I’m Suzette Waters, and I’m running for Columbia Board of Education in the April 8, 2025 election. Please reach out if you want to know more about me or why I think public schools are important.
My “Why”
Three years ago, I ran to champion public school as the best method we have for educating all of our children. That is still the driving force behind my work on the board and the reason I am running again. Our community has been incredibly supportive of CPS and I want to maintain the relationships I have developed across the community to build an even stronger network of advocacy, collaboration and support for our district. The more our community is invested in the success of CPS, the more our students will achieve.
My track record
Time
I have been a fully engaged board member from the jump. From reaching out to my assigned schools, attending legislative and community events, and participating in multiple conferences held by the Missouri School Boards Association, I have shown dedication to the job. It has been important to come to meetings prepared to lead discussions and make informed decisions. I have consistently put in around 30 hours a week as the board president.
Engagement
My first full year on the board, I held open office hours monthly in the community. I met with dozens of people to chat informally about what was on their mind and to be available for their feedback. In my second year, I was elected president by my peers and nearly immediately had to devise a process for filling a vacancy on the board, bringing the number of first-year members on our board to four. In order to foster relationships and accelerate onboarding for our mainly new board, vice president (Jeanne Snodgrass) and I held monthly meetings with a rotating pair of members and one individual. That investment of time paid off in a more functional working relationship among the board as a whole.
Transparency
It has been a priority of mine to make the board’s work more transparent in the community. The first action I took was to direct all work sessions and committee meetings to be livestreamed and recorded. As a board, we revamped the way our committees select community members to make it a more public process. In addition to filling a vacancy on the board with a very transparent process, we managed an attendance-area change that had significant community input and a favorable result. We are currently in the process of selecting a new superintendent, which will be another chance for us to seek feedback from the community.
Suzette Waters for School Board 