Jeff Redford to run for two board seats

Jeff Redford not only is seeking re-election to his Sedalia School District 200 Board of Education seat, he is running for a spot on the State Fair Community College Board of Trustees.

“The relationship between the school district and the college is vital,” Redford said. “With the implementation of Core Curriculum (testing) over the next 24 months, that relationship with the college is paramount, especially with higher-level courses.”

Redford will face Judy Parkhurst, who is seeking re-election to her seat, and Patricia Wood, a member of SFCC’s Class of 1974, for the two available slots; trustee Jerry Greer is not seeking re-election.

Redford’s attempt to win election to both the school district and college boards raised some questions. However, Terrie Close, chief deputy in the Pettis County Clerk’s Office and elections clerk, said, “We did make contact with the Secretary of State and the Missouri School Boards Association. ... There is nothing to keep him from doing so.”

The school district meets at 6:30 p.m. the second and fourth Monday of each month; the SFCC trustees meet at 7 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month. So if he is elected to both positions, Redford said he would ask if one of the meetings could be moved to a different time or day to allow him to participate fully with both bodies.

“The school district has moved its meeting time in the past, so I don’t see that as a significant issue,” he said.

Parkhurst said: “I’m confused, since he is running for two boards which meet at the same night of the month. I am confused there may be a conflict of interest in items we have to vote on. I’m not sure how he could deal with that.”

Sedalia 200 Board of Education President Scott Gardner said of the meeting conflict: “We can make it work.”

“When we do our reorganization meeting right after the elections, we set our meeting times for the next year,” he said. “We can change that if need be, it just requires board action.”

Gardner, an attorney, said “legally, there is no conflict between the two” board positions. “There would only be a conflict if one had an oversight function over the other, and we don’t have that.”

This is the first time since April 2006 that there is a contested race for the SFCC Board of Trustees. Here is a look at the candidates:

• Patricia Wood: A Pettis County resident, Wood is retired after serving as a teacher and librarian in the Northwest (20 years) and Sedalia (12 years) school districts.

“Education has always been a top priority for all my life,” she said.

She and her husband, Pat, also an SFCC alum, were co-chairs for the college’s 25th anniversary celebration; Patricia Wood also was on the committee for its 40th anniversary.

Wood said she has watched SFCC grow from its “Plywood U.” years. “It is a wonderful, wonderful thing for our communities, to see it grow and flourish like it has,” she said, adding that being a trustee “would be an opportunity for me to grow as well.”

• Judy Parkhurst: Parkhurst is completing her first six-year term as a trustee. She attended SFCC, and is the Board of Trustees’ liaison to the college’s foundation.

Parkhurst believes the college offers “wonderful opportunities ... for our community and the communities around us, the 14-county area that the college serves.”

She said the college makes education more accessible to traditional and nontraditional students, giving them opportunities to improve their lives. The college offers “positive changes in our world that will help people have more employment opportunities, and chances to make their lives different. What I was raised on, is you are responsible to make your life better, as well as those around you.”

• Jeff Redford: SFCC’s initiatives to get individuals trained to work in the energy sector through the Waste to Energy project, and the college’s military-friendly stance, shown through its relationship with Whiteman Air Force Base, prompted Redford to “put my hat in the ring.”

He said high school students’ ability to take co-credit courses at the college gives them a chance to position themselves for better opportunities academically and in terms of employment.

Concerning seeking both the school board and trustee positions, Redford said: “If I felt I was not qualified, that this would not be a positive step, I would not run. I would not have even considered that.”