Charles Keith Messmer

Former police officer Charles Keith Messmer said he decided to run for the BOE because decisions this year were made last minute, despite the district having the whole summer to plan for the upcoming school year.

“There was no transparency at all,” Messmer said. “Parents were finding out things from Post-Dispatch or from the news. We’re not finding out from emails.”

Messmer said, from his perspective, it seems like the BOE makes decisions with little to no conversation or input from others. When parents go to speak at BOE meetings, the current BOE doesn’t listen to them or to students.

When people come to speak at BOE meetings, Messmer said, the BOE comes to the meetings with all of their decisions already made. He said he would like to see more communication between the BOE and parents, and as a parent, he wants decisions to be made early so people can plan.

“There has to be debate, there has to be different viewpoints,” Messmer said. “And if there’s not, then we have a problem overall.”

While he may not be a teacher, administrator or member of the PTO, Messmer said more parents will identify with him because he is a hardworking, paycheck-to-paycheck parent trying to keep everything together, just like many other parents.

“I am not interested in seeing the school board run like a business,” Messmer said. “I am interested in seeing people on the school board who are just regular parents trying to make those kinds of decisions instead of looking and treating it like a business.”

What he wants you to know:

“I’m the normal parent who struggles day-to-day like everybody else,” Messmer said. “[I’m] just tired of what I’m seeing and somebody’s got to speak up.”