USD 383 board member Kristin Brighton seeking re-election

“I feel like the first two and a half to three years of my term was spent in crisis mode,” Brighton said. “I’m excited to do this a second time; it’s not quite as intimidating now.”

Brighton said she can remember the day in March 2020 when Gov. Laura Kelly announced that schools would be closed for the remainder of the year because of the coronavirus.

“I remember crying. I just couldn’t believe it,” Brighton said.

Brighton said she wants to continue working on some of the improvements school board members have discussed for the past couple of years, most notably the workforce shortage the district has faced since the pandemic began.

“If we don’t have enough quality people in classrooms, we won’t achieve what we were working on (before COVID),” Brighton said. “Raising academics back to the goals we set in 2019 before the pandemic started, and working on making the district a place that people really want to work.”

Brighton said she also wants to see the district build its infrastructure to support more career and technical education opportunities for students at Manhattan High School.

“We have great programs, but there are other districts in the state that are farther ahead of us,” Brighton said, adding that she wants to build relationships with local businesses and the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce to create more work-based learning opportunities for students.

She also said she wanted to remain on the board for the district leadership transition in June. Next month, USD 383 superintendent Marvin Wade will officially retire, and current assistant superintendent Eric Reid will take his place. The board cleared a path for Reid’s promotion over the past several months in an effort to keep him from leaving the district.

“With Dr. Wade’s retirement and Eric Reid’s promotion,” Brighton said, “it’s a big time of change in the district, and I’m not ready to make a departure.”

The seats of Brighton, Darell Edie, Curt Herrman and Brandy Santos are up for election in November. At the Jan. 4 board meeting, Edie said he wouldn’t seek re-election, which means there will be at least one new board member. Herrman and Santos haven’t stated their intentions.

Brighton is the second person to file for the USD 383 race.

In January, retired military officer Robert Busby filed as a candidate in the USD 383 race. Busby, 49, is a retired military officer with more than 28 years of service, starting his career in the Air Force and ending it with the Army in 2019. A 1991 graduate of Manhattan High School, Busby works in information technology leadership for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.