs Board of Education. He’s a single parent of three children who attend the Bonner Springs School District. He’s also an Army Intelligence veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe, and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Penn State, according to his website.
He says on his website that his focuses within the schools lies in three segments, in which students learn about a different country and its culture each semester, study the founding documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and helping them develop technical skills in case they decide going to college after graduating from high school isn’t for them.
Of all the candidates up for election, McCaughrean is the only one who has endorsements listed on his website: Young Republicans of Wyandotte County and Kansans For Life.
