No one on ballot for this Kansas City school board seat. And the other races? Unopposed

The last Kansas City school board election saw big spending and two hard-fought races, including one that unseated a longtime incumbent and board chair.

Not this time.

Though the past year was marked by the hiring of a new superintendent, packed meetings and contentious debates over school closures and the future of Kansas City Public Schools, hardly anyone is running in the April 4 election.

Three incumbents are stepping down from the seven-member board. In two races, newcomers are running unopposed, so they will be automatically seated. In the third race, no one met the qualifications to appear on the ballot. A write-in candidate will win.

“There was quite a bit of interest in 2021. And I think that was also national because of what had gone on with the pandemic and parents having a front row seat to schooling,” said board member Jennifer Wolfsie, who is not seeking reelection. “Having competitive races is always a good thing. With what we’re seeing now, I don’t know if maybe a lot of people have moved on to other things.”

School leaders argue the sleepy election isn’t a sign of apathy. They have been working to build excitement for KCPS, hoping to grow enrollment, better compete with neighboring schools and gain voter support for a bond initiative next year.

There’s still a competitive race among the write-in candidates in Sub-district 4, in the east-central region of the district. Monica Curls and Jay Gray are both meeting with voters, encouraging them to spell out their names on the ballot.

And many said that the lack of candidates doesn’t mean there wasn’t interest in the job. Some potential candidates didn’t realize their sub-districts had changed, following redistricting, or said that the new maps were confusing.

“A lot of people were applying who did not realize they were in the wrong district,” Gray said, adding that she also was initially unaware that her sub-district had changed.

And other candidates struggled to gather enough signatures. For at-large seats, 500 signatures are required, while candidates running in the other races need 250 signatures from active voters who live in the sub-district.

“While I’m running unopposed, I wasn’t the only person out trying to collect signatures,” said Josh Jackaway, who will take over Wolfsie’s at-large seat. “I know other people were trying to get on the ballot but didn’t meet that signature threshold.”

Wolfsie said collecting enough signatures from people residing in a sub-district, who are not only registered to vote but actively do so, “actually is more difficult than a lot of people realize.” Some candidates have several signatures thrown out, she said.

Jackaway also wonders if the political climate surrounding schools has kept some candidates away.

“Unfortunately there’s state legislation being pushed through right now that deals with what books are available and the so-called parental bill of rights, which actually I think targets communities like Kansas City and St. Louis. I don’t think it creates a fair place for our students to be able to flourish and have a full understanding of our history,” he said. “That conversation happening in the background creates a challenge for people wanting to step into this race but don’t want to deal with the headache of being unfairly targeted.”

On election years, KCPS holds training courses for residents considering running for school board. Wolfsie said about 10 candidates attended this past fall, proving several people are interested in the role. She said the district plans to start offering those courses every year, and earlier in the fall, to help candidates get a head start on collecting signatures and meeting the qualifications.

The new school board will be tasked with continuing the district’s long-term planning, a process that led to a vote this winter to close two elementary schools. Leaders hit pause on a proposal that would have closed 10 under-enrolled schools over the next several years. That proposal was designed to avoid an expected budget shortfall and free up money to improve academic offerings, expand extracurriculars and ensure students have access to the same opportunities districtwide.

Now the district will first work to encourage voters to pass a bond proposal in 2024 to help fund projects — something that hasn’t been approved since 1967, despite nearby suburban districts having successful bond elections every several years. Newly named Superintendent Jennifer Collier has said she hopes the district can secure that funding, plus grow enrollment to help avoid too many other school closures.

The board also will help guide district leaders trying to continue improving academic achievement to maintain full state accreditation — which KCPS earned last year for the first time in two decades. The Missouri state education department is now using more rigorous standards for evaluating districts — a new accountability system that, along with the effects of the pandemic, led to many districts’ scores dropping across the state last school year.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 4.

Then on June 20, the district will hold a special election to fill another board seat, to replace Manny Abarca, who resigned in January to serve on the Jackson County Legislature. The open seat is in Sub-district 3, in the northern region of the district.

Write-in race

Despite no names appearing on the ballot for the Sub-district 4 seat, voters still have a decision to make.

Both Curls and Gray registered as write-in candidates and are campaigning for the job, to replace Marvia Jones. Still, voters can write in whomever they wish.

Curls, 49, is the manager of government compliance for Terracon, an Olathe engineering company. She is from Kansas City, a product of the Catholic school St. Teresa’s Academy, and comes from a political family, with both parents having served in the statehouse. She has been active in KCPS community meetings and also previously helped with some campaigns.

Gray, 29, also was born and raised in Kansas City, and was a fourth-generation KCPS student before transferring to University Academy, a charter school, where she graduated. Gray has worked for KCPS as a substitute teacher, academic interventionist, tutor and college adviser. She now works as an independent career and success coach and college application reader.

The candidate with the most write-in votes will win. It is not necessary to be declared as a write-in candidate for the vote to be counted.

Curls believes she is the “right person at this point in the district’s history” to serve on the board, arguing she has the desire and passion to help move KCPS forward.

