‘I know you’re happy, Jo’: New Wichita school board member follows trailblazing mom
.jpg "At-large applicant Brian Irwin puts an arm around Sheila Kinnard after she was brought to tears while being appointed to the vacant seat by Wichita Public Schools board members on Friday. “My mother was on the school board back in the 70s and 80s, and so we’ve come full circle here, and it’s just marvelous,” she said.")
More than 50 years after her mother made history as the first African-American woman to hold a seat on the Wichita school board, Sheila Kinnard is following in her footsteps. She was appointed Friday as the new at-large representative on the board.
Kinnard, a retired drama teacher for the district and East High graduate, was selected out of 10 applicants and received six out of seven votes from current board members in the first round of voting.
Involvement with the Wichita school board is deeply tied to Kinnard’s family history. Her mother, Jo Brown, served on the school board for eight years after joining in 1971. On Friday, Kinnard called her appointment a “dream come true” and said it brought things “full circle” for her and her family.
“I know you’re happy, Jo,” she said while teary-eyed Friday. “... It’s all a wonderful, legacy journey, and I’m hoping to bring that legacy forward … to this board.”
The at-large seat, specifically, carries a personal connection for her, too. Kinnard is filling the vacancy left by Melody McCray-Miller, who died in February. Kinnard said she was neighbors with McCray-Miller growing up and was “like buddies” with her sister as children.
That made her appointment all the more wonderful, she said.
“I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be,” she said. “ … I felt it in my heart, but then it was affirmed by the board today, that this is what I was supposed to do. So I will give it my best, you better believe, I’ll give it my best effort.”
That includes an emphasis on prioritizing listening and collaboration, Kinnard said.
“I’m going to learn what I don’t know, and I’m going to speak (on) what I do,” she said. “I’ll be listening twice as much as I’m speaking, because we have two ears and one mouth.”
She said that’ll be especially applicable ahead of the upcoming bond proposal that school board members are set to vote on in June. She said the bond issue will be her most pressing issue upon joining the board.
“Our children deserve it, our teachers deserve it, our families deserve it, our communities deserve it. You see how that keeps getting bigger and bigger?” she said. “It starts with us giving back to our kids, so that they have the best facility that they can learn in.”
On or before May 29, Kinnard will take the official oath of office at the Sedgwick County Election Office before taking her seat at the BOE meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. June 1.
