A college drop-out abandons a lucrative tech career for a life of inner-city poverty – and hopes to save an urban school district from oblivion

It's a horrible time to run for the Kansas City, Missouri, School Board.

It's been nearly a decade since state officials stripped the Kansas City, Missouri, School District of its accreditation, and parents are impatient for administrators to find a way to raise test scores and eliminate the stigma so long associated with area schools. And now, the board has to sort out messy details after a divisive vote in November that turned over seven Kansas City schools to the Independence School District. And it has to find a new leader after ousting Superintendent Anthony Amato. Amato was the district's 24th superintendent in 39 years; he'd served just 18 months.

Few people seem interested in trying to change the leadership in a tattered district responsible for educating 27,000 children. Of the four board seats coming up for a vote in April, only one will be contested. In the 3rd Subdistrict, incumbent Duane Kelly is running unopposed. In the 5th Subdistrict, parent Ray Wilson is the only person who filed for the vacated seat. And nobody filed for the empty seat in the 1st Subdistrict — that chair will have to be filled by a write-in candidate.

The lone challenger is Airick Leonard West. He's running against incumbent Bill Eddy, a professor emeritus at UMKC's Bloch School of Business. (Eddy tells The Pitch that he'd never heard of West until West called him to let him know he was running. The two sat down for a brief discussion, but Eddy says he's waiting for upcoming forums to discuss their policy differences.)

Dressed in a neat business suit, West is a handsome 28-year-old with short braids and a quiet demeanor. An hour into his kickoff party at Durwin Rice Gallery, it's his moment to tell the packed room of lawyers, parents and politicians why they should support his bid for the at-large seat.

His pitch is simple. He's running on a unity platform that he says will better involve Kansas City's political and civic institutions in the life of the district's schools. He promises to identify policies that are working and throw out rules that aren't.

A longtime community activist, West has the kind of résumé that gives his name cache in many political circles. With his experience and reputation, West could run for the City Council or the statehouse — and win. Instead, he's vying for an unglamorous post that virtually nobody wants.

But there's more to West than what this crowd sees.

He barely made it through high school, and he left college before he got a degree. For West, though, running for school board makes perfect sense.