Informed Voter Coalition
The Informed Voter Coalition is a nonpartisan group dedicated to empowering voters and fostering engagement between candidates and citizens. Their mission is to provide unbiased information about candidates running for office, facilitating informed decision-making in our communities.
The Informed Voter Coalition approached Show Me Christian County to act as a liaison for communicating School Board candidates in the Christian County area for the upcoming elections. This collaboration stems from the Coalition's expansion of focus to include Christian County candidates alongside those in the Springfield area. Rest assured, the Coalition has no hidden agendas and will not endorse or support any candidates.
Become informed before election day so your vote is cast for the candidates that align with your beliefs and standards! To help guide voters, the Informed Voter Coalition is again producing a series of nonpartisan interviews with candidates to air during the noon hour on KSMU Ozarks Public Radio (91.1 FM) between March 18-22. No registration is required - tune into KSMU at noon that week!
Schedule:
Monday, March 18 - Nixa Public Schools
Tuesday, March 19 - Ozark Public Schools
Wednesday, March 20 - Willard Public Schools
Thursday, March 21 - Springfield Public Schools (4 candidates)
Friday, March 22 - Springfield Public Schools (3 candidates)
Informed Voter Coalition members include:
Comprised of 13 nonpartisan organizations and entities, the Informed Voter Coalition brings together a diverse range of perspectives and expertise to ensure comprehensive coverage of local elections.
Candidate Interviews Nixa School Board
Aired on Tuesday, March 18, 2024, on KSMU
Nixa School Board Candidates: Joshua K. Roberts, Megan Deal, Jason Massengale, Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"All right. I am Joshua Roberts, a lifelong Nixa resident. And really, the reason I decided to run this time around was different than I decided a decade ago. A decade ago, they had a vacancy on the board. I got a phone call said Dr. (Stephen) Kleinsmith, who was the superintendent at the time, wanted to come in and visit with me about potentially running for school board. They said they needed a lawyer on the board. They thought I would be a good fit. So I said, 'I'm not going to do that.' So I went in and talked to Steve and he said, hey, I'd like you to run. And basically I said, 'I'm not going to run, Steve. I'm not going to do it.' Well, 10 years later, I'm running for my fourth time. So I guess you know who won that argument? Steve Kleinsmith. And that's why I ran the first time, because I was asked why I'm running now is because I've fallen in love with education and the people. In law, which is where I practice, it's very competitive. Everybody's out for themselves. In education, you've got a group of people who are moving to try to advance another group of people, and so everyone can succeed. And so really, I've fallen in love with education, and that's why I'm running again."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Well, I've been on the board for a decade now, and in the last half of that, I have been either the vice president or the president. I'm the current president of the school board at Nixa, and I was the unanimous choice of all of the other board members. We have a lot of different boards from around...southwest Missouri where they have some conflict when they have elections for leadership of their board. But I'm very honored to say that the board at Nixa selected me unanimously to be their leader. I would like to think that that's because they they think that I put the group first, because I put the administration and the school district first. And those 10 years of experience, I think, come into play in addition to maybe my leadership skills that hopefully give everyone a voice and give them the opportunity to, you know, be heard. I want the teachers to be heard. I want the community to be heard, and I want each individual board member to be heard. And we can't do what everybody might want us to do, but we certainly can listen and we can contemplate the information that's being presented to us and then we can make the best decision that we can for the district."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Well, obviously, that is the goal is to prepare these kids, to educate these kids to be productive citizens. And there's always the debate as to where — how far beyond reading and writing and arithmetic should we go to prepare these kids? And I think the — giving them as many options as we can is important. My son, just by way of example, wasn't a great student, didn't like high school, didn't like sitting there all day long. There's a Go Caps program that they have where he could get out of the classroom, come up, and it's sponsored through Springfield Schools where he could get into the workforce. He could go see other entrepreneurs, and he could do things that he was interested in. And that made his day. He went ahead and went to school every day because he got to go to this other program. And so we had these extracurriculars and those types of things that are additional that sometimes, if we provide students with things that they want to do, they'll do things that they don't want to do, like, say, maybe algebra. So — and I've had a lot of kids say over the years especially, it's just sitting at my dining room table that if it wasn't for football, you know, if it wasn't for wrestling, if it wasn't for me on the basketball team or whatever it is, that they might not even be still in school. So I think that, beyond just giving them the basic education, making well-rounded citizens and giving them these extracurricular opportunities and those types of things, that's also important. So these enrichment activities, in addition to just basic underlying education, I think is crucial in today's world. And, you know, generating kids that are going to be productive members of society."
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"Well, we are working on developing lots of different things. I don't even know how much I can talk about it. But we do have a school psychologist, we have school counselors, and one of the big things that we did over the past couple of years is get a couple of social workers involved. And what we found was that usually when you have a behavioral issue, there's some, really, there's an unmet need there. It's not that you've got bad kids because I don't believe we have bad kids, but sometimes you've got a situation there where there's an unmet need, and our social workers have been able to find resources within the community that they can connect with these families. A lot of times there are things out there that could meet those needs. The families just don't know about them. So adding social workers has really — it's decreased our incidence of discipline and disruptiveness in the classroom. And it's really been a good thing for that. My wife is a psychologist, so mental health is important in my household. She's been working as a consultant, unpaid consultant, with the district to explore having a psychologist for teachers as well, so that they would have additional resources there within the school community that they could, you know, really utilize. They all have, you know, they have their EAP programs or they could go out and see another one. But if you could have, you know, basically some — see a counselor or a psychologist there, just right there, convenient, right there at the school, I think it would be an enhancement for teachers, in addition to the things we're already doing for all of our students."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from the public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Well, that is a controversial topic, and it's been controversial at Nixa as well. We have always had, for 100 years we've been in existence, there's always been a mechanism to challenge curriculum. It just hasn't been utilized very often over the years. In recent history there, that board policy and that mechanism has been used to basically put certain books be challenged or looked at. We then had a state statute which said that, if you have sexually explicit materials in your library, your librarians and school employees can be charged with a crime. And so that caused, sent shock waves through the community of educators because they're like, 'well, we don't want to be charged with a crime.' So in Nixa, we had a group of parents who challenged some books — basically being sexually explicit. And then we had librarians bring us additional books and they said, 'hey, look, we don't want to be charged with a crime. These are borderline, you know, sexually explicit. We don't want to violate the statute, so please review them.' So at the end of the day, the management of books and buying of books and placing of books and curriculum in the schools is done by the staff, the administrators. But if there's an issue, ultimately the buck stops with the Board of Education. And when I look at I look at a book, and this is what I did, how I made my decision. I looked at the material, I looked at the statute, and I'm a lawyer. So I interpret a statute maybe differently than other people do. But when I look at that, I look to just to see if, is this book, is this material violative or does it violate the statute? If it does, then I think the book needs to be removed, and if it doesn't, it can stay or be restricted. So I don't know if you followed how the board voted about the several books that we looked at, but our votes were all over the map. They were — people had different opinions, and it was just one of those things where, and I'm proud of our board. They all used — dug in there and used their best judgment. And you know, they they voted from their heart. And even if it was different than me, I do appreciate their service."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa School district, and which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"It's teacher retention. I tell you what, we have got to keep the teachers that we have. I have friends that are teachers that have been hired away making $20,000, $30,000 more, because these teachers are skilled at what they do. The pay is an issue. And the problem that we have — Nixa's tax, the tax rate that we have on our local community, is the highest in southwest Missouri. We can't tax our local community anymore. And I would stand against any tax against our local taxpayers. That money has got to come from somewhere, and it's going to have to come from the state or the federal levels. And so I'm going to work diligently to try to find ways to increase funding at the state or federal level while leaving the local taxpayer in Nixa alone because they're definitely doing their part. And that's only one component. The second component is protecting the integrity of learning in the classroom. And that's empowering teachers to discipline and to be able to remove disruptive students. There have been school districts in southwest Missouri where discipline has become an issue. Statistically, it's not a pervasive or a systemic issue at Nixa right now, but we need to make every effort to make sure it doesn't become a significant issue. And you do that by empowering your teachers to be able to control the learning environment so that learning can continue. You're going to have disruptions. You're going to have situations where things happen and those are going to have to be dealt with. But when you have the really serious, disruptive students, the teachers need to be empowered to protect that learning environment, to remove the student if need be. There are other ways that that student can be educated and hopefully rehabilitated and brought back into the regular classroom environment. But teacher pay and protecting their ability to control the learning environment, I think, are the two things that will help Nixa retain teachers into the future."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office?
"So my name is Megan Deal, and I work for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks. I oversee our school-based program in Nixa, Branson, Bolivar and south Springfield, so that is my career by day. And I also do faith-based motivational speaking independently. I chose to run for school board, it's been on my heart for a few years now, just seeing the decline in our children's mental health. And ever since COVID, really, in Nixa, every year has had a child take their life, and it weighs heavy on me. And so I want to get involved so I can be a part of the conversation of how do we come alongside our children, how do we come alongside our teachers and how do we see the whole child, not just the academic child, so that every child has a future?"
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"So I think in the — I'm going to kind of equate this to a story. So real quick, I always tell people this in leadership. So Moses, it was his whole life that had prepared him for what he was supposed to do in leadership and what he was doing. And when I look back, I see all these different ways that the Lord has positioned me in leadership and recently, not just in speaking and filling in the pulpit for pastors and speaking at university, speaking for women and youth, but now recently, it's been with Big Brothers Big Sisters and seeing what our children are facing because I do the intakes for every child in our program. So I see their family background, I see their current background, I see what they are facing academically, what they're facing socially, behaviorally, and I'm seeing all the things that make up the reasons for what is happening to that child in real time. And so I think, right now, currently, my role at Big Brothers Big Sisters is really preparing me to come alongside our children in Nixa."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Yeah, so that's a great question. I think we are very known for our academics. I mean, that's no — everybody knows that, but how do we come alongside our children to be prepared for life? And I think one of the things that we need to do is for our children who are falling behind. So kids don't act in unhealthy ways or inappropriate ways, or their behavior isn't bad because they wake up and they're like, 'oh, this is fun, let's do this.' It's because things are happening in their life that are out of control. And so they're doing things to gain a sense of control. And so when our children who are falling through the cracks and, you know, having all that struggle, how do we come alongside them? And I think it's when they're in that detention setting or in the in-school suspension setting or in a setting where they have the ability to have a one-on-one conversation with a teacher even if it's not for a consequence. And let's talk to them about, okay, what is your goal for five years? What is your goal for ten years? What is your goal for 20 years? And what character traits do we need to develop now? What time management traits do we need to develop now? What kind of empathetic and compassionate traits — how do we treat people? How do we lead? And so it's having those conversations and having curriculum in those settings, you know, in the settings where they're doing nothing in in-school suspension or detention and helping them develop the character traits that they need to succeed. Because it's easy to help the children who are easy to help, right? But what about the children who it's not easy to help? What are the spaces that we can utilize to help them develop that character for their future so that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed, not just the children that it comes naturally for?
