With a meet-and-greet and a new publication, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday introduced its informational resources for the upcoming Springfield Board of Education election on April 2.
Incumbents Danielle Kincaid, Scott Crise and Maryam Mohammadkhani are running against challengers Landon McCarter, Susan Provance, Kyler Sherman-Wilkins and Chad Rollins.
The seven candidates were featured Tuesday in an event at the Efactory, where about 40 chamber members and other business leaders got a chance to meet them face-to-face. Each candidate was also given a few minutes to speak about their campaign.
Sara Hough, chair of the chamber’s education task force, said the Springfield chamber also published a voter guide and conducted video interviews with candidates covering a variety of topics. Hough said each of the seven candidates participated in its process.
“We have spent a lot of time these last few months working with our committee and task force to put together educational resources for chamber members,” Hough said. “This is to give our chamber members the opportunity to interface with the candidates, meet them face to face and find out why they are running.”
The voter guide, available on the chamber’s website, features background information on each school board candidate, then gives the candidates' answers to questions posed by the committee. The questions cover workforce needs, teacher recruitment and retention, fiscal responsibility and more.
Videos of candidates responding to some of those questions are also available on the chamber’s website.
The questions reflect Springfield Chamber of Commerce members’ recognition that the Springfield economy depends on educational development.
“We consider education as building the workforce of our community,” Hough said. “A strong workforce and a strong economy build our community.”
The chamber did not offer endorsements of any of the seven candidates — that practice ended after the 2022 school board election. Hough said education task force members wanted to focus on a purely educational format, so that chamber members can learn for themselves what candidates stand for and make independent voting decisions.
While the chamber will not endorse any of the candidates in the April 2024 election, it did offer endorsements on two ballot issues for the city of Springfield: Extending the mayor’s term of service from two years to four and amending the city charter’s conflict-of-interest language for its employees, elected officials and volunteers.
OTC students to host similar session
Politically Active, a student group at Ozarks Technical Community College, will host Springfield Votes, a candidate information session at 5 p.m. March 20 at Robert W. Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing.
The event is a non-partisan meet-and-greet, where participants will be able to meet with each school board candidate. Politically Active is a student-run organization that works to improve political literacy of OTC students.
