Illustration by Tabitha Walters
“I feel pretty good,” says AAPS board president Torchio Feaster of the November election results. “We elected a lot of good people in this community.”
In the six-way race for three open seats, Leslie Wilkins got the most votes with 22.4 percent, followed by Don Wilkerson at 19.9 percent and Glynda Wilks at 19.8 percent. Wilkins was endorsed by the AAEA teachers union, and Wilkerson and Wilks by the recently reconstituted group Better Boards Better Schools. One-term incumbent Ernesto Querijero won’t be returning: despite the union’s backing, he finished fifth with 13.8 percent.
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“I’m really looking forward to working with these people,” says trustee Susan Ward Schmidt, who wasn’t up for reelection. She doesn’t see the new members as having the “personal agendas” that made post-pandemic board meetings long and contentious, and may have contributed to the poor budget oversight that led to program cuts and the layoff of eighty-eight teachers last summer. (Almost all were recalled after others left voluntarily.)
She’s not surprised that Querijero lost. When she spoke with voters, she says, he was “the one candidate that had the most negatives that people talked about.”
“The community has spoken, and I think they elected some good candidates who will do a great job,” Feaster says. “They want to see someone on the board who’s got great financial expertise, and that’s why I think they elected Don. I think they want to see someone who has had children in the district and who has seen them go on to be successful, and I think that’s why they elected Glynda.
“And I think they want to see someone who is passionate about teachers, and I think that’s why they elected Leslie,” Feaster continues. “So I think that the community has said that they’re looking for people who are gonna pay attention, who are not gonna bicker, who are gonna put our students and our teachers first.”
Appointed to the board in January, Feaster ran unopposed to serve the remaining two years of his term. “He was a great addition with the makeup of the current board just because of his easygoing nature and his level of professionalism,” says Schmidt. She also notes that the board votes for new officers, including president, in January.
“I’d be glad to serve as board president for one more year if that is the will of the board,” writes Feaster in a follow-up email. “Obviously, with our issues, I have not gotten to many of the things I’d like to see happen yet.”