Teacher diversity, achievement gaps part of latest SPS board forum
A school board candidate forum hosted by Springfield NAACP focused on critical issues in this election cycle — from student achievement to teacher retention — cast through a civil rights lens.
The questions, based on the local chapter’s education platform, also sought to gauge candidates’ level of support for under-resourced and under-represented students and staff.
More than 30 people showed up at the Schweitzer Brentwood Branch Library on Saturday for the 90-minute forum moderated by Kyler Sherman-Wilkens, Springfield NAACP’s vice president and education committee co-chair.
This year’s forum replaced the scorecard Springfield NAACP produced in the past, which was based on how candidates’ responses to a questionnaire compared to the group’s platform.
“After receiving some feedback … about the best way to get the candidates’ visions and their perspectives on issues that are important to us, we just through the best way is for you to hear these questions being responded to from the candidates’ own mouth. Hence, why we are having this forum,” he said.
Sherman-Wilkins, who previously ran for the school board but was not elected, said the switch from a scorecard to a forum is expected to be permanent.
Three of the four candidates on the April 8 ballot were present at the forum: Kelly Byrne, Sarah Hough and Gail Smart. David Myers was unable to attend due to a military obligation.
Byrne, elected in 2022, is the sole incumbent in the race for two open seats on the seven-member governing body, which is responsible for approving an annual budget, setting policy, and hiring and then evaluating the superintendent.
Here are three of the questions asked of candidates and their answers, which were edited for length:
Hiring, keeping teachers
Q: NAACP believes that representation matters. What measures will you take to attract and retain qualified educators from under-represented backgrounds?
Smart, an attorney and community volunteer, noted there are three universities in town — Missouri State, Drury and Evangel — with robust teacher education programs.
She said the district’s “Grow Your Own” program, in partnership with the institutions, should be strengthened and expanded.
Smart noted that Missouri State has a program open to under-resourced high school and college students who plan to teach, which provides scholarships in exchange for extra training and a commitment to teach in the district.
“That is one of the things that I would do to support teachers of all backgrounds being in public schools,” she said.
Hough, senior manager for community and outfitter engagement at Bass Pro Shops, said she believes that representation matters.
“When I was a kid … I felt this strong pull of leadership within me and every person I saw in a leadership role was a man and so that kind of stifles your flame,” she said.
This week, she attended the second annual Unity Empowerment Tea, which connects high school girls with local business leaders and professionals who are women.
She supports mentorship programs like that one and others for future teachers that “plant the seed in our high school students that they may have an aptitude for teaching.”
“Investing in those programs in our community are certainly needed to grow the next generation of educators,” she said.
Byrne, managing partner of Say You Can LLC, said the district has a teacher retention problem with high turnover in recent years.
“This isn’t sustainable and the clear thing that teachers have expressed to us through surveys and through union representation is that student behaviors is the challenging thing that’s pushing them out of the profession, or out of Springfield at least,” he said.
He said a good teacher “can overcome bad curriculum, bad facilities, all sorts of things.”
Byrne said to answer the “under-represented backgrounds portion” of the question “broaches the conversation of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
“Two of those terms are variables that we should be very actively controlling and one of them is a result that we should ponder,” he said. “So diversity would be the result of equity and inclusion. If you are … inclusive and you are equitable, then I think the logical outcome is that you would have a diverse staff.”
Closing achievement gaps
Q: The NAACP is committed to addressing systemic inequalities in education including disparities in graduation rates, literacy and standardized test scores. As a prospective board member, what policies would you support to help close the racial achievement gap in our schools?
Hough said any discussion about achievement gaps also has to focus on socioeconomic factors. More than half of the students in the district qualify for free or reduced price school meals, a national measure of poverty.
In studying the issues before deciding to run for the board, she read national research.
“One of the things that has stood out to me … is that socioeconomic status is oftentimes the No. 1 predictor of a student’s outcome of success. We have to realize that we have 52% of our students in Springfield on free and reduced lunches,” Hough said.
She said as a board member, she will keep that at the forefront.
“We have to ensure that they have equitable access to programs and academics, certainly, but we have to understand the gaps that may be happening in their lives outside of school,” Hough said. “How do we connect students with the resources that they need to succeed? That certainly is a big ask and it’s, to me, not something the school district can do 100% on their own.”
Byrne said the number of students in households at or below the poverty level indicates the challenges they face “go beyond racial boundaries, sexual orientation, gender identity.”
“Students have things that they’re challenged with so the mission of Springfield Public Schools is to provide high quality academic opportunities for each of the students. We came up with that in my time on the board and I fully believe in that,” he said.
He said the district “can’t always affect the outcome” for a child but it can provide “equal and high quality opportunities for each student.”
“Really where it becomes important is it’s all about the people. It’s all about the culture,” he said. “We need the best, most qualified teachers who care to make sure they’re identifying these challenges in each of these students’ lives to help bring them up to their highest potential.”
Smart said the district must support students from different backgrounds and “make sure they have the resources they need to achieve academically.”
She said extracurricular clubs and activities can help fill the gap, and pointed to the SAAB program. It provides leadership and mentorship for students from a wide variety of backgrounds. It is open to male and female students, regardless of race.
“It is doing some incredible things with kids that are under-resourced, that don’t have the support at home,” she said. “It is helping them with their literacy rates, it’s helping them get to graduation.”
Ensuring safety of LGBTQ students
Q: What specific initiatives or policies do you propose to implement in our schools to address the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ students and staff, and how do you plan to ensure that the school environment is inclusive, supportive and safe for all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity?
“There are two challenges with this question that can sometimes be a little bit conflated. One is what challenges … that might exist for a student or staff … through what SPS can control and then the other side of it is what challenges that they might experience with their peers in class,” Byrne said.
“For starters, with their own peers, all bullying should be punished as such regardless what the reason was for. To me, it doesn’t matter if it was because the child identified as LGBTQ or if it’s because they wear glasses or whatever. All bullying should be handled appropriately.”
Byrne said whoever the district tasks to talk about these issues with students should be “appropriately trained,” such as school counselors.
“I don’t think we need the entirety of all of our teachers having these conversations with children … because you’re broaching on some issues that are very nuanced (and) can also be sexual in nature and you’re talking with minors,” he said.
He added that parents ought to be part of those conversations.
“Regardless of what I think about these issues, what the parent thinks and what they want to implement with their children is what matters,” he said. “Right or wrong, it is between them and their child because that is a minor and it’s their child and it’s their choice to decide how they want to handle that.”
Smart said she believes all students should feel safe at school. “They should all feel valued at school and welcomed and it breaks my heart to think that some students aren’t.”
Hough said “every child deserves to feel safe and welcome at school and so it is our job to make that a priority.”
“As a board member, I would listen to the challenges of this population,” she said. “I don’t have this experience so I think that would be a top priority for me to understand what (the) challenges might be.”
In late 2023, after a series of tense meetings, the Springfield school board voted 4-3 to add “gender identity and sexual orientation” to a pair of anti-discrimination policies governing school lunches. At the time, the change was requested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I would have been in favor of aligning that language with requirements for USDA and I think it’s important to use language that is inclusive of all of our populations,” Hough said. “Whether it’s language or policies that support all of our students, I think the board has to carry those things forward.”
(This story was updated to meet our standards.)
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