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Subject: School Board Majority at Stake;D.C. Voters Choose From 24 Candidates for 6 of
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 04:54:43 EST
Message-ID: <23.1992Nov4.045444@AmeriCast.com>

School Board Majority at Stake;D.C. Voters Choose From 24 Candi-
dates for 6 of Panel's 11 Seats<By Sari Horwitz=Washington Post
Staff Writer=

D.C. voters were choosing candidates for the majority of seats on
the Board of Education yesterday, as the board prepares for a new
round of budget battles with the city government.

Twenty-four candidates, including five incumbents, were running
for six seats on the 11-member board, which presides over a
half-billion-dollar budget and sets policy for 80,000 students in
178 public schools.

Those elected to the four-year terms will, like the boards of the
past several years, oversee a school system in financial diffi-
culty, supported by a shrinking constituency of parents.

Early next year, Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly and the D.C. Council
will review the board's proposed budget for the 1994 fiscal year.
Although the board is politically independent from the mayor and
council, it depends on them for its funding and has a fragile re-
lationship with both. The school budget has been cut by a total
of $10 million over the past two years, despite school board
pleas for an increase.

The school system, run by Superintendent Franklin L. Smith for
the past 15 months, has been criticized in several studies this
year for longstanding discrepancies concerning the size of the
schools' work force and for failing to boost student performance
significantly or curb the dropout rate.

At least one new board member was certain to be picked, to fill
the seat left vacant by David H. Eaton, an at-large member who
died last month. Ten candidates ran for the two at-large seats on
the ballot. One of them was incumbent Karen Shook, a former
teacher and television producer and a board member since 1988.

Also running for the at-large seats were Albert Gallmon Jr., 40,
pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church and the chairman of a group
of religious leaders spearheading an effort to defeat the death
penalty initiative in the District; Stella S. Gomes, 50, a pro-
fessor at Howard University's School of Education and a former
high school math teacher; and Mary Draper Janney, 71, a civic ac-
tivist in groups such as Planned Parenthood and a private school
teacher.  Also seeking an at-large seat were Valencia Mohammed,
41, a parent activist, mother of six in the public schools and
the founder of an Afrocentric education advocacy group; Charles
"Chuck" Ballard, 44, an instructor at the Building Industry In-
stitute; and Philip E. Pannell, 42, a community leader in Ward 8,
a three-term advisory neighborhood commissioner and a gay-rights
activist.

The race included Anita Bellamy Shelton, 57, the executive direc-
tor of the Mental Health Association of D.C. and the former
director of the D.C. Office of Human Rights; Romaine B. Thomas,
the principal of Ketcham Elementary School and wife of D.C. Coun-
cil member Harry Thomas Sr. (D-Ward 5); and Jerusa Carl Wilson
Jr., 31, a lawyer, member of Concerned Black Men, a civic group,
and a tutor of homeless children.

In Ward 1, incumbent Wilma R.  Harvey, 47, who has held the seat
for the last six years, faced a tough challenge.

Running against her was Beatriz "BB" Otero, 39, a day-care opera-
tor and the first Latino candidate to run for school board in
more than a decade; Monica Guyot, 54, the founder of a child-care
center; and Jim Joy, 37, who runs an exhibition business.

Ward 1, an area in the center of the city stretching from wealthy
Kalorama to multicultural Adams-Morgan and Mount Pleasant to
mixed-income Shaw, has 17 schools (mostly elementary) with some
of the lowest test scores in the city and the highest enrollment
of Latinos.< Otero is a community activist and pioneer in Latino
politics here. She founded the Calvary Bilingual Multicultural
Learning Center, taught for four years in D.C. schools and pro-
grams, helped found Bell Multicultural High School and has been
involved in policy as a member of the D.C. Committee on Public
Education, a civic group.

In Ward 3, west of Rock Creek Park, incumbent Erika Landberg ran
unopposed.

Incumbent Angie King Corley, 68, a former teacher and school
counselor, faced three opponents to represent 11,000 students in
Ward 5, which is mostly in Northeast Washington.

She ran against Mary Baird Currie, 59, a guidance counselor,
former advisory neighborhood commissioner and chairman and neigh-
borhood Orange Hat Patrol coordinator; Imagene B. Stewart, 50,
president of the Women Ministers of Greater Washington; and Ed-
ward H. Wolterbeek, 50, a real estate broker.

In Ward 6, one of the city's most diverse, incumbent Iris J.
Toyer faced four challengers. Toyer, 41, is a former activist
with Parents United, the city's largest parents group, and with
the D.C. Committee on Public Education. She faced Benjamin W.
Bonham Jr., 39, a former track coach and District payroll ad-
ministrator; Bernard A. Gray Sr., an Anacostia lawyer who ran two
unsuccessful campaigns for D.C. Council; Charlotte R.  Holmes,
65, a recently retired budget analyst for the U.S. Small Business
Administration; and L. Yvonne "L.Y." Moore, 46, a former U.S. Po-
stal Service worker, special education teacher and advisory
neighborhood commission chairman.02:23 11-04C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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