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"We have a lot of students. We have over 6,700 students. Every school has one counselor. I would say that we need to have more counselors in our school system to utilize — I mean, for there to be one counselor with that many students in the mental health crisis that we do have today, not just in Nixa, but across the board in the Ozarks, I see it at Big Brothers Big Sisters, one person to all those children. That's a weary job. So I think we need to have more counselors. I think — we have character education in elementary. We need to have character education in junior high and high school. We need to bring that back. I know that's a sensitive topic for some, but there is a way to have character education and it be bipartisan and not to bring anything into that — sneak it in there — but to have character education to help them socially and emotionally with their well-being. And I think that would be huge in coming alongside our children in the junior high and high school."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from the public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"All right, so this is what I tell everybody. Whatever side you're on, I have the same response. So if it's sexually explicit, it should not be in schools. I mean, that's just — that is where I draw the line. Sexually explicit. No, if it is something that I don't agree with, if it's something that I think is, wow, you know, it's not going to be in my home. I'm not going to have my child, you know, checking that book out. So I think we put it in the parents' hands, and that means putting it on restriction. If it is a book that has raised, you know, sounds the alarms and it's not sexually explicit, let me say again, if that is, then it needs to be out of the school, but otherwise it needs to be the parents' decision. And so the way that you can make those hard topic books in the parents' hands is by putting them on restriction. Now, it's to be signed and then given so a child can put their parents' signature on there and get the book. So I do think we need to have a little more vetting in that where maybe the child says, 'I want to check this out' and then the parent gets a summary of the book and through email or the parent has to, you know, I don't know, I think we need to have a conversation about putting a little more barriers in there so that the child can't forge a signature and still check out the book but definitely to put it in the parents' hands. Because, just because I think it shouldn't be in there, I'm one paren. I, we can't isolate a whole group of parents. And so putting it on restriction does that."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa school district, and which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"Yeah. So academic success. We're there. We nailed it. We got it. So I think the challenge that we have is how do we help the whole child? And we have — I see because of Big Brothers Big Sisters, again, I see our at risk children in Nixa. It's we don't just have a school-based program. We have a community-based program. So we have a program for the children in Nixa outside of the school system. So I see all of — that are enrolled. I see all of our at risk kids. And so the challenge that we have is making sure that they are seen, making sure that they are heard and making sure that we are giving them an equal opportunity at success and not just pushing them to the side because of their behavior. I get it. The behaviors are challenging. I don't think that behavior should be allowed. I believe that consequences are loving. They're not getting consequences in their life, and that's why they're not understanding, you know, healthy boundaries. And so we do need to make sure that we're teaching those boundaries and giving the appropriate consequences but coming alongside them. And I think that is our biggest challenge we're facing. I think that is why we have a bullying issue. I think that's why we have a mental health issue, and it's bigger than what people realize. I have friends who are physicians. I have friends who are kind of spread out. And people — people do see that we have an issue with bullying and how kids are being treated and also with behavior, and it's never going to be taken care of unless you get to the root. And the only way you get to a root of something in a child is to come alongside that child. And that's what we do at Big Brothers Big Sisters. We come alongside the children, and when we come alongside the children in that mentorship and, and it goes across the board, you don't just have to be in Big Brothers, Big Sisters to come alongside a child. But what we see is 91% of children, go grow emotionally in a positive way, 81% of children grow academically, and 81% of children believe more is possible in life than what they're seeing in their current circumstances. So how do we start a conversation where we can come alongside our children and in that capacity?"
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"So I've lived in Nixa my whole life, and I remember being a freshman, and my parents had divorced, and I was just going through a really rough time in life. And, you know, I had some teachers that really poured into me. And, you know, it just really made an impact on me and, and really kind of just altered the direction of my life. And I kind of as I got older, I just wanted to pay back. I recognize how important that time in our life is and how important our teachers can be. And and I just want to help give back for, for for those that did for me."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Well, I would say being on the board for three years, it's amazing how big of a system that the school really is. I mean, with over a thousand employees and almost — I mean just under 7,000 students, I mean, there's — it's just a really big organization, and it takes a really long time to learn everything. I would say having three years under my belt of learning how it all works, and it just sets me up for, for really starting to to make an impact moving forward. And then the second part, I would say, is I served on a lot of different boards in the past from — I was on the chamber board for nine years. I was on Christian County, Show-Me Christian County Board for a number of years, and I've just served the community for such a long time that I really have just had an opportunity to really listen and advocate for the community."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"What is the school's role? I would say, oh man, you know, think about how our students, and I mean, at every grade level, from elementary to junior high to high school, they're really — the kids are really developing who they are, and they're doing that based on their parents, obviously, the role models, the people that they meet and, and the education that they receive. The education — it's not just the material, it's also the connections that they have and the people that the, the teachers and, and show that they care about them. It really helps to develop the person, the character that they decide to be. Just like I was telling the story of when I was in school and how I had teachers pour into me that really made an impact on the direction of my life."
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"That's a great question. I mean, considering the school board, your main roles are to oversee the superintendent, to create or approve policies and and approve the budget. I would say, really, if I had a strategy, it would be to to really — I mean, find out more of what we are doing to see how it compares to what other schools — to like, what's being effective. And I would say more so just looking at our policies to make sure our policies support that."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Who do I think should be making those decisions? Well, I think at the end of the day, the school is going to have to make a decision on what they will provide. I think input from the parents and the community and having a system for how we'll determine what books we would keep in our ibraries or not provide."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"You know, if it's okay, I'm probably going to answer in two different ways. I think the biggest — I think the biggest objective or challenge that the the school has right now is probably communication. It's not that we don't do a good job of communicating, because I think we do. I think you can always do a better job of communicating. And I think in a time where we're at right now, I think that's really important. And the second part, what I would say of what I would like to see is, you know, if the next three years, if I were elected, I really think, I think at some point in time we've got to address teacher pay. You know, Nixa has done a really great job of finding talent and training talent, and we've got to find a way. How do we retain the talent? And and then the second part of that even is, you know, teachers — if we don't find some way to increase teacher pay, we will lose them to other industries. And that's not necessarily a Nixa alone problem. That's that's kind of an industry wide problem. Yet I would say on the forefront of my mind is going to be, you know, talent retention, because it — not only does it benefit the teachers, it also helps the students. They learn more, they have a better learning experience. So we have to find a way to retain our teachers and find new talent."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
I'm Dr. Elizabeth Dudash Buskirk. I'm an associate professor at Missouri State University, but I live in Nixa. I currently am sort of running the political communication and advocacy program that we're — that we're actually starting up at Missouri State. — pretty excited about that. I've always been told to be civically engaged. One of the things I've always said is 'I'd like to sit in the background and let other people do the work,' but there comes a time where you have to be called to do more than just watch from behind the scenes. So Nixa — I moved there because of the school district. For 20 years, it built itself up to be an amazing school district under the leadership that they had, and I don't want to see that start to decline. And so I've seen things that I think need to be stopped and repaired, and that's that's what motivated me."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"That is a difficult question because I think school boards are so unique in that you have people from all different sort of walks of life who have an interest, the same interest in the school. Other boards that I've sat on have been driven by a mission that isn't for necessarily a specific audience, like students, in this case, I was the president of Be Civil Be Heard at one point. I am the president of a project called U-Turn in Education, which is now a 501c3 that started because of the work that we were doing at Nixa High School. I am the president of the Democrat Club of Christian County. I feel like I have to always put that out there. And I'm also the faculty advisor to the — to the college Democrats. And for all of those, I've had to put boards together. I've had to file the paperwork, I've had to do all the technical stuff that I don't like doing. But what I learned through doing all of those is that I do have a certain skill in picking out the people who are best to help me out. But most importantly, I'm an educator and so I never understand why I'm doing things in politics when my first love is education. And so I believe that those sorts of experiences give me an opportunity to work with some very fine people who are on the board already, who I know, who I engage with because I go to the board meetings all of the time, and I make sure that I'm engaged with the rest of the community, including county commissioners, library boards, etc., because I believe in public education."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"So I am one one of those college professors who does not believe that college is for everybody. I know this because I can't find myself a good carpenter. I can't find myself a good plumber. We are greatly missing a lot of the arts and skills that we need out there. However, there are certain jobs that require a higher education. One of the things, one of the reasons why I love this area is because we do have technical colleges where students can work with them during their high school years and immediately go into a job. I also like that we have really good high schools that prepare students to go into colleges and universities, if that's what they choose to do. Students need to be prepared for more than just a job skill or being in a classroom. They need to be prepared to join a community, all of the communities that they're going to be a part of. In order to do that, they have to be able to communicate in — with civility. They need to be able to communicate understanding the other perspective, and that the idea that just because you don't agree does not mean you have to be disagreeable about it, I think is one of the ways we say that. So that is one of the lessons that we can teach all students in schools, from kindergarteners all the way up to high school, so that when they move on, they're able to say, 'hey, I can hold two thoughts in my head and choose which one is better. I can talk to other people and see their point of view and work with them.' I think there was a poster out or a book out at one point that said 'everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten,' and I sort of go back to that to think that, literally, if we could all just learn to get along in the play — in the sandbox, we could build great things."
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"Mental health and wellness is a very difficult subject matter because people see it, almost generally generationally, but also socioeconomically, very different. And the problems come from multiple places, right? Anything from addiction all the way up to abuse, all the way up to just the general anxieties that we have living in the — in the current world we live in. My mother is someone who does not believe that mental health or, you know, treating mental health should ever be talked about. That is not something you talk about. I, for one, am the complete opposite. I think that if we start addressing mental health in the schools, that we will not be indoctrinating students but helping them to think more clearly, to learn better. If they could lessen their anxieties, if they can learn to deal with anger, if they can learn to deal with the stresses that they feel in healthy ways, I think that's very helpful. And I don't think that that's from any particular political or religious or even necessarily a particular ethical background. It goes back to what I mean about being in the community. Mental health is a huge problem in the community at large. And so starting in the schools where we're just able to have counselors there — I had counselors in school. I don't know where the counselors have gone, and just have counselors, trusted adults that you can talk to. So I would like to, through volunteer programs or through more hires, whatever way Nixa School District needs to do it, I would like to get more counselors in the classroom with the students, and I think that's the first step."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from the public schools in public libraries. What do you think? Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"That is a great question. So one of the reasons why I became so involved, not just in sort of the politics of the state of Missouri, but specifically community action in Nixa, was because I had a couple of friends come to me and say, 'what do we do? They're taking books off the shelves.' And I said, 'ha ha, that's funny. That hasn't happened since, like, I don't know, the 40s and 60s, right? When my father used to talk to me about banning books,' and unfortunately, they were right. So they said to me, 'your kids are out of school.' — they had, my son had graduated. I have — I don't run a business. I have a job that is secure and tenured. No one can touch me if I go out and fight with the school district. And I agreed to start a social movement called U-turn in education, where we were originally fighting for the rights of every book, which we see as an educational experience. Every book is an educational experience. We want to preserve every educational opportunity for all students. That's what those books are. All of the books that we're talking about have been through the Miller test. They've all been considered legal. None of them are pornographic or obscene based on the Miller test, which we can agree or disagree with, but should be the standard in my opinion. And, you know, so that that really, I believe, is something that needs to be chosen by parents. I've gotten told that my parenting style, like I said to somebody recently, is from the 1960s because I believe you should look at what your child is reading, look at what they're checking out of the library, what's in their backpack when they come home. And I should have that opportunity for all the books that my students can get their hands on, instead of other parents telling us what books need to be removed. That, I think is the biggest problem. Parents need to make those decisions."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa School District? Which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"So I think that the the most important thing is to maintain the standards of excellence that Nixa has achieved in the past several years. I believe there are several ways to do this. One is very simply by curating a library or libraries that are just, you know, full of all educational opportunities for all students. I want to start there. I think that another thing about Nixa is the socioeconomic divide. It's, it's much bigger than most people realize. There are children who go to school, who don't have food in their bellies, who get snacks and food from the schools, who get hygiene products from the schools. And one of the things U-Turn in Education does is tries to provide those things through the summer when kids aren't in school. So just having them being healthy at the first step. I think another big problem in maintaining the excellence is for Nixa to continue to develop its — the things it's good at which, you know, are some of the fine arts. We do a really good job with our debate team. We've got kids with real talent, we're building up skills courses, and we need to continue to do that and fix any problems that we see. It's not a trade off, it's not a zero sum game. Finally, I think we need to get the community involved in the school. And the way I see that happening is by starting volunteer programs so that teachers don't have to be standing at doors counting students who are getting on and off the bus. They don't have to be in charge of security for those kids. They don't have to be doing their lunch hours. They don't have to teach through their prep hours. What about bringing in older adults, seniors who have, you know, want something to do as volunteers to work with our students, to watch them at lunchtime, to watch them on the playground, to count them going in and out of the schools and take some of that onus off of the teachers. If we can't give them more money, we should at least cut them some breaks. So I think a volunteer program would really help."
