Here's who is running for the 3 open Springfield school board seats in April

With the deadline to turn in packets for the candidacy on the governing board for Springfield Public Schools now past, eight candidates have entered their names into the race and await official certification in January. On April 2, voters will choose three of the candidates to fill spots on the school board. Here are the options.

Danielle Kincaid

Currently serving as the president of the school board, Kincaid is one of the three incumbents up for reelection after her first three-year term. She is an attorney and partner with the Elder Law Group, specializing in wills, trusts and estate planning.

Kincaid grew up in Raymore, part of the Kansas City area, and moved to Springfield in 2002 to earn a bachelor's degree and an MBA from Missouri State University. She has a juris doctorate from Creighton University School of Law.

Kincaid had previously served on the board for the Foundation for Springfield Public Schools and been a part of its strategic planning committee.

Landon McCarter

Following an unsuccessful school board run in April 2023, McCarter is campaigning again.

McCarter is a Springfield native and 2003 graduate of SPS, with children enrolled in the district. He briefly worked as a substitute teacher. Based on News-Leader reporting from his last election run, he comes from a family of teachers — his mom was a teacher's aide at Boyd and Berry elementary schools and his dad, Larry McCarter, taught for decades at Springfield Public Schools and later Ozarks Technical Community College.

He earned a degree in marketing from Missouri State University and was the CEO and co-founder of Secure Agent Marketing, an ad agency with a focus on the insurance industry and financial sector.

Susan Provance

Provance will be the first school board candidate who is a member of the SPS Hall of Fame. A 1971 graduate of Glendale High School, Provance went on to spend three decades teaching physical education and health, mostly at Parkview High School, though her career in education stretches beyond SPS and the classroom.

While still in high school, she was asked to help teach golf. After receiving her degree in health, physical education and recreation from the University of Tulsa, Provance taught and coached for four years in Willard before taking the SPS job. She also coached girls basketball, volleyball, softball and boys and girls tennis. In retirement, she taught classes at Southwest Baptist University. Now, she remains involved with the Springfield-Greene County Park Board's archery program.

Though two members of the SPS Hall of Fame were inducted after serving on the school board — Tom Prater in 2018 and David Harrison in 2023, Provance, who was inducted in 2015, will be first to have done so before appearing on the ballot.

Scott Crise

Another incumbent and current school board vice president, Crise is seeking reelection after his first term.

Crise grew up in the Chicago suburbs and moved to Springfield in 1999 to take a job at Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. He is now manager of gas plant operations. An engineer, Crise earned his bachelor's degree in petroleum and mechanical engineering from the University of Tulsa and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Both of his daughter graduated from Glendale High School, one in 2013 and the other in 2015.

As the board has become more politicized and elections more divisive, Crise has often been the swing vote in split votes between board members backed by explicitly conservative groups and those in opposition.

Kyler Sherman-Wilkins

Sherman-Wilkins is an associate professor of sociology at Missouri State University and is part of the leadership team for the Springfield NAACP and the GLO Center, which serves the LGBTQ community. After repeatedly advocating for students from historically under-represented groups at school board meetings, he is adding his name into the race.

The Illinois native attends board meetings and has served on the SPS discipline review work team. After earning a bachelor's degree at Cornell University, he went to Pennsylvania State University for his master's degree and doctorate. In August 2017, he moved to Springfield to work for Missouri State and has been involved with the Springfield district for more than three years.

At some meetings, Sherman-Wilkins has delivered pointed criticism of board actions and comments members made during meetings and other public appearances, particularly related to issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ community. In return, he has been criticized himself by board member Steve Makoski for his "vitriol and disdain" for the board, though Makoski's comments were condemned by the NAACP.

Chad Rollins

Rollins is hoping this year is more favorable to him than when he ran unsuccessfully in April 2023. A 1994 Glendale High School alum, Rollins is a pharmacist and facility director for Healthdirect in Ozark, where he has worked since 2002.

According to previous News-Leader reporting, Rollins qualified and competed in the 14th season of American Ninja Warrior, though his run was not aired on NBC.

Rollins, who has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Missouri State University and a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, has seven children and has been an SPS parent for more than a dozen years.

More: Billboards for likely SPS board candidates went up weeks ago, marking early campaign start

Charity Jordan Rex

When a letter of support for LGBTQ students and staff failed to garner support from the school board in June, Jordan Rex realized she wanted to run in the race to make a difference.

From Cleveland, Ohio, Jordan Rex moved to Springfield almost 20 years ago and attended Evangel University, earning a bachelor's in English language arts. She worked as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional before getting a teaching job in a neighboring district. After a year, she realized it was not her calling and instead switched to work as a youth librarian in the Springfield-Greene County Library District, where she stayed for 19 years.

Now, Jordan Rex is a prevention education coordinator at Harmony House where she still interacts with youth. She is married and has two stepchildren who attend school in a neighboring district.

Maryam Mohammadkhani

The final incumbent, Mohammadkhani is seeking reelection after a tense first term on the board. The retired pathologist at CoxHealth served as the board vice president until she was removed from the role by a 4-3 vote in March after disrupting a student session focused on racial trauma at the Youth Empowerment Summit.

Mohammadkhani was the only one on the board to vote against the district's 2023-24 budget plan, saying that not enough had changed from past years. On another occasion, she invited leaders of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty to a school board meeting.

Born in Iran, she's been in Springfield since 2001 and has 25 years' experience in the medical field. She has three children who have attended both private and public schools. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mohammadkhani spent several years as a parent volunteer for the district.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield school board race sees interest from 8 candidates