Nixon Nominates Former KC Area School Chief to State Board of Education

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has appointed the former superintendent of the Grandview school system to the Missouri Board of Education.
Martin will represent the Kansas City area on the board.
Martin led the Grandview district, a suburb of Kansas City, from 1990 until 2006.
He served briefly as the interim Kansas City school chief in 2008.
He also served as a deputy superintendent for the St. Louis school district in 2007 and 2008.
The Kansas City seat has been vacant for a year after Stan Archer resigned.
The lack of a Kansas City Area representative on the state board has been a sore spot in local education circles.
Within the last year the accreditation of the Kansas City, Missouri school district and the fate of the Gordon Parks Charter School have been controversial topics before the state Board of Education.
The state Board stripped the charter from Gordon Parks school last spring. A Missouri Judge, however restored its charter and criticized the Board’s handling of the matter.
The lack of accreditation by the Kansas City school system has also been a sore spot.
The Board refused to grant the KC system provisional accreditation for this year. The district earned enough points, but the state Department if Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) did not change the school system’s unaccredited status.
Last month Nixon promised to nominate some one by the start of the 2014 legislative session.
Lawmakers return to Jefferson City on Wednesday.