Candidate Interviews Willard School Board
Aired on Tuesday, March 20, 2024, on KSMU
Willard School Board Candidates: Matthew Young, Amanda Gooch, Megan Patrick, Renee McKelvie
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"Again, my name is Matthew Young. I'm in my second time — finishing up my second time as a school board member for Willard Public Schools. I decided to run again primarily because I feel like I still have a lot to give back to the community. This is my serve, being on the school board. I was a previous employee of the school district, so I've got some pretty in-depth knowledge of the district, and I feel like that's valuable to bring to the table. We just restarted our new strategic plan, and I was involved in that process and would like to stay involved and see that through as well, so, and I've got two kids in the school district — two boys, a senior and an eighth grader, and a couple of nieces in the district, as well — a sixth grader and a first grader. So public education is very important to me. I'm not a teacher, but I'm going to find other ways to support public education because it's foundational for our communities."
How have previous board service leadership roles or other experiences prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Okay. Well, so like I said, I've been serving for six years. I've been able to see a lot of change in the district as far as leadership and staffing challenges. I was on the board during COVID, which was a very challenging time for not just Willard Public Schools but for all public schools and our community in general. SoI feel like that's given me a lot of opportunities to pull together experiences and have that as a resource when we're faced with new challenges. And so I'm excited to be able to take that experience and to continue to serve the community of Willard Public Schools and our students and our staff and administration."
What do you think are good indicators for student achievement?
"Well, you know, personally speaking for me, I think the best indicator is, is how our students perform, how their life is after public education, right? And I know that out at Willard, we've taken steps to try to track that and stay connected with our graduates and learn, you know, how they're doing, find out their successes, find out their struggles so that if we can help them out after high school, we would be glad to continue to do that as much as we can. So for me, that's number one, I think. And it's in our, a lot of the statements that we make at Willard Public Schools, you know, creating that life-ready graduate. Obviously there's testing, standardized testing. You know, I think it's a necessary evil because we do need to have benchmarks. We need to have the ability to assess where our students are throughout their educational journey. So, you know, standardized test, standardized testing is another way to to assess our students' success. But I want to make sure that we don't make that the focus or the priority. And then, you know, I think just, in general, the overall happiness of our students, you know, I think everybody's journey, every student's journey is different, right? There's different home lives. There's different, how would you say it? Abilities, right? But that doesn't mean that, you know, they don't all deserve the same chance. And staying on top of where they're at throughout their educational journey is really important."
Legislators in the Missouri House and Senate have filed bills in favor of school choice, also known as open enrollment. Can you explain what you think this means for your district? Would you support it? Why or why not?
"So my initial thought to open enrollment makes me think of competition. And there's no place for competition in public education. Public education should be foundationally about equity across all platforms and all students. And when you start messing with the structure that allows for that equitable opportunity, you open the doors for students not having or not receiving that equitable education. Now, my understanding is that, you know, with this legislation that, you know, they're trying to put in safeguards, you know, limit the amount of migration between districts that can be all of that type of thing. But I think what we should do as a society, as a state, instead of creating competition, I feel like we should actually address the issues at hand with public education, which is, one, primarily funding. You know, we have teachers that struggle. They have to use food banks, and they, you know, get government assistance because they don't make enough. They don't make even comparable to what other degreed individuals in industry make. That's got to affect teaching, right? So I think there's other ways that we can address the things that this legislation's ultimately trying to address without creating that competition between schools, public schools. We've got lots of school choice. We've got public schools, we've got virtual school, we've got home schooling, we've got private schools, we've got charter schools. I think we've got enough diversity options."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Oh, a loaded question. You know, we have to trust our educators. The whole concept of education and educating our students, for me, is built around trust. We send our children to school for hours every day, right? So we have to trust the professionals that we hire and put into those positions. You know, if you boil it down, our librarians are the ones that select the resources that go into our libraries and public education, you know? I believe that there are guidelines and recommendations and requirements that are put in place by the state that they have to adhere to, but they also — they're professionals, right? They're the ones that they spend their whole life digging into literature and finding the connections between literature and our students. And, they live in our communities. They know what our communities are about. And, you know, they're the ones that walk with our students daily. And so they're the ones that I feel know what's best to, to have in our collections that will connect with our students and every, again, every student's different. And so some books will connect differently than others will. Now I think our — I think every community through the school board and administration needs to be able to set certain guidelines. And I feel like there's nothing wrong with having restrictions and having parent choice — so maybe having books that require a parent's approval, but you just don't know how some books will positively impact a student. And so I don't want to negate that."
How do you think public education benefits the Willard community?
"Oh, it's foundational. The Willard community is the Willard schools. You know, the Willard Public Schools' boundary is vast. It extends down into Springfield, all the way across over to Highway 13 up towards Morrisville. The district itself far surpasses the size of our town and our Willard community. So, you know, the school sets the tone. The school is what people think of when they think of Willard. So, you know, I think what we are trying to do as a school and as a Willard community, we're trying to work on those relationships and partnerships and expanding on what that looks like that, you know, the school and the city and then also trying to bring in that northwest part of Springfield because that corner is part Willard School District as well."
Amanda Gooch was invited but declined to participate.
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Great. Well, thank you for having me. This is fun. My name is Megan Patrick. I am a mother of four sons. No daughters, unfortunately. They are 19, 17, 15 and nine. I've been married to my husband for 22 years, but we were high school sweethearts, so my forever boyfriend. I have always been involved in school. I have been a PTO president, a room mom, a parent volunteer. I've been in charge of project grads, fundraising events for schools, all of that. And so I've always been involved. I've never been a person to sit back and let things happen. During COVID, I became more involved with attending school board meetings, and I. That was 30 seconds. Okay, I won't finish. I'll finish in another question."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experiences prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Okay, well, I decided to run for board because, after going to all of the meetings, I felt that there was something that I could contribute. One of the things — I am a stay at home mom, so I have a lot of time to research everything that's happening in the schools, and I have done so. I also have served in leadership roles in my church. And recently, in 2022, I started a chapter of Moms for Liberty, Greene County, and I am the chapter chair of that, which is an organization that educates, empowers and organizes parents in schools and everything that's happening in schools. So I think I work well with others, and I do my due diligence to advocate for things that are right for my kids and for, I think, the future of our country."
What do you think are good indicators of student achievement?
"I would think literacy us the best indicator of student achievement, and I think that's something that we are lacking in our schools right now. I know in Willard we have 47% of students that are proficient or higher in reading. And so I think that a student that cannot read is going to have a hard time succeeding and be able to read well. Of course, there are life experiences and being involved in activities and such, but I think getting a good education and being a good reader would be my number one concern."
Legislators in the Missouri House and Senate have filed bills in favor of school choice, also known as open enrollment. Can you explain what you think this means for your district? Would you support it? Why or why not?
"I think open enrollment has pros and cons. As I had said, I chair an organization called Moms for Liberty. We are ultimate champions of parental choice for everything, so I do think that parents should be able to choose which schools their kids can go to. However, the other side of that would be the funding. And I think if you have, you know, if you were to get money to say to go to whatever school you wanted to, I think then that brings in government money, which also comes with strings, which then takes away parental choice and parental rights, if that makes sense. I think there are pros, but I'm not sure that it would 100% work. There'd be a lot of things that need to be worked out when it comes to school choice."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Well, I actually have a lot of experience with this. I believe that books in schools should be age appropriate. I believe, you know, our schools have filters on all the Chromebooks and devices. Children cannot go to certain sites with certain content. I think that the books should be in line with with that policy. I think having one and not the other isn't a clear message. Ultimately, I think parents have the right to decide which books their children can and cannot read. But also taxpayers do fund the public school libraries. And so I think they should have a say in what is in our, in our libraries. I believe in protecting children, protecting their innocence and letting them be kids. And I do not believe that any child needs to read graphic sex scenes in a school setting, and I do not believe that any school official or library or teacher, librarian or teacher should be allowed to hand that material or make it available to a child."
How do you think public education benefits the Willard community?
"Well, I mean. Willard School District is the largest employment in Willard. Our school district is unique as we only have one high school, one elementary or not one elementary school, one high school, one middle school, and four elementary schools — five elementary schools. East. South. North. Orchard Hill. Central. Five elementary schools, excuse me. Willard School District is Willard community. I think every single person is involved and benefits from Willard School District running and working properly."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"My name is Renee McKelvey, and I have had some people approach me about running for school board, and I thought, 'I have over 30 years of public education and, I have — I know how it works.' And so I would like to be the voice of reason, and I'm happy to listen to people. I'm accessible. I have children that went through the Willard School District and they are fine. They have been very successful and I feel that Willard gave them that background."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experiences prepared you to serve as a school board member? You have two minutes to answer.
"At Springfield, I was a fine arts facilitator for the district, and I also wrote a lot of curriculum. And the curriculum is a foundation on which K through 12 is based, and it should be sequential, it should be written or at the very least reviewed by people, the experts, people closest to the job. And so we would gather teachers from every grade level and hear their input, talk about materials that would enhance the curriculum or the things that we felt were important, and we would go from there. So it was built solidly. We could stand behind it 100%. I hear now that wit and wisdom is having some trouble — causing some trouble, and I'm sad about that and I wish that it was a little smoother, but it's raising lots of questions among the district."
What do you think are good indicators of student achievement?