“Growing up in politics, I had this understanding that I had an obligation to my community. And I know what a quality education looks like. Having that as your foundation can help to really elevate your options after school, in a successful college career or directly entering the workforce,” Curls said. “I know public schools are the most efficient way to delivery a quality education.”

Gray said her experience attending and working for KCPS inspired her to seek a seat on the school board. She said she was offered starkly different opportunities and resources depending on which school she was at in the district.

“Unfortunately, my family is not one of KCPS’ success stories. There was no trust in my family in the district,” Gray said, adding that’s why she transferred to a charter school. “I personally feel like there’s a mindset in Kansas City that if you want your students to be successful, they have to go to Lincoln (College Preparatory Academy) or a charter school. I don’t think it should be that way. Every school in KCPS should have the same opportunities, no matter where they are, for students to get a quality education.”

Both Curls and Gray see a need to build trust and engagement among families in Kansas City — a major talking point among KCPS leaders as they consider how to restructure the school system to better serve students districtwide.

Curls said that will be crucial in getting voters to approve a bond initiative next year.

“People are always critical of the district. The narrative is it’s a failing district. But we also haven’t invested in our district. If anything we’ve disinvested in our district with charter schools taking money away and tax increment financing. And then we criticize the district for not performing better,” Curls said. “We have to invest in our district just like Blue Valley and Blue Springs and all of these other districts that approve taxes to bring money to their district. If we want to provide a world-class education for our students, we have to do the same.”

Curls argued that the district did not effectively gather community input and was not “really transparent about what was at stake” when proposing school closures and the long-term strategic plan. She believes more transparent community engagement will be critical in encouraging families to stay in the district.

She added that KCPS needs to be “focused on providing a better product to attract people to the district. That means shrinking capacity so we can have a better focus on effective programming that provides strong student achievement. And providing programming that helps students achieve high-paying careers and be successful in college.”

Gray is also pushing to build support for the bond initiative. She believes the school board needs to have a stronger presence in district neighborhoods and work with families on improving their schools to avoid more closures.

“These voters are not just KCPS students and families. They’re non-KCPS students and families as well,” Gray said. “Your voters have to believe that this is a district I want to give money to. No matter what decisions are made, there has to be transparency and open communication with the community. These decisions (like school closures) cannot be made lightly. We need to have these conversations with the community.”

She also believes the district needs to better advertise what it does well.

“Instead of focusing on how to get more students back to the district, we should focus on how to better educate the students we have in the district. If we create greatness and give them something so they want to be here, it’ll automatically start attracting more people to the district,” Gray said. “Charter schools don’t steal students. Families do not trust the district enough, and charter schools market what they do well. There are a lot of underperforming charter schools in the city. But the way in which they’re portrayed in the community is completely different than KCPS.”

Gray is prioritizing increasing early college and career exposure for students. And she believes the district should adopt more interventions strategies for students who are falling behind, rather than “catching them when they’re already in credit recovery and flunking.”

She also is emphasizing the need for greater staff supports, including higher teacher pay, and better mental health resources for employees and students.

New board members

Two other candidates for Kansas City school board seats have already won their elections.

Running unopposed, Jackaway will take over an at-large seat. And Jamekia Kendrix wins the Sub-district 2 seat, covering the north-central region, to replace board chair Nate Hogan.

Jackaway, 38, said he has worked within KCPS schools and with students for more than a decade, as a youth pastor, mentor and volunteer. He has two young sons, with his oldest a kindergartner in the district.

Jackaway said he has learned many district facilities are deteriorating and “fall well below any of our suburban counterparts.”

“Unfortunately, public education has not been well-resourced in our city. We just built a new airport that we spent lots of money on. There’s all this talk on potentially investing in a new stadium for the Royals. But we have not invested dollars into our schools with a bond since 1967,” Jackaway said, adding that schools need modern upgrades so the district can spend less of its operating budget on deferred maintenance.

Kendrix, 43, is a community advocate and former educator who taught in both the Hickman Mills and Kansas City districts. She has two children who graduated from KCPS. And she previously ran for City Council.

She said one of her main goals is working with the teachers union and staff to revise district policy regarding the treatment of employees, so that teachers can better voice their concerns.

“I learned from teaching that teachers who choose to be a strong advocate are often threatened with the loss of their job, they’re fired or pushed out. They’re told they can’t be a strong advocate. I was told that,” Kendrix said. “Teachers need to be able to have a voice and help hold the system accountable. So I’m going to work to make that happen.”

She also believes the district needs to improve communication with parents, requiring them to be informed of changes and allowing them to provide feedback.

“One thing that gets frustrating for teachers every year is things change: Tests are changing, curriculum is changing, even the resources used to teach things. That’s very frustrating for a teacher. And it’s also frustrating for a student,” Kendrix said. “So by enforcing the policy that says you have to give this information out and receive feedback, it increases engagement and the number of people showing up at the table to make decisions. It makes the district prioritize that engagement and could help fix that lack of trust people have in us educating their kids.”