For the first time in nearly five decades, Columbia Board of Education will be all white

The Columbia Board of Education will be all-white for the first time since 1974 when new members are sworn in Monday.

The school board has had at least one Black member continuously since James Oglesby was elected in 1974, wrote school district spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark in a Feb. 23 email.

School board President David Seamon didn't seek re-election, and vice president Chris Horn was defeated in Tuesday's election, coming in fifth in the field of seven candidates.

When Seamon and Horn joined the school board in 2020, they joined Della Streaty-Wilhoit on the school board, making three Black members of the seven-member board as the COVID pandemic began.

Jim Whitt was on the school board from 2010 to 2019. He died in 2021.

Whitt's wife, Annelle Whitt, said she never imagined a time when there would be no people of color on the school board.

"A number of our black and brown scholars and free and reduced lunch scholars who are not performing at the same level as their white peers require additional resources and support to enhance their performance," Whitt said.  "Who is going to be the allies for those students? Who are going to be the allies for these scholars?"

Other Black former school board members were Steve Calloway, David Ballenger and RosieTippin. Baumstark said she thinks Oglesby served the longest.

How much difference does the racial makeup of school boards or any government boards make? Opinions differ.

"Representation is important,' Horn said. "Diversity is important. We should strive for the same on the board. I think diversity in all its forms should be represented."

That said, Horn didn't make any reference at all to his race or the racial makeup of the board during his campaign.

"I would much rather they vote for me based on the issues than for my race," Horn said. "There was enough distraction in the campaign."

It's more important to talk about what school board members do, he said.

Superintendent Brian Yearwood has received unwarranted pushback as a Black superintendent, Horn said.

"I'm not going to pretend that race doesn't matter," he said.

Yearwood deserves community support, he said.

"He's a man who knows what he's talking about, a man who has vision," Horn said of Yearwood.

Blake Willoughby, a white school board member elected with Streaty-Wilhoit, said students and other children want to see people who look like them in leadership positions.

The district expects teachers to be culturally competent, but school board members need to be culturally competent in the decisions they're making, Willoughby said.

That may get more difficult and take more effort, he said.

"There's an element to that experience that's going to be missed" with the absence of Horn and Seamon, Willoughby said.

There is a lot of research showing that diverse leadership teams perform better, said Daryl Smith, associate teaching professor at the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri.

In business, the results are seen in increased revenue, innovation and customer service. In school districts, it can be seen in better student performance and less disparity in student discipline, he said.

The minority population of Columbia Public Schools is 44% based on the district website, Smith said.

"I think representation on a school board increases the likelihood of more people having a voice," Smith said. "More voices are going to be heard."

School board members set policy, provide direction for the superintendent and oversee the school district, he said.

"I think there is an impact," Smith said. "I believe diverse perspectives are needed at the table."

It's a problem, said Mary Ratliff, president of the Columbia NAACP.

"Isn't that something?" Ratliff said of the end of continuous Black school board members.

"I think every board needs representation," Ratliff said.

She said she hopes Columbia can elect one or more Black school board members as soon as next April.

"There's no reason we should not have representation on the school board," Ratliff said. "We deserve a seat at the table."

As has been shown, Black school board members can't solve the district's problems by themselves, wrote Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, with the racial and social justice group Race Matters, Friends.

She was mourning the death of her friend Barbara Jefferson, a member of the Columbia Housing and Human Development Commission, who she said she channeled for her response.

"One, two or even three Black representatives on the BOE can’t fix what white supremacy has made -and that is deficit thinking and low expectations of minoritized students." Wilson-Kleekamp wrote. "White folks on the board have an opportunity (again) to demonstrate they can embrace every child in the district like they do their own — with or without a Black board member."

The all-white school board has difficult work ahead, she wrote.

"Having a Black board member in the past 50 years has made them the target for 'fixing' unsuccessfully what white supremacy continues to make which is 'inequity' and disparate outcomes," she wrote. "On the other hand, there is also an added layer to consider — there is now an all-white board who will be working with a Black superintendent who transparently put the raw, painful data out in public for discussion and deliberation."

Recent data reports and the curriculum audit is proof that changes are needed, Wilson-Kleekamp wrote.

"So yes, now the responsibility for addressing the needs of all students falls to an all-white board, same charge as the pre-50 year period which lands up in segregation," she wrote. "The challenge will be whether or not the board members can decenter their respective privileges and upend the myriad of binary logics that prevailed under the last superintendent and have leaked into an institutional culture that has preferred teacher autonomy and mediocrity instead of student-centered education."

Having Black people on the school board doesn't equal better education, she wrote.

"I wouldn’t care if they were all green and purple," she wrote. "I do care that they can reject the culture wars and steer the district away from the indoctrination of the 'imperfect leader.'"

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Since the 1973-74 school year, CPS has had a Black board member