The race for three open seats on the Springfield Board of Education has officially been set at seven candidates.
Springfield Public Schools on Wednesday announced the list of candidates who completed the application and submitted a petition with 500 registered voters who supported their candidacy.
Charity Jordan Rex, a prevention and education coordinator for Harmony House, submitted an application but did not have enough verified signatures on her petition, she said.
Ballot order was determined by the time of the candidates’ petition submissions. Candidates who submitted their applications on the first day were placed in a random drawing for their order of appearance on ballots. The candidates include:
• Danielle Kincaid, current president of the Springfield Board of Education. First elected in 2021, she is a partner with the Elder Law Group.
• Landon McCarter. A co-founder of Secure Agent Marketing, he was a candidate in the ‘23 election for school board.
• Susan Provance, a retired teacher and basketball, volleyball and softball coach at Parkview High School.
• Scott Crise, current board vice-president. First elected in 2021, he is manager of gas plant operations for Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc.
• Kyler Sherman-Wilkins, an associate professor of sociology at Missouri State University.
• Chad Rollins. A pharmacist and fitness enthusiast, he was a candidate in the ‘23 election for school board.
• Maryam Mohammadkhani, board member. First elected in 2021, she is a retired pathologist with CoxHealth.
The election will be held on April 2.
One candidate removed for lack of signatures
Rex said she accepted the count, and did not plan on continuing her campaign. That is a bit of a relief, she said, because of personal life events and a desire to keep serving on a city committee.
“I have a lot of life stuff on my plate, and I wasn’t sure how to juggle it all.” Rex said. “It hasn’t diminished my desire to be engaged in a similar manner, though. If elected, I was going to have to step down from my position on the [Springfield] Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights and Community Relations.”
Before working for Harmony House, Rex earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Evangel University and worked as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional with Springfield Public Schools during her training. After that, she worked for 18 years as a children’s librarian with the Springfield-Greene County Library District.
That background gave her an interest in serving on the board of education — she thought of herself as an ideal candidate. But the board’s resistance in July to adopt a statement of support for LGBTQ students and staff motivated her to actually run, she said.
“That just hit me in the gut,” Rex said. “We need people on the board who will recognize what is happening with people today. I’m a huge believer in speaking up for those who don’t have a seat at the table.”
The attempt to run for the school board has given her a good look at what the process requires, Rex said. She plans to be more active in board of education meetings, and is considering running for other offices in the future, she said.
