Endorsement: Free Press picks for Detroit school board in 2024 election

On Nov. 5, Detroit voters will elect three members to the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s Board of Education. Board members Misha Stallworth and Sonya Mays opted not to seek re-election.

Incumbent board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, who is running for re-election, and 20 new candidates are competing for the spots. (Candidate Jason Malone withdrew from the race because of an injury.) All board members are elected at-large, and serve four-year terms.

Three Detroiters rose to the top of this crowded field.

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The teacher

Sherry Gay-Dagnogo won a seat on the board in 2020. Previously a teacher and a state legislator, she has a comprehensive knowledge of education policy, paired with hands-on experience in the classroom.

Since joining the board, she has supported increasing teacher pay, helped create the district’s $94 million literacy fund and has brought the perspective of a teacher to the board’s deliberations.

Gay-Dagnogo says the district must address truancy and chronic absenteeism by solving the transportation challenges many parents experience. She recommends a citywide campaign, in collaboration with other government and civic groups, that takes into account how district school closures have made it harder for parents to get kids to school — and, at the same time, improving outcomes for Detroit students.

She says equitable funding is a key agenda item for the next term, along with transparency — “making sure taxpayers know how their money is being spent” — like a dashboard showing the district’s contracts with vendors.

SHERRY GAY-DAGNOGO is a strong voice for teachers and for accountability, and deserves a second term on the board.

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The lawyer

BOYD WHITE III’s professional experience alone qualifies him to be a strong board of education candidate.

He’s an attorney, a partner at the national law firm Dykema, a former prosecutor and a former admissions counselor at the University of Michigan.

He’s spent time representing the Detroit Public Schools Community District in vendor contract disputes, and he’s spent years visiting classrooms and advising students on college admissions and on life.

But it was a childhood experience and its long-term effects that make him a tireless advocate for Detroit and Detroiters, and a strong fit for school board.

While in the ninth grade, he heard gunfire and commotion one night outside his home. His mother sent him to retrieve towels for the gunshot victim, and returned to the sound of his father’s voice, singing.

It was his father who had been shot in a robbery. And he was laying on the ground singing the gospel song “Victory is Mine.”

“In that moment, I understood intuitively — he taught me — even in the darkest moments, I have a choice in how I respond,” White said.

His father survived, and it taught White about personal resilience in a way that would keep him laser-focused on improving the lives of Detroiters for a lifetime.

He believes Detroit’s revival hangs in the balance as the school district works to improve its performance and reputation.

Advocating for equitable funding, addressing the district’s severe absenteeism problem and pushing for district-level school board elections in the future are among White’s priorities.

The advocate

Toson Knight has spent most of his career directly engaging Detroit students, offering them guidance and encouragement with a rare kind of understanding of what it’s like to grow up in the city as an at-risk youth.

Knight says he was a “hard-headed” youth himself, kicked out of schools 11 different times while growing up in Detroit and Highland Park.

A chance encounter at a church with a woman who would become a mentor carried him through college and set him on a path to a career in improving the lives of  Detroit children.

He founded the mentorship group Caught Up, which is going on 10 years of Detroit youth programming.

He's been a dean of students for the Detroit Public Schools Community District and now serves as a director of prevention and diversion for Wayne County's juvenile justice system.

There may be others in this wide field of school board candidates who know more about funding, contracting and curriculum, but there’s are none more familiar with the day-to-day challenges of being an underprivileged Detroit youth trying to get through a day of school.

School safety and facilities upgrades would be among his top priorities as a board member.

TOSON KNIGHT’s unique voice and expertise would make him a major asset to the board.

A fourth candidate, Sherisse Butler, also grabbed our attention. Butler, a lifelong Detroiter, has worked as a lobbyist for DPSCD.

She’s now executive director of City Year, a nonprofit program that places recent college graduates in Detroit classrooms to provide teachers a pair of helping hands. Butler is also well-qualified, with sharp ideas about improving conditions for Detroit students – and thankfully, at City  Year, she’s in a position to do so.

With Gay-Dagnogo as a returning member, White and Knight as additions to the board and Butler continuing her exemplary work in the community, Detroit students will be well served.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Endorsement: Free Press picks for 2024 Detroit school board election