Gov. Mike Kehoe has nominated four people to serve on the Missouri Board of Education. What this means is the governor is relieving two sitting board members of their duties.

Kehoe has named Michael Matousek, of Kansas City, to replace longtime Board President Charlie Shields. Jon Otto, of Kansas City, has been chosen to replace Vice President Carol Hallquist. Shields and Hallquist had expired terms and were serving at the pleasure of the governor.

Kenneth “Brooks” Miller Jr., of Sunrise Beach, has been chosen to replace the seat temporarily held by Tawni Ferrarini of St. Charles. Miller previously served as the president and CEO of Jordan Valley Community Health Center.

Dr. Thomas Prater, of Springfield, has been picked to take over the seat that he previously held in a temporary capacity. He was originally nominated to replace Peter Herschend of Branson.

Prater is a physician and partner at Mattax-Neu-Prater Eye Center in Springfield. From 2016 to 2020, he served as a Springfield City Councilman. He was also a member of the Springfield R-12 Board of Education from 1998 to 2014.

Charlie Shields (Photo credit: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education)

Jon Otto, of Kansas City, serves as corporate counsel for Evergy, Inc. Otto is a school choice advocate. He has served as a board member for Académie Lafayette charter school, University Health KC, Missouri Charter Public School Association, Child Protection Center, Minddrive, and the UMKC Law Alumni Association.

The decision to replace Shields is one that immediately sticks out. He has been the board president since 2015. Shields, a Republican, is also a former Missouri Senate President Pro Tem.

His chosen replacement, Matousek, serves as the director of the Government Freight Conference at the American Trucking Association. Matousek was once a registered Missouri lobbyist but is not at this time.

Due to residency, a decision that was expected was to nominate someone to replace Mary Schrag. Kehoe’s announcement today did not include this nomination.

Carol Hallquist (Photo courtesy of DESE)

Schrag currently serves as the West Plains area board member. Her husband was just elected as the Springfield mayor on the other side of the state.

Since she is the owner and chief executive operator of Physical Therapy Specialists Clinic, Inc. in West Plains, that may qualify her to continue to maintain residency in West Plains. Or Kehoe could be making an announcement at a later date.

The political party makeup of the board is required to be four Republicans and four Democrats. However, the party breakdown can be fudged to include Independents so that one political party skirts the requirement.

To officially become State Board of Education members, the Senate has 30 days to approve the nominations. If they don’t, the nominees would be banned for life from serving in the capacity.

An alternative would be for the Senate to send the nominations back to the governor if they are not approved within 30 days. If the Senate returns the nominations to the governor, Kehoe could reappoint them to serve until the 2026 legislative session begins. Then the 30-day clock would restart to seek Senate approval.

The last time Missouri had several board members replaced during the same time period was back when former Gov. Eric Greitens engineered a plan in 2017 to remove members until he found enough who agreed to fire former state Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven. Greitens resigned about seven months later due to a list of allegations involving his mistress and campaign finance violations. The Missouri Board of Education then rehired Vandeven in November 2018.

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