Mario Marberry will ask for a recount of school board signatures

Mario Marberry doesn’t harbor any ill will toward Marilyn Simmons, the president of the Kansas City, Missouri, School Board. He decided to run against Simmons because he wanted to give voters a choice.

​“Not necessarily going into her or what she has and hasn’t done, but the fact that she’s gotten on the board and not gone through the community vetting process, is not acceptable,” Marberry says. “Each time she’s been on the board it hasn’t really been the community saying, ‘Hey, we want you on the board.'”

Simmons was first appointed to the board in 1996, but lost elections in both 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she was elected with 1,314 votes in an uncontested race for sub-district six. In 2006, without any challengers to the board incumbents, there was no need for an election at all.

So last year, Marberry started collecting signatures to challenge Simmons in 2010. He fell just short, but he’s not counting himself out just yet.