Two St. Paul school board members who came to prominence in the Caucus for Change election of 2015 secured DFL Party endorsements Sunday for re-election bids this fall.
St. Paul DFLers endorse two school board incumbents, challenger
June 25, 2019 at 1:07AM
Zuki Ellis, the board's current chairwoman, earned the nod on the first ballot, and was joined on the second by Steve Marchese, the board's vice chairman, and Chauntyll Allen, a special-education assistant known for her work in the Black Lives Matter movement.
The remaining candidates failed to garner the level of support needed to capture the fourth and final party endorsement.
They included incumbent Mary Vanderwert, an early childhood education advocate who like Ellis and Marchese was a beneficiary of the union-powered Caucus for Change movement critical of the district's leadership at the time.
On Monday, Vanderwert said she had not decided whether to continue her campaign.
She had the support of AFSCME Council 5 but failed to win the nod of the St. Paul Federation of Educators. That union endorsed Ellis, Marchese and Allen, as well as Jessica Kopp, a former middle and high school teacher. Kopp had said she planned to run this fall even without DFL endorsement.
Other candidates seeking DFL backing included Charlie Castro, Omar Syed and Ryan Williams.
The filing period for the four seats runs from July 30 to Aug. 13.
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