Nov. 1 was the first day potential candidates for the Springfield Public Schools board could pick up official forms to start the process — and three people already did.
The people who picked up campaign packets on Tuesday in preparation for the April elections are:
- Landon McCarter, CEO and co-founder of Secure Agent Marketing and the author of a book on insurance marketing
- J. Michael Hasty, a former Springfield City Council candidate who said in a Facebook post announcing his decision that there are great teachers and staff at SPS, “and there are things that need to be fixed”
- Board member Shurita Thomas-Tate, an associate professor in Missouri State University’s communications sciences
Thomas-Tate's seat is one of two up for grabs.
School board president not seeking reelection
One who won’t be seeking a seat on the board is its current president. Denise Fredrick said Monday she would not be seeking re-election after serving four terms on the board, citing a desire to spend more time with family while continuing her career-long relationship with the district in a less time-consuming capacity.
Fredrick, a retired SPS science teacher and administrator, said she recently made the decision not to run knowing “it was going to hurt either way” she decided. What she weighed the most, she said, was the opportunity to spend more time with family and attend events with them that board meetings often superseded.
After 12 years on the board, including seven as either its president or vice president, Fredrick said, “it's time for me to step aside and let someone else step on with new ideas and new thoughts, as long as their new ideas and new thoughts are focused on the kids.”
More about the potential candidates who filed Tuesday
Landon McCarter
McCarter is the CEO and co-founder of Secure Agent Marketing, a company that is focused on insurance marketing. He and co-founder Cody Askins also run a YouTube channel focused on insurance training. McCarter donated $2,400 to Kelly Byrne’s successful campaign for school board last April, which was among the largest totals Byrne received. The two played basketball together on the state title-winning 2002-2003 Kickapoo High School team.
J. Michael Hasty
Hasty has recently signed up to speak at several school board meetings and shared issues that concern him as a parent of four, with three children in the district. In September, he said board meetings “have been hijacked to divert the board from what your focus should be, and that’s academic achievement amongst the SPS students.”
He added on his Facebook page that the meetings had been hijacked by people claiming the board “is waging a war on members of the LGBTQIA community because they are not allowing teachers to have pride flags in their classrooms.”
He said his three children are among those in the district who have never read at grade level.
“That’s a problem for me, because I’m not a teacher, and I want my kids to have the best in life,” he said. “Academics should be the focus of the school.”
At last month’s board meeting, he thanked his child’s first-grade teacher for reaching out to him after he made his comments in September, and thanked teachers in general for their efforts.
Shurita Thomas-Tate
Thomas-Tate said in early October she planned to seek re-election, citing the importance the board plays in high-level SPS decisions that are beneficial to the district’s citizens, students, teachers and parents, as well as her commitment to education.
“I’m an educator,” she said when asked why she initially decided to run for the board.
“I work in higher ed, but I have worked and served in K-12. And I also currently as a professor work to help develop speech-language pathologists/therapists who will be working in a K-12 setting. I volunteer in the community with kids. Literacy is my heart and my passion. I believe in public education, and I feel like the health of our city is very much tied to the health of our school district. And I felt like I had something to contribute to that end.”
Process to apply for board seat is open
Picking up forms is the first official step in the process of running for the school board. They are available to pick up during regular hours at the district office, 1359 East St. Louis. After doing that, prospective candidates must turn in at least 500 certifiable signatures of registered voters who support their candidacy. The first day to turn in signatures will be Dec. 6, and the deadline is Dec. 27. Certification day is Jan. 24.
Candidates who turn in their completed forms on the first day will be entered into a lottery to determine the order their names appear on the ballot if their petitions are certified. Anyone who turns in forms after Dec. 6 will be listed on the ballot in the chronological order of when their forms were received. The full set of rules is available here.
Fredrick looks forward to work in final months at helm of board
At the first meeting after the school board election, the new board will vote on a new president.
The current vice president is Maryam Mohammadkhani, who took on the role following a 5-2 vote in her favor last April. Thomas-Tate nominated Danielle Kincaid for the role, which Kincaid seconded. Five members — Steve Crise, Fredrick, Byrne, Steve Makoski and Mohammadkhani — voted for Mohammadkhani, while Kincaid and Thomas-Tate voted for Kincaid.
Asked her advice for the future president, Fredrick said the title doesn’t necessarily mean that you are the one in charge, but rather that you are there to serve the other members.
“So you have to make sure that you listen,” she said. “And that you do your best to make sure that you're always listening to what a majority of your board would like to be on the agenda, what a majority of your board would like to bring forward because it is a board of seven people. And no one person should have a louder voice than anyone else.”
There remains much to do during her final five-and-a-half months as board president. Fredrick pointed to the potential $220 million school bond ballot issue and revision of the district’s strategic plans as top issues that will be completed before her tenure concludes. She said she hopes she will still be board president by the time that the new Jarrett Middle School is ready for its ribbon-cutting ceremony.
And while she will step away from the school board, Fredrick said it won’t be the end of her time with SPS.
“I want to continue to serve the school district,” Fredrick said. “I graduated from Springfield Public Schools. I was a teacher and administrator. I've been on the board for 12 years. So it's been pretty much my life. And I want to continue to serve, but maybe in a less time-intensive way.”
