The Informed Voter Coalition interviewed candidates for Nixa School Board, including Megan Deal, Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk, Jason Massengale and Joshua Roberts.
You can hear the interviews recorded at KSMU by clicking on the "listen" button above or watch a video of the interviews recorded by Nathan Papes of the Springfield News-Leader.
Megan Deal
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office?
"So my name is Megan Deal, and I work for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks. I oversee our school-based program in Nixa, Branson, Bolivar and south Springfield, so that is my career by day. And I also do faith-based motivational speaking independently. I chose to run for school board, it's been on my heart for a few years now, just seeing the decline in our children's mental health. And ever since COVID, really, in Nixa, every year has had a child take their life, and it weighs heavy on me. And so I want to get involved so I can be a part of the conversation of how do we come alongside our children, how do we come alongside our teachers and how do we see the whole child, not just the academic child, so that every child has a future?"
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"So I think in the — I'm going to kind of equate this to a story. So real quick, I always tell people this in leadership. So Moses, it was his whole life that had prepared him for what he was supposed to do in leadership and what he was doing. And when I look back, I see all these different ways that the Lord has positioned me in leadership and recently, not just in speaking and filling in the pulpit for pastors and speaking at university, speaking for women and youth, but now recently, it's been with Big Brothers Big Sisters and seeing what our children are facing because I do the intakes for every child in our program. So I see their family background, I see their current background, I see what they are facing academically, what they're facing socially, behaviorally, and I'm seeing all the things that make up the reasons for what is happening to that child in real time. And so I think, right now, currently, my role at Big Brothers Big Sisters is really preparing me to come alongside our children in Nixa."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Yeah, so that's a great question. I think we are very known for our academics. I mean, that's no — everybody knows that, but how do we come alongside our children to be prepared for life? And I think one of the things that we need to do is for our children who are falling behind. So kids don't act in unhealthy ways or inappropriate ways, or their behavior isn't bad because they wake up and they're like, 'oh, this is fun, let's do this.' It's because things are happening in their life that are out of control. And so they're doing things to gain a sense of control. And so when our children who are falling through the cracks and, you know, having all that struggle, how do we come alongside them? And I think it's when they're in that detention setting or in the in-school suspension setting or in a setting where they have the ability to have a one-on-one conversation with a teacher even if it's not for a consequence. And let's talk to them about, okay, what is your goal for five years? What is your goal for ten years? What is your goal for 20 years? And what character traits do we need to develop now? What time management traits do we need to develop now? What kind of empathetic and compassionate traits — how do we treat people? How do we lead? And so it's having those conversations and having curriculum in those settings, you know, in the settings where they're doing nothing in in-school suspension or detention and helping them develop the character traits that they need to succeed. Because it's easy to help the children who are easy to help, right? But what about the children who it's not easy to help? What are the spaces that we can utilize to help them develop that character for their future so that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed, not just the children that it comes naturally for?
