School board hopefuls take strong stances, sharpen swords

School board races in St. Paul and at least one east-metro district are heating up as candidates sharpen their messages and square off against their competitors, including one self-described "angry white guy."

With four seats up for grabs in two races, the election comes at an important juncture. The St. Paul district is moving into the latter stages of its superintendent search and must dramatically raise student achievement. It needs to complete negotiations with teachers on concessions and could face further budget woes.

Jean O'Connell, a political independent and retired 3M engineer and executive, garnered important endorsements that lauded her business and civic background. Observers say she has the best shot of unseating one of the three incumbents: John Brodrick, a retired teacher; Tom Goldstein, a union business representative, and Elona Street-Stewart, a synod associate for the Presbyterian church.

The other challengers are Chris Connor, a Lutheran pastor, and John Krenik, a former educator.

The St. Paul Federation of Teachers declined to endorse any of the incumbents.

O'Connell said the board needs her financial, managerial and engineering skills. "We need more speed and urgency on the board," she said. "Our kids can't wait for better schools."

Two-year seat

The matchup for the two-year term in St. Paul is filled with contrasts. Pat Igo, a real estate agent and businessman, acknowledged an uphill battle against Vallay Moua Varro. "It's not going to be easy," Igo said. "I'm up against a new American, a minority; and I'm the angry white guy."

Asked to explain that analogy, Igo said he's as interested in closing the achievement gap as anyone, but that the school board needs someone with his conservative bent. The seat he's running for was held by Tom Conlon, the only Republican on the board.

Igo also criticized Varro for sending her children to "an elite private school." Varro, top education aide to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, said she opted for private school after not being able to enroll her child into the public school she preferred.

Forest Lake

While not exactly a battle of the sexes, the contest for three seats on the Forest Lake school board features three female challengers who are sharing advertising against two male incumbents.

The sharpest distinctions among them is that both men, David Gay and Eric Langness, say their approach to school funding is more conservative.

"Let's put the core functions first, and let's do it efficiently. And if there's anything left we can look at extras," said Langness, who described extras as "stuff that goes on outside the classroom." Sports and other extracurricular expenses are important but should be prioritized, he said.

Gay said that before he and Langness were elected four years ago the school district often "mismanaged" funds.

Kathleen Bystrom, a former board member now running again, said Gay and Langness haven't always been collaborative on the board. "At some points they have been oppositional for the sake of being oppositional," Bystrom said. "Rather than fighting the system we want to work with