Running for public office is not restricted to statewide offices, State Senators, State Representatives, and other so-called political positions. Filing will soon open for Missourians who want to serve on school boards.
The Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA) is reminding those who want to play a role in shaping the future of schools and education at the local level to consider filing to run once the candidate filing period for the April elections begins on December 15th for most districts in the state and on December 22nd for Kansas City school districts.
“People from all walks of life serve on school boards across the state of Missouri,” said the MSBA’s Brent Ghan in an interview with the Missourinet. “School boards play a really important role in our system of public education. They are the ones that set the overall direction, goals, policies that our school districts operate under.”
School boards play that big role in the education of children, even though board members are not directly involved in the day to day activities.
“School boards hire professional educators to really carry out the day to day responsibilities of educating our kids,” said Ghan. “But they set the overall direction and tone and policies for our school districts: What is it our school districts are trying to achieve with our kids? How good is good enough for our school districts?”
No educational background is needed to run for a school board position.
“Really, there are relatively few qualifications for serving on a school board here in Missouri,” said Ghan. “A person just has to be a citizen of the U.S. and a resident taxpayer of their local school district, a resident of Missouri for one year, and at least 24 years old.”
Filing information is available at local school district administration offices. The filing deadline for all school districts is January 19th.