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"We have a lot of students. We have over 6,700 students. Every school has one counselor. I would say that we need to have more counselors in our school system to utilize — I mean, for there to be one counselor with that many students in the mental health crisis that we do have today, not just in Nixa, but across the board in the Ozarks, I see it at Big Brothers Big Sisters, one person to all those children. That's a weary job. So I think we need to have more counselors. I think — we have character education in elementary. We need to have character education in junior high and high school. We need to bring that back. I know that's a sensitive topic for some, but there is a way to have character education and it be bipartisan and not to bring anything into that — sneak it in there — but to have character education to help them socially and emotionally with their well-being. And I think that would be huge in coming alongside our children in the junior high and high school."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from the public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"All right, so this is what I tell everybody. Whatever side you're on, I have the same response. So if it's sexually explicit, it should not be in schools. I mean, that's just — that is where I draw the line. Sexually explicit. No, if it is something that I don't agree with, if it's something that I think is, wow, you know, it's not going to be in my home. I'm not going to have my child, you know, checking that book out. So I think we put it in the parents' hands, and that means putting it on restriction. If it is a book that has raised, you know, sounds the alarms and it's not sexually explicit, let me say again, if that is, then it needs to be out of the school, but otherwise it needs to be the parents' decision. And so the way that you can make those hard topic books in the parents' hands is by putting them on restriction. Now, it's to be signed and then given so a child can put their parents' signature on there and get the book. So I do think we need to have a little more vetting in that where maybe the child says, 'I want to check this out' and then the parent gets a summary of the book and through email or the parent has to, you know, I don't know, I think we need to have a conversation about putting a little more barriers in there so that the child can't forge a signature and still check out the book but definitely to put it in the parents' hands. Because, just because I think it shouldn't be in there, I'm one paren. I, we can't isolate a whole group of parents. And so putting it on restriction does that."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa school district, and which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"Yeah. So academic success. We're there. We nailed it. We got it. So I think the challenge that we have is how do we help the whole child? And we have — I see because of Big Brothers Big Sisters, again, I see our at risk children in Nixa. It's we don't just have a school-based program. We have a community-based program. So we have a program for the children in Nixa outside of the school system. So I see all of — that are enrolled. I see all of our at risk kids. And so the challenge that we have is making sure that they are seen, making sure that they are heard and making sure that we are giving them an equal opportunity at success and not just pushing them to the side because of their behavior. I get it. The behaviors are challenging. I don't think that behavior should be allowed. I believe that consequences are loving. They're not getting consequences in their life, and that's why they're not understanding, you know, healthy boundaries. And so we do need to make sure that we're teaching those boundaries and giving the appropriate consequences but coming alongside them. And I think that is our biggest challenge we're facing. I think that is why we have a bullying issue. I think that's why we have a mental health issue, and it's bigger than what people realize. I have friends who are physicians. I have friends who are kind of spread out. And people — people do see that we have an issue with bullying and how kids are being treated and also with behavior, and it's never going to be taken care of unless you get to the root. And the only way you get to a root of something in a child is to come alongside that child. And that's what we do at Big Brothers Big Sisters. We come alongside the children, and when we come alongside the children in that mentorship and, and it goes across the board, you don't just have to be in Big Brothers, Big Sisters to come alongside a child. But what we see is 91% of children, go grow emotionally in a positive way, 81% of children grow academically, and 81% of children believe more is possible in life than what they're seeing in their current circumstances. So how do we start a conversation where we can come alongside our children and in that capacity?"
Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
I'm Dr. Elizabeth Dudash Buskirk. I'm an associate professor at Missouri State University, but I live in Nixa. I currently am sort of running the political communication and advocacy program that we're — that we're actually starting up at Missouri State. — pretty excited about that. I've always been told to be civically engaged. One of the things I've always said is 'I'd like to sit in the background and let other people do the work,' but there comes a time where you have to be called to do more than just watch from behind the scenes. So Nixa — I moved there because of the school district. For 20 years, it built itself up to be an amazing school district under the leadership that they had, and I don't want to see that start to decline. And so I've seen things that I think need to be stopped and repaired, and that's that's what motivated me."