Northeast News
March 7, 2012

Northeast resident Adam Schieber has announced his intent to run for the Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education.

Schieber, former president of the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association, said he decided to run because it’s important to have local representation. When Schieber announced his intent to run as a write-in candidate, no one had filed for the Sub-district 3 seat.

“The only thing worse than bad representation is no representation, so I wanted to have at least some local voice in the matter.”

Duane Kelly, who currently holds the Sub-district 3 seat, has also announced his intent to run as a write-in candidate. The school board election will be held April 3.

Schieber isn’t shaken about the possibility of the school board structure being changed by pending legislation.

“I don’t think it would necessarily be a bad thing to shake it up and have different boundaries for the school district and maybe even a different leadership structure,” he said. “I do think some sort of local control or local governance is important.”

However, he’s not ready for a complete state takeover of the school district and board, since the state doesn’t have a better track record of running school districts, he said.

With three children of his own, Schieber wants to ensure they receive a quality education.

“It’s something we talk about weekly in our household,” he said.

Schieber said he’s willing to work with state and civic leaders to improve the school district and utilize the best options for the district.

Summing up his goals, he said, “I just want to make sure there’s the best educational opportunities for the kids that reside in our district.”