Attorney Andy Hosmer will resign from the Springfield Board of Education in advance of his Jan. 1 swearing in as a Greene County associate circuit judge.
Hosmer said yesterday he plans to formally step down during the Dec. 9 meeting. He said the roles of a sitting judge and a school board member create potential conflicts of interest.
“In running for the board, I have to organize a campaign committee, and I’m sued on a somewhat regular basis as a member of the school board and those cases often are in Greene County,” he said. “And the time constraints – I don’t think it could be accomplished.”
Hosmer, 50, is nearing completion of his third term on the school board.
“It’s certainly tough to leave the school board. I’m really excited about where the district is going with John Jungmann’s leadership,” he said. “We’re starting to get glimpses into how he wants to lead this district. There are lots of challenges, but there are also lots of exciting opportunities. It will be sad not to be a part of that.”
Hosmer said he got the call from Gov. Jay Nixon offering him the judgeship last month, while touring an “Epic” school site that Jungmann helped create in the Liberty school district. Hosmer said he joined Springfield Public Schools administrators to see the project-based learning model first-hand.
Hosmer is known for challenging the status quo in the schools, and he thinks that ideology will continue without his voice.
“We’ve got a board that thinks deeply on these issues and educates themselves and that’s not afraid to engage in a vigorous debate over these things. That’s important,” said Hosmer, who began serving in 2006. “When I came on the board, I was often the lone ‘no’ vote. Some people gave me gruff about it, saying it’d be nice to have unanimous votes. I never thought that. I think the community wants us to have challenging debates. Once you make a decision, that’s the board’s decision and you move on and support that, but the board needs to hash these things out. The board needs to hold the administration accountable and support the administration.”
Hosmer, who applied for the judgeship last year when Ron Carrier was selected, joins associate court judges Carrier, Dan Imhof, Jason Brown and Mark Powell, under presiding Judge Tom Mountjoy. His 52-page application was first reviewed by the five-member nonpartisan judicial commission, which narrowed the field from 16 to three before turning it over to the governor’s office. The position pays roughly $117,000, according to Missouri's 2013-14 Blue Book.
For the judgeship position, Hosmer is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 1 and start Jan. 5. His last day at Springfield law firm Hosmer King & Royce LLC is Dec. 18.[[In-content Ad]]
Springfield event venue Belamour LLC gained new ownership; The Wok on West Bypass opened; and Hawk Barber & Shop closed on a business purchase that expanded its footprint to Ozark.