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"That is a difficult question because I think school boards are so unique in that you have people from all different sort of walks of life who have an interest, the same interest in the school. Other boards that I've sat on have been driven by a mission that isn't for necessarily a specific audience, like students, in this case, I was the president of Be Civil Be Heard at one point. I am the president of a project called U-Turn in Education, which is now a 501c3 that started because of the work that we were doing at Nixa High School. I am the president of the Democrat Club of Christian County. I feel like I have to always put that out there. And I'm also the faculty advisor to the — to the college Democrats. And for all of those, I've had to put boards together. I've had to file the paperwork, I've had to do all the technical stuff that I don't like doing. But what I learned through doing all of those is that I do have a certain skill in picking out the people who are best to help me out. But most importantly, I'm an educator and so I never understand why I'm doing things in politics when my first love is education. And so I believe that those sorts of experiences give me an opportunity to work with some very fine people who are on the board already, who I know, who I engage with because I go to the board meetings all of the time, and I make sure that I'm engaged with the rest of the community, including county commissioners, library boards, etc., because I believe in public education."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"So I am one one of those college professors who does not believe that college is for everybody. I know this because I can't find myself a good carpenter. I can't find myself a good plumber. We are greatly missing a lot of the arts and skills that we need out there. However, there are certain jobs that require a higher education. One of the things, one of the reasons why I love this area is because we do have technical colleges where students can work with them during their high school years and immediately go into a job. I also like that we have really good high schools that prepare students to go into colleges and universities, if that's what they choose to do. Students need to be prepared for more than just a job skill or being in a classroom. They need to be prepared to join a community, all of the communities that they're going to be a part of. In order to do that, they have to be able to communicate in — with civility. They need to be able to communicate understanding the other perspective, and that the idea that just because you don't agree does not mean you have to be disagreeable about it, I think is one of the ways we say that. So that is one of the lessons that we can teach all students in schools, from kindergarteners all the way up to high school, so that when they move on, they're able to say, 'hey, I can hold two thoughts in my head and choose which one is better. I can talk to other people and see their point of view and work with them.' I think there was a poster out or a book out at one point that said 'everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten,' and I sort of go back to that to think that, literally, if we could all just learn to get along in the play — in the sandbox, we could build great things."
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"Mental health and wellness is a very difficult subject matter because people see it, almost generally generationally, but also socioeconomically, very different. And the problems come from multiple places, right? Anything from addiction all the way up to abuse, all the way up to just the general anxieties that we have living in the — in the current world we live in. My mother is someone who does not believe that mental health or, you know, treating mental health should ever be talked about. That is not something you talk about. I, for one, am the complete opposite. I think that if we start addressing mental health in the schools, that we will not be indoctrinating students but helping them to think more clearly, to learn better. If they could lessen their anxieties, if they can learn to deal with anger, if they can learn to deal with the stresses that they feel in healthy ways, I think that's very helpful. And I don't think that that's from any particular political or religious or even necessarily a particular ethical background. It goes back to what I mean about being in the community. Mental health is a huge problem in the community at large. And so starting in the schools where we're just able to have counselors there — I had counselors in school. I don't know where the counselors have gone, and just have counselors, trusted adults that you can talk to. So I would like to, through volunteer programs or through more hires, whatever way Nixa School District needs to do it, I would like to get more counselors in the classroom with the students, and I think that's the first step."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from the public schools in public libraries. What do you think? Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"That is a great question. So one of the reasons why I became so involved, not just in sort of the politics of the state of Missouri, but specifically community action in Nixa, was because I had a couple of friends come to me and say, 'what do we do? They're taking books off the shelves.' And I said, 'ha ha, that's funny. That hasn't happened since, like, I don't know, the 40s and 60s, right? When my father used to talk to me about banning books,' and unfortunately, they were right. So they said to me, 'your kids are out of school.' — they had, my son had graduated. I have — I don't run a business. I have a job that is secure and tenured. No one can touch me if I go out and fight with the school district. And I agreed to start a social movement called U-turn in education, where we were originally fighting for the rights of every book, which we see as an educational experience. Every book is an educational experience. We want to preserve every educational opportunity for all students. That's what those books are. All of the books that we're talking about have been through the Miller test. They've all been considered legal. None of them are pornographic or obscene based on the Miller test, which we can agree or disagree with, but should be the standard in my opinion. And, you know, so that that really, I believe, is something that needs to be chosen by parents. I've gotten told that my parenting style, like I said to somebody recently, is from the 1960s because I believe you should look at what your child is reading, look at what they're checking out of the library, what's in their backpack when they come home. And I should have that opportunity for all the books that my students can get their hands on, instead of other parents telling us what books need to be removed. That, I think is the biggest problem. Parents need to make those decisions."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa School District? Which of these would be your priority objective and how would you meet that challenge?
