All 4 candidates for Springfield school board plan to vote ‘yes’ on $220M bond issue

In February, Springfield Public Schools Board of Education candidate Chad Rollins told the Springfield News-Leader he was 50-50 on supporting the school bond measure that will be on April 4 ballots. But by mid-March, he was off the fence. Rollins told the Daily Citizen he will vote yes on Proposition S, aligning him with the other three candidates for two board seats when it comes to that $220 million decision. 

All four candidates for the two SPS board seats said during interviews with the Daily Citizen that they support the ballot measure, which will extend the school district’s current debt service levy to fund the following projects: 

• Constructing a new Pipkin Middle School and a new Reed Middle School
• Renovating and rebuilding Pershing School, currently a K-8 school
• Constructing and installing storm shelters at six elementary schools and safety and security upgrades at all school facilities

Rollins said the decision ultimately remains up to taxpayers, who must support the bond by a four-sevenths majority (57.14 percent of votes) for the measure to pass. Rollins said, if elected to the school board, his job would be to steward the funds with fellow board members. 

“But I’m for it personally,” Rollins said last week. 

As are the other three school board candidates – Judy Brunner, Landon McCarter and Shurita Thomas-Tate. Here are some of the reasons they said they support Proposition S. 

Chad Rollins: Renovations at Pershing, rebuilds of Reed, Pipkin ‘long overdue‘

Earlier this month, the four candidates took part in a forum hosted at Delaware Elementary School by the Springfield Council of PTAs. Delaware was one of several SPS schools rebuilt by funds made available to the district through a 2019 bond vote. Rollins said he was impressed by the facility during his visit, adding that the new Delaware was fully functional for its student population. The new Delaware houses the highest percentage of students with special needs in the district. 

Rollins has five children currently enrolled at SPS schools in the district, and several have attended one of the schools targeted for one of three major upgrades. 

“For my kids that have gone to Pershing, the renovation for Pershing has been long overdue,” he said. “So that’s something that’s going to be a major factor for me to want to (support Proposition S).” 

He added that Reed and Pipkin rebuilds are also overdue, and that the storm shelter-gymnasiums that would be added at six elementary schools across the district would improve functionality at those schools. 

“So I’m totally for it,” he said. 

Judy Brunner: District, voters should work to provide ‘very best for the kids’

Brunner was once the principal at Reed, one of two century-old middle schools that would be torn down and rebuilt if the bond passes. Brunner recalled working with Reed staff to track down old yearbooks at neighboring libraries and garage sales to handpick alums to feature on a mural in the school’s stairwell. The goal of the project, Brunner said, was to show students they could take pride in Reed’s past while envisioning their own futures. 

Tearing down the school, she said, will likely cause her to tear up a bit. But she said it’s past time for students and staff there to have a modern building. 

“This is 2023, and we’ve got to provide, in every school community, the very best for the kids,” Brunner said. “It doesn’t all come down to the school building, but that’s part of it.” 

Brunner said the bond measure is “a way of sending a strong message to the community that you’re important, and you’re important enough for us to provide you a school that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it is safe, and it’s functional and it’s practical.” At the same time, she said, the school board must provide oversight for public funds, and Brunner described herself as fiscally conservative and experienced in working with taxpayer dollars. 

Shurita Thomas-Tate: No one could go through targeted school buildings ‘without recognizing the need for an upgrade’

Thomas-Tate, who is seeking her second term on the school board, was one of three board members to serve as liaisons for the community task force that passed bond-related recommendations to the school board after months of meetings. Thomas-Tate toured schools and heard presentations alongside the committee members, and supported the committee’s suggestion to put Proposition S on the upcoming April 4 ballot. 

“I think that there’s no person who could go through our school buildings without recognizing the need for an upgrade,” she said. “Not just upgrade — some of them are just worth tearing down. And we are going to tear down a couple.”

Committee members chose to move forward with a request that extends but does not raise the district’s current debt service levy of 73 cents. However, they were presented with several options, including one that would have raised the levy and led to additional funding for more projects. Thomas-Tate said the committee made the right call to maintain the current tax levy. 

“I mean, $220 million is quite a bit of money,” she said. “And so asking for more? No, I don’t necessarily think that we should have asked for more. That was an option that we had, and I’m glad that the committee did not choose that. I don’t think that asking for more than that would be a good idea. Do we still have things that need to get done? Yes. But I like the initial task force idea and plan to do it in phases and to understand that doing it all at once is a huge undertaking and we don’t have the time or money to do that in a short amount of time. I think what we ended up with was the right decision.”

She said she’s supported the bond measure from the start, saying Springfield’s citizens should be concerned with the functionality of buildings across the entirety of the vast school district. She said the recent ribbon-cutting at Hillcrest High School — a school renovated with 2019 Prop S funds — showed what an upgraded school building means to a neighborhood. 

“Oh my God, the pride at that event, not just for the students, which the students were beaming, but also the community,” she said. “The people who live in that area are just beaming with pride about that. And when you have pride in a community institution like the public school in your neighborhood, It can transform the way that you think about your community and your neighborhood.”

Landon McCarter: As a board member, focus is stewardship of funds; ‘I am also for the bond‘

McCarter said that the role of a school board member is not to be for or against a bond issue. Rather, he said, it’s to steward funds based on the community’s decision. 

“I have an extensive amount of results of being able to do that well, and also just being able to manage and facilitate that in a team environment,” he said. “That’s what my skill set is, and that’s how I’ve been able to be a successful entrepreneur.”

And, he said, “I am also for the bond.” 

McCarter said that while buildings don’t teach students, the environment plays a key role in the education process.

“And it’s also more than just the teaching environment in the classroom,” he said. “There’s a sense of community pride that goes along with not showing up to a falling-down building, and also investing in the things that are most important to our community, which are schools. I’m pro-bond.”