72 file to run for 7 seats on new Detroit school board
The election for a new Detroit school board has attracted an enormous field of candidates, with 72 people filing to run for seven seats in the Nov. 8 election.
The candidates include former board members, educators and parents. The group that emerges from the election will take office in January and choose a superintendent for the new Detroit Public Schools Community District. The new Detroit school system was created by the state legislature as part of a $617 million package to rescue the debt-laden Detroit Public Schools.
Members of the former DPS board running for seats on the new panel are Annie Carter, Elena Herrada, Tawanna Simpson, LaMar Lemmons, Ida Short, Herman Davis, Wanda Redmond, Reverend D. Murray, Patricia Singleton and Juvette Hawkins-Williams.
A number of the former board members have publicly opposed state control of the district under a series of emergency managers appointed starting in March 2009 and spoken against the state-approved rescue package, arguing that it doesn’t provide enough local control. Under the legislation, the existing Detroit Financial Review Commission will have oversight over the new district’s purse strings.
Others filing to run include John Telford, who was named superintendent by the school board several years ago but was sidelined by then-Emergency Manager Roy Roberts; Deborah Hunter-Harvill, former superintendent of the dissolved Buena Vista Public Schools and a former board member of DPS’ GEE White Academy charter school; Mary Kovari, a former DPS principal; Theresa Mattison, a former DPS principal and teacher; and Penny Bailer, former executive director of City Year Detroit.
As of the close of business Tuesday, 55 of the candidates had been certified to appear on the ballot.
School board candidates
Below are the candidates who have filed to run in November for the seven seats on the new Detroit school board:
ROBERT F. BRAZELTON
RITA MCFADDEN CARPENTER
ANNIE PEARL CARTER
KEITH LINNAEUS WHITNEY
SABRINA JACKSON
TONYA RENAY WELLS
REVEREND D. MURRAY
STEPHEN CZAPSKI
RENAE A. MICOU
ANGELIQUE NICOLE PETERSON-MAYBERRY
ANDREW JACKSON, JR.
GWENDOLYN BRITT
KEVIN TURMAN
ELENA HERRADA
TAWANNA SIMPSON
DEBORAH HUNTER-HARVILL
JOHN TELFORD
RONALD DIEBEL
MARKITA MEEKS
CHRISTOPHER POMPEY
VICTOR B. GIBSON
NICOLE LATRICE VAUGHN
MARY KOVARI
JOANN JACKSON
SHAWN RENEE FORMAN
RYAN CHARLES MACK
WANDA REDMOND
TAMARA PERRIN
TIA SHEPHERD
CHARLES M. HALE
ANTHONY ZANDER
BEN WASHBURN
MISHA STALLWORTH
INGRID WALTON
NORMA GALVAN
DEJOYCE COURTNEY
KATHY MONTGOMERY
IRIS A. TAYLOR
YOLANDA Y. PEOPLES
MIRIAM KEYES
VALERIE ELAINE MASSEY
SONYA MAYS
LAMAR LEMMONS
BETTY J. ALEXANDER
KAREN WHITE
KIMBERLY R. JONES
JUVETTE HAWKINS-WILLIAMS
IDA CAROL SHORT
AARON RENALDO SMITH
PATRICIA SINGLETON
HERMAN L. DAVIS
RYAN TOWNSEND
THERESA MATTISON
CHARMAINE D. JOHNSON
TAMARA PERRIN
TAMMY L. YOUNG
CAROL PRATT FARVER
PHILLIP CALDWELL, II
VALENCIA ROBIN GRIER
LESLIE ANDREWS
VICTOR D. ROBINSON
VONETTA D. CLARK
RYAN CLAYTON WILLIAMS
GEORGIA LEMMONS
PENNY BAILER
PHYLLIS BERRY
ROBERT EARL THOMAS
KWAME SIMMONS
MARY BRENDA T. SMITH
WILLETTA ANN RAMEY
BRANDON BRICE
STEVEN MILLER