By World Staff
There are six candidates running for the vacant Atlanta Board of Education District 2 seat, created by the resignation of former Board Chair Khaatim Sherrer El. Some of them have answered questionnaires from different education groups.
Four of the five candidates for the vacant Atlanta Board of Education District 2 seat have completed a brief questionnaire giving insight into their positions on charter schools, the Georgia Charter Schools Association announced recently. The candidates – Byron Amos, Angela Brown, Dwanda Farmer and Donald Walker – are all Democrats and are vying for the seat left vacant by the resignation of former board chair Khaatim El, earlier this year. The seat is currently being held on an interim basis by Nisha Simama, a counselor and administrator at a private school in Atlanta. The election is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
All of the candidates expressed at least moderate support for charter schools. The questionnaire is strictly informational and is not being used by the GCSA to judge or rank any of the candidates, according to GCSA Executive Vice President Andrew Lewis, who interviewed each candidate. The documents were sent to Atlanta charter school leaders recently.
“While the association does not take the position of officially endorsing any one candidate, we believe we have an
obligation to our members and to the public to provide insight as to where each candidate stands on charter related issues,” Lewis said.
The candidates elected to the Atlanta Board of Education this Nov. 8 will profoundly affect the board’s ability to continue the school reform agenda, and the advancement of our children, EduPAC’s said.
The EduPAC Board consists of business, civic and faith-based community stakeholders from Atlanta’s most influential organizations who are committed to promoting qualified school board candidates and getting them elected, according to an EduPAC news release.
Since 1993, EduPAC has convened every four years to evaluate, endorse and advocate a slate of credible and competent candidates for the Atlanta Board of Education. Members who are elected to this board are critical as they provide oversight and leadership for the Atlanta Public Schools. Atlanta Public Schools is midway through its ambitious school reform agenda, and is poised to become one of the top-performing urban school systems in America.
On Oct. 7, EduPAC will release its endorsed slate of candidates.
Candidates vying for the school board are: Dewanda Furman, who admits the school cheating scandal has not only hurt students, but the regional economy as a whole. She also believes that every graduate from high school must have work-ready skills; Kwabena Nkromo has a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old in Atlanta Public Schools and is angry about the the cheating scandal and says he remains dedicated and committed; Donald Walker a psychological professor and motivational speaker and mentor for the public schools, says he is committed to quality education and he himself is a product of public schools; Byron Amos, vice president of the PTA for two years, also has a young student enrolled in the Atlanta Public Schools. He says he wants to celebrate the good about the Atlanta Public Schools; Angela Brown has spent more than 20 years training young people to be leaders in the West End area.
She says she wants to serve on the school board to make certain that the policies are in place to protect students and grow leaders; and finally Michael Jeter is also a candidate for the Atlanta School Board.