A closer look at the Wichita school board candidates
Joseph Shepard hopes to bring a voice to the impoverished students in the Wichita Public School District but he has to beat a well-qualified, incumbent school board member first.
Sheril Logan, too, has a heart for the less fortunate.
Incumbents in the at-large and District 4 school board races want to reclaim their seats in the Nov. 5 election to see through a five-year strategic plan that they say shows promise after year one. Both incumbents are going up against candidates with less experience in education, but who say they bring different ideas to the table.
Shepard, 26, said he remembers, as a boy, grabbing his crying mother’s hand one night in a homeless shelter and promising he would take advantage of every opportunity to change their family’s situation.
Shepard said his mother still struggles with mental health problems and battles with homelessness.
He hopes to help others avoid the same fate.
He’s earned a bachelor’s of science and master’s of public administration degrees, both from Wichita State University. Twice, he was elected WSU government president. He now works in a newly-founded position at Newman University as the director of multicultural engagement and campus life.
Shepard said his life — from poverty to advocate — makes him a good fit for a school district where roughly 76.5% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch. Free and reduced-price lunches are often used as an indicator of poverty.
“This is a situation that hits home with me severely,” Shepard said. “I feel I’d be the better one for the district at this time.”
Logan, 74, said she also grew up in poverty and worked her whole career with the less fortunate in mind. Logan said she knows her skillset makes her a better candidate to add four years to her eight-year stint on a volunteer board.
“There’s a difference between actually thinking you can do it and actually doing it,” Logan said. “And I’ve done it.”
Logan worked with the school district after graduating from WSU. She has three degrees from WSU: bachelor’s in elementary education, master’s in education and a specialist degree in administration. Logan went from a teacher to a principal before moving on to an assistant superintendent.
Logan said she always asked for troubled students during her time in education.
“I’d always say ‘why don’t you give him to me, or why don’t you give her to me?’” Logan said.
She also went on to work as the assistant dean of WSU’s College of Education.
Logan said the school district cut $90 million from the budget during her first six years on the board. After litigation increased state funding for education, Logan said last school year was the first time the district had funding to start addressing the needs.
For example, the district put a learning center at each high school. The learning center allows students to earn lost credits before they graduate.
“We just put an emphasis on grad rate and consequently we saw it jump,” Logan said. The jump led to the highest graduation rate since 1976, Logan said. Increasing the graduation rate was one of the four goals outlined in the district’s strategic plan.
“If you use your money strategically and not throw it to the wind, you can get results,” Logan said. “And that’s what I want to see happen.”
Logan said she doesn’t plan to run in 2023. But, for now, Logan said the strategic plan can’t stand on its own and the school board needs the lifetime of skills she has.
District 4
Like Logan, incumbent Stan Reeser wants to see through the strategic plan that started after he was appointed to a vacant spot in 2017.
Reeser, 57, is a logistics supply clerk at Ascension Via Christi. He served on the Wichita City Council from 1991 to 1995. In 2016, he ran as a Democrat to represent southwest Wichita in the Kansas House but lost the election.
Reeser will face 72-year-old James Kilpatrick Jr. in the election.
Kilpatrick is a retired captain at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport’s Police and Fire Department who wants to bring the Bible back to the schools, teach patriotism and ban troublemakers from the district.
“I still say that’s the No. 1 issue as far as teachers (go),” Kilpatrick said about troublemakers.
He said catering to disruptive students takes away from the school’s goal: to prepare students for careers.
During an interview with The Eagle Editorial Board, Reeser said Kilpatrick wants to see the district as a “frozen” snapshot of the 1960s.
Kilpatrick thanked Reeser for speaking for him but said that’s not the case. Kilpatrick said he’s seen where society is heading. It’s obvious by what comes across the airwaves, he said.
“And to me, this is not a good product,” Kilpatrick said.
Reeser said the district needs to add more counselors and find out the root of the problem for the disruptive students. Reeser said the new dollars flowing to the district could be used to add counselors.