In a close race Tuesday, candidates Kelly Byrne and Steve Makoski won seats on the Springfield school board.
Byrne, a real estate investor and developer, garnered the most votes — and raised the most money — followed closely by Makoski, director of compliance at Rapid Roberts.
Makoski did not respond to requests for comment, but Byrne said the election outcome was proof the community wanted a change from the status quo.
“My campaign kept focusing on the … clear decline academically in our district and there seems to be a clear shift in focus away from academic achievement,” Byrne said. “It doesn’t matter where you are politically, I think most people want a strong public education system. And I think that is what resonated.”
Their success unseated incumbent Charles Taylor.
“I congratulate Kelly and Steve and wish them well because the kids are counting on them,” Taylor said in a statement.
Byrne and Makoski won despite not receiving endorsements from the groups that typically weigh heavily in school board races: The teacher unions and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
“We’ve had years of the board going one way and it’s gone the way that the NEA and the chamber said and people haven’t gone to vote,” Byrne said. “And for whatever reason this year the people said that is not the direction we want anymore and they picked two people who didn’t have all those endorsements majors.”
In addition to the nearly $89,000 the pair collectively raised as of late March — 72 percent of the total amount reported by the five candidates — Byrne and Makoski received the support of explicitly conservative groups.
The opaque Truth In Politics group paid nearly $30,000 to run ads attacking Taylor and supporting Byrne and Makoski on KY3.
The Back On Track America committee, which first emerged as a factor in the 2021 election, also supported the candidates.
In the days leading up to the election, the Greene County Democrats supported Taylor and Brandi VanAntwerp. The political action committee Vote417 denounced the attack ads and publicly backed Taylor.
The Springfield National Education Association and the Springfield unit of the Missouri State Teachers Association backed Taylor and VanAntwerp, the executive director of FosterAdopt Connect.
VanAntwerp said she was “very disappointed” in the final result. “I’m just sad that our community succumbed to a lot of dark money that came in from outside our community to influence people’s votes.”
VanAntwerp said she was proud of “having integrity and running an honest campaign.”
“I would just like to thank the organizations — our educators, our bus drivers — from SNEA, MSTA, Teamsters, who supported me,” she said.
The chamber endorsed Taylor, a professor of communication at Drury University, and Chad Courtney, a family law attorney.
Byrne and Makoski will be sworn in at a school board meeting April 12. It will be the final meeting for Taylor and board president Alina Lehnert, who did not run.
“I’ve been honored to serve for six years and when I entered the campaign, I had the goal of retaining three things, in descending order of importance: My integrity, my sense of humor and my board seat,” Taylor said. “And to borrow from Meatloaf, two out of three ain’t bad.”
The board hires and evaluates the superintendent, sets policy, approves a budget and oversees a long-range plan.
Taylor is the sole incumbent. Board president Alina Lehnert, whose term expires in April, opted not to run again.
Two candidates, Byrne and VanAntwerp, attended Springfield schools and were on the ballot in 2021 but did not win. Courtney and Makoski were running for the first time.
Courtney said the race was a learning experience.
“I have had my eyes open to the partisanship that has entered into our local school and political elections,” he said. “I don’t think that is going to be good for our public schools going forward.”
Courtney admitted he was disappointed with the outcome and felt he had the experience and qualifications to serve effectively.
“I want to make sure to thank all the people that supported me in this race,” he said.
He said he hopes those elected “keep all of our kids in the forefront of their minds and do what’s best for kids and the district.”
Late Tuesday, he said it was too early to consider making another run. But Courtney felt he’d done his best this year.
“I’m proud of the fact that I’ve kept everything positive. I kept things focused on the issues and kept things focused on improving our schools,” he said. “I tried to ignore all of the negative that was going on and the negative that was being directed toward me as well as another candidate.”
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Once sworn in, Byrne and Makoski will join Scott Crise, Denise Fredrick, Danielle Kincaid, Maryam Mohammadkhani and Shurita Thomas-Tate on the school board.
This spring, they will face big decisions on busing eligibility, school start times, and next year’s spending plan. They will also give direction to the superintendent.
Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com.