"I think our job is to teach critical thinking skills. And if if a student graduates with critical thinking skills, I think we've done our job. And that is, that I think is our primary goal. I think if the student can demonstrate critical thinking skills, then I think that's success. I think that's the definition of success."
Legislators in the Missouri House and Senate have filed bills in favor of school choice, also known as open enrollment. Can you explain what you think this means for your district? Would you support it? Why or why not?
"I think if you live in the district, you should go to that district school. Personally, I wanted to — this area is so easy to fall in love with, and 48 years ago when I decided to move down here, I was very careful about making sure that I was — my children would go to Willard, not to any other school in, you know, in driving distance. So I made a good choice, and it was proven over and over to me that it was a good choice. If you live in the district, I think that I know in Springfield it's larger and you might want your child to go to Parkview instead of Central or Glendale instead of Kickapoo. But I — Willard's small enough we don't have those kinds of choices. As far as using money to send your child out of the Willard School District, I would be opposed to that."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Once again, starts with a curriculum, and I know that there are lots of books under fire right now connected to the curriculum, but I also know that there are books on the shelves that are under question. I looked up one of the books, and I read "Me, Earl and the Dying Girl," and, you know, yes, it has language that is appalling, especially if you are the mother of a elementary person. But the book is supposed to be for ninth grade and up. If, as a parent, you are opposed to the language, the sexuality and those issues that the book raises, the book is not about that. The book is about where do I belong? Do you remember how awkward it was to find your place when you were in secondary school? Oh my heavens, where do I belong? And for the students who don't know, well, I'm the cheerleader or I'm the prettiest girl in the class or I'm the smartest or I'm the highest scoring basketball player. There are very few kids that fit into those realms, and there's a lot of kids that walk in, walk down the halls every day and go, 'well, I'm afraid to be with that group, but this group would never have me. And so maybe I should just walk here and look down at the hall.' I think they're important. I think the books are important to — if they're in, if they're on the shelves in the library, then they're there for a reason. And if you don't think your child should see those books or read those books, then they should be restricted. But if you remove them, you also remove them from my child. And I don't think that's right."
How do you think public education benefits the Willard community?
"Oh, Willard schools are the Willard community. I mean, the lights are on for games, and there was a theater competition yesterday . I was a band parent. Oh, my heavens. There is so much parent interest and participation in Willard School. It's wonderful. It is really wonderful. And I think that that's kind of the perfect all American scene right there is when we're not we're not a huge community, but we're not a tiny community either. And that we all know what's going on and whose kid is there. And one time I was driving to work and there was a pair of band shoes on the side of the road on 160, and I picked them up and took them to the band room, and some child went, 'oh, thank you.' You know, we all take care of each other. It's very — it's a warm. it's a warm atmosphere usually. All districts have issues and Willard is no different. And right now it seems like there's a few floating around."
Candidate Interviews Ozark School Board
Aired on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, on KSMU
Ozark School Board Candidates: Patty Quessenberry, Dustin Kirkman, Jason Newman Shaffer, James Francis Griffin
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you've decided to run for this position?
"My name is Patty Quessenberry, and I am from Ozark. I have served on the Ozark School Board for 27 years, and my reason then is the same as it is today. I love children, and I believe in good education for all kids, and I filed again because I want to continue helping lead the district and making the right decisions that we have a great education for all and in a safe environment. But my heart is in it. I have the passion to advocate for kids and education."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Well, my 27 years speaks for itself. I feel like that I have grown up in Ozark as a school board member, and I've seen a lot of things happen, helped to bring great programs, and we've passed several bonds in that 27 years successfully. We've built two elementaries, added onto buildings. We built a new high school, but all of these things are so exciting. One of the most exciting things was when we bought the old Fasco building, and now it is our Ozark Innovation Center. That's amazing because it used to be that we felt like all kids need to get an education to go to college. My belief is all kids need an education to succeed, whether they go to college or trade school. But the OIC is offering students certificates so they can go right to work, whether it's in the medical field or maybe it's woodworking, construction, whatever. And I love that because I feel like we're really educating all kids to succeed in what, in some way or the other."
Legislators in the Missouri House and Senate have filed bills in favor of school choice, also known as open enrollment. Can you explain what you think this means for your district? Would you support it? Why or why not?
"Okay. Open enrollment — I understand that a parent may want to have their child in a better school district, but I have to say this: right now Ozark's growth is amazingly growing and still growing, and our buildings are full. So it's like, it's not that I would want to turn away a student, but we have to look at what — how we are filled up now in all of our buildings. I do believe that if this happens, that I believe the money should follow that student to our district. I don't believe that our taxpayers in Ozark should pay for a student that's, say, from Springfield comes to our schools to be educated. I believe it needs to be fair that the money follows them if that happens. But like I said earlier, I believe all kids need an education whether they're Ozark, Willard, Republic, whatever, if we have the capacity to accept them in."
How would you work to attract and maintain quality teachers and support professionals in the Ozark School District?
"That is something that is my passion. And several years ago, the board told our superintendent then that we wanted to hire the best teachers and retain those good teachers. And one thing we've always done, we've been able to keep our salaries up, give them raises. But last year we decided to bring up that base pay. Base pay is now $41,000 for a teacher starting out. The other thing that we have done is, several years ago, I think I asked about how many of our teachers have masters, how many are continuing their education. At that time, it was probably 25, 27% of our staff. They started up a program that's a master's degree that our administrators instruct. It's through the Evangel College so that they do get their master's degree. And we asked the teachers why they didn't. And their thing was, they didn't have the time or the money to do it. We do it for free. And they have the classes right there in our district office building where there's room. And right now we're sitting on probably 72% of our staff has their master's degree. So I think there's things that you can be creative with in retaining those good teachers. But I also believe that they need to be praised and awarded when they do great things. You know, don't just expect that they do those things, but, you know, recognize when they achieve something as a teacher or that their class does. And that's one thing I love to do is walk through the buildings and get to watch the teachers in action with the students and show that we appreciate them. The other thing is safety. I believe our teachers need to have a safe environment to teach, along with our students having a safe environment, so that's one thing that I really want to look at going forward."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Ozark School District? Which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"I believe that the greatest is — I believe there's certain groups trying to destroy public education. To me, public education is a pillar of our democracy. Public education has been around for how many years? And I believe — one thing about public education we don't turn any child away. In fact, if we have a transfer in, they — teachers or principals are told, 'you get them in the classroom, we'll worry about the paperwork later.' And even with our special ed — we have a lot more special ed, special needs kids in our district. They have heard how well Ozark treats them and how they work with them, but I believe that's one thing is standing strong as a school board, as a school staff, with our community, with our parents, for public education, to know that we're not going anywhere."
Dustin Kirkman was invited but declined to participate.
Jason Shaffer did not respond to the invitation.
Introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office.
"My name is James Griffin. I am a husband of 23 years, father of three amazing boys who all went to Ozark schools, two of whom are in the military and one is still in Ozark Middle School. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a 21-year Navy commander, retired. I was a helicopter pilot, did tours around the, around the world, including the Pentagon, Afghanistan, the Middle East. And I was the commander of the Navy Reserve Center here in Springfield. I am a business owner, a volunteer wherever I go, including my church. I was the president of the board of directors for a local nonprofit called Light the Way Ministries, as well as a volunteer for the Ozark Community Center OC soccer club. So I want to extend that — years, all my years of service here in Ozark by — with the leadership that I've learned in support of the Ozark School Board."
How have previous board service leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"During my 21 years in the Navy and business and as a president of a...non-profit, I've had tremendous amount of leadership opportunities. I've been an advisor to admirals, to secretaries of the Navy at the Pentagon. I've managed millions of dollars of budgets, $2 billion in budget at the Pentagon, for energy initiatives that directly support our war fighters. So in all those cases, each one of those have given me the opportunity to learn leadership, to grow, and especially here in the — as the commander of the Navy Reserve Center, the opportunity to oversee hundreds of personnel who are deployed around the world and take their insights, take the — take those insights that they have, provide them to myself and make it make it a better place, better organization for them. Also, as far as here locally, as the president of the board of directors for Light the Way Ministries, I was able to step in, help the ministry grow. We originally, they had one event per year, and now we had three the prior year. So we exponentially grew that. And we're looking to grow that, grow that further, so financial management at that level, financial management across the board in each one of those cases, really just give me the opportunity to take those pieces, which — I believe financial management is one of the key attributes to success as a school board member, especially when you're looking at the fact that we have about $100 million budget in the school system. That's where I can really make a difference. Thank you."
Legislators in the Missouri House and Senate have filed bills in favor of school choice, also known as open enrollment. Can you explain what you think this means for your district? Would you support it? Why or why not?
"So, with regards to open enrollment, when I let me take — let me just share how I first came to Ozark. When I was the commander of the Navy Reserve Center, I first learned about coming to Springfield, and I had no idea about the area. I called up my predecessor who was also a commander and trusted friend. He told me to come to Ozark, and so I immediately looked up the Ozark area and found the only house available at the time and rented that place. And he said, 'you know, come to Ozark because of the schools.' I — we came here, our oldest kids were in junior high and Ozark Upper School, and we loved the area, love the school system. After I went back to DC to retire from the Navy, I, we retired, came back here to Ozark, and the only place we wanted to come was really Ozark. We could have gone anywhere. But one of the main reasons was because the school system is is excellent. And so with regards to open enrollment, you know, we know that people want to come to Ozark. So there's a shortage of housing there, which means that people want to come there because it's a great school system, because it's a great community. And one of the key things that we look at is — with regards to open enrollment, one of the, one of the legislative pieces is taxes. People are concerned about how it's going to impact our taxes. Well, as far as the legislation goes, it's — there's, the majority of the taxes are local. Those taxes do not shift. The taxes shift as far as the state taxes go. So if someone from outside the district wants to come in, those — the state taxes would shift with them. If someone in Ozark wants to leave, those state taxes would shift. So if you have some children that — some students that leave and come and go, ultimately the tax structure will stay the same and be minimal. So as far as that goes, I think we need to make sure that those taxes are there for them. And that would be the biggest case."
How would you work to attract and maintain quality teachers and support professionals in the Ozark district?
"So when we look at teachers, our teachers are our number one employee workforce across the district. And they're our number one asset in the district. So we need to treat them as such. We need to treat them not only as a — not as a commodity but as an asset that is integral to the success of our school board and and school system. So we can't teach kids without teachers, without quality teachers. And that's what makes the school system great, is the great teachers. In order to retain them, there's a number of things we could talk about for quite a while, but this is something that I did as a commander of the Navy Reserve Center. You know, I looked at how to retain people. You know, one is pay. Obviously, we need a fair and competitive pay structure across the board for teachers. That way they don't leave because of a pay issue, so that's one thing. But what I found is, as a child who grew up with parents in the...in the school system, they were both educators, they were paid fairly, but they didn't stay in the school system — they didn't retire from the school system — because of the pay. They retired because they loved the impact that they would make for kids, for students and generations to come. So my father made that huge impact. And so what they loved about it was the fact that their impact made the difference, that they, that they were respected. And that's what we need to do in Ozark is, is make a system where we can take inputs from teachers, respect them and value them and, you know, give them not only a fair pay system, but awards, equity and value. So we want to take inputs from them. We can't as a school board members, as administration, we can't, we do not know what the teachers think until they let us know. They're the best ones on the ground to be able to let us know how to make fair changes. And that's what I think we need to do, is be taking those inputs to better our school system."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Ozark School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet those challenges?
