There is no extremist running for the districtwide at-large position for the Shawnee Mission school board. Whew. The district race has not attracted a far-right candidate.
Both candidates, Cindy Neighbor and Mark Read, are moderate in their views, although there is a clear difference between the two candidates, one of whom will represent the district’s 145,000 patrons.
Read had been pushing hard for the school board to select its new superintendent from the outside. The board did just that, by picking 50-year-old Jim Hinson, currently superintendent of the Independence School District — apparently an excellent pick, from all we have heard.
Read has made a campaign issue out of the fact that out of the seven current board members, only one — Sara Goodburn — has a child in the district. Read, who has an 8-year-old at Trailwood Elementary School, said he believes we need more parents of children in the district on the board, and I think that is a valid point, though not necessarily the determining factor in the race.
However, board president Patty Mach has a junior at Shawnee Mission Northwest High and her two sons attended district schools.
What is the key factor in the race is whether or not patrons want a “change agent” in Read, or whether they are satisfied with the board as it has been functioning.
Neighbor, a 16-year veteran on the school board and a former state legislator, is not one to rock the boat. Neither are the other board members, who often vote unanimously on issues.
The board members get along with each other and with the administration officials.
Read thinks things are too cozy.
While not a man looking for trouble, Read would be intent on asking challenging questions and might very well introduce new ways of thinking about the issues.
Read, whose background is in computer software, has an agenda that may or may not be realistic, depending on future funding of the schools.
He is philosophically opposed to closing any more schools in the district. At a recent forum, Neighbor refused to be hemmed in. She said the district must be efficient.
Read wants to reverse the trend of “mega” elementary schools and large class sizes.
Indeed, classroom sizes have increased dramatically, as hundreds of teachers have been cut, due to the budget crunch.
Read is campaigning on reintroducing foreign language studies into elementary schools. That is a very expensive proposition, and Read has not said how he would come up with the millions of dollars it would cost.
Read has made a major campaign commitment to ensuring all “Title I” schools — those whose classrooms are filled with disadvantaged children — are successful. As Read has said — and this is undeniably true — Shawnee Mission has almost two separate districts today. One is composed of affluent or middle-class students and the other whose families struggle to make ends meet. Neighbor defends the amount of resources channeled to the Title I schools.
Neighbor has argued that the district is doing the best it can with the resources it has. The cash reserves are near an all-time low, and the district is operating on a hand-to-mouth budget.
Voters will really be selecting an attitude when the expected 8 percent of registered voters go to the polls on April 2 or vote by advanced ballot.
They can elect an established status-quo candidate, or they can elect a candidate who promises to raise lots of questions, some of which need to be asked.
The choices are clear.
| Special to The Star
Jane Bailey Pyszczynski
2 months agoTo correct one piece of information, I believe that two members of the current Board have children in our school, the North and Northwest members. I was honored to serve on the SM BOE for 10 years and had children in school during my terms. The current Board reflects the demographics and attitudes of the community-over 70 percent without children in school who are committed to public education and quality of life in the community. Decision making as a Board member with school-age kids is no better than those without. In fact, sometimes it can hinder one’s judgment on what is best for ALL kids. It’s important to look at the qualifications of both candidates and vote accordingly based on accurate information. Thank you! Jane Pyszczynski
Liz Schumacher Craig
2 months agoSteve, I’ve known Cindy Neighbor for at least a decade, and I know she has the experience and judgment needed on the SM school board. You mentioned that Read is raising questions that need to be asked. But you didn’t say he had any answers. Its one thing to ask interesting questions. It’s quite another to work well with fellow board members and the public to try to figure out the answers. Sincerely, Liz Craig
Craig Phillips
1 month, 3 weeks agoAs a teacher who left the SMSD after 10 years of service last May, I found your story very interesting. I agree with Mr. Read, there is way too much of a cozy relationship between the administration and the board. What I found was a school board that was unseen in schools and was overly supportive of the administration’s every move. I never met a board member or top administrator at any of the schools I served, and my former special education position took me all over the district. The wisdom of some of those rubberstamped moves are still a mystery and were regular discussion topics among teachers, especially the promotion and huge salary increase of an administrator to associate superintendent and the amount of money poured into upgrading Mission Valley Middle School only to close it shortly afterwards. To see the top heavy salaries of the administrators at the central office compared with those of the teachers on the front line is terribly unsettling. I would suggest that the educational success of students has more to do with the integrity of the teachers and less to do with those managing the teachers. Leadership and accountability should to be questioned, as Mr. Read suggests, for the district to move forward; recent history hasn’t yielded great results. Craig Phillips Lenexa, KS
Johnn Beuscher
1 month, 3 weeks agoAs a current parent of two children in the SMSD, I support Mr. Read and will go a step further by calling for a complete change of the board. Not only are they too cozy, they fail to listen and vote with the wishes of the parents they are supposed to represent. Mission Valley (now closed) and SM East has a long history of communication problems with the board and their “representative” and instead of getting the answers we deserve as parents, we are left feeling like children who are to be seen and not heard. This must stop and there is no better time than now, with a new Superintendent coming in. I urge everyone in the SMSD to vote for Mr. Read and when given a chance, vote to replace the other board members who have been there more than 5-years. It’s time for the days of the 3-martini-lunch and the ex-cheerleader club members to be over. Replace Them All!