Hickman Mills School Board Election

By Don Bradley

Right when the Hickman Mills School District makes a big push to finally regain state accreditation, the Missouri auditor announces an investigation into the possible misuse of district funds.

Also, the ordered shutdown of the U.S. Department of Education raises concerns about funding that serves the south Kansas City district’s low-income families.

All that raises the stakes for the upcoming school board election when voters will elect two board members from a slate of five candidates.

One is currently on the board and two are former members. The other two are seeking their first elective office, including one who has already filed to run for a Missouri House seat in 2026.

Each of the candidates say accreditation is the most important issue facing the district. A recent plea to state officials was denied, but Superintendent Yaw Obeng says the latest test scores mean the district is close to getting over the hump.

Beth Boerger is the lone incumbent in the race. Tramise Carter and Clifford Ragan III served previously.

Ragan came up short with attempts in 2020, 2021 and 2023 to return to the board. Last year, he filed to run again but was disqualified because of an unpaid tax.

The first-timers are Teresa Murphy and Vanessa Claborn.

Murphy has already filed to run for a Missouri House seat in 2026. She also said she has never stepped foot in a Hickman Mills school building.

At a recent candidate forum, most candidates slammed a new “open enrollment” proposal in the Missouri General Assembly that would allow students to enroll in neighboring districts.

“It might kill the Hickman Mills district,” Ragan said.

On March 12, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, citing a “whistleblower,” announced an investigation into the possible misuse of district funds.

Beth Boerger

Now retired, Boerger, 73, worked in school finance as an accountant and bookkeeper with the Grandview and Kansas City school districts.

She narrowly won a board seat in 2022.

She also is active in the Ruskin Heights Homes Association and often lumps the plight of neighborhoods with the school district.

“Our community has suffered because of the school district’s lack of accreditation,” Boerger said.

She says the city of Kansas City overlooks the area when it comes to economic development because of the school status.

“The city gives us no help,” she said.

She has been involved in the district’s lobbying efforts to regain accreditation, including the recent formal plea in Jefferson City when the district’s scores met guidelines but was rejected because of a timing issue.

“It was very disappointing, but once again we were not heard,” Boerger said.

She worries now that the district could be hurt by President Trump’s pledge to do away the U.S. Department of Education.

“That means we could lose Title 1 money, feeding kids, Medicaid,” she said. “Because of our community makeup, we are vulnerable.”

Title 1 provides supplemental funding for school districts with low-income families.

Vanessa Claborn

Claborn, 72, is retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she worked in information technology.

This is her first run for public office. Why now?

She tells a story about being at an event at a district school and seeing a teacher use his own money to order whiteboards for his classrooms.

“He said the only way he was going to get them was if he paid for them himself,” she said. “That $539 he spent just rings in my ear. The district must do better to support the teachers.”

She pushes, too, for more school board transparency when it comes to spending district funds.

“People need to see where their property tax money is going,” she said.

She calls out parents, too.

She agrees accreditation should be at the top of the to-do list and says parents must do their part.

“We need to educate the parents to get the kids to go to school and get in their seats…every day,” she said. “Some parents don’t know how important attendance is. If kids don’t go to school, they can’t learn.”

She also worries about the Department of Education closing down.

“Most asinine thing I’ve heard lately,” she said. “We shouldn’t be even talking about it.”

Tramise Carter

Carter, 36, has a bachelor degree in business, and works with the U.S. Department of Labor.

In 2019, she led all candidates in winning a seat on the school board. She declined to seek another term in 2022, choosing instead to finish her schooling.

“Now, I see all the good things going on with the district and I want to be a part of it,” Carter said.

She believes that the superintendent, Yaw Obeng, is the right person to lead the way to regaining accreditation.

“The board needs to work with him,” she said. “I sit on a community engagement board and we need more family support. We need to get more parents involved in their children’s schools.”

She said, too, the district needs to make sure students are not being sent on to next grade level simply for convenience. That would be compounding the problem and likely part of the reason for lack of accreditation.

Teresa Murphy

Murphy, 59, has a bachelor degree in arts, taught for awhile and now works as a process associate for Amazon.

She came to the Hickman Mills area from Indiana in 2018.

“I have never stepped foot in a Hickman Mills school,” she said.

By her words, she made a “half hearted” attempt at a Missouri House seat in 2024 and has filed to run again for that seat in2026.

She thinks bad behavior, lack of academic achievement and the district passing along failing students to the next grade level are main reasons for the district being unaccredited.

“The problem is not the teachers; it is the administration,” Murphy said. “The schools need to focus on reading, math, history and science _ the things parents want us to focus on.”

She also thinks the school district’s budget should be “Doged,” a term she uses to evoke the budget cutting going on in Washington.

“We need to make sure there is no fraud,” she said.

Clifford Ragan III

Ragan, 52, has some college, and works in private security.

This election is the fifth time Ragan has attempted to get back on the board.

In 2020, he finished fourth; in 2021 he came in sixth; fourth again in 2023 and last year he was disqualified for unpaid taxes.

Now, he says he brings leadership and advocacy to the race. He describes the current board as draconian with its rules about public comments at meetings.

“They are trying to shut the public out and also are not good stewards of district funds,” he said.

If elected, he said, he will immediately ask for an independent audit of district finances.

“We have to make sure we are spending the money the way taxpayers want us to and not being frivolous,” Ragan said.

He mentioned a trip to Africa taken by the superintendent, other district and city officials and some students. A “whistleblower” brought the trip to the attention of the state auditor who is now looking into the trip’s funding and other district expenditures.