Mitchell Henderson of Owensville was appointed to the Gasconade County R-2 Board of Education with a 3-2 vote during a June 25 special meeting and was sworn in on June 29 by Melissa Bauer, board secretary, during the regular meeting.

Henderson, who has been a member of the Gasconade County R-2 community for the last 13 years, is originally from Florence. Henderson’s wife, Amanda Henderson, is from the area and is a sixth-grade math teacher at the middle school this year. The couple’s two children are enrolled at the middle and high schools.

Henderson ran for the board of education in the 2025 and 2026 elections. His focus is encouraging a relationship between the district and community.

“My goal is to continue to foster the enrichment of the community through the school district,” Henderson said. “Community being most important part. The school brings and makes the community together and makes it an interesting place to live. Additional to that, keep kids local in Owensville and surrounding areas.”

While he believes the board is doing good work, improvement could be made in communication.

“I think there’s a bit of a disconnect on the way that the district communicates out to the community, as far as priorities, goals and trade-offs,” Henderson said. “There’s no choice the district can make without some sort of trade-off, right? If we invest in math education, it might take that money away from physical education. We need to communicate why we’re making these decisions, what factors were involved, as well as provide supporting evidence to prove that this is why we’re going this way, and this is why we think it’s a good idea.”

During his interview on June 25, Henderson was interviewed by the board regarding his priorities and took the opportunity to learn more about the group.

“I learned that their goals are far more closely aligned to mine than I thought, and they recognize some of the issues that I see. I think, they just need some help communicating out some of the solutions and some of the paths that they’re taking,” Henderson said. “They were also surprisingly welcoming of new ideas and input, which I think is great, because I think more community members need to be involved in the school board process.”

Henderson, who works in information technology (IT), said he doesn’t have an agenda going into the seat.

“My whole reason for doing this is to do the best for the most amount of kids that we can, and the most for the most amount of the community,” Henderson said.

During the June 25 meeting, the board of education interviewed Amy Estes, Rebecca Goggin, Henderson and former board member Joyce Lowes before voting 3-2 (members Jenni Crosby and Debbie Landolt against). Board President Glenn Ely was absent. The board released a statement following the split vote.

“We were fortunate to have four highly qualified individuals apply for the position,” the release read. “Following the interviews, board members individually ranked and discussed the candidates. Throughout the discussion, it was clear that multiple candidates possessed the qualities necessary to serve effectively and contribute positively to the future of our district.

“Because of the exceptional strength of the candidate pool, the vote reflected differing perspectives among board members regarding several outstanding candidates — not a lack of support for the individual selected.

“The board of education is fully united in welcoming and supporting Mr. Henderson as our newest board member. We look forward to working together as a team to continue putting the needs of our students, staff, and community first.”

Henderson also commented on the split vote.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” Henderson said. “There needs to be healthy conflict in every school board. If everybody agrees at all times, I don’t think they’re weighing the trade-offs fully. We need to debate these things publicly, and if there’s a disagreement, that needs to go on record.”