The Park Hill School Board race has been an interesting one so far. Oddly enough, the things which have made it interesting have had absolutely nothing to do with the policies, taxes, curriculum or management of the School District. In fact, it’s actually had very little to do with education at all.
Even though his name will still appear on the ballot April 3, when Park Hill school board candidate Casey Beane ended his campaign by announcing he was dropping out of the race, it left more than a couple people scratching their heads. With support of his candidacy from a solid block of parent and teacher groups including several endorsements, it seemed untimely to end his bid just two weeks before Election Day. In the end, though, Beane’s stated reason for leaving the race in deciding to focus on his growing family is admirable. The remaining four candidates, Fred Cox, Chris Seufert, Edward Stephens and Allison Wurst, will contend for two open seats on the Board. The real issue though, doesn’t arise from Beane’s exit from the race, but the effects it leaves behind.
Those who have followed school board elections in the past know how difficult it is for candidates to reach out to voters. School board campaigns don’t tend to have the drama, excitement, or controversy that fuels more partisan races to grab voters’ attention. With that in mind, the local media has announced and made clear Beane’s decision to end his candidacy over the last week. Despite a week-long delay, as we go to press it has been realized the Park Hill School District has also finally noted this on their Web site. As a primary source of information for patrons and voters through the district’s web site, television channel, and email correspondence, news that a leading candidate on the ballot has withdrawn and will not serve if elected is fairly significant. This should have been more proactively communicated by the district. Though as the saying goes: better late than never.
A similar situation happened in 2011, when candidate Victor McCance dropped out of the school board race. Demonstrating the effects a withdrawn candidacy can have, on Election Day he still received 272 votes, a margin candidates Chris Seufert and Fred Sanchez know firsthand could affect their candidacies as both fell short by close margins that same year. Nonetheless, this year it still leaves open the possibility of a couple hundred votes being cast for Beane, a withdrawn candidate who had significantly more support prior to dropping out than McCance did in 2011. The thought of this making a difference in a close election result would be unfortunate.
Out of the four candidates remaining, three have remained fairly uncontroversial, but Edward Stephens has more than made up for it. On the surface, Stephens might appear as an ideal school board candidate: a district graduate, college educated, professional career, well-spoken and well-dressed. But as you may have read in several previous editions of The Citizen, his seemingly insensitive comments and opinions on a variety of subjects including diversity and special needs students have caused quite a stir. Not surprisingly, there’s something about the words ‘White’ and ‘History’ when placed together in a sentence that project a cultural and political disconnect with the average voter. Not understanding that continually using those words would draw negative attention to him reinforces that. Misjudging the negative attention as positive publicity, as Stephens had done, is another example.
While his candidacy deeply troubles some, gauging the level
of support Stephens actually has is difficult. The same can be said for all the
candidates’ support, as yard signs and social media don’t always prove to be
the winning formula in school board contests. As is the case in many elections
where candidates are not identified as Democrats or Republicans, it’s hard to
tell what will eventually draw voters to a particular candidate.
Election night is shaping up to be the culmination of a
fairly active time for the Park
Hill School
District. With the selection of a new
superintendent, approval of new elementary school boundaries, and election of
two new board members all in the last 60 days, things should slow down over the
next couple months in terms of highly political and sensitive decisions, calmly
reverting back to what Park Hill does best, a focus on education.
