Two current board members who ran without teachers union endorsements were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s dual races for four seats on the St. Paul school board.
Board chairwoman Jeannie Foster cruised to victory over Clayton Howatt in the special election for a two-year term. She held 57 percent of the total when vote counts were in from 86 of 95 locations in the city.
And with 24 percent of the votes in a six-way race, Jim Vue won his first four-year term, one year after prevailing in his own special election.
Joining them on the board in January will be 27-year-old Halla Henderson and 30-year-old Uriah Ward.
Foster, 48, has been board chairwoman since Marny Xiong’s death last year from COVID-19. She has missed meetings lately as she herself recovers from a coronavirus infection that briefly had her hospitalized.
Instead of running for a second full term, Foster decided on the last day of candidate filing to run in the two-year special election for Steve Marchese’s term following his move to Seattle; board appointee Yusef Carrillo has held that seat since April but did not run in the election.
Because she joined the race late, Foster ran without key endorsements. Her opponent, Howatt, was supported by the St. Paul Federation of Educators, St. Paul DFL Party and Mayor Melvin Carter.
SCHOOL CLOSINGS
The election came as the board was weighing a proposal by Superintendent Joe Gothard to close eight schools next fall, displacing 9 percent of the district’s students. Foster supports the plan, while Howatt does not.
Howatt, 46, led a successful effort to save Galtier Elementary from closure in 2016. Now, Galtier again is slated to close if the consolidation plan passes.
The board, however, will be down to just six members once the votes are canvassed next week. Foster must slide from her current seat to the two-year spot, leaving a vacancy until the new board members take office in January.
The consolidation plan will need four votes to pass, and the new board members don’t figure to be of any help, as both Henderson and Ward oppose it.
Henderson, a policy director for the Minnesota Youth Council, followed Vue with 22 percent of the vote in the six-way race.
Ward, a financial aid administrator for Augsburg University, had 20 percent.
Taking fourth and failing to secure a seat on the board was 23-year-old James Farnsworth, who was elected by the Legislature in March to represent the East Metro on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. He had 18 percent of vote.
Also running were Jennifer McPherson, with 11 percent, and Ryan Williams, with 5 percent.