Like Advocates for Kids, Mayor Francis Slay announced this week that he is endorsing Flint Fowler, Joseph P. Keaveny and Joe Moramarco for the three St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education seats being contested on April 5.
Unlike Advocates for Kids, the mayor said that he interviewed nine of 10 candidates.
“I am supporting these candidates because they believe in our kids and are committed to improving the quality of education our children receive,” Slay said.
“I also support them because they are good people who will provide strong, steady leadership on the school board.”
Slay did not endorse Veronica O’Brien, whom he hand-picked to replace the ousted Rochell Moore last May, saying that he “did make a mistake.”
“I have learned from that mistake. We need candidates who support reforming and improving the schools. But, we also need strong, steady leadership on the school board. We need people on the school board who are mature and act like adults,” Slay said.
Slay said he is pleased with the work of the other current board members over the first two years of their terms.
“Two years ago, the St. Louis Board of Education narrowly avoided bankruptcy by beginning an unprecedented time of reorganization, tackling inefficiencies and duplications that had made the business side of St. Louis Public Schools insolvent and, largely, incompetent,” Slay said.
“These are successes of which the district should be proud. Problems that took decades to create have been identified and addressed in far less time.”
Candidate William Purdy chastised Advocates for Kids for not interviewing all candidates before making its endorsements and announcing them in last week’s American. “The fact is that I was never contacted let alone interviewed by either James Buford, Frankie Freeman, Sandra Moore or anyone from the Advocates for Kids organization,” Purdy wrote in a letter to the American.
“I am personally disappointed in those individuals, whom I have always respected and admired, that they would allow themselves to be used in this manner. I am calling on those named ‘Advocates’ to publicly disclose the names of the candidates who were interviewed.”
Dorris J. Walker-McGahee, president of The Parent Assembly of St. Louis Public Schools, said Slay’s favored candidates were selected “to join (school board member) Vincent Schoemehl and his allies to entrench their control of the schools.”
“Surely after the two years of wasteful mismanagement of the schools and their educational deterioration under Slay’s puppets, St. Louis parents and other voters will recognize the Advocates for Kids ploy for what it is and will not be tricked and fooled again or swayed by their posturing,” she wrote in a letter to the American. She said her organization is endorsing O’Brien, Purdy and Peter Downs “because they are the real advocates for our children and their parents.”
The Clergy Coalition of Metropolitan St. Louis called media members to Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Monday for a press conference to announce its endorsements for school board. Once media members were gathered, the coalition’s president, the Rev. Sammie Jones, unexpectedly announced that the organization was continuing to interview candidates and would not announce any endorsements.
Also on hand were Flint Fowler supporters armed with a bevy of yard signs promoting their candidate.
The school board campaign took an ugly turn on Monday evening when a number of O’Brien’s yard signs were destroyed, and she said vandals had also been on her property.
Board member Amy Hilgemann had parked at O’Brien’s home and upon driving away discovered that her tires had been tampered with.
O’Brien said that police told Hilgemann that her tires had been “slashed.”
“This is sad that this has come to this,” O’Brien said in an email to the American.
Candidates for the St. Louis School Board have been invited to participate in a candidates forum on 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29 at Eastern Star Missionary Baptist Church, 3117 St. Louis Ave. at Garrison. The forum, open to the public, is sponsored by the St. Louis Black Leadership Roundtable, St. Louis Chapter of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
Candidates will make four-minute presentations on their vision for eliminating the African-American academic achievement gap and improving student performance. A brief question-and-answer period will follow.
