There is a well-funded movement in motion to persuade the public that St. Louis city and county would be “Better Together,” but one glance at the Chinese menu that is the ballot for St. Louis County’s municipal elections on Tuesday, April 8 shows that the county itself is far, far from being “together” within itself.
On Tuesday, voters in the county will elect alderpersons in 38 municipalities, council members in 21 municipalities, trustees in 21 municipalities, mayors in 21 municipalities, directors in 15 school districts, collectors in five municipalities, marshals in three municipalities, trustees in two community college sub-districts and a judge in one municipality. Voters also will decide propositions in six municipalities and six fire districts and bond issues in three school districts, two municipalities and one fire district. This can’t possibly be the way government should be administered in a county with the population of roughly 1 million.
That said, we would like our readers to pay attention to two highly significant elections on this Chinese menu: those for St. Louis Community College trustees in Sub-district 1 and for director on the Ferguson-Florissant School Board. The community college is crucial to access educational opportunity and workforce development in this region, particularly for African Americans, and Ferguson-Florissant is a fully accredited majority-black district. Also, both the college and the district recently lost African-American chief executives who were making progress, based on the decisions of board majorities that, we believe, did not represent the best interests of our community, their institutions or this region. A change for the better in those board majorities is possible if voters come out in high numbers and vote for change candidates on April 8.
Redditt Hudson is the clear choice to join the community college board in Sub-district 1, which includes 10 school districts in north and central county. Hudson, the former ACLU staffer and current NAACP field organizer, is a proven fighter for our community, and this is a vitally important position. St. Louis Community College, with a budget of $227.1 million, impacts more African Americans than any institution of higher education in the region; 35 percent of its 24,000 students are African Americans. Hudson will have to dial down his intensity a little to combat entrenched problems in a college with multiple constituencies, which is different from facing the problems on the streets that he has mostly battled to date in leading community efforts to improve conditions in city jails and address police misconduct. But he is an able, energetic and intelligent man who will adapt to the realities of the boardroom. We strongly endorse REDDITT HUDSON FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEE, SUB-DISTRICT 1.
For the Ferguson-Florissant School Board, we have been impressed by the slate of three candidates put together by Citizens’ Task Force on Excellence in Education, a group formed after the current board suspended Superintendent Art McCoy Jr. McCoy was silenced and ultimately felt compelled to resign from the district by an all-white school board that governs a school district where 78 percent of the student body is black. This board needs more members who are deeply acquainted with the background and needs of more than three-fourths of district students. We believe electing F. Willis Johnson Jr., Donna Paulette-Thurman and James Savala to the board will force a strong shift towards a governing body with more empathy and insight into what these students need to succeed.
Reverend F. Willis Johnson Jr. is the senior pastor and founder of the Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson and a third-generation educator with experience in classrooms as well as in the trenches of educational reform. Donna Paulette-Thurmanis a retired district administrator with 15 years of experience as an elementary school principal with the right instinct to get parents more involved with the district. James A. Savala is a parent of two children in the district who understands that these children need to see more strong African-American leaders as role models. We strongly endorse Reverend F. Willis Johnson Jr., Donna Paulette-Thurman and James A. Savala for Ferguson-Florissant School Board.
