An incumbent and two newcomers to the Springfield Board of Education race have earned the support of the union that represents teachers in Springfield Public Schools.
The Springfield National Education Association on Friday announced it was endorsing incumbent Maryam Mohammadkhani and challengers Landon McCarter and Kyler Sherman-Wilkins. They are running against incumbents Danielle Kincaid and Scott Crise, as well as challengers Susan Provance and Chad Rollins.
Voters on April 2 will choose three candidates to serve three-year terms on the board.
Union says members ‘want change’
Laura Mullins, president of the SNEA, said that the three candidates had key views and philosophies about the district’s discipline issues and increasing administrator pay at the cost of classroom investment.
“We have members who are saying they are waiting until the election to decide whether they are going to stay at SPS or not,” Mullins said. “They want change. And so we did our best to try to find people who will do that.”
Behavior has emerged as a key issue this school year. The district is in the first year of implementing a structure known as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Strategies, which calls for listing expected and encouraged behaviors and redirecting misbehaving students toward those.
But the implementation has not gone well, Mullins said. In a previous board meeting on Nov. 28, Mullins listed a number of concerning behaviors that teachers reported, and also said those teachers were encouraged to not submit referrals. The SNEA staged a demonstration on Dec. 19.
As for administrator pay, Mullins said members were concerned about overinvesting in administrators while support for teachers in classrooms was getting scaled back.
The three candidates were endorsed for their willingness to ask questions and keep an independent mind.
The SNEA represents about 80% of the district’s teachers. With the endorsements comes the promise of financial support through campaign donations and advertisements, Mullins said.
Months-long process led to endorsements
The work to make the endorsements started before candidates have even picked up packets. Mullins said an endorsement committee of eight members was formed, emphasizing a spread of representation across different types of employees and teachers.
Members were also polled about what issues were most important to them. That survey was used to devise questions that candidates were asked.
Candidates filled out a written questionnaire and participated in recorded interviews as part of the process. Once the endorsement committee had recommendations, it moved those to the association’s executive committee, composed of 20 elected SNEA members.
The three endorsements were made with near-unanimous approval from the executive committee.
Mullins said the process was harder than usual. It took an unusual step of sharing the video interviews with the association’s entire membership.
Union endorsements differ from others
The endorsements include a split along endorsements from politically-based committees.
Back on Track PAC, a conservative group, has endorsed Mohammadkhani, McCarter and Rollins. United Springfield, formed as a nonpartisan group in response to outside political pressure in previous elections, has endorsed Kincaid, Crise and Provance.
Mullins said support from political groups was deliberately left out of their considerations.
“It very much adds a political divide, and it’s really hard to do a true endorsement when I feel those things blur what our purpose is,” Mullins said. “We were looking for people who we felt would ask questions, and vote no if they didn’t agree.”
