Rep. Haahr amends bill to shorten SPS board terms

State Rep. Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, yesterday amended an elections bill to reinstate three-year terms for Springfield Public Schools board members.

Following discussion on the broader bill, House Bill 63, Haahr said the Springfield school district fell out of compliance Jan. 1 with a state exemption issued in the late 1990s that cut in half its six-year board terms. According to Missouri statutes, six-year terms on public school boards have been in place since 1964.

In 1998, according to a news release from Haahr’s office, Springfield joined Columbia and Lee’s Summit in gaining legislative approval to shorten the terms to three years from six, while those communities faced difficulty getting local residents to serve on the education boards. The law change applied to districts with city populations exceeding 100,000 and in first-class counties, as long as no adjoining county also has a first-class status.

On Jan. 1, Christian County moved to first-class status, making SPS no longer exempt from six-year terms.

An effort by legislators last year to revise the statute came up short before the session ended, the release said.

“The language I added on the House floor today will restore the current three-year terms so that we can continue to attract the best and brightest of our community to serve in these important roles,” Haahr said in the release.

HB 63 received initial approval on the House floor and requires another vote before moving to the Senate. The next hearing is not scheduled.[[In-content Ad]]