St. Louis voters had to choose between two separate community forums on Wednesday night to hear from the 11 candidates for the St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education.
The first, which was organized primarily by American Federation of Teachers Local 420, the union representing SLPS teachers, was held at Vashon High School in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood in north St. Louis.
Eight candidates attended: Karen Collins-Adams, Brian Marston, David Jackson, Bill Monroe, Toni Cousins, Tavon Brooks, Teri Powers and AJ Foster.
The second, which was announced after the first forum was scheduled, was hosted by the Coalition with STL Kids at the Drip Community Coffeehouse in Tower Grove South. The coalition is an advocacy group run by former charter school leader Chester Asher, who has ties to The Opportunity Trust.
Krystal Barnett, Zach Davis and Andre Walker attended that forum. The Coalition with STL Kids has endorsed all three.
A little more than a dozen people attended the STL Kids forum, while the gathering at Vashon saw around 100 people. According to the AFT St. Louis, all of the candidates were invited to attend the forum held at Vashon.
It’s unclear if all candidates were invited to participate in the forum held by the Coalition. The group had circulated a flyer advertising that seven of the 11 candidates were planning to attend.
Candidates, audiences on the issues
At Vashon, audience members were invited to submit questions to the candidates during the two-hour forum, which was riddled with technical difficulties.
Topics included special education, board governance and navigating conflict with community members.
However, questions about school closures because of falling enrollment and district leadership turnover were not addressed.
Kelly Wikstrom, a kindergarten teacher at Mallinckrodt Academy of Gifted Instruction, said she was heartened to see that Wednesday night’s forum was more organized but wished the candidates had discussed teacher retention.
“We have a huge problem in SLPS with teachers coming for a year or two, getting a little bit of experience, and going to a district that pays higher, or districts where they feel safer or districts that have better resources,” Wikstrom said. “There seems to be a really big push to get new teachers in, but where’s the loyalty to the teachers you already have? Where is the respect for the teachers who have been here for years and years?”
One audience question pointedly asked whether candidates would enroll their children or grandchildren at Vashon, Roosevelt or Sumner High School. Five candidates said they would, while two candidates — Jackson and Monroe — said they would not, citing academic performance.
Meanwhile, at the Drip Coffeehouse, three of the 11 candidates running on a slate discussed the importance of the school board being more transparent with the public and increasing cohesiveness internally.
They also highlighted SLPS’ literacy problem and low reading scores, as well as the significance of meeting students and parents where they are despite literacy levels.
Barnett said she intentionally chose not to attend the union’s forum Wednesday night.
"Originally, when we started to run on this slate and put our hats in the ring for the St. Louis Board of Education, we were more than willing to attend and or participate in all forums that anyone hosted,” Barnett said. “It didn't matter who the affiliation was or who was being the moderator. [At previous forums] what I experienced there was a lot of bullying, a lot of contentiousness, people attacking community members, putting children in harm’s way, and also not asking us questions that actually center around St Louis public schools."
The small group of attendees asked how the candidates would handle the various budgeting challenges coming from President Donald Trump's policies and how they would create oversight to address tax increment financing districts that affect school district funding.
Walker highlighted that SLPS has around $240 million in reserves and spoke in favor of TIF districts and tax abatements in hopes that they would help grow the St. Louis community and schools.
“There may come a time when we have more budgeting challenges,” Walker said. “Right now, the budgeting issues from Trump won’t harm us right away. We have to create some type of consortium of schools – we have charter schools in the city that are privately funded, and then we have our public schools. We have to figure out a way to work with everyone. Right now, we don’t do that. We would need to bring in a company to help out.”
The 11 candidates are vying for three open SLPS Board of Education seats in the April 8 election.
Editor’s Note: The Opportunity Trust is a financial supporter of St. Louis Public Radio. STLPR is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations by members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in STLPR's journalism.
