Gardner Edgerton school board candidate Keith Davenport says he is still running for the position, even though he has moved out of the member district he is seeking to represent.
Davenport recently reactivated his campaign for Position 6 on the Gardner Edgerton Board of Education. He’s challenging incumbent Greg Chapman, who has held the seat for eight years.
That comes after Davenport’s own public waffling on whether he should — or even can — run or not.
Davenport initially paused his campaign in June
In June, Davenport announced he was suspending his campaign after he and his family moved out of District 3, which the position on the school board he’s running for — Position 6 — represents. (There are seven members on the Gardner Edgerton school board, with two board members each representing one of three districts and an at-large member.)
At first, Davenport said he believed he’d be unable to fill the seat if elected.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce a pause in my campaign for the Gardner Edgerton Board of Education,” he said in a post to Facebook in June. “My family currently has a home under contract in a different part of USD 231.”
He then decided he would still run an active campaign against Chapman even though he believed he wouldn’t be able to serve, disclosing his intent to resign on day one if elected, so the school board would be able to appoint someone else.
But earlier this month, Davenport said that after a closer look at the Kansas law that governs school board elections, he said he believes the law would allow him to serve as long as he resides within the school district, even though he will still live outside of the member area he’d be elected to represent.
“As we’ve gotten closer to Election Day, I’ve had several members of the community reach out to me or stop me in stores around town and say, ‘Are you sure you can’t serve if you’re elected?’” Davenport said. “That kept going, so I decided to read the statute again.”
Chapman, his opponent, said the law is clear: Davenport is ineligible.
“I also have first-hand experience with this law,” said Chapman in an email to the Post Oct. 9. “In a previous election, I had to move across town, out of my member district. The Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the JoCo Election Office made it very clear that should I win, I would be found ineligible to take the office.”
What do election officials say?
School board officials should live in their member districts upon taking office, according to Kansas Elections Standards, set by the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office.
“What remains unclear, however, is one point of interpretation in the Secretary of State’s 2019 guidance: that residency [in the member district] must be established on the day a candidate is sworn in,” Davenport said in a statement on Oct. 9. “The law itself makes it equally clear that if a sitting board member were to move the next day, they would continue to serve their full four-year term.
“So, I ask a simple question,” he added. “If voters clearly express their will on Election Day, why should the few hours between ‘day one’ and ‘day two’ undo the will of the people?”
When reached by the Post, Andy Hyland, a spokesperson for the Johnson County Election Office said they “do not give legal advice,” and deferred to the Gardner Edgerton district the ultimate determination of Davenport’s eligibility to be seated on the board if he’s elected.
“Once final, certified election results will be conveyed to the various jurisdictions,” Hyland said in an emailed statement. “Each jurisdiction determines if the winner of an election is qualified to take the oath of office for that jurisdiction.”
The district is currently refraining from making a determination about Davenport’s eligibility as it seeks clarification from relevant offices, said Gardner Edgerton’s Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Ben Boothe.
Davenport says he will only take office if he wins 60% of vote
In his Oct. 9 statement, Davenport outlined three potential outcomes after the election:
- If voters re-elect Chapman, he will serve and Davenport says he will continue to contribute to Gardner Edgerton schools as a member of the community.
- If voters elect Davenport by a narrow margin of less than 60% of voters, he will not take office, but will continue to contribute to the schools.
- If voters elect Davenport by a wider margin, with 60% or more of voters supporting him, he said he feels “compelled to ensure that the will of the people is honored,” and look for appropriate legal remedies to clarify the law.
“I believe in transparency and honesty, which is why I have been open throughout this campaign about my residency and why I’m being equally open about my intentions after Election Day,” Davenport said. “I am not looking for a loophole — I am looking for an opportunity to lead, humbly and faithfully, at the mercy of our community.”
Chapman said he believes Davenport is looking to subvert democratic processes and instead should continue to make a difference in other, legal ways.
“I have happily gone along with his desire to debate and run his campaign even though he can’t take office,” Chapman said. “I have always believed and pushed for parent choice, and this election is no different. The parents and citizens of Edgerton and Gardner have the choice and the vote. I hope to earn their vote and continue to serve these two amazing communities for another four years.”
The two candidates’ priorities
Both Chapman and Davenport participated in the Johnson County Post’s candidate forum Oct. 1. At that point, Davenport was saying he would not take the position if elected but still wanted to run an active campaign against Chapman.
The pair addressed several topics, including challenges and priorities for the district, student achievement and the role of politics and partisanship on the board.
They also talked about their differing views on the board’s decision last year to remove a book featuring a transgender character from a middle school library. Chapman voted for the books removal, and Davenport has been critical of that choice.
At the forum, Chapman said the biggest goals on his mind were improving student achievement with a new curriculum and supporting students and teachers through programs like the Behavior Intervention Support Team.
“Getting parents involved in the education, just like when we were kids, is very important,” Chapman said. “I would say the next thing that we really need to continue to focus on is supporting the educators with behaviors. Kids can’t learn if there’s several kids in one class creating distraction and we just take them out of the classroom and bring them back.
“I was very happy to push for BIST to come to our district,” he added. “I worked with (Superintendent) Dr. [Brian] Huff quite a bit on that. We were able to finally get that going and we’ve seen great improvement. I think helping support the educators and creating a calm environment for kids to learn in is going to be paramount, on top of the curriculum, for the teachers.”
For his part, Davenport highlighted the pressures and stress students feel as the biggest challenge for the school district in the coming years.
“Oftentimes, the school district has looked to be the wraparound services for social services, mental health, behavioral health, even sometimes providing food or clothing opportunities to families who don’t have that,” Davenport said. “When we really think about our student population, some students are stressed because they’re high achievers and they want to continue to be high achievers; others are stressed because they want to be high achievers, but they’re really struggling in school.
“Then, you have this third group,” he added. “School’s not even a priority because they have so much going on in their life outside of school that they have to think about those things first. The only way we’re going to be able to address those things is to continue to create strategic partnerships in our community. Some of those have already started. We have continued to grow in our relationship with Johnson County Mental Health Center, for example.”
Want to stay plugged into this race?
The Post is publishing candidate questionnaires the week of Oct. 20, click here to see the questions.