"In the Ozark school system, like I said, we came here because we love the area. We love the school system. Obviously there's a number of issues that can be at play, but as far as I'm concerned, my core focus is to keep Ozark at the same level or better that we've had for the number of years. So my values are to keep family values at the core of Ozark, which is a tenet across Missouri in general. So with that as a baseline, we want Ozark, the policies that we form in the Ozark School Board, to be centered on Ozark first. What I mean by that is, we don't want policies outside the area at the federal and state level to come in and tell us what we should be teaching or what we should be doing as Ozark. We want financial responsibility to also be a core tenet. The budget for Ozark ranges from between $75 and $100 million a year. It's quite a large budget, and it's the largest employer in Ozark. So with that amount of money, we need to make sure that taxpayer funding and taxpayer expenditures are properly being utilized. And so when we step in there we want to make sure those issues are all taken care of and avoid issues that are being derived by the state and federal mandates."
Candidate Interviews Springfield School Board
Aired on Tuesday, March 21 and 22, 2024, on KSMU
Springfield School Board Candidates: Danielle Kincaid, Landon McCarter, Susan Provance, Scott Crise, Dr. Kyler Sherman-Wilkins, Dr. Chad Rollins and Dr. Maryam Mohammadkhani
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you've decided to run for this office.
"Thank you, Cara, for for having me in today. My name is Danielle Kincaid, and I am running for re-election for Springfield School Board of Education. I have served the last time on the Board of Education, and our board is very young. We have one board member who has served more than one term. The remaining six of us are still in our first terms. I know that I can make a bigger impact with a second term, and I do believe that we need some consistency on the board to see that impact being made. I initially ran for the Board of Education — I was serving on the Foundation for Springfield Public School Board, and the Board of Education seemed like a natural next step for me. I have loved my time and my service on the board, and I look forward to making a greater impact in a second term."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Our public school system as a nation is the foundation of every single community. Our neighborhood schools that we have here in Springfield are really the glue that hold each of those neighborhoods together. When you look at our future workforce, our future neighbors, our future coworkers, those are the students who are in our schools right now. So I've been known to say the wonderful thing about public school is that we invite every single child from our community into our buildings. The challenging thing about public school is that we invite every single child into our school buildings, so we don't get to pick and choose the students who who sit in our classroom. But we are tasked with ensuring that when they graduate Springfield Public Schools, they're set up for success. That may mean a four-year college degree. That may mean entering our military. That may mean going to OTC. Every child has a different skill set, and we really want to to dive in and culture that skill set so that when they leave Springfield Public Schools, they're set up for success. I love Springfield Public Schools. We're the largest school district in the state of Missouri. That also allows us to work with many community partners and have many choice programs so that if a child doesn't excel in a traditional classroom setting, there are other options for them so that they're not falling behind and we can set them up for success. Ultimately, it does take a village to raise a child, so we're always welcoming individuals from our community into our schools because it's not just the job of the teachers, although they have a very difficult job and they do it great every single day, but it's not the just their job, it's also the job of our community members, our teachers, our parents and guardians, everybody in the community to ensure that our students are set up for success."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"There is the hot topic of student discipline. It is not unique to Springfield Public Schools. We are still seeing the impact of students who remained at home and didn't get socialization during COVID. It's no surprise. And it's no, we're not hiding it. There is an issue with student behavior within our classrooms. Moving our needle as a district, again, being the largest district in the state of Missouri, it is like moving a cruise ship, not moving a kayak. And it is going to take time to move that needle. We've seen with our students and with our teachers, they need additional support within the classroom so that a student who is struggling individually doesn't affect the class as a whole. I believe in asking the difficult questions. We do have an increase in referrals for behavior this year, because we're not hiding the fact that we have an issue within our school, a challenge within our school. I also believe, though, that there are protections put into place because our students excel more when they are remaining in our schools than when we're sending them home. Now, obviously, there are going to be exceptions to the rule, right? If there is a safety, a serious safety concern, that child does need to be removed from the school. But overall, listening to our educators, listening to the individuals who have dedicated their life to seeing 'how can we correct student behavior in a positive way?' is something that that I believe as a school board member, we need to look at and lean into those individuals who have the education, the expertise to educate and to provide solutions for student discipline."
What do you view as the greatest challenge facing Springfield School District? And which of these challenges would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"Yeah, we have a lot of challenges and we have a lot of successes. With 24,500 students, we've got, again, challenges and successes. The idea of student behavior being a challenge is one that we are constantly hearing at the board table and in our community. But as I stated with the last question, it's going to take time to move that needle. I think that we are moving in the right direction, although it will take some time. Another challenge that we have is looking at increased academic achievement. Ultimately, the reason the school is here is for academic achievement, and we have instituted a new testing system this year so that we can track students individually and see 'where did you come in when you started the school year? Where are you at in the middle of the school year, and where are you at at the end of the school year?' And if a student comes in at advanced and remains at advanced, that's fantastic. But another success story would be a student coming in under grade level, moving into proficient and then moving into advanced. And we need to dig in and see what services and what education tools are we providing to those teachers and those students who we see making those big gains throughout the school year? When you set students up for success and you move that needle throughout the grade, let's say second grade, now they've moved up into advanced or proficient for third grade, and they can continue that academic achievement. Our testing system now allows us to dig in and look at that actual student and how they're making a progress throughout the school year. So certainly academic achievement and student discipline and then also supporting our teachers. And I think that that comes from the community as a whole, in addition to within the district, making sure that they have the tools and resources they need."
Nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will you approach school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"I will always advocate for school board positions to be nonpartisan. Our job as a school board member is to set our students up for success, and that doesn't matter which side of the aisle a person sits on. So I will ensure that politics are not being brought to the board table. As your current school board president, I have instituted Robert's Rules of Order at the request of the board so that things have calmed down a little bit at the board table and that we can have productive disagreement discussions without it devolving into yelling matches or name calling. Ultimately, those of us who are sitting at the board are setting an example for the students who are in our classroom. And it used to be that you could have disagreements with somebody and it was okay. You could still be friendly with them or at least respect that they had a different opinion other than your own. I think that's vitally important for any public education system. I think it's vitally important for the future of our country to get back to those productive disagreements but also respecting that somebody may have a different opinion as your own. And, like I stated, ultimately, the Board of Education is is the one directing that from the top down. Also, we need people from the bottom up and individuals within our community to set an example and say, 'hey, it's not okay to to yell at individuals or call them names. We need to be respectful towards one another.' "
As a board member, what policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"Our teachers are incredible. Our educators, anybody who enters our school building each and every day are incredible. I have often heard people, parents, teachers say, 'I work or my child goes to the best school in the district,' and I have no doubt that they're all correct. We do need to support our teachers, though, and our educators. We need to listen to them. I will always, always, always vote for an increase in pay for anybody who is working at at Springfield Public Schools because those taxpayer dollars being used for our children now so that they can graduate high school, are a better use of our taxpayer dollars than funneling it into prisons or jails. And I have had a number of judges come up to me and say, 'the number one indicator for individual who I see in my courtroom that I'm sentencing because they have committed a criminal act, is whether or not that individual graduated high school. And those individuals who have a high school diploma and are set up for success are less likely to be in that courtroom.' So I will always advocate for higher pay for our teachers and educators. I think that there needs to be a more open line of communication between the board, the educators, our administrative, individuals who are at the district to say, what do you need? And I'm hearing from them that they need more, more paraprofessionals, they need more support in the classroom. They also need more support from our community and from parents and guardians as well. But it's going to take a collective community effort to do that."
Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you've decided to run for this office.
"Yeah, well, thanks for having me. My name is Landon McCarter. This is the second time I'm running. Actually, last year I ran. I lost by one half of 1%. I'm running again. Just a quick reason why — my dad was a teacher for 30 years. My mom was a teacher for 14 years. I graduated from Kickapoo High School, as did my brother and sister. And next year I will have one high schooler, one middle schooler and one elementary child in the district. So I deeply care about, you know, Springfield Public Schools. Obviously, I'm personally invested, but I also just love Springfield. And as a business leader in Springfield — I've been building and selling companies in Springfield for 15 years — I've employed hundreds of people, and I really just love Springfield. And so I want to give back civically because of my deep roots and connection to Springfield Public Schools and because of my business leadership and acumen I feel like I can add a lot of value to the Springfield Public School Board, and so I'm excited to get a seat on the board."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Yeah. So the main thing that we've got to focus on is creating success-ready students. But primarily we've got to focus on academics, specifically. You know, one of the things that I really appreciated out of my high school, middle school and elementary career at SPS is I felt ready for the next step. My choice was to go to, actually, Missouri State and get my degree in marketing. And then that then stepping stone turned into sort of the next sort of move. So I think the Springfield Public Schools has a deep responsibility to teach these kids the academics, the ABCs, the 1,2,3s, the reading, the writing, the arithmetic. I feel like we have, as a district sometimes kind of swayed a little bit away from the academics and got into a little bit too much of the social and political issues, in my opinion. And so I really just want to bring back just the basics. I mean, if you look at our actual scores — of reading scores — I think we're at like 44% are reading at grade level, 36% are reading at math level. And so in order for us to have a successful community, we have to have, we have to be graduating success-ready individuals. Now success-ready for me happened to mean, you know, college and continued education. But success-ready for a lot of individuals is, you know, trades or whatever their next, sort of, endeavor is after school. And so, you know, what is very, very important once you understand that the core of what SPS is, is, is trying to do is create, you know, academic excellence and success-ready students, we also have to focus on really, the behavior and the way that these individuals are able to act amongst peers. You know, we've got to create a level of excellence in our district that allow individuals to work as a team to have some humility, to listen, to be empathetic, to listen to all voices. And so I do think that as you know, as we're focusing on the academics, we must also pay attention to, you know, the emotional intelligence and behavior and have a standard of excellence for that as well."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"Yeah. So luckily — I have been lucky enough to go speak to hundreds and hundreds of people. When I say people I mean, when you — to get on the ballot, you have to get 500 signatures just to get on the ballot. I ended up with like 950 signatures. And so I've talked to current teachers, I've talked to past teachers, I've talked to current parents that are have kids in the district, and also parents that have pulled their kids from the district and by far and away, when you ask teachers that have left our district or parents that have pulled their kids from our district, they will tell you there really isn't even a second place. The reason is, is because of behavior and lack of consequences in the classroom. So the question that you've asked really nails the head, nails on the head of exactly what the community cares about. In terms of sort of how to address this, we need to make sure that the teachers' hands are not tied at all. And to address these behavior concerns, we need to have very strict — the term is like progressive consequences that are consistent, meaning your first infraction is this is the consequence. Your second infraction is this in the consequence. Your third infraction is this as a consequence. And just have consistent behavior standards that, if violated, are dealt with swiftly because what we cannot do is allow behavior issues to go unchecked in the classroom, specifically. That causes two major problems. One is the teacher is almost pulling their hair out at this point because they're managing the behavior of several at the expense of many. So I want to be clear. We care deeply about this child that is exhibiting some concerns. They're obviously not getting the attention that they need. We care about them. We must come around them and give them the attention they deserve. We owe them an education as the Springfield Public Schools, but we cannot, and we will not owe them an education at the expense of the other 22 kids in the classroom and at the expense of the other teachers' sanity. So we must remove those behavior issues from the classroom to allow the teacher to be able to teach the curriculum."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing Springfield School District? Which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"Well, this is going to be a good segway from the last question. I believe that the largest challenge that the district has is the behavior and the, we'll say, lack of consequences for that behavior. You know, there is, you know, public schools, nd also I'll extend that out to our public bus system as well, because that's, you know, basically, you know, a microcosm of Springfield. Right? So the problems that we have at large in our city are going to meet in the classroom and on the buses. And so that is the biggest challenge that we have, because it's not like we can just snap our fingers and all of a sudden all the kids decide to act accordingly. And we also can't act like private schools where we can just kick kids out of the school if they're not, uh, you know, giving us the behavior that we need to do because these kids are owed an education. This is the public school, right? So they deserve an education, and we care about them deeply, and they're not getting what they need at home. So therefore they're acting out. The thing that in terms of how to address this solution, I have a couple ideas. The first is kind of tactical. Right now, the progressive discipline matrix is what it's kind of called. So infraction one has a certain consequence and leads up to the next several infractions. Right now, those sort of progressive consequences reset every school year. So I believe that we should have those consequences carry on with the student throughout their actual tenure of an actual building to allow a teacher, you know, for that kid not to just sort of walk the line as careful as they can. And then next year it just resets. I also believe in alternative educational sites. Right now we have Study high school. I do believe we should expand alternative learning into middle school and elementary as much as possible. This is not to say that this is like the little, you know, SPS's version of juvie. I'm saying this is a smaller classroom with probably more compensated teachers to give these kids the attention that they need, but we've got to make sure that they are separated, if they're going to continue to act out, from the other students to keep from their education."
Nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will you approach school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"Yeah. So partisanship is really just division at the end of the day. Whenever you look at, I'm sorry, whenever you look at the actual board, if you have like, let's just say two factions that are arguing, you're really not being very productive in that particular moment. You're also not keeping the main thing, which is the main thing, which is the kids and the teachers and the education. And so partisan politics has no place on a school board. It should not be evident. We should not necessarily like know, you know, what the political leanings is of a school or candidate. These are community, nonpartisan, unpaid, I might add, you know, positions. So as a candidate, I've actually been the most successful of the seven in exhibiting this. I've been endorsed by what you may consider, you know, liberal PACs. I've been endorsed by conservative PACs. I've been endorsed by middle of the road PACs. So the Central Labor Council has endorsed me, the largest teachers organization in Springfield, the Springfield NEA, has endorsed me. I've also gotten endorsed by, I don't know if I said the Central Labor Council or not, but that's one of them. And then Teamsters has endorsed me. But also, you know, several other organizations. So, you know, I've exhibited the fact that I can take traditionally separate, you could say leanings, for the goal of, of one thing, which is academics for these kids. And also, unfortunately, we've brought this up three times now, and you're going to continue to hear this from me, the behavioral expectations of the classroom, because at the end of the day, the teachers right now are demanding for safer work environments, for less kicking and biting and spitting and more academics. And that's not a left or right issue. That's a challenge that we have as a city, that we must come together and find solutions and be united so that we can get results for these kids and these teachers that they need."
As a board member, what policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"Yeah. So, there is a crying out right now from teachers. And as I've — You know, first off, I was endorsed by the the largest teachers organization in Springfield, which is 87% of not just the teachers at SPS, but the staff of SPS. And they will tell you that they are just completely overwhelmed. There's several things that overwhelm them, specifically, as I've been listening. I'm going to not start with the biggest one, which is behavior, because I've been talking about that so much. I'm going to start with something else. So one of the things that is really troubling and challenging for teachers right now is balancing the ongoing curriculum of the actual quarter, semester or year with standardized testing. So like for instance, actually this week my child is in third grade. They're stopping all curriculum right now to get into Galileo testing, which is standardized testing that's done by the state. You know, you got to understand, as a teacher's perspective, we understand the importance of standardized tests, and I understand why we need to do that so we can measure our progress and make sure that we have sort of some standardized way to compare results and progress. But I'm not sure how much standardized tests really tell you about a lot of kids. I think some kids can't really take standardized tests very well, but more importantly, every time we stop our normal curriculum, and this is the stuff that is the real learning that goes on in the classroom, in order to stop all that, to then focus on the standardized testing, you're just switching gears. It's very difficult for teachers to do that. So I would like to try to uncuff that a little bit as much as we possibly can. But also I just do want to continue to hit on the primary objective of mine, if I do get on the board, is to address the behavior concerns in Springfield Public Schools. I mean, even in the last three weeks, we've had a young girl leave Hickory Hills with a facial reconstructive surgery from getting beat. And we also had a riot in Parkview, practically, that if you would have thought you'd seen that, that you'd think that was inner city Baltimore. But no, it was Parkview High School. So we've got to raise that standard of excellence.
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Thank you. Thank you for having me today. I have been long time Springfield educator — 30 years. I've coached quite a few different sports, taught a lot of different classes. I retired my first time, and I went to the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, where I worked as athletics administrator with kids again. And then I'm back with the schools and have been involved in the archery program for about 12 years, so I don't really think I've left the schools. They've always been a a big part of my life. My family, extended family, have all been involved in the schools. And so I honestly thought this was just a way to continue my commitment to the Springfield School Board. And I'm very excited about the election. I understand how important it is, and I'm looking forward to another strong month of campaigning."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Our schools have a great responsibility. You know, a parent's child is their most valued possession. They send him to school for us to help shape their future. And in return, we need to make this strong commitment that that diploma means they're academically ready, they're career ready or they're ready to enter the workforce. And I'm a strong believer in the the word public, the Springfield Public Schools. We open our doors to anyone, everyone. We get a list of names on the roster. We're excited to take those kids. I'm a strong advocate for teachers. I believe that teachers are the meaningful adult in a lot of kids. I was greatly influenced by great teachers I had. And I believe that teachers can change lives. And when you change lives, you change destiny — fifth generation from Springfield, and I want my kids, I want my grandkids, to grow up here. I want them to be the next leaders of Springfield. I want them to feel that the answer is the schools. It's the Springfield Schools. I want them to find the the jobs and take over the leadership role. So I'm a strong advocate that that diploma means a lot. And I know that it involves providing extra activities, programs that keep the kids wanting to go to school. That's important when the public realizes that the schools are the answer."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"It is very important to address student discipline issues. I want to talk about the discipline issues that first occur in the classroom. It takes away the teachers time, and we all realize that the more time the teacher spends engaging kids in instruction, it enhances learning. So we can't have that misbehavior. Now, every teacher is going to use her own creativity, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement. But she's the classroom control. When she/he finds that they can't control the the misbehavior in the classroom, the student needs to be removed. And there are so many things that can really be — I want people to focus on, discipline is a teachable moment, not for just the student that is misbehaving at that time. The rest of the class needs to realize inappropriate behavior - consequence. And, you know, that consequence doesn't need to be something severe. I mean, it can be, 'you misbehaved, pick up trash on the playground. You misbehaved. I need for you to do, you know, worksheets. I need for you to go to talk to the counselor, talk to the school nurse. The principal is also a teacher there. But I do want to make sure that the distinction is made between violence, threats of violence, harassment, hazing, any physical, anything that is going to be underneath the Safe Schools Act, I have zero tolerance for. I feel that students that are involved in situations like that, they might be getting their diploma from somewhere else."
What do you view as the greatest challenge facing Springfield School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"I think the greatest challenge that the Springfield School District faces today is getting quality teachers and maintaining quality teachers, and I know that it involves salary. But I think the other thing that it involves is the work environment. I don't know how to change — it seems like sometime after COVID when they said, 'this is a critical job, this is an essential job.' And then 'now we don't think it's essential.' We have lost a lot of respect. There are jobs that they don't, they don't have the respect that they used to, I mean. I'm old enough to realize that back in the old days, you used to go to the grocery store and the kids would go, 'oh my gosh, mom, that's Coach Provence,' and I think that we can do a lot to improve the work environment because we need to maintain teachers. We need to make sure that the benefit package enables us to hire those great teachers. I would like to see the teachers not have their teaching time bureaucratically tied up. You know, part of respect is trust. And when the curriculum coordinator says, 'you're teaching a first aid unit, you're teaching a cancer unit, you're teaching a drug and alcohol unit,' and then they trust you to use the things in the classroom that you can use, but they trust you to use it in the best way possible, so I hope that that will significantly help."
Non-partisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will you approach school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"When I made my decision to run for the school board, I went to my family and I said, 'I do not want to be a burden to my brothers and sisters and and my daughter, her husband, my son, his wife,' because I did not want to have as a really negative outcome. I was — I felt very strongly about United Springfield raising some funds and only emphasizing civil discussions and nonpartisan. I believe that students are the top priority — students, teachers, families. That's not political. All decisions based on what is best for the student is the student. I believe that educators and teachers, excuse me, educators and students working together. I believe that if you step across the line for discipline, the family should always be involved. The family needs to work with the schools to make sure that they know what's happening to their child, they know what friends they're running with, they know the activities they're involved with, and they know how they're moving toward graduation. Politics doesn't play a part in that. I, I know it's going to be difficult, but I can, I want to stand on policies that I have promised and that my word is golden and I will, I will not be bought."
As a board member. What policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"Well, I like your positivity there because as a board member, that sounds good. I do understand how hard I need to work to earn the trust of the voters. And we're down to a month. We're down to just less than a month. I believe that past performances is a great indicator of future performance. And I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be involved in the Springfield Public Schools Archery program. I want to use it as an example of a student activity that is open to all students. It is inclusive. It does not — you don't have to be the tallest, the strongest or the fastest, but you do need to maintain your attendance the way that other sports do. According to MSHSAA, you have to maintain your grade point average, and you have to maintain your citizenship. The schools put on these wonderful archery tournaments. Nine hundred kids signing up for five tournaments, and they're so excited. I see the parents come wearing their son or daughter's school shirt. It builds self-esteem. It enhances discipline. It spends time with a great coach and teacher that helps them develop the social skills and the self-confidence that they're going to need when they graduate. So I don't want people to look at, 'oh, so you teach a kid how to shoot an arrow and hit the center of a bullseye?' Yes, we do, but look how these kids feel and look at their confidence."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
Thank you for having me here. I'm Scott Crise. I'm running for re-election for the Springfield Public School board. I love Springfield, and I'm so proud to raise my daughters in this community. I was always involved in their education with my wife. And I have a passion for public education. You know, since my daughters graduated from Springfield Public Schools, my job recently changed, which required much less travel, which is nice. I ran for the school board in '21 and was elected. Now I want to see that job through. If re-elected, I'll continue to listen to teachers and parents and advocate for both and encourage open communication. I believe my experience in operations management and construction management, as well as budgeting, allows me to continue the support of the missions visions in the strategic plan of the district, which I helped develop."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and preparing graduating students for work or continued education?
