Columbia Board of Education candidate interview: Keary Husain

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Dr. Keary Husain is the only person in the four-way race for three seats on the Columbia Board of Education who is not already on the school board.

Husain will try to unseat one of three incumbents -- April Ferrao, Paul Harper and John Lyman -- in the April election. Three seats are up for election on the seven-member board.

LUCAS GEISLER: Welcome, everybody, to the ABC 17 News Your Voice, Your Vote voter guide for April 2026.
I'm Lucas Geisler. Joined here with Keary Husain. Thank you so much for joining us. Would you mind just introducing yourself and what it is that you're running for?

KEARY HUSAIN: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Keary Husain. I am a native of Columbia, born and raised, born in 1973 at University Hospital. I'm a proud product of Columbia Public Schools. Went to school at Fairview Elementary, West Junior High School, 1991 graduate of Hickman. So K through 12. I went awa for college, medical school was in St. Louis, for quite some time and now I'm back.

Serendipity kind of led me here. I, I didn't really expect to come back, but now that I'm back, I'm so grateful to be home. One of the things that really hit me as soon as I made the decision that I was coming back, was that I wanted to be involved in my community, which, you know, where I grew up, the town I love.

And the first thing that came to my mind was school board. So I'm running for school board, for the April 7 election. And I have three children in the district, which is kind of another thing that prompted me. I have twin daughters that are in elementary school, and I have a son who's a freshman in high school.

And, I've sort of, I'm a trauma surgeon by training, and I was at Washington University and Barnes Hospital in St. Louis for around two decades. And, you know, really working hard. I've since sort of set back my clinical time and I'm doing some consulting. And so the bandwidth is now there to do something for the community.

And like I said, the thing that made the most sense to me was school board.

GEISLER: You know, you mentioned your your kids there. What what else inspires you to want to run for school board? Of all the things you could do with this extra bandwidth as you put it right? Why school board?

HUSAIN: So, I, I remember distinctly. So two things. One, I remember having friends whose parents were on school board when I was a kid. Now, we sort of talked about like, 'Oh, school board!' And then you realize, oh, my goodness, this is a lot more than you kind of expected, especially since the district has nearly doubled since I was a kid.

But I had friends whose parents were there, so I thought that that was what a great way to give to the community and be part of that. And so I'm doing this mostly for my, my kids and the kids in the district. But I also remember when I went to college, being a product of a public school education, being so proud to have been part of Columbia Public Schools, youknow, when we were getting all the national awards and accolades and Columbia was on all the magazines best place to move and raise a family and stuff, and I agree with that.

I used to brag to my buddies who were at, who had come from, you know, really expensive prep schools, Catholic schools from out East. I'm a public school guy. The diversity of Columbia was like my biggest, pride factor. And so, that is sort of what is driving me to say, okay, my, my pride in being a part of Columbia Public Schools and just wanting to be part of the next generation. Part of the thing that I did it while she was I was an educator, I taught residents, I taught medical students, and I was and, you know, I thought how great it was to teach the next generation.

So on the board, you're not necessarily teaching in the classroom, which we you know, the whole point of these wonderful teachers we have, but you are helping develop curriculum. You're helping develop policy. You're helping hire and retain the best teachers in the country, that's our goal. And that's certainly my goal. So that's kind of what inspired me to do this.

GEISLER: And what do you think is the biggest issue facing Columbia Public Schools right now?

HUSAIN: I think, a couple things, obviously. One of the things that I know the board is working on now, and I've sat in on board meetings and policy committee meetings, sort of from the outside looking in. I do understand. And a lot of my friends who have kids and other people have just approached me. I think the behavior and bullying aspect of that's happening is a concern of families, parents, guardians and families and also teachers and students. So I know they're working on that. But I think that being part of that and just putting that out in the out in the world, the data collection and the data transparency is also something I think that that can probably be improved. Not only the ability to, feel empowered to report bullying, whether no matter who you are, but also the board and the, and the administration, presenting that data to the public. So that's important.

I think a really important thing for me specifically is, hiring and retaining the best teachers. You know, there was just recently, that publication of 69% of teachers will tell you that, that they would maybe want to quit or change jobs or change. And that makes me very sad because I was, I mean,I used to tell everyone, I say, I'm on record saying now, Columbia Public Schools made me into the person that I am today. I think that's how I ended up at a really good college. I would say how I ended up in medical school became a doctor. I was molded by these great teachers. And so I think, you know, presenting teachers with not just competitive but top-tier salaries and top-tier benefits and retaining them with pride in the workplace happiness to work there. I think that that's really, really an important thing. And then finally, I think equity across the district is something that I've really become passionate about.

When I was growing up, we had obviously, you knew who had means, and maybe some of your friends didn't quite, but it didn't seem to really matter. But I think as Columbia has grown, as the district has grown, I think the diversity is our biggest, asset. But I also think disparity and inequity across the district are, are are issues that I would love to sort of help fix.

GEISLER: Let me ask you about the retention portion that you brought up. What can you, as a board member, do or what would you like to do if elected to the board to address some of those issues and concerns that, you know, teachers being surveyed or are saying might make them want to get out of the rotation altogether, right?

