Why are business leaders trying to delay the Lee’s Summit superintendent search?

A group of business leaders in Lee’s Summit is trying to throw its weight around by interfering in the search for the school district’s new superintendent.

The Lee’s Summit Business Roundtable is pressuring the school board to delay the search to replace former Superintendent Dennis Carpenter, who resigned in July after his push for racial equity training in the district ruffled feathers.

Of course, school board members were actually elected to make these decisions, so it’s not clear why members of the business roundtable would insert themselves into this process. And delaying the installation of a new superintendent does not serve the students in the Lee’s Summit school district well.

The business roundtable has overstepped what should be its limited role by asking the school board to delay hiring a new leader while it seeks community support to place a bond issue on the April 2020 ballot.

The roundtable’s steering committee is made up of members of the business community and school district leadership. Two Lee’s Summit school board members, Jackie Clark and Dennis Smith, are members of the group.

William Brown, chairman of the organization, said the roundtable’s preference is for interim Superintendent Emily Miller to stay in place until after the election.

The group has not tried to influence the search, Brown said, but has sought a delay to focus on the bond issue, which would, among other things, fund renovations at the aging Lee’s Summit High School and build a new middle school.

Online records from an Oct. 19 roundtable meeting tell the troubling tale of the group’s attempt to exert undue influence.

“The group discussed the superintendent search and discussed the Board of Education,” minutes from the meeting read. “They then discussed sentiment regarding a potential bond issue on the ballot. Bill Brown put a question before the group and wanted it noted in the minutes that there was consensus of the room suggesting the Board of Education delay a superintendent search.

“This was called for by a show of hands.”

Lee’s Summit School Board President Julie Doane says she was at the roundtable meeting just to listen. Clark was absent because of illness, but Smith was present.

Fellow school board member Mike Allen attended as a business owner. But only two board members are supposed to be part of the roundtable, according to its charter, so his presence raises additional questions: Is Allen serving the school board’s interests — or the business community’s?

The onus is now on Doane to show leadership and move the district forward — regardless of the wishes of influential outsiders. Questions about who is steering the school board’s decisions and exactly who is shaping policy in the Lee’s Summit school district should never be up for debate.

The roundtable was convened in 2011 by then-Superintendent David McGehee after voters rejected a school district levy. The organization does not have decision-making power over the school district or its personnel. And its members should not dictate the terms of the search for a new superintendent.

Seven school board members are elected by voters to make decisions in the best interests of the district’s nearly 18,000 students.

But the business roundtable is not the only organization leaning on Lee’s Summit school board members in an effort to delay the process.

This week, an undated letter from the Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council surfaced, urging the school board to focus on the bond issue and hit the brakes on the search for a new superintendent. It’s hard to see, though, how leaving the district adrift without a long-term leader for nearly a year or more is a winning strategy.

Doane says the process will not be delayed. The board wants a new superintendent in place for the 2020-21 academic year. The job was posted on the district’s website last week, and several applicants have shown interest.

“We are moving ahead with the search,” Doane said. “We’re being very open (and) looking at all the avenues ... to post the position.”

Doane is saying all the right things, but her actions, and those of other board members, deserve scrutiny.

The business roundtable should be a valuable resource and sounding board for the Lee’s Summit school board. But business owners shouldn’t usurp board members’ authority or second-guess their judgment.

It’s also worth noting that in a district that has struggled to adapt to changing demographics, the business roundtable’s profound lack of diversity is a cause for concern.

Doane and other school board members should move forward with their plans to hire a new leader for the district.

And for their part, business owners should stand down and allow school board members to do their jobs and conduct the search for the next superintendent.