By Daisy Garcia-Montoya

The race for Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) school board seat for Sub-district 3 on June 20, 2023 will be determined by a write-in campaign. 

Just a few weeks ago, on the April 4 Election Day, the sole competitive school board race for KCPS was for the Sub-district 4 seat, with voters determining the winner via a write-in vote. Candidates for Sub-district 2 and At-large were automatically seated due to being the only candidates to meet the requirements to appear on the ballot for their respective race.

Although there were no names on the ballot for Sub-district 4, voters made a choice between Jay Gray and Monica Curls, with Curls winning the race. 

Less than two months away from the district’s special election on June 20 to fill the open seat in Sub-district 3, located in the northern region of the district, voters will once again have to learn a candidate’s name in order to vote. The seat, which was previously held by Manny Abarca who resigned in January to serve on the Jackson County Legislature, did not have any candidate that could collect sufficient signatures and fulfill the requirements in order to get their name on the ballot.

In order to help individuals interested in running, Revolución Educativa (RevED) is hosting in-person and virtual write-in campaign training to teach the ins and outs of this special type of race. 

At the first session, attendees were able to learn the importance of developing a campaign, the steps to formalize it, and how to build their campaign team. Additionally, individuals heard more about the politics involved, best practices and common mistakes, as well as learned the significance of a write-in campaign. 

“It is incredible how hard it is to get people to know your name, to actually write your name and spell it correctly,” Edgar Palacios, Founder of RevED said, as he hosted the training. “It’ll come down to name recognition, people have to know your name at the end of the day.”

After seeing that two school board seats would be determined via write-in, Palacios said that there is a need for a new infrastructure that enables people in the community to have access and the knowledge necessary to know how to run a campaign. By hosting a few more write-in campaign trainings, Palacios hopes to attract and empower more individuals to run for the KCPS seat and provide them with resources they may need.

“That’s why we are hosting these opportunities, to make sure that people understand that one, these opportunities are available to get an understanding of what it takes to run a successful campaign and second, to know that they’re not alone in this space, that there are plenty of people who have the same questions,” Palacios said.

Attendee Jorge Fuller said that he believes this training will help encourage others to run.  

“Most people don’t think they have the ability to run for office until you have someone who says, ‘Yes,  you should run for office.’ Sometimes we get told we should run for office but not how to do it,” Fuller  said. “One of the things that I had to learn while doing this is that there is a lot of stuff I didn’t know. Next time I run, it’s not going to be just a campaign, it’s going to be a winning and successful campaign. I attend events like these to gain more knowledge so I can be more strategic and impactful.”

For anyone interested in learning more about running a write-in campaign, RevED will be hosting two additional training sessions: April 19 virtually and April 22 in person. To register and more information, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/write-in-candidate-training-tickets-600586750137.