"Well, one of our top priorities in Springfield Public Schools is to ensure the students are academically successful and come out of high school college or career-ready. I believe the success of the community depends on the success of the public education system. If you want to continue growing Springfield and want strong economic development, you need a strong public education system that collaborates with the businesses to know their needs. You know, for example, the Alliance for Healthcare Education, a great example of that. There's a great health care need in this community and nationwide. It's incredible to think that students from SPS can graduate with an AA degree, a high school diploma and have a job waiting for them after graduation."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"Well, that's a great question. It's a hot topic right now. You know, I think the best approach to to addressing student discipline issues is to create a positive and supportive school culture that promotes effective communication and provides — we have to have fair and consistent discipline disciplinary measures. You know, a positive and supportive culture promotes respect and understanding by communicating clear and consistent behavioral expectations to the students and the parents. You know, students and parents must first understand the consequences of their poor choices. A good first step occurred at the beginning of fall 2023, when each student was provided a student handbook and a code of conduct, and parents and students were asked to sign a document stating they both — that they've read it, reviewed it and understand it. Additionally, staff and teachers must be properly trained to provide effective classroom management strategies, including de-escalation techniques and effective communication strategies that can prevent or manage disruptive behavior in the classroom. Staff should collect and analyze the data on discipline incidents to identify any patterns that are developing and continuously assess and improve discipline strategies over time, and that data will also provide information (for) evaluators whether student discipline is consistent between sites, as it should be."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing Springfield School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"One of the challenges facing — there's many challenges facing Springfield Public Schools — but one of them is retaining high quality teachers. There are many factors that contribute to attracting and maintaining quality teachers and teaching staff at SPS. First, the district needs to continue to increase benefits and salaries. SPS's incentive for early notification of resignation or retirement is so beneficial because it allows SPS to get to the market earlier than other districts to recruit the best talent in the area. You know, new teachers must have great support throughout the district, including comprehensive ongoing training as well as mentors to support and nurture them, you know. Also, the district must provide a robust assortment of leadership or professional professional development opportunities. In the short term though, SPS must also improve addressing student discipline issues, which we just talked, about in a consistent manner so teachers feel they will be working in a safe environment when they are hired."
Nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will you approach school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"Yeah, that's a great question. I tell you, I have great rapport with everybody on the board, and I agree that it shouldn't be partisan politics. And I will continue that — working with everybody on the board. You know, I have, I take the initiative and I have no issue reaching out, making a phone call to talk to other board members, you know, to get their thoughts on issues that may be coming up at the next meeting. So I will continue to collaborate with the board and make it more nonpartisan."
As a board member, what policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"Teachers are our greatest asset, and I will, you know, continue to support increasing, you know, salaries and benefits of the teachers, like I talked about before, and making sure you know that we have programs, processes in place to make sure that they're receiving leadership and professional development opportunities, and also work on discipline, like I talked about before, to make sure any issues are handled in a consistent manner because we need to make sure our teachers feel they are working in a safe environment after they are hired."
Tell us why you've decided to run for this office.
"All right. Well, thanks for having me. This is a great opportunity to share my perspectives and introduce myself to the voters, so I appreciate it. My name is Dr. Kyler Sherman-Wilkins, and I'm an associate professor of sociology at Missouri State University. And I'm running for school board because I, frankly, am a champion for public schools. I believe that our public schools have the remarkable ability to transform lives. That was my experience. I grew up as a child of a single mom who lived paycheck to paycheck, and through her coaching me and instilling in me the value of education, I became a professor where I helped work and prepare individuals for lifelong success. I do think our public schools are at a crossroads. This election determines whether or not we have individuals who believe in strong, robust public schools versus those who entertain thoughts of corporal punishment or book banning. I also believe that we need educators, more educators, and more researchers who are driven by data-driven solutions to problems as opposed to inserting ideology in terms of shaping our public school systems. I believe that I'm best qualified as an educator, as a professor, as a researcher, and I look forward to talking more about my positions."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"This is an excellent question, and I believe that our public schools really are the bedrock of a strong, robust society. When we think about public schools in their space in our society, I think the first place, first role is that they prepare our young people not just to read and write, but also how do they become engaged, civically-minded citizens in an increasingly diverse society? I think it's also important to note that there is a clear, strong relationship between education and career readiness, and we need to ensure that our public school systems are strong to prepare our young people for the jobs of the future. That means incorporating technology in a balanced way. That means ensuring that our young people are able to critically think about the world, and when they're presented with novel information, which, let's face it, we're always inundated with a lot of information every single day, that they can critically think through those processes and not just, you know, follow whatever's being told to them. I think it's also important to understand that there needs to be a strong relationship between our public schools and our community stakeholders. I think some of the things the district has done well, including choice programs like Fly SPS and the Health Care Alliance, is taking these needed gaps, particularly in health care and preparing our young people for careers that will fill those essential gaps. As a professor, I care a lot about our students being prepared and college-ready if they choose to go that route. But I also believe that it's important to understand that college is not the route for every single person. And I think that there's a real solid place for vocational prep, trade prep to ensure that regardless of where what their intentions are, what their — what their passions are, that they feel supported in our school system."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"Student discipline issues are a top priority for the district to to tackle, and I had the privilege of serving on the discipline review team for the district in 2022 where we reviewed data and reviewed the handbook to see if there were any recommended changes. And this is an important first step, and it allowed me to do a deep dive as a researcher into the data to see what would be some of the best solutions to addressing this problem. The first thing I think is to acknowledge that we do have a problem. I think that if you do not understand that we have discipline issues, that you're living under a rock, frankly. Any solution to the student discipline issue has to be data driven. It has to be research informed, and it has to center the well-being of the child first and foremost. We cannot let our desperation to fix a problem lead us to, in my view, barbaric and counterproductive and morally repugnant practices such as corporal punishment. Instead, we need to follow the research. What do the researchers say about what is the most effective way to to address student discipline? We also have to understand that there cannot be a cookie cutter approach. So a one size fits all solution to discipline will just not work in our the largest district, the most — one of the most diverse districts in the state. So to be very sure that we have several options, several ways to address the problem depending on the unique situation and unique circumstances surrounding each student. But I will say this is where I think my expertise as a researcher will come into play. I always approach situations with an open mind and my first question show me the data, what does it say? And again, anything that we do has to be data-driven and ensure that we're having an approach that doesn't push students out of school and contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing Springfield School District? Which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"Yeah, so I think there are there are four particular issues. One that I think — to answer your question, what I would prioritize first and foremost — we need to uplift and support our teachers. We need to address the student discipline issue. We need to ensure that all of our classrooms are safe and inclusive, and we also need to make sure that we strengthen and not weaken collaborations between the district and the broader Springfield community. And that includes businesses, nonprofits, our parents, etc. I think first, what I would like to focus on in terms of the biggest issue for me as an educator is how do we recruit and retain qualified teachers? Teacher burnout is real. There are a lot of concerns about having to do more with less. There are a lot of concerns about whether they're being listened and heard by the SPS administration. I was really proud to receive the endorsement not only of the SNEA, but also the Missouri State Teachers Association, and I got those endorsements because I can empathize with educators, and I have a record of being a staunch advocate for teachers' rights and labor rights more broadly. I think recruiting and retaining teachers includes increasing pay and advocating for ways from which we can increase their pay. It means increasing professional development opportunities. It means increasing the number of of affiliated staff — our educators broadly defined, our nurses, our paraprofessionals, our secretaries, because I think that teachers oftentimes are asked to be the teacher, the police officer, the nurse, the counselor in the classroom. We need to provide them with those supports that allow them to focus on their job, which is to to teach, and provide supports so that they can more effectively do what their their primary job is. I do think it's really important that when we think about budget priorities that we look at and counter administrative bloat, it happens all the time in big organizations and concentrate that money instead on how do we support the people on the front lines, that being our teachers and educators, broadly defined."
Nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will your approach to school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"I think that for me, one of the appeals of serving on the school board is that it is nonpartisan and that people who serve on the school board, their primary goal should be because they want to support and strengthen our public schools. I have experience serving on nonpartisan boards. I'm also a member of the board for the Missouri Foundation for Health, $1 billion philanthropic organization that is committed to health equity in the state of Missouri. And it's nonpartisan. There are people from all political stripes on the board who, again, are committed to one thing, which is health equity. So I have experience first and foremost, I think is the important thing to note. I think the other thing that I think it's important to note is everyone has their biases. But for me, as a researcher and someone who really very much believes in data-driven approaches, I have to check those biases at the door. When I'm making a decision, I will ask a question does this promote or strengthen our public schools, and does it allow us to more effectively prepare our young people for lifelong success? Those are the only two questions that I'll ask. And when it comes to what is the best approach, it will always be data-driven. I will hear people where they are, from where they're where they're coming from. I will ask questions when I'm trying to persuade individuals, well, what do you need to see to make you see my side of my point of view? I will tell them what I need to see, to see their point of view, because I don't think there's a monopoly of good ideas. I think there are people from a variety of different political ideologies who support our public schools, and the job of a board for public education is to bring those people together to see how we can most effectively serve that job. So I reject any attempts to make school boards partisan. I do think that there are forces that are trying to do just that. But I take my role as a nonpartisan member of a, you know, diverse board that's committed to public education very seriously."
