Whitney Lanning, Bradley Huett, Jennifer Kerns, Brian Shewell, Rick Gehring, Amanda Cook and Don Crabtree participate Monday in the Missouri State Teachers Association candidate forum for the St. Joseph Board of Education.
From left to right, St. Joseph Board of Education candidates: Whitney Lanning, Jonathon Bell and Rick Gehring. Middle row: Harold Barr, Amanda Cook and Bradley Huett. Bottom row: Jennifer Kerns, Brian Shewell and Don Crabtree
Whitney Lanning, Bradley Huett, Jennifer Kerns, Brian Shewell, Rick Gehring, Amanda Cook and Don Crabtree participate Monday in the Missouri State Teachers Association candidate forum for the St. Joseph Board of Education.
Marcus Clem | News-Press NOW
Amanda Cook, a candidate for the St. Joseph Board of Education, speaks on Monday during the Missouri State Teachers Association forum.
File photo | News-Press NOW
From left to right, St. Joseph Board of Education candidates: Whitney Lanning, Jonathon Bell and Rick Gehring. Middle row: Harold Barr, Amanda Cook and Bradley Huett. Bottom row: Jennifer Kerns, Brian Shewell and Don Crabtree
The contenders for two seats on the St. Joseph Board of Education, each for a term of three years, gave their perspectives Monday on issues like what is learned in the classroom.
The event is semi-official in being held at the normal meeting place of the school board — the Troester Media Center — and is sponsored by the Missouri State Teachers Association. The MSTA is one of two associations that advocate in St. Joseph for district employee contract, workplace and community interests. It also lobbies at the state level on various public education funding and regulatory topics. Attending on Monday were Don Crabtree, Amanda Cook, Rick Gehring, Brian Shewell, Jennifer Kerns, Bradley Huett and Whitney Lanning. Candidate Harold “Bud” Barr did not attend for unstated reasons, while candidate Jonathon Bell, who is a U.S. Army Reserve officer, has recently been deployed as part of his national service.
“I think we’re just looking for some consistency and some knowledge in their responses,” said Denise Peters, a second grade teacher at Skaith Elementary and an MSTA leader. “We want to see that they’re ready to be an advocate for our kids and for our public schools as a whole while looking locally at the issues that we have here.”
The months to come are expected to see the introduction of a new school boundary plan that could re-distribute students between Central, Benton and Lafayette high schools, with the aim of permanently keeping populations in balance between the three. All candidates agreed that this process will be necessary, and could ultimately see one of the high schools changed in status. Warren Ingram, an observer of the forum, said it is his expectation that all three high schools remain in operation.
Any board candidate who would be open to closing or reassigning one of the schools does not have his support, Ingram said; this is a deal-breaker.
“If they were to close one of the schools, it would be like cutting off an appendage of your body,” he said. “It’s just a society thing. Benton is the South Side, we all know that. That’s how it is and how it will always be. If my kids were still in high school, I’d sooner move to some place like Platte County than send them to Central or Lafayette. I’ve nothing against either one of those schools, it’s just Benton only for me. And I can’t imagine seeing kids be confused and lost in a massive super school.”
The MSTA will endorse up to two two candidates following the Monday night forum, and its preferred picks usually win school board seats. The endorsements are likely to be publicly announced later in March.
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