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Big stakes in the Hickman Mills school board election

April's election will bring some new faces to the often-contentious Hickman Mills Board of Education. The board has long struggled to work together, and last year couldn’t agree on a board president or how to fill a vacancy. Will this vote help or hurt?

It was Superintendent Yaw Obeng's idea to create the first co-presidency on the Hickman Mills Board of Education. The idea came to him when the vote was evenly split between two candidates and no one was willing to budge.

"It was a bit of a calculated risk for me," said Obeng. "It wasn't the traditional, but I thought, well, you know, we're not doing anything right now, it can't get worse than this."

KCUR's Jodi Fortino spoke with Obeng about his efforts to reform the combative culture of the school board, and focus on putting students first.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Anna Schmidt and KCUR Studios, and edited by Madeline Fox and Gabe Rosenberg.

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As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
Anna Schmidt is the fall 2023 intern for KCUR Studios. She recently graduated from Kansas State University, where she was the Opinions Desk Editor for the Collegian student newspaper and took over the role of podcast host. You can email her at anna.schmidt@kcur.org.
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