HUSAIN: I think so, first of all, the hiring and recruiting of the best. We have a wonderful university here, education department. Both at the university, Stephens College, Columbia College and even, you know, some of the community colleges around. So I think that's fair. So paying top-tier salaries, saying, okay, we we respect what you can do for our children and this.

So we're going to pay you for it. But I think the retention part is, I think benefits, having a strong benefit package that that makes you want to stay and say, okay, my job is protecting me, both health care and other other things, making the job fun. You know, there's a lot of things that we do as a board member at at Mill Creek, where my daughters, my twins go to elementary school. We really pride ourselves in doing as much as we can for the teachers from the PTA side. So it's something as little as stocking the the teachers lounge during parent teacher conference week, making sure that, you know they have snacks and are well hydrated and have their coffee, drinks and everything else. But, also just making it fun.

And there's a lot of things that you can, you can do to just say, okay, your job is meaningful and we want you to, to come to work. I think the teacher transfer policy that they've just passed and they have been working on, you know, being able to say, yes, we need great teachers across the district, but there is an ability to go from one to the other. And, you know, and health care usually, the newest graduates don't always get the best jobs. You know, the newest nurses maybe have the night shift until they go as a surgeon. Maybe you get the Friday afternoon block time because the other the more senior people are already on the golf course when. And that's fine. I get that, but there's always that ability to to increase or improve or go.

So while I am very much an advocate of making sure that we have the best teachers across the district, I also understand if certain teachers want to, sort of move or go around or, and we want to make that as equitable and, transparent as possible as possible. And I think that that's something the board, you know, worked on in the last board meeting, took care of.

So I think that those are some of the more important things. And then, you know, safety. I'm a huge safety person. So making sure that teachers and students are coming to school and feeling safe, that's vital. And so I think those are the main.

GEISLER: Well, let's talk about safety for a second. Making sure I mean, it's something parents, students, faculty, everyone involved in schools is definitely worried about how safe the schools are, right? What's something that you would hope to do as a board member to, to improve that or push that forward?

HUSAIN: So there's, so I come from a trauma surgeon background. I sit on the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, and one of the main issues there is gun safety nationally, not necessarily in schools, but certainly schools is a huge part. We all want our children to be safe, our teachers to be safe. So coming from that, where I have I've even I've written and sort of, we've all kind of have this, you know, sort of gun owners bill of rights. So from a national and a state level certain, you know, rights and
responsibilities for owning guns, that's different. So it starts, there is some legislative stuff that we can do. But as far as from the schools, yeah, obviously they've added the weapons detection systems, which is relatively new. And you know, some of the, the hardening of the infrastructure. I met with the new principal at the newest school, Eagle Bluffs, and they talked, you know, there's bulletproof glass on the outside and there's, you know, everything else.

And while it's sad that we have to, I think it's absolutely mandatory. So I think going through and we had a forum the other night where we talked about, yes, we have the weapons detections and yes, there's cameras. The cameras need to be replaced, which I think is in the works, you know, just the quality. And then the where you can't necessarily see. So there might be an external exit that doesn't have visualization. And so you want to make sure. Certainly. Those kind of things. So internally infrastructure wise making sure that we have a safe building but also just education to, you know, both the teachers, resource officers are an incredible resource. But also making sure that they are understanding deescalation quality. So having counselors involved to maybe find a child who might be troubled before something terrible happens. My father's one of the things he did, he was a world renowned child psychiatrist, and he was very well known for his, dealing with PTSD and children. He came up with a concept called teachers, as therapists. And that was for, like, Third world, you know, war-torn areas where kids were coming to school and the teachers were taught he would give he would go to these places, and he would give lectures and seminars on how to sort of ID some of these issues. I'm not saying that that's necessarily something, but we can extrapolate that to the schools where the teachers and the counselors have training to sort of understand that a student is struggling at home or struggling with with mental health, or struggling with behavioral issues, before we get to a true, tragic safety issue. Plus, it's just better for the students in general.

So I think that that those are the important things. But I think safety has to be, paramount to coming, you need to come to school as a student and come to work as a teacher, thinking that you're in a safe environment.

GEISLER: So let me ask you, too, because you brought up bullying with this, which I think plays a part in safety, at schools as well. You mentioned wanting more data and more transparency. I didn't know if you meant that around bullying reports of bullying. What more data do you think the district should provide?

HUSAIN: My understanding and again, listening to families, at these forums, which have been very, rewarding and educational and also talking to my fellow candidates and other board members, it's been a very cordial and really great campaign. I've gotten to know those folks and learned a lot just listening to those kind of things. My understanding and also trying to navigate the the CPS website, which we all know is a little bit archaic, and they're working on improving that. I joke that get my son and a couple of his buddies in front of a computer and they can build a better website, but, I think my understanding is that that you can report something, it happens. There might be some, something happens with the school. The administration action taken, but. And it doesn't. And of course, privacy is important. So we're not putting names. We're not putting this stuff. My understanding is sometimes families will look at and say what happened to my child's situation. It doesn't seem to be, ferret it out.

