Three school board candidates have filed for three open seats in April election

As of Friday, three candidates had filed for the three open seats on the Columbia Board of Education in the April 4 election.

They are Paul Harper, John Potter and Chris Horn.

Harper, an attorney, is legal counsel for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and previously served as legal counsel for the state auditor's office. He has master's degrees in education and special education and many years ago taught in the Jefferson City School District before getting his law degreem.

"Equity and special education has always been near and dear to my heart," Harper said about issues he's interest in. "Some of our reading scores aren't what they should be."

CPS needs to be competitive with similar school districts, Harper said.

Potter has been a virtual thorn in the side to school officials, offering criticisms at most school board meetings until public comment was restricted. He administers a Facebook group claiming a goal of holding the school district accountable.

He works in construction.

"I think it's time to put my foot in the race in order to get a parent's perspective at the school board meetings," Potter said.

He's running against the school district's "woke" equity policies that he said discriminate against students based on race and religion, he said.

"I want to expose those things to parents," he said.

It will be difficult to win, Potter said.

Horn, an incumbent school board member and vice president, works at SageSure insurance.

"There's a lot of work to do," said Horn of unfinished business. "It's taken me the majority of my first term to determine what's required to be a school board member."

Supporting Superintendent Brian Yearwood in achieving his goals for the school district are important, Horn said.

Candidate filing opened Tuesday and will continue through 5 p.m. Dec. 27, not including holidays and breaks.

Three, three-year terms on the school board will be decided in April.

Incumbent school board member Helen Wade had said she won't run for re-election. Incumbent school board President David Seamon hadn't yet filed as of Friday.

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: Three candidates have filed for three open positions on school board