School buses wait in 2021 outside Thomas Hart Benton Elementary, Columbia's STEM magnet school (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).
A bill to move school board elections to November and extend members’ terms got a public hearing Tuesday in the Missouri Senate Committee on Education.
Sponsored by state Sen. Adam Schnelting, a Republican from St. Charles, the bill would align school board elections with four-year general elections and extend board members’ terms to four years, beginning in 2028
Schnelting said he aims to increase voter turnout by pairing school board elections with the general election.
“Our children deserve a school system that is more representative of the broader community,” Schnelting said. “Currently, a small contingent of our electorate is making decisions that affect our kids’ curriculum, their school budgets, the future of our school districts and our students.”
State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City, and Schnelting shared worries that over-bloating ballots with too many elections and measures could lead to voter fatigue. While both stated their desire to increase voter turnout for school board elections, Nurrenbern expressed concerns that partisanship from larger elections might trickle down into School Board elections.
According to a May 2025 report from Ballotpedia, 41 states, including Missouri, hold nonpartisan school board elections, meaning no candidate is presented with party affiliation.
Schnelting clarified that this bill would not include the party affiliation of school board candidates on the ballot to dissuade concerns of increased partisanship. Nurrenbern said that she was still concerned.
“When you think about the top issues, going into a general election, they are highly, highly, highly partisan,” Nurrenbern said.
Caitlyn Waley, a representative for the Missouri School Boards’ Association, testified against the bill, adding that she believes school board candidates won’t be able to compete for the attention of voters during a general election cycle.
“The amount of money that is spent in a November election, it would be very hard for the relatively meager amount of fundraising that most school board candidates do,” Waley said. “They wouldn’t be able to break through the conversations that are happening to talk about what’s happening in their local board.”
Chairman of the committee, state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Republican from Harrisonville, said during the hearing that increased partisanship in elections is what school boards need.
“I would say partisan elections are what needs to happen,” Brattin said. “Do you really not believe that a lot of the issues that they have to cover, like curriculum, things that are included in curriculum, really don’t fall on partisan lines?”
Waley emphasized her association’s view on partisanship in these elections.
“We do feel it is very important to keep partisan politics out of the boardroom,” Waley said. “Political affiliation actually makes it harder to have constructive conversations.”
This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online.