Two seek citywide seat on Milwaukee School Board
All Milwaukee voters April 4 will have a hand in choosing the next school board member to hold the only citywide seat governing Milwaukee Public Schools, as board president Bob Peterson is stepping down.
Some Milwaukee voters will have a second school board seat on their ballot for their local area. Eight school board members represent different areas of the city. Their terms are four years long and staggered, so half are up for election every two years.
School board members decide how MPS spends its budget, including pandemic relief funds. They set policies, from COVID safety to discipline guidelines, and direct lobbying efforts for state and federal education policies.
Districts 4-7 do not have elections this year and will continue to be led by Aisha Carr, Jilly Gokalgandhi, Marcela Garcia and Henry Leonard, respectively, who were elected in 2021.
Districts 2 and 8 will each have only one candidate on the ballot, incumbents Erika Siemsen and Megan O'Halloran, respectively, both supported by the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, the union for MPS staff. In District 2, former Milwaukee Police Sgt. Pamela Holmes, whose nomination papers were rejected by city election officials, is running a write-in campaign against Siemsen. O'Halloran is running unopposed.
Districts 1 and 3, along with the citywide seat, each have head-to-head races on the ballot. In District 1, Shandowlyon Hendricks Reaves will face incumbent Marva Herndon. In District 3, board vice president Sequanna Taylor is stepping down; Gabi Hart will take on Darryl Jackson in that race.
Read about the candidates who are squaring off in Districts 1, 2 and 3 at jsonline.com. Learn more about the citywide candidates below.
Jeff Spence
Background: Jeff Spence, who also ran for a seat on the common council but lost in the primary, works at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District as a senior fellow and officer of diversity, equity and inclusion. He previously served on the school board from 1999 to 2015, when he lost to teachers-union-backed Wendell Harris. The union opposed Spence's openness to approving independently run charter schools.
Supporters: Spence said his campaign has received contributions from charter school advocate and founder Howard Fuller, former county executive
Chris Abele, former school board members Mark Sain and Bruce Thompson, Milwaukee Succeeds Director Vincent Lyles, conservative donor Ted Kellner and equity fund director Cory Nettles, who co-chaired a capital campaign for Fuller's school.
Website: jeffspenceformilwaukee.godaddysites.com
Views:
● Spence said MPS should consolidate students and staff into fewer buildings, in cases where buildings are not at capacity, and sell other buildings. He said elementary schools with 200 or fewer students, or traditional high schools with 300 or fewer students, may not be offering as many opportunities for students, and the district would benefit from saving money on upkeep of underused buildings.
● Spence said he would propose adding seats on the school board for the mayor and county executive. The idea is softer than other power-shifting proposals that the board has fought off in the past, including putting the mayor in charge or dissolving the district. Spence said the officials would have no more power than other board members. But it would mean voters outside the city would have voting power for one seat. Spence said the collaboration would lead to “collective strategies” to address intertwined issues of education, health and stable housing. He also said, in a forum hosted by Leaders Igniting Transformation,
that he disagrees with the board's 2020 decision to end contracts with Milwaukee Police.
● Spence said MPS needs to prioritize reading and math, that Milwaukee needs more alternative educational models, and parents should be able to choose from a range of schools whether they are run by MPS or not. He said he would support “universal school choice,” a concept backed by Republican lawmakers who say any student should be able to use tax-funded vouchers to attend private schools.
Missy Zombor
Background: Zombor is the marketing director for Rethinking Schools, a magazine co-founded by school board president Bob Peterson with a focus on social justice in education. She previously served as communications director for the MPS teachers union. Like two candidates who ran in the 2021 board election, Zombor is a member of the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America.
Supporters: Zombor is endorsed by Peterson, who is vacating the seat. She is also endorsed by the MPS teachers union, Black Leaders Organizing for
Communities, Citizen Action, Wisconsin Working Families Party, the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes; state Dem. lawmakers Darrin Madison, Evan Goyke, Ryan Clancy, Christine Sinicki, Tod Ohnstad, LaTonya Johnson and Chris Larson; county supervisors Marcelia Nicholson, Juan Miguel Martinez and Peter Burgelis; and Common Council members Jonathan Brostoff and Marina Dimitrijevic.
Website: www.missyformilwaukee.com
Views:
● Zombor said MPS, which has dealt with chronic staff vacancies, needs to better compensate teachers to ensure smaller class sizes and that each school can regularly offer arts, physical education and career education. She said she would support bonuses for educators who stay in the district, health insurance for all fulltime substitute teachers, and a faster hiring process.
● Zombor's priorities also include transportation, meals and mental health. She said she would push to add GPS trackers to school buses so families can track them, and would advocate for free county bus passes for MPS students. She wants more schools to reopen their kitchens to prepare fresh meals and offer customizable options like sandwich, baked potato or salad bars. She said she would “defend and expand” recess, and push for more mental health staff and restorative justice practices. At LIT's forum, she said she supports the school board's 2020 decision to end contracts with Milwaukee Police.
● Zombor said she doesn't think the school board should approve any new “non-instrumentality” charter schools, which are schools authorized by MPS to be run by independent boards. She said she wouldn't necessarily vote against renewing contracts with existing noninstrumentality charter schools but thinks the board should “take a close look” before doing so.