"So I think that the the most important thing is to maintain the standards of excellence that Nixa has achieved in the past several years. I believe there are several ways to do this. One is very simply by curating a library or libraries that are just, you know, full of all educational opportunities for all students. I want to start there. I think that another thing about Nixa is the socioeconomic divide. It's, it's much bigger than most people realize. There are children who go to school, who don't have food in their bellies, who get snacks and food from the schools, who get hygiene products from the schools. And one of the things U-Turn in Education does is tries to provide those things through the summer when kids aren't in school. So just having them being healthy at the first step. I think another big problem in maintaining the excellence is for Nixa to continue to develop its — the things it's good at which, you know, are some of the fine arts. We do a really good job with our debate team. We've got kids with real talent, we're building up skills courses, and we need to continue to do that and fix any problems that we see. It's not a trade off, it's not a zero sum game. Finally, I think we need to get the community involved in the school. And the way I see that happening is by starting volunteer programs so that teachers don't have to be standing at doors counting students who are getting on and off the bus. They don't have to be in charge of security for those kids. They don't have to be doing their lunch hours. They don't have to teach through their prep hours. What about bringing in older adults, seniors who have, you know, want something to do as volunteers to work with our students, to watch them at lunchtime, to watch them on the playground, to count them going in and out of the schools and take some of that onus off of the teachers. If we can't give them more money, we should at least cut them some breaks. So I think a volunteer program would really help."
Jason Massengale
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"So I've lived in Nixa my whole life, and I remember being a freshman, and my parents had divorced, and I was just going through a really rough time in life. And, you know, I had some teachers that really poured into me. And, you know, it just really made an impact on me and, and really kind of just altered the direction of my life. And I kind of as I got older, I just wanted to pay back. I recognize how important that time in our life is and how important our teachers can be. And and I just want to help give back for, for for those that did for me."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Well, I would say being on the board for three years, it's amazing how big of a system that the school really is. I mean, with over a thousand employees and almost — I mean just under 7,000 students, I mean, there's — it's just a really big organization, and it takes a really long time to learn everything. I would say having three years under my belt of learning how it all works, and it just sets me up for, for really starting to to make an impact moving forward. And then the second part, I would say, is I served on a lot of different boards in the past from — I was on the chamber board for nine years. I was on Christian County, Show-Me Christian County Board for a number of years, and I've just served the community for such a long time that I really have just had an opportunity to really listen and advocate for the community."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"What is the school's role? I would say, oh man, you know, think about how our students, and I mean, at every grade level, from elementary to junior high to high school, they're really — the kids are really developing who they are, and they're doing that based on their parents, obviously, the role models, the people that they meet and, and the education that they receive. The education — it's not just the material, it's also the connections that they have and the people that the, the teachers and, and show that they care about them. It really helps to develop the person, the character that they decide to be. Just like I was telling the story of when I was in school and how I had teachers pour into me that really made an impact on the direction of my life."
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"That's a great question. I mean, considering the school board, your main roles are to oversee the superintendent, to create or approve policies and and approve the budget. I would say, really, if I had a strategy, it would be to to really — I mean, find out more of what we are doing to see how it compares to what other schools — to like, what's being effective. And I would say more so just looking at our policies to make sure our policies support that."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Who do I think should be making those decisions? Well, I think at the end of the day, the school is going to have to make a decision on what they will provide. I think input from the parents and the community and having a system for how we'll determine what books we would keep in our ibraries or not provide."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa School District? Which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"You know, if it's okay, I'm probably going to answer in two different ways. I think the biggest — I think the biggest objective or challenge that the the school has right now is probably communication. It's not that we don't do a good job of communicating, because I think we do. I think you can always do a better job of communicating. And I think in a time where we're at right now, I think that's really important. And the second part, what I would say of what I would like to see is, you know, if the next three years, if I were elected, I really think, I think at some point in time we've got to address teacher pay. You know, Nixa has done a really great job of finding talent and training talent, and we've got to find a way. How do we retain the talent? And and then the second part of that even is, you know, teachers — if we don't find some way to increase teacher pay, we will lose them to other industries. And that's not necessarily a Nixa alone problem. That's that's kind of an industry wide problem. Yet I would say on the forefront of my mind is going to be, you know, talent retention, because it — not only does it benefit the teachers, it also helps the students. They learn more, they have a better learning experience. So we have to find a way to retain our teachers and find new talent."
