Melissa Eddy sits through just about every meeting of the Kansas City, Missouri, School Board, taking careful notes on the behavior and actions of its nine elected members.
The mother of two often watches petty politics and in-fighting wreck havoc on the education of her kids. "The board is quite divided and quite tense and there is a very clear line of us and them," she says of the alliances and interests around the board table.
In 2008, Eddy started Do The Right Thing for Kids, a group of parents and community members that keeps a close eye on the inner workings of the school district. She's happy there's some competition in the April 6 school board election, but she's not confident it will make much difference.
And if the new board doesn't get its act together, her group will make sure there are repercussions at the state capitol.
Melissa Eddy's group isn't convinced an elected school board is the best way to ensure qualified, dedicated candidates are making decisions about the education of the district's 17,000 students. The process certainly hasn't been all that successful -- or democratic -- in the past.
"We felt the system was broken and we really wanted to address another type of governance structure," she says. "Those who were leery would suggest that what we have in place is a very democratic process by which voters have fair representation."
When the group looked up results from the Kansas City Election Board they found that many (in fact, the majority) of the school board members earned their seats with very few votes or without an opponent at all. Bill Eddy (no relation to Melissa Eddy) was an example of that trend. He was elected to the school board in 2004 with no opponent. When he left in 2008, he joined up with Do the Right Thing for Kids to push for a different means of selecting school board members.
"We looked at what's going on around the country and what it's going to take to turn this situation around," Bill Eddy says. "And the thing that's happening is that elected school boards are being replaced with appointed school boards. It's kind of like the thing the government did with GM [General Motors]. It often happens with an organization that is broken; it can't fix itself. So you have to do something fairly dramatic and bring in a turn-around group."
Appointed school boards still govern less than 10 percent of districts nationwide.
During the 2009 legislative session, a number of lawmakers in the Missouri House of Representatives floated bills that sought to change the structure or selection of the Kansas City school board. Do the Right Thing for Kids backed change. Local activist Spark Bookhart rallied community members to maintain the current process. Then, by the end of the year, a new crop of candidates proved there might actually be some evidence of democracy in the 2010 election.
That's not enough to eliminate the concerns of the two Eddys. Bill Eddy says Do the Right Thing for Kids is waiting on the outcome of the election before it makes its next move. But it's already locked and loaded for another legislative assault.
"Our legislation, which has been refined and polished into a tighter bill is still alive in Jefferson City," he says. "But what we've decided is to stay out of the way and let the superintendent and the board see if they can make some progress. If we find that they're mired in the same old dilemmas of so many years then we're going to push the bill. And we have indications from a number of legislators that it will have a very good chance this time."
Bill Eddy demurs when asked for specifics. "I'm not ready to drop legislators' names," he says.
Melissa Eddy isn't exactly hopeful about the results of April 6. "We'll only be lucky enough to three new faces on the board and that has never brought systemic change to the district," she says. "Even with great desire and great dedication it's never resulted in change, so I don't know where it's going to get us this time."
Depending on the configuration of candidates sitting at the table after April 6, that divide could deepen. Whether the new members can work together will be quickly apparent.
"You'll be able to tell in the first few meeting of the new board," Bill Eddy says.
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My only concern is this. Can Billy (beat by Eric West) Eddy and his daughter take an oath that neither will attempt to become appointed board members? It seems they are the only two people still pushing for a non democratic process. I checked out their facebook group and there are only 5 members by contrast the folks currenly working hard for our votes have well over 500 members a pop. So you tell me which process we should follow, back door appointments or open democracy?
I side with the Republic and Constitution.
Thank you,
James
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