LRSD board election draws 19 candidates

New panel will be first since state took control of district

A total of 19 people are running for election Nov. 3 to a reestablished Little Rock School Board, according to the Pulaski Circuit/ County Clerk’s office.

Additionally, three people are running for the North Little Rock School Board and two incumbents are running for the School Board in the Pulaski County Special School District as of the close of the candidate-filing period at noon Monday.

The Little Rock School District, the second-largest system in the state, has been operating without an elected board since January 2015, when the state Board of Education took control of the district because six of the district’s then 48 schools were classified as academically distressed for chronically low student test scores.

The state board late last year voted to return the district — with limitations — to the governance of a nine-member elected board.

Early voting in all three Pulaski County school districts begins Oct. 19 for the November election. The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district had its election earlier this year. All school board members are unpaid.

In the Little Rock School District, three positions — Zones 1, 2 and 4 — are uncontested and the candidates will be elected to

three-year terms. Following are all of the candidates by zone and some background about them if available and not previously reported in the past week:

ZONE 1

Michael Mason, 62, a state-appointed member of the Little Rock School District’s Community Advisory Board and the city-appointed member of the board of directors for the Rock Region Metropolitan Transit Authority. He is an equal-opportunity specialist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing. Mason is a graduate of Little Rock Central. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and has a master’s degree in management and public administration from Webster University. He is married and the father of four adult children, all of whom graduated from Little Rock district schools.

ZONE 2

Sandrekkia Morning is unopposed in her bid for the Zone 2 seat. Her candidacy was previously reported.

ZONE 3

Monica Wiley, 50, is an administrative specialist at the Arkansas Department of Health. She attended Little Rock School District schools but graduated from Forrest City High. She has a degree in human services from Arkansas Baptist College. She is married to Marcus Wiley and has four adult children who attended Little Rock district schools and four grandchildren now in the district..

Evelyn Hemphill Calloway. No information was available.

Tommy Branch Jr. was appointed to the Little Rock School Board in November 2012 to fill a vacancy. He ran for election in 2013 but was defeated in a three-person race. He more recently chaired a state committee that studied ways in which charter and traditional schools could better collaborate in Pulaski County. He is a graduate of J.A. Fair High, and has a bachelor’s degree from Philander Smith College and a bachelor’s degree from Camden University in public health administration, according to newspaper articles.

Michael Sanders. No information was available.

ZONE 4

Leigh Ann Wilson, a licensed clinical social worker for the Adult Sickle Cell Clinical Program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, is running unopposed. Wilson, 35, graduated from Gosnell High and has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She is married to Patrick Wilson, a teacher at Forest Heights STEM Academy, and she has a third-grade daughter at that school.

ZONE 5

Ali Noland — Her candidacy was previously reported.

Stuart Mackey Sr., a real estate company company executive whose father and grandfather both served on the Little Rock School Board. Mackey, 55, is a graduate of Central High and Washington University in St. Louis where he earned a degree in history. He is married and has two adult children who graduated from Little Rock School District schools. Mackey is executive vice president of the Hathaway Group, which has been a contracted service provider to the school system for many years. “As of today we no longer are,” Mackey said Monday. “I was the primary contact there, but we have terminated the contract with them that ran through October of this year.”

ZONE 6

Lou Jackson, a newly retired 40-year educator, is undertaking her first campaign for elective office. Jackson’s career was largely in the Pulaski County Special School District where she was most recently the principal at Daisy

Bates Elementary. She is a graduate of Wynne High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Henderson State University and a master’s degree in special education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Jackson, 64, is married to Elliott Jackson and has two sons who graduated from Parkview High and two granddaughters who attend Little Rock high schools.

FranSha’ Anderson. Her candidacy was previously reported.

Vicki Hatter. Her candidacy was previously reported.

Chris Kingsby is a member of the City of Little Rock Commission on Children, Youth and Families. Kingsby 20, is a graduate of Hall High and currently majoring in political science and legal studies at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

ZONE 7

Norma Jean Johnson, who is a permits technician for the Arkansas Department of Transportation, is seeking a return to the board. Johnson, 61, was elected to the School Board in 2011. She served a three-year term but was defeated in 2014 by Joy Springer, now a state representative. A 1977 graduate of Central High and the mother of a Central High graduate, Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Northeastern State University in Tallequah, Okla., a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a master’s degree in adult education, also from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1987 until 1992.

Ryan Davis. His candidacy and background were previously reported.

ZONE 8

Greg Adams. His candidacy was previously reported.

Benjamin R. Coleman Jr. No information was available.

ZONE 9

Jeff Wood. His candidacy was previously reported.

Kieng “Bao” Vang-Dings. Her candidacy was previously reported.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT ZONE 4

Lizbeth Huggins. Her candidacy for a election to a position she now holds by appointment was previously reported.

Angela Person West. Her candidacy was previously reported.

ZONE 6

Jon “J.T.” Zakrzewski is unopposed. His bid for the seat he held from 2011 to 2014 was previously reported.

PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL ZONE 2

Tina Renee Ward of Sweet Home is running unopposed for reelection to a five- year term from the southeast section of the school district.

ZONE 6

Eli Keller of Maumelle is running unopposed for reelection to a five-year term from the Maumelle area school board election zone.