Our School Board Wasn't Elected By Knowledgeable Voters

Our school board is not elected because of the great job that they are doing.  They are elected because they line up early on the first day that candidates can declare and get their names on the top of the ballot.  Candidates that are at the door and sit in the cold don't get their names on the ballot first.  It is the candidates that arrived early and sat in their warm cars and waited for the doors to be unlocked.

The voters of this city don't research before they vote.  They just vote for the first names on the ballot.  They don't understand how important it is to have an objective board that is working for the students.  It seems people do little to no research when they vote.  The article below will tell the story.

Oh, if you happen to get votes a district employee will just strike it up to you being a woman.  Whatever that means.

Martin, the district's autism education specialist, says the close election results aren't cause to believe that other parents are as upset as Tucker.
"I can't say why anyone voted the way they did," Martin says. "Some may have voted for her because of her issue, but some might've done it because she was the last name on the ballot, and some may have done it because she's a female."
Special Needs Challenger Earns Support from Lee's Summit Tribune, re-typed by Debbie Shaumeyer
 
LS Tribune Saturday, April 12, 2008
A Race to Remember
Matt Bird-Meyer
Tribune Editor

Voters had an option Tuesday of four board candidates for three seats.  Maybe the outcome was indicative of lazy voting habits, where the candidates at the top of the ballot get the most votes.  Check, check, check and move on.  But maybe the outcome was indicative of growing displeasure with the entrenched members of the board.  Whatever happened, newcomer Sherri Tucker came close.  She was just 2 percent shy of overcoming incumbent Jon Plaas, who won 5,065 to 4,679.

Plaas had a slim 386-vote separation from Tucker. However the top vote getter, Jeff Tindle, had 2,246 more votes than Tucker, and Jack Wiley had 1,878 more votes than the newcomer.  Tindle was listed first on the ballot, followed by Wiley, Plaas and then Tucker.  The top two candidates were so far ahead of the bottom two that it appears voters were gravitating toward Tucker. I like to think the people who make time to visit the polls are going in there knowing how they will vote, or at least with some knowledge of the candidates.  Personally, I would never vote for someone I know nothing about.  Sherri Tucker never hid the fact that her only platform was special education. She is the mother of a special-needs son and is part of a group of 40 people who feel the R-7 district is not providing adequate services for their special-needs children. 

Tucker didn't go about this alone. Members of the Lee's Summit Autism Support Group picked Tucker to run against the three incumbents.  This was her first time running for office, and she's pledged it's not her last.  Plaas and the others circled the wagons during the campaign, supporting one another and alienating Tucker as a single-issue candidate. Plaas said single-issue candidates belong on the other side of the podium from school board members.

And to an extent, he's right, Candidates should be savvy enough to know that and campaign accordingly. That doesn't mean the candidate should never hold a single issue close to their heart.  To me, that's how the system works. If you think government isn't working, then run for office or at least get involved.  And when voters respond like they did here, we should all take them seriously. I can't say whether there's a problem with special education services in the R-7 district, but there's a growing movement of families out there who are saying that.  "I don't feel like we lost," Tucker told me during a telephone interview.  "We got our message out there and to me that's a win."

I agree, and to run up right against sitting school board members in Lee's Summit is admirable. The incumbents here are typically strong candidates with almost instant support from community leaders. The topic of special education is an emotional and complex one.  These students have different needs and different individualized education programs.  Some students have to find some services outside of the district and some are able to stay in regular classrooms. The bottom line is they are students, and they deserve as much attention as anyone else.

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