And what I'm seeing online. So, you know, one of the things they talked about that they're in the works with the, you know, literally a like a button on the website to say I either was bullied, I witnessed bullying, and then that gets captured. And those numbers, those real numbers get so the public is aware of them. And then what happens after that? Again, in a blocked data fashion, not an individual fashion of this is what we did. This is what we're doing. I know for a fact that the current board is working very hard on the policy and the policies seem to be robust. The problem, I think that a lot of parents have talked to me about and students too, because, you know, like I said, I have a high schooler and and some a couple elementary school kids that are the policies being enforced as they are written across the board.

And that is another thing that you can, if you are reporting everything in a transparent fashion, you can see that, you know, maybe 20 incidents were reported, but we're only seeing data on the outcome of two or something. I'm just drawing, you know total numbers out there. But that I think is something that's frustrating some of the public. I know that, when [Superintendent] Dr. [Jeff] Klein was hired and, and as the board has sort of, evolved into what it is now and of course, me wanting to be part of it, the promise of transparency is there. And I think they're doing a very good job. But I've always said, and in every aspect of my life, you can always do better and you can always have more. And so I literally think, you know, and I've been to board meetings where they've put those graphs and other things up, and I've taken screenshots because I'm like, I'm not sure where I'll find this other places, but they put. But I mean, not everyone comes to the board meeting. Not everyone streams the board meeting. Not everyone is privy to the data or has a computer at home, I think, you know, but just making this, this is what's happening in CPS. Whether it's new policy or whether it's the data on bullying or the data on attendance, which is also an important hot button issue, the data on, you know, performance on, you know, I read it and, and that kind of stuff. So that's where I too. And in this day and age with technology, there's really no excuse to not have just drinking out of a firehose amount of data. And then you can decide what you, what you want to look at.

GEISLER: So what do you think the school board's relationship is with the public? Do you think it's a they have a good one or is there something you're on the board that you'd like to work on? So I think that again, having just moved back here a few years ago and there being a gap between the first 18 years I was here and then the time I've been here now, I know that there were some issues, I know that there was some real concern by the public for, for transparency and for that communication gap.

HUSAIN: Again, I will give credit to the current board for really trying to improve that. But based on what I've heard at these forums, talking to the community, just going out and pressing the flesh and talking to people and asking questions, and then my friends, because I still have quite a few friends who've stayed in Columbia or come back and they're raising kids in the district. I don't think it's a poor relationship or an antagonistic relationship whatsoever. But I do think there's some frustration with communication. And again, the transparent, you know, that's a such, it's the hot word. But I mean transparency and making sure the policies sort of fit what this community needs. And of course social media, you know, I follow a lot of different groups of, of, of people and, and there's some there's some concern there. I will though, say that I think most people who are really engaged will say that it's improving and they're happy about that. And certainly I would add to that as far as being, you know, part of a group that says we owe the public the information, we owe them the communication. And, of course, on the board, you you do the, you know, you put in the, the most of the work as far as the behind the scenes policymaking and stuff.

But that needs to be out there in the public and also and more, you know, equally, as importantly, what does the community need? That's one of the things that I, you know, go to this, this particular part of town with this particular school will have much different needs than the schools on a different part of town or, or the newer schools or whatever, you know. And so listening, you know, I think the I was at a couple of the listening sessions that they've done, the town hall kind of listening sessions, and I definitely want to be part of that. I think maybe put those online, put those streaming, if you can't make it or have more of them. I know it's a lot. It's a commitment. And oftentimes, you know, Saturday at the library. But still, you know, what does the community need? What do they want? What are their concerns? What do they think is lacking. And then address it as a board? I mean, I think that that's the job of a of a school board.

GEISLER: Yeah. Let me because it kind of speaks to the equity issue you were talking about before too, and I think that's a good way to get into this next question here. There's certainly lots of questions out of Jefferson City over how we fund public schools. Moving forward from here on, I'm curious, what what do you have any particular thoughts on performance-based funding for schools, or are you supportive of that idea or why? Or maybe why not?

HUSAIN: I think there's pitfalls in that, ok. And the reason why is I think that if you're basing your funding on mere performance, perhaps that and this is where the equity comes in, perhaps that's the school that needs more help. And as a school board, we're not legislators. We're not Jeff City, we're not in Washington. So I think our job is to say, okay, perhaps this particular school or these particular students or this are underperforming. We always want the best performance. I mean, that's the whole point of a public education. That's what I prided myself on. And and it's what I received. But I think that there's some slippery slope pitfalls involved in saying you're not performing, therefore you don't get. And then you just you fall off the cliff. We are one district. You know, when I lived in St. Louis, I lived in Clayton, a small little area. Excellent, excellent public schools, excellent. You know, they didn't have to worry about what Ladue was doing or Kirkwood or Webster or St. Louis City. It was Clayton. Columbia Public Schools is an enormous district with a lot of schools with a huge amount of diversity.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, we need to take care. You know, we need to bring everyone to the same level. So that's where I think that that's that's problematic. It's saying you're not performing, therefore I think you're not performing well. Let's find out why and let's fix it because we're all one big family.