Nine of Jefferson County’s 11 Boards of Education are guaranteed to have new members this year.
Twelve of the county’s current school board members have decided not to seek re-election on April 5, which in recent years is the highest number of incumbents not filing to run again.
Most districts have two three-year terms up for election.
Three of the boards will have two new members, as both incumbents from the Crystal City, De Soto and Fox C-6 school districts are not seeking re-election. Six other boards will have at least one new member since one incumbent from Dunklin R-5, Festus R-6, Hillsboro R-3, Jefferson R-7, Sunrise R-9 and Windsor C-1 did not file to run in April.
Last year, five county school board members did not seek re-election. In 2020, when the election was pushed back to June instead of April because of the COVID-19 pandemic and nearly every board had three seats up for election, nine board members did not seek re-election. In 2019, four board members did not seek re-election.
The Leader reached out to board members who decided not to run for their seats to ask why they decided to step down. Most conceded that it has been difficult to help lead school districts during the past two years because of the pandemic, but the vast majority of board members also said that did not play a part in their decisions to not run again.
“The last couple of years have not been easy ones to be a board member, but the pandemic was not the factor for me,” said Wayne Surratt, 54, who will not seek re-election after serving on the Jefferson R-7 School District’s board for the last six years. “Dealing with the pandemic was part of the job. I hope there are not board members who are not running because of dealing with the COVID issues.”
However, Todd Oetting, who has been on the Festus school board for 18 years and is the board’s current president, said the pandemic did factor into his decision to leave the board, although he said the main reason he is not seeking re-election is because he no longer has children enrolled in the district.
“The last two years made the decision much easier,” said Oetting, 52. “The whole political spectrum from who our leaders are to the COVID issues, you have radical people on both sides of the issues. It gets tiring. You try to listen to what everyone says and be open-minded, but it can get tough.”
Exiting
Other board members not seeking re-election include Crystal City’s Pat Cherry and Mandie Osher; De Soto’s Lori McKee and Jeffrey Russell; Dunklin’s Jim Kasten; Fox’s Judy Smith and
Carole Yount; Hillsboro’s Renee Sucharski; Sunrise’s Joe Williams; and Windsor’s Steve Meinberg.
The reasons they gave for not running range from wanting to end their long tenures on their board, to no longer having children in their districts, to not having enough time to dedicate to the position.
Smith, who has been on the Fox board for three years and is its current president, said she did not seek re-election because her mission work has been taking more of her time and the places she goes for her mission work have limited cell phone and internet service. Smith, 63, and her husband, Steve Smith, have operated Focus on Missions for 22 years and in the past 10 years, they have worked closely with Vision 316 to supply eyeglasses to those in need throughout the Midwest.
“I would love to run again, but we do so much mission work and are gone so much, it just ties me down,” she said.
Smith, who taught at Fox for 26 years, also said she feels comfortable leaving the board after helping select Paul Fregeau, who took over as superintendent this school year, replacing Nisha Patel after she left to become the superintendent at the School District of Clayton.
“I think he has us heading on the right path,” Smith said. “If we can get beyond all the health issues and things like that, I think (Fregeau) has a good financial plan and educational plan. I think with him in leadership, the district is moving in the right direction finally after seven years, with academics first.”
Russell, who has been a De Soto school board member for the past 21 years, said he is not seeking re-election to have more time to spend with his seven grandchildren and to run De Soto’s American Legion baseball program.
While the pandemic was not a factor for him to leave, Russell, 61, said the last two years have been difficult for board members.
“There have been times in the last 21 years like a search for a new superintendent or things that happen with personnel that can make it stressful for blocks of time,” said Russell, who plans to retire from Ameren after 43 years. “But overall, this has been the most stressful time overall dealing with COVID, and its repercussions.”
Filling future board seats
Some outgoing school board members believe the current social climate may keep people from wanting to serve on boards.
“It has always been hard to find people to volunteer their time no matter what it is,” said Cherry, 60, who is finishing a three-year term on Crystal City’s board, after serving a previous term from 2004-2015. “Now, people are getting bold and sometimes ugly with their opinions. You just look around and think, ‘What am I doing here and sitting here taking this when I don’t have to do this?’ It is not the reason I am leaving, but I can see why there are not big, contested elections (for Crystal City’s board, which has two people running for the two open three-year terms and one running for a one-year term).”
Oetting said he is concerned that recent issues, like how to limit the spread of COVID-19 in schools, may attract candidates who only want to be on boards to address one issue and not education as a whole.
“I think what you will see is personal agendas start to affect student achievement,” Oetting said. “Student achievement will take a backseat to political agendas, which is completely wrong. You should be on a board to help children and promote student achievement. That should be the ultimate goal of a board member.”