For 50 years, serving on a school board in Kansas meant committing to hours of work — maybe as much as a typical full-time job — for no pay.
But now, a recent change in state law allows school boards to decide whether to pay their members and how much.
There have been concerns about the workloads of school boards, particularly in large metro areas like Wichita and Kansas City, where members sometimes work 40 hours a week on school board business, said Rep. Rebecca Schmoe, a Republican from Ottawa who proposed the change this year.
That amount of unpaid work isn’t realistic for many people with other employment, she said.
“If we want the best possible people for these positions, if we want true representation of our communities, we have to make it available to the people who do work everyday 8-to-5, paycheck to paycheck jobs,” she said.
It isn’t clear which school boards, if any, are considering paying members. In the Kansas City area, the Blue Valley school board is working on a policy amendment to clarify that it will remain unpaid.
Some organizations, including the Kansas Association of School Boards, are concerned that paying school board members will take money out of classrooms. It could also create a “weird dynamic” as board members negotiate teacher salaries while being paid themselves, KASB executive director Brian Jordan said.
Missouri school board members are still unpaid.
Before she decided...
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