Five vying for Hartford school board

African American Alliance set to hold candidate forum next weekend at Hartford Public Library

HARTFORD — An incumbent Hartford school board member and four other candidates are running for four open seats in next month’s election.

Board of Education vice chair Shontá Browdy, a Working Families Party representative with two children in the district, is running for her second term in the Nov. 2 election. Browdy had been a Hartford parent advocate and substitute teacher before her election in 2017.

On the city Democrats’ slate are Francoise C. Deristel-leger, a Montessori teacher in Norwalk; Tyrone V. Walker, a former quality manager at Pratt & Whitney; and Yahaira Escribano, a Foodshare program coordinator who was a 2019 member of the Obama Foundation’s Community Leadership Corps in Hartford. Deristel-leger and Walker are both members of the Hartford Democratic Town Committee.

Bryan Gilbert Callender Jr., a Republican, will also appear on the ballot. He is an outreach coordinator at Goodwin University Magnet School and founder and president of The War is on Foundation, a nonprofit promoting youth development in urban communities.

Under minority representation rules, Democrats cannot win more than three of the board’s elected seats. Overall, nine people serve on the volunteer panel that has a voice on school policy, district leadership and the direction of Hartford’s education reform efforts. Five seats are appointed by the mayor, and four are elected to four-year terms.

The Greater Hartford African

American Alliance is holding a candidate forum on Oct. 30 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hartford Public Library. The Hartford Votes-hartford Vota Coalition has also interviewed some of the candidates and posted the videos to Youtube.

Browdy is the only elected member seeking to retain her seat.

Board chair Ayesha Clarke will be leaving after her first term, Craig Stallings after his second. Both interviewed with the Democratic Town Committee but did not receive the party’s endorsement.

A fourth at-large elected position has been vacant since Juan Hernandez in August 2020.

Residents can vote for up to three candidates in next month’s election.

The top four vote-getters will join the five appointed members of the board: second vice chair Kim Oliver, director of Hartford’s Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation; Dr. James Shmerling, president and CEO of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center; Yvette Bello, a Realtor and senior officer for the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; Rev. A.J. Johnson, a community activist and pastor at Urban Hope Refuge Church; and Philip Rigueur, a sales executive for CVS Health/aetna.