Every election has twists and turns, but this year's election for Rochester school board is among the strangest in recent memory. The election is taking place at the same time that Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is calling for the state to get rid of the board and take over the district for a few years.
In the June 25 Democratic primary, 10 candidates are running for four of the board's seven seats, including three of the incumbents: Judith Davis, Beatriz LeBron, and Willa Powell. Incumbent Liz Hallmark, who is completing her first term on the board, is not seeking re-election.
Davis, Andria Bryant, Howard Eagle, and Clifford Florence are running as a slate.
Running independently are Ricardo Adams, Anthony Hall, Robert Hoggard, and Amy Maloy.
Board president Van White is running for City Court judge; if he wins, another school board seat could become vacant in January 2020.
All of the candidates object to the proposed state takeover of the district. The improvements needed in city schools, they say, must come from community-driven, homegrown solutions rather than a state intervention.
And some of them argue that many of the problems facing Rochester's children and their families -- violence in their neighborhoods, lack of affordable housing, and lack of job opportunities -- are areas that Warren should be focusing on because they, too, are affecting students.
Each of the candidates say they agree with most of the findings in former Distinguished Educator Jaime Aquino's report concerning the district's problems. And they say they want to help the district's new superintendent, Terry Dade, implement Aquino's recommendations.
But the next board, which potentially could have several new members, will face some of the most serious challenges in recent memory.
Here's a look at who's running for the Rochester Board of Education:
Ricardo Adams
A volunteer in city schools for the past eight years, Adams is married to former school board member Mary Adams. They have three daughters, two of whom are still in city schools.
"I have a sense of obligation to this community," Adams says, "and this is what I have to do. I'm in the schools and I'm in touch. I see what's working and what's not. I don't have an agenda."
"I'm not a miracle worker," he says. "But I can bring people together, and that's what we need right now. We need to work together for our kids. They are depending on us."
Andria Bryant
A day-care provider in her home, Bryant is the mother of four children who have graduated from city schools. She's now a grandparent.
"I'm doing this out of a love for the children," Bryant says. "I believe in the report that the distinguished educator gave us. I believe in that report 110 percent."
Bryant says she was a single mother raising four children and she knows what many district parents face. They love their children, but they're working hard and don't have a lot of time, she says.
The district has not done enough to reach out to parents, Bryant says. "I never had anybody come to me."
Judith Davis
An incumbent, Davis was elected last year to complete former board member Mary Adams' term, defeating appointed board member Melanie Funchess. She is running for a full term now, on a slate with Howard Eagle, Andria Bryant, and Clifford Florence.
Davis voted against the 2019-20 budget. "I came to the conclusion that we didn't have a strategic plan," she says, "and the budget was supposed to reflect the plan, but we didn't have one."
She has focused a lot of her attention on the effect racism has on city schools, students, and families. "I don't think that we can ignore that we've all been raised in a society with racism," Davis says. "Our over-suspension was based on implicit bias, a belief system of white principals and teachers."
Howard Eagle
A longtime community activist who has run for school board several times, Eagle is a member of the Take It Down Planning Committee, Faith Community Alliance, and Movement Anti-Ministry Action.
He is the father of three sons who have attended city schools; one will soon be graduating from East Upper High School.
"When I ran in 2013," he says, "I had sworn I wasn't going to run again. I wanted to engage in a process that would groom other candidates." But he was more or less drafted in an effort to take all four seats as a slate, he says, "because that's how decisions are made: it takes four votes."
"Our focus is to implement what Dr. Aquino has laid out in his report, all 11 points. We need systemic change."
Clifford Florence
The associate minister of the Central Church of Christ, Florence has over 25 years of service in the church, according to his website.
He is active in community outreach, particularly in the areas of youth development, school reform, and parental involvement. He is currently chairman of Community Advocates for Educational Excellence.
Florence did not respond to requests for an interview in time for this article.
Anthony Hall
Hall has a daughter in city schools and a son who attends a charter school. He works with the city of Rochester as a youth intervention gang specialist.
"We intervene in disputes in schools and in the community," Hall says, "and we try to work with victims to find wrap-around services. And we try to defuse things so there are no future attacks."
Hall says he is concerned that so many of Rochester's black and brown children have so little opportunity. "The only way Rochester will thrive in the future is if we help our children succeed," Hall says. "A lot of companies don't come here and set up shop because of our schools and low graduation rate."
Because of his extensive work with families, he says, he thinks he could be a bridge between the district's families and the resources they need.
Robert Hoggard
A full-time graduate student working on a doctorate degree at the University of Rochester, Hoggard is, as he says, "the youngest person in this race."
"Normally," he says, "a Ph.D. student wouldn't be doing this. But I looked at the Trevyan Rowe report and the investigation into his death and then the Aquino report and what's happening to our children, and I had to step forward."
He says he's focusing his campaign on poverty, lack of affordable housing, and lack of opportunity. Many things outside of the classroom are making it harder to educate city children, he says.
"Central Office is too big," he says, and "there are not enough social workers."
Beatriz LeBron
An incumbent, LeBron was appointed to the board in early 2018 to fill a vacancy left when Malik Evans joined City Council. She ran again in November 2018 to complete Evans' term and is now running to keep her seat on the board.
LeBron is a community health worker with Rochester Regional Health and is a parent of three children, one of whom is still a student in the district. She says her work with Rochester Regional Health and her board service have given her an insight into the district, its teachers, administrators, and families.
"I've worked in shelters and nonprofit agencies advocating for people, mostly families and children, needing services," she says.
The board's focus needs to be on supporting new Superintendent Terry Dade, she says, and on policies and the budget. "I'm always asking, 'Can we afford this? Is there data that supports this?' "
Amy Maloy
A teacher for the past 20 years, Maloy currently teaches in the Brighton school district. Her four children attend city schools.
She says the school board needs to be more unified and says she considers herself "very collaborative."
"I was inspired to run because of the board dysfunction," she says. "I don't think a board should rubber-stamp things. But undermining the superintendent's leadership causes more chaos and more instability."
Many good things happen in all schools that are never reported, Maloy says.
"We have some real gems," she says. "I would like to see School 58's experiential learning model replicated. We're starting to see some great community schools like School 17. And there's the East-UR partnership, and I think that kind of partnership is the future."
It's too easy to blame teachers for problems in the district, she says. "I see how hard they work."
Willa Powell
An incumbent who has been elected to the school board five times, Powell has served on the board for 20 years. Her four children have attended city schools.
Critics "want to blame the old-timers," Powell says. "But the scrutiny that the district has been under makes it really difficult to get truly qualified candidates to run for office.
"Now is not the time to walk away," she says. "I offer a steady hand of experience, wisdom, and collaboration at a time when the board lacks experience and team-building."
Like the other candidates in the race, Powell opposes the proposal to have the state dissolve the school board and take over the district's operations. "When liberal, progressive people say democracy is a small price to pay as they dissolve an elected body," she says, "that's really, really dangerous, particularly at this time."
Macaluso is a CITY Newspaper reporter.