Joshua Roberts
Would you please introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this position?
"All right. I am Joshua Roberts, a lifelong Nixa resident. And really, the reason I decided to run this time around was different than I decided a decade ago. A decade ago, they had a vacancy on the board. I got a phone call said Dr. (Stephen) Kleinsmith, who was the superintendent at the time, wanted to come in and visit with me about potentially running for school board. They said they needed a lawyer on the board. They thought I would be a good fit. So I said, 'I'm not going to do that.' So I went in and talked to Steve and he said, hey, I'd like you to run. And basically I said, 'I'm not going to run, Steve. I'm not going to do it.' Well, 10 years later, I'm running for my fourth time. So I guess you know who won that argument? Steve Kleinsmith. And that's why I ran the first time, because I was asked why I'm running now is because I've fallen in love with education and the people. In law, which is where I practice, it's very competitive. Everybody's out for themselves. In education, you've got a group of people who are moving to try to advance another group of people, and so everyone can succeed. And so really, I've fallen in love with education, and that's why I'm running again."
How have previous board service, leadership roles or other experience prepared you to serve as a school board member?
"Well, I've been on the board for a decade now, and in the last half of that, I have been either the vice president or the president. I'm the current president of the school board at Nixa, and I was the unanimous choice of all of the other board members. We have a lot of different boards from around...southwest Missouri where they have some conflict when they have elections for leadership of their board. But I'm very honored to say that the board at Nixa selected me unanimously to be their leader. I would like to think that that's because they they think that I put the group first, because I put the administration and the school district first. And those 10 years of experience, I think, come into play in addition to maybe my leadership skills that hopefully give everyone a voice and give them the opportunity to, you know, be heard. I want the teachers to be heard. I want the community to be heard, and I want each individual board member to be heard. And we can't do what everybody might want us to do, but we certainly can listen and we can contemplate the information that's being presented to us and then we can make the best decision that we can for the district."
What is the role of public schools to shape our future citizens and prepare graduating students for work or continued education?
"Well, obviously, that is the goal is to prepare these kids, to educate these kids to be productive citizens. And there's always the debate as to where — how far beyond reading and writing and arithmetic should we go to prepare these kids? And I think the — giving them as many options as we can is important. My son, just by way of example, wasn't a great student, didn't like high school, didn't like sitting there all day long. There's a Go Caps program that they have where he could get out of the classroom, come up, and it's sponsored through Springfield Schools where he could get into the workforce. He could go see other entrepreneurs, and he could do things that he was interested in. And that made his day. He went ahead and went to school every day because he got to go to this other program. And so we had these extracurriculars and those types of things that are additional that sometimes, if we provide students with things that they want to do, they'll do things that they don't want to do, like, say, maybe algebra. So — and I've had a lot of kids say over the years especially, it's just sitting at my dining room table that if it wasn't for football, you know, if it wasn't for wrestling, if it wasn't for me on the basketball team or whatever it is, that they might not even be still in school. So I think that, beyond just giving them the basic education, making well-rounded citizens and giving them these extracurricular opportunities and those types of things, that's also important. So these enrichment activities, in addition to just basic underlying education, I think is crucial in today's world. And, you know, generating kids that are going to be productive members of society."
What strategies do you propose to address mental health and wellness among students and staff?
