School Board candidate filing ends soon — here's who is running so far
There’s less than a week left for interested parties to file for Columbia School Board candidacy. So far, six people have thrown their name in the hat.
People interested in running for the School Board have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to file. Two board positions are open in the April 6 election. Whoever wins those seats will serve on the board for three years.
As of Thursday evening, six candidates had filed — two sitting board members and four newcomers. Here’s what we know so far:
Teresa Maledy
Teresa Maledy, a retired Commerce Bank executive, is running to keep her seat on the board after being elected in 2018. She said she wants to run because of a strong belief in the importance of public service and the benefits of public education — the same reasons she first ran three years ago.
She said working on the School Board is complex and has a steep learning curve. If reelected, she hopes to use the experience she’s gained to help the board achieve its goals. She also wants to ensure that any gaps in student learning caused by COVID-19 are promptly filled.
“Because of the challenges we’ve experienced this year, we’re going to need to spend some time really understanding and evaluating each student,” Maledy said. “So we know what kind of support they need to catch up, if need be.”
Maledy has six kids, three of whom are currently enrolled in the Columbia Public School District. She came from the banking industry where she served in several leadership roles, time that she said taught her how to work within a large organization. She’s also worked on boards for several nonprofits and was a trustee for Stephens College.
Susan Blackburn
Susan Blackburn is also running to maintain her seat on the board after being elected in 2018. She has three sons who graduated from Hickman High School and is a retired CPS teacher.
Blackburn said her priorities lie in ensuring student literacy, closing the achievement gap and recruiting and retaining quality teachers. She said it’s important to her to build relationships within the Columbia community and to ensure stakeholder participation.
“I think one of the most important functions of a board member is to be able to hear from the public and really listen and then come together with other board members to solve the problem,” she said.
Blackburn worked in the CPS system for nearly three decades as a speech pathologist and literacy teacher. She said her time spent teaching helps her lend a “teacher’s perspective” to the board as well made her familiar with the inner workings of the district.
“I’ve worked in the district for nearly 30 years and had the opportunity to work in many of the schools in our district with our incredible staff,” she said. “I feel like I know the school community really well.”
Lucas Neal
Lucas Neal is the area director for Young Life, a faith-based organization for high school and college students. If elected, he would be a newcomer to the board.
Neal said he believes strongly that public schools give kids their best chance and that he would be excited to work from the current board’s progress to help navigate the difficult times caused by COVID-19.
He said his priority as a board member would be to address key issues, such as literacy and closing the achievement gap, while still working to remedy issues caused by the pandemic.
“I feel really strongly about making sure that every kid in our community has an equal opportunity for success,” Neal said.
As the area director of Young Life, Neal says he’s spent “thousands of hours” around high school students. His wife works in the CPS system, and he was a track coach for 16 years at Hickman High School. He’s had 18 years of experience working with boards, which he says has given him the ability to navigate group conversations and find compromises when needed.
Neal has two elementary-aged children who attend private schools in Columbia. His children attended Fairview Elementary School until this past year, when Neal and his wife’s schedules required the certainty allowed by in-seat learning. Neal said they hope to move their kids back into CPS after this year.
Aron Saylor
Aron Saylor is a web developer for the Missouri Department of Transportation and has two kids in CPS.
Saylor said his priorities, if elected, would be to ensure that students can have an in-school learning experience and do so safely. He said his job maintaining traveler maps and internal inventory applications at MoDOT has given him the ability to handle and understand important data.
“I am a very logical person with my job,” Saylor said. “If I say something, I can prove it.”
He said he decided to run for the School Board after paying attention to the current board and feeling like not everything was “adding up.” Feeling like the board didn’t always cite their sources for their reasoning for certain decisions, Saylor said he “felt like (he) needed to do something.”
He acknowledged the work the current board is doing to return students to in-person learning but said he wished it would have made those plans sooner.
“I know they’re currently working on some things now,” he said. “But they were supposed to have been doing those things last summer.”
Katherine Sasser
Katherine Sasser is one of the latest applicants for the School Board. She is a longtime educator and has two children currently enrolled in CPS schools and another entering kindergarten next year.
Sasser calls herself an “advocate and avid supporter of education as a human right.” If elected, her goal would be to engage the community in an impactful way to ensure access and inclusion in Columbia public schools.
“For me, it’s not about presenting my position in particular, but it’s using that position to bring a voice to folks in our community who need to have a voice in that space,” she said.
Sasser is an educational program coordinator for the eMINTS National Center at MU, where she works with federal grant funding to bring better STEM education and design thinking to rural schools in Missouri and Kansas. She also worked as a teacher at CPS for nine years before spending time working with international schools.
“My professional experience has given me a lens into the needs, aspirations and celebrations in a variety of communities, both here in our community, communities across the state and across the world,” Sasser said.
Jeanne Snodgrass
Jeanne Snodgrass is the executive director of Mizzou Hillel, a nonprofit dedicated to giving Jewish MU students a place to meet each other and get involved in Jewish life in mid-Missouri. She has experience in both education and business and has three children in the CPS system.
Her decision to run was heavily influenced by the current board’s decisions related to COVID-19. If elected, she said one of her main priorities would be ensuring the health and safety of students and staff, both mentally and physically, in the face of COVID-19 and dealing with any issues caused by the pandemic.
She said that she’s also dedicated to ensuring an equitable experience across the CPS system, whether that be in terms of the quality of the school buildings themselves or the types of classes offered within them.
“My kids have had really great experiences (in CPS), but those experiences aren’t the experiences that everyone has had,” Snodgrass said. “I want to make sure funding is a little more equitable for our schools so that students in all schools have access to the same resources.”
Snodgrass said she’s worked with boards for years and said that experience combined with her business experience has given her the skills necessary to build relationships in a community, interact with the public and how to manage a budget.
“I am a strong believer in the public school system,” she said. “It’s really important that everyone who has access to the system has good experiences. Columbia public schools is really amazing, but it can be even better.”
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