Teachers’ group to host virtual Columbia Board of Education forum
COLUMBIA Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Board of Education candidates will field questions from teachers at a virtual forum Thursday hosted by the Columbia National Education Association.
The forum takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The public is invited but must register to receive a link here.
Five candidates are seeking two board seats in the April 6 election: incumbent Teresa Maledy, Lucas Neal, Aron Saylor, Katherine Sasser and Jeanne Snodgrass.
Current board vice president Susan Blackburn dropped out of the race last month, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.
"My decision to withdraw from the race was a difficult one to make because I really enjoy serving on the board of education. However, at this point in my life, I need to spend more time with my family, " Blackburn said.
Blackburn was elected to the board in 2018 and hers is one of the two seats on the ballot.
The election is happened after a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic and debates over whether schools should have students in classrooms.
Brent Ghan, deputy executive director of the Missouri School Boards Association, said it's been a tough year on school board members across the state.
"It's been a very challenging year to say the least for school boards and administrators as they're grappling with how to continue to provide our kids with quality education during the pandemic," Ghan said. "They've been faced with some very difficult decisions and sometimes those decisions are not very popular."
Ghan said it's especially difficult for board members who have to make tough decisions because they know they cannot please everyone. The Columbia Board of Education debated several times whether to reopen schools, putting elementary students back in classrooms last fall only to send them back online weeks later.
All grade levels have now been learning in classrooms for about a month. Middle and high school students attend in-person two days a week and online two days a week. In Columbia, school board members said they received threats.
"I think when people ran for the school board, they never dreamed they would be in this position to have to make these decisions and yet here we are," Ghan said. "Thank goodness we have people who are willing to step up and provide leadership and make those tough decisions.
Ghan said he believes he's seen an increase in the number of people running for school boards in Missouri, though he hasn't done a thorough count.
"We may have seen an uptick in the number of people running for school board seats ... certainly in some school districts around the state," Ghans said. "It may be related to some of the decisions that have been made or related to the pandemic."
Ghan stressed that school board members are elected representatives of the community who "don't get paid a dime for their service."
"They're making the best decisions they can based on the data on what they know about their communities," Ghan said. "These folks are volunteering their time and not being paid a dime for their service and yet we do call upon them to make very important decisions for our community."
