Jana Shaver filed yes­ter­day for the Repub­li­can pri­ma­ry in dis­trict 9. She will face stealth can­di­date Iris Van Meter. The win­ner will face edu­ca­tion pro­fes­sor Kent Run­yan in the gen­er­al elec­tion, unless anoth­er Demo­c­rat files.

Shaver is retired teacher with 27 years of expe­ri­ence, includ­ing work on staff devel­op­ment and cur­ricu­lum align­ment in the Inde­pen­dence sys­tem. She is also a trustee and past pres­i­dent of the Kansas Asso­ci­a­tion of Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Trustees.

I got a chance to meet her briefly last night at an event I’m writ­ing up more fully. 

It’s nice to see two can­di­dates with seri­ous expe­ri­ence in edu­ca­tion and edu­ca­tion­al admin­is­tra­tion fil­ing to chal­lenge Iris Van Meter. Van Meter’s con­tri­bu­tion to the Board has been min­i­mal, she’s mere­ly marched in lock­step with Steve Abram­s’s whims. Her degree is in Chris­t­ian Edu­ca­tion from a Bible col­lege, and her resumé does­n’t indi­cate that she ever actu­al­ly worked in edu­ca­tion. Here’s hop­ing for a change.