McCarter, Hasty explain why they want to run for Springfield school board

The Springfield school board election is still five months away. The list of names on the ballot will not be finalized for weeks. But, so far, one incumbent and two newcomers have expressed interest in serving.

Landon McCarter, co-founder of Secure Agent Marketing, and J. Michael Hasty, who works sales in Branson, picked up candidate information packets and petitions for the first time this week along with Shurita Thomas-Tate, who plans to run for a second term.

On April 4, voters will fill two at-large seats on the seven-member board. The terms are for three years.

This week, board president Denise Fredrick said she will not run again, ensuring at least one new member on a board that has experienced unprecedented turnover in recent years.

Except for Fredrick, first elected in 2011, all other members are still in their first term. They include Thomas-Tate, Kelly Byrne, Scott Crise, Danielle Kincaid, Steve Makoski and Maryam Mohammadkhani, the vice president.

The deadline to submit the required paperwork to run for the board is Dec. 27. Packets are available for pickup during weekday business hours at Kraft Administrative Center.

This week, the News-Leader spoke to McCarter and Hasty about what motivated them to consider a run.

McCarter, a business owner, grew up in 'family of teachers'

The Springfield native attended Disney Elementary, Cherokee Middle School and Kickapoo High School, graduating in 2003.

He was part of the state championship basketball team at Kickapoo, where he played alongside Byrne and future NBA player Anthony Tolliver, an entrepreneur and philanthropist inducted last month in the SPS Hall of Fame.

McCarter, 38, played college basketball for a couple years before returning to Springfield to earn a marketing degree from Missouri State University.

"I deeply love this city. I love Springfield, it is my home," he said. "My business is here. My kids go to school here."

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.

"I just come from a family of teachers. I personally have never been drawn to that profession," said McCarter, who has started several businesses. "But, I've always cared deeply about my community and I've always thought the school system was a major pillar of community involvement."

The married father has three children enrolled in the Springfield district. They attend Disney and Cherokee — the same schools he attended.

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McCarter said his children and his family's long involvement in public education motivated him to seek a seat on the board. If elected, he wants to "honor my dad's legacy" in the way he serves.

"I loved my schooling. I loved Disney and I loved Cherokee. I loved Kickapoo. In fact, you could say that the Springfield public school system really set me up for success in my life in the community that I love," he said.

If elected, his goal is to make sure the administration has all the tools they need to help students succeed academically without distractions. He said a desire to serve is what drives him, not specific issues.

McCarter runs an ad agency with a focus on the insurance industry and the financial sector. He has 50 employees.

"I believe I have a skill set in leadership and I think I can help serve my community and the kids in the school system," he said.

Hasty, parent of four, said 'Our kids are the future'

Hasty, 36, was born in St. Louis and grew up in Illinois. His family moved to Springfield in 2013. In recent months, Hasty has repeatedly spoken in front of the school board.

The married father has four children. The three oldest are enrolled at Pittman Elementary.

Hasty, a disabled veteran who served in Iraq, made an unsuccessful bid for a general seat on the city council last year. He lost to incumbent Craig Hosmer. In that race, he made crime a focus of his campaign but noted the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and zoning issues were also motivators.

In public comments at board meetings, Hasty said his children fell behind in reading and math.

"My kids have become some of the more negative statistics in the district that kind of is alarming — not reading at grade level, not working math at their grade level," Hasty said. "They have kind of fallen behind over the last couple years, as many kids have."

Hasty said his children's struggles prompted him to make a run for the board. To appear on the ballot, a candidate must secure the signatures of at least 500 registered voters living in the district.

"If I were to get the signatures and get elected then I can have a positive impact on my kids, which will have a positive impact on all kids in their education," he said. "In the end, in my opinion, our kids are the future and we need to give them the best possible education and set them up for the most success that they can have."

Last year, Hasty created the Queen City Watchdog, a nonprofit aiming to "increase overall engagement between our local government and its citizens," according to its website. He said it is currently in a "restructuring stage."

"I founded it just kind of as an organization that holds all elected officials accountable, basically just to let people know that we are watching," he said, Hasty described it as not "left or right leaning" but "down the center" politically.

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In September, Hasty told the board he was concerned with student achievement levels and supported curbing the use of technology in early grades.

"As the largest school district in the state of Missouri, we should be setting the bar," he said.

"The data speaks for itself," he added. "We have been failing our children across the board whether you're black, you're white, you're Christian or you're not, it doesn't matter."

Hasty praised teachers in his most recent comments to the board. He called them the "unsung heroes" of the district.

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: New 2023 Springfield school board candidates include McCarter, Hasty