"Well, we are working on developing lots of different things. I don't even know how much I can talk about it. But we do have a school psychologist, we have school counselors, and one of the big things that we did over the past couple of years is get a couple of social workers involved. And what we found was that usually when you have a behavioral issue, there's some, really, there's an unmet need there. It's not that you've got bad kids because I don't believe we have bad kids, but sometimes you've got a situation there where there's an unmet need, and our social workers have been able to find resources within the community that they can connect with these families. A lot of times there are things out there that could meet those needs. The families just don't know about them. So adding social workers has really — it's decreased our incidence of discipline and disruptiveness in the classroom. And it's really been a good thing for that. My wife is a psychologist, so mental health is important in my household. She's been working as a consultant, unpaid consultant, with the district to explore having a psychologist for teachers as well, so that they would have additional resources there within the school community that they could, you know, really utilize. They all have, you know, they have their EAP programs or they could go out and see another one. But if you could have, you know, basically some — see a counselor or a psychologist there, just right there, convenient, right there at the school, I think it would be an enhancement for teachers, in addition to the things we're already doing for all of our students."
In the past few years, there have been increased attempts to remove books from the public schools and public libraries. Who do you think should be making decisions about the books available to students in public schools, and what factors should be considered?
"Well, that is a controversial topic, and it's been controversial at Nixa as well. We have always had, for 100 years we've been in existence, there's always been a mechanism to challenge curriculum. It just hasn't been utilized very often over the years. In recent history there, that board policy and that mechanism has been used to basically put certain books be challenged or looked at. We then had a state statute which said that, if you have sexually explicit materials in your library, your librarians and school employees can be charged with a crime. And so that caused, sent shock waves through the community of educators because they're like, 'well, we don't want to be charged with a crime.' So in Nixa, we had a group of parents who challenged some books — basically being sexually explicit. And then we had librarians bring us additional books and they said, 'hey, look, we don't want to be charged with a crime. These are borderline, you know, sexually explicit. We don't want to violate the statute, so please review them.' So at the end of the day, the management of books and buying of books and placing of books and curriculum in the schools is done by the staff, the administrators. But if there's an issue, ultimately the buck stops with the Board of Education. And when I look at I look at a book, and this is what I did, how I made my decision. I looked at the material, I looked at the statute, and I'm a lawyer. So I interpret a statute maybe differently than other people do. But when I look at that, I look to just to see if, is this book, is this material violative or does it violate the statute? If it does, then I think the book needs to be removed, and if it doesn't, it can stay or be restricted. So I don't know if you followed how the board voted about the several books that we looked at, but our votes were all over the map. They were — people had different opinions, and it was just one of those things where, and I'm proud of our board. They all used — dug in there and used their best judgment. And you know, they they voted from their heart. And even if it was different than me, I do appreciate their service."
What do you view as the greatest challenges facing the Nixa School district, and which of these would be your priority objective, and how would you meet that challenge?
"It's teacher retention. I tell you what, we have got to keep the teachers that we have. I have friends that are teachers that have been hired away making $20,000, $30,000 more, because these teachers are skilled at what they do. The pay is an issue. And the problem that we have — Nixa's tax, the tax rate that we have on our local community, is the highest in southwest Missouri. We can't tax our local community anymore. And I would stand against any tax against our local taxpayers. That money has got to come from somewhere, and it's going to have to come from the state or the federal levels. And so I'm going to work diligently to try to find ways to increase funding at the state or federal level while leaving the local taxpayer in Nixa alone because they're definitely doing their part. And that's only one component. The second component is protecting the integrity of learning in the classroom. And that's empowering teachers to discipline and to be able to remove disruptive students. There have been school districts in southwest Missouri where discipline has become an issue. Statistically, it's not a pervasive or a systemic issue at Nixa right now, but we need to make every effort to make sure it doesn't become a significant issue. And you do that by empowering your teachers to be able to control the learning environment so that learning can continue. You're going to have disruptions. You're going to have situations where things happen and those are going to have to be dealt with. But when you have the really serious, disruptive students, the teachers need to be empowered to protect that learning environment, to remove the student if need be. There are other ways that that student can be educated and hopefully rehabilitated and brought back into the regular classroom environment. But teacher pay and protecting their ability to control the learning environment, I think, are the two things that will help Nixa retain teachers into the future."