As a board member. What policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"I already alluded to this a bit in terms of, you know, because the number one issue for me was how do we recruit and retain teachers. So first and foremost, I think it comes down to pay. You know, when we — teachers don't do it for the money, you know. And I don't do things for the money either. When it comes to being an educator, you do it because you really deeply believe it's a calling and that it's your job to help prepare young people — to educate and prepare them for a challenging future, a challenging and bright future. At the same time, you have to pay your bills. And I think it's really important, especially when you're looking at increased, you know, pay of administrators, the creation of all these administrative positions, there's a bit of frustration when teachers feel they're not getting enough that they need, you know, their piece of the pie, if you will. And so that's part — that's point one. How do we increase salary for our teachers? As I mentioned before, professional development opportunities, Education is changing. The world is changing. You know, how do we effectively use technology? I mean, just throwing a bunch of technology into a classroom and saying, 'here you go,' is ineffective. We have to prepare teachers and train them, keep them abreast of the best practices on using these new technological innovations or educational innovations to ensure that they have the resources and the support to to teach effectively. And I think the other piece, again, is going back to how do we support our teachers in the classroom in terms of giving them paraprofessional aid, kind of easing their burden of having them serve, as, you know, both the police officer and the teacher and the nurse in the classroom. So I think those are all the things that I would support. The other things, I think, I do think we need to strengthen and provide more open communication between SPS administration and our teachers, the representation of our teachers unions. I think that I've heard a lot from our teachers that they feel unheard and unappreciated, and I think that there have been avenues to try to get them to the table, and I think that those need to be strengthened and made more readily available so that they that way they do feel heard."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Yeah. Appreciate you having me on. My name's Dr. Chad Rollins, and I've lived here for over 40 years, and I have seven children. I think that's one thing that really sets me apart. All of them have gone to SPS. I've got three in college, four currently in the system, and I work at Health Direct in Ozark, Missouri. I've also graduated from MSU right here on campus and went to UMKC to get my doctorate in pharmacy. So the reason I'm running for school board is I have a — I have a need to give back to the community and help others. And over the last five or six years I've been doing that through health and fitness, helping people take back their lives. And I wanted to get involved right here in Springfield, Missouri, and really help the the community move forward, help the children, help the students and help the teachers and move the strategic plan forward."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Right. So the role for public — for public schools here in SPS and really anywhere we, you know, they put into — they put together the strategic plan last year and one of those things, and I think it's probably the most important part, is making success-ready students. So our role through SPS is to make sure students, when they graduate and leave the system, that they're ready to go work in the workforce and give back to the community, or ready to go back to or to go to college and are prepared to do so."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"Right. So this is a big topic this year in general. But you know, it's kind of always been around, but it seems like it's coming to the forefront, you know, with the teachers union coming out talking about discipline, what we see in the media and different things like that. And I think the best — this is a big, this is going to take a lot of a lot of things because there's a lot of moving parts when it comes to discipline. I think it starts with having expectations for our students and them knowing what the expectations are. I think there's a disconnect with what is considered a minor infraction, what might be considered, you know, more of a severe infraction and making sure that we're paying attention to all these signs that are coming up when it comes to discipline, because it seems like the teachers are asking for our support, and that's what they need. That's what I plan on pushing for because we do need to listen to what they're saying. They're the ones that are out there in the in the classroom trying to teach, but also trying to take care of all the, you know, some of these issues that have come up. And what we really want to look forward to here is safety in our schools. And we want to look for quality learning environments. And without discipline in place and and being effective, we can't have those things, and we can't educate our students."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing Springfield School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"Right. So some of the biggest challenges right now, we just talked about one of them, which is discipline. And I would say that's probably pretty high up there. So I won't cover that again. But that's that's one that we need to focus on within the strategic plan. I've talked about the quality learning environments, and that's we really need to make the environment in the classroom, one, free of distractions, a place where kids can learn and teachers can teach. So that's the number one thing that I think we need to be looking at. I think we really need to support these teachers. We are going to be facing a lot of support staff, you know, a decreased amount. And that's something we need to focus on and turn that back around, in my opinion. These teachers are asking for that. They're asking for different things that can help them teach. I think they're — we need to look at different ways to increase contract hours for the teachers, maybe with early, more early start or, I mean, late start, early release to give them some more hours or creative ways to make it to where they can prepare their lessons and get ready for their — to be prepared to teach in the classrooms, because I think we can all see that we've had a decline in our test scores. And, you know, when we're not proficient in math, science and, you know, different things like that, then we're not doing our job. So we need to get that turned around, and that's a big topic this year."
Nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will you approach school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"Right. So I can kind of speak to this with some of the experience I have right here at Missouri State. I came back once I was graduated, and I was asked to come back and bring a fraternity back on campus as the chapter director. And so I took that on, and it was almost a two-year process. And I had, you know, young men that were between 18 to 20 years old, and they had a lot of different opinions on what we were going to do and how they could come together for one, you know, one common goal, and that was to get that fraternity re-chartered here at MSU. And so I had to work with them, and we had to work through those differences of opinions. And we came together and we got it done. It took a while, and it was it's a hard thing to do. I taught them how to run board meetings. I taught them how to respect different opinions. And so I think when we do that, we need to make sure that we are respecting each other, but also that we all, all are, you know, in one unison and that's to promote the strategic plan and go forward and see some positive results. And for me, when I'm on the board, I'm going to look to be a leader and I'm going to expect standards to be high. And I want a positive outcome for all of us."
As a board member, what policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"Right. So, as far as helping teachers, I mean, anything that can — that we can help them with as far as coming in for training, you know, things that — there's all kinds of different things we can look at with this. It could be, you know, curriculum training. It could be how to engage students in the classroom, how to de-escalate situations or recognize things that are going on in the classroom and just to give them anything they need to help them be effective in their teaching environment."
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"Well, thank you for having me. Giving the listenership, the voters, the chance to hear directly from the candidates is invaluable, and I appreciate it very much. I am Maryam Mohammadkhani. I am a mother, and I'm a physician by training. I'm also a community volunteer. I decided to run for the school board three years ago because I'm extremely passionate about education. And it goes beyond the individual child who then graduates because I care so deeply about their opportunity to thrive and for their well-being. And I think that is directly connected with education. But also from a policy perspective, they will be part of a community that they contribute to. And so for the livelihood of the community, it is vital I, I believe three years ago, as I do today, that we are at a critical juncture and that public education and quality education for the students is of prime importance and is urgent — in urgent need of attention."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Public schools are where the majority of students receive a quality education. The role of public schools is to ensure, to provide, and I think this is entirely possible, they can and they should for the students to achieve academically and socially. It's for their education so that they develop as individuals who have integrity, who then become engaged citizens so that they can fulfill their ideas, their dreams and what they want to do with their lives. And also that they can be a successful member of the community that they belong to. And providing a basic core education is vital. At Springfield Public Schools, we go a step beyond that. We are actively engaged in a variety of programs to give students an opportunity to catapult ahead. Some students have the ability to decide what they want to do, and we're there to be able to allow them to experience those careers. And some students don't, and we're there to give them the opportunity to experience a variety of different career pathways, be it in vo-tech or additional secondary education or the military. But we are there to give them the skills from an academic standpoint and the skills from a social standpoint, so that they can move forward and be the masters of their own destiny."
What do you feel is the best approach to addressing student discipline issues?
"Student discipline is an issue not just in Springfield Public Schools but throughout the country currently. And it is not simple because there are multiple factors that feed into it. And I think it's important to recognize those so that we can address them. And those factors include poor academic achievement, poor role models and, not just in the home, but outside of the school, within the community, and also a palpable lack of connection between students, right, with their peers and with their learning environment. And that has resulted from the overuse of technology. And we see that around us all the time. And there are distractions, certainly, within the classroom that didn't exist, let's say, a decade or two decades ago. And so we have to address all of those components. So the solution is going to be multi-pronged. We're going to have to come in with proactive as well as reactive. Proactively, we're going to hit all those things that I just talked about, which is improving the quality — improving the academic achievements of our students, but really coming in with giving them the tools so that they can develop better social skills. We call those soft skills, correct? And in order to do that, we have to also ensure that they have a nurturing and the environment. And that environment means that the teacher is the authority figure who has the undivided attention of the students. And we do that by removing distractions from the classroom. And, for example, that could be cell phones and things as such, and giving the teachers the resources to maintain that disciplined learning environment, which also includes positive behavioral reinforcement. And then on top of all these proactive measures, we have to come in with reactive measures that are sometimes necessary, and that would be in the form of consequences that are consistent and that are progressive. And I think that every parent recognizes that, in order to have those disciplined environments, because structure and organization are vital to thriving and learning."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing Springfield School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how do you meet that challenge?
"I will give you three challenges, and they are all my priorities. The first challenge that I don't think we can get away from, so we have to address it, is that there has been a shift from a cultural and socioeconomic standpoint. So today's classrooms and today's environment is very different. And that is something that is challenging us, and it is unlikely to abate. The second challenge is a competition for enrollment, and it affects the culture in our schools. There was a time when there were a couple options and home schooling was for, you know, a minority of students, and now it's becoming more and more mainstream. And this does affect us, not just from a funding perspective, but from the diverse mixture of students we have in our classrooms. And that allows us to thrive. And that is of concern for me, and I think to effectively be able to counter that is to look at those reasons, those measurable reasons, which are academic achievement and discipline. And I'm glad that you asked me about discipline. So these are priorities for me. Of course, academic achievement is always a priority. It's my guiding light. It is the mission, the vision. We are all on top of that, and we have been very purposeful with respect to that. But third, and these are all intertwined as I speak about them, is the ability to attract and retain the best, most qualified, most dedicated, most energized, happiest staff and especially teachers. And we do that — my plan to do that is to develop staff, to support staff and to empower staff. And that is — all of these are intertwined, and they must be done at the same time."
Nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan. If elected, how will you approach school board decisions through a nonpartisan lens?
"I approach every decision I make with one and only one thing in mind, and that is the students. And I think a distinction that must be made is that we are the adults in the room. And as, and I put my physician hat on, right. I'm putting my medical doctor hat on when I say that it is vital that we consider what students need to thrive and what they need for their well-being and what they need to learn. It's not about what the students want or what the adults want. It's about what they need. And we determine what they need by developing relationships with those that have, are closest to the student. Those are the parents and the teachers. So that is a vital piece of engagement and of course, committed and interested in what the public at large believes. But it always centers back to what is in the best interest of the students. And when I say the students, I'm very purposeful in using that term. It implies that it is all students. It is every student. So it's not necessary to say those words, the students. The students of Springfield Public Schools are in some ways my children, and I think it is important. And children need discipline. They need nurturing environments. They need nutritious food. They need to be welcomed. They need to have a place. They need to have power. Power comes through self-regulation and self-determination, and they need a purpose. This is what I do in my home, and this is what I want for all 25,000 students."
As a board member, what policies and programs will you support to help teachers?
"I'm really glad that you asked that question. Our teachers are the number one capital, our number one human capital. Schools wouldn't be schools without teachers. I've been very intentional in addressing this and in talking with as many teachers as I can. All the policies and programs have to have three things in mind. The proper development of teachers, that is, the professional development that is necessary for each teacher to be the best they can be. And so that needs to be differentiated. Two is supporting the teachers, and we support teachers by ensuring and giving them the supports necessary to have a disciplined learning environment so that they are the authority figure in the room and that they have the students' undivided attention. That is the environment where teachers can teach, and they love to teach. And giving them the resources that they need in their classroom to be successful. And then the third component, which is vital, is empowering them. And we empower teachers by listening to their feedback and valuing their feedback and always being in a position to be able to adjust said programs and said policies because it changes through the years. Correct? We are in a different place than we were, like I said, a decade or two decades ago. This is a priority. It is a must. We have a million fewer teachers than we did, nationwide. Again, this is not a challenge that will abate. I think that the success of our students depends on the happiness and what I mean by happiness of our teachers. They come to our classrooms, to our buildings wanting to teach, and that makes them happy. Of course, we'd like to compensate them, and that is something that we continue to strive — to reach. However, that is just a minor component. Thank you for asking that question."
The video interviews were recorded by Nathan Papes of the Springfield News-Leader.
Stay Connected
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news and announcements from Show Me Christian County.
Thanks for subscribing! You are now signed up to receive the latest news and information from Show Me Christian County.
Committed To Christian County
At SMCC, we are much more than a resource for businesses; rather, we are a partnership, dedicated to the continued and lasting development of our beautiful, innovative, and expanding county.
Show Me Christian County · 417-212-0699 · info@showmeccmo.com