Four seats on Milwaukee school board will change this spring
The April election will bring major change to the Milwaukee Public Schools board, as all four incumbents whose terms are ending will not be on the ballot.
That means that, as of late April, four out of the nine board members will be new and the other five will be in their first term, having been elected in 2019.
Three of the incumbents declined to run for reelection. They are Larry Miller, the current president of the board, who was first elected in 2009; Tony Baez, the current vice president, who was first elected in 2017; and Paula Phillips, who also was first elected in 2017.
The fourth incumbent, Annie Woodward, who was first elected in 2009, filed nomination petitions on Tuesday to run for another term. But she was removed from the ballot because she did not have the required minimum of 400 signatures from people who live in the district she represents.
Clare Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said Woodward’s petitions included 283 valid signatures and 178 signatures of people who did not live in the district, did not live in the city at all or did not sign a full name.
Shakkiah Curtis, who filed to run for the seat now held by Phillips, also failed to be certified to get on the ballot because of an inadequate number of nomination petition signatures, Woodall-Vogg said.
Of the four elections for the school board, two will be uncontested. Henry Leonard will be the only candidate on the ballot to represent the southwest side District 7 seat now held by Phillips, and Marcela Garcia will be the only candidate for the south side District 6 seat now held by Baez.
There will be primaries in the other two districts.
On the ballot for the District 5 seat now held by Miller and generally covering the east side will be Alex Brower, Abbie Fishman, Jilly Gokalgandhi and Kahri Phelps Okoro.
Candidates for the District 4 seat, now held by Woodward, are Cheryl Hayes, Dana Kelley, Victor Nwagbaraocha and Aisha Carr. The district is on the north side.
The primary election will be Feb. 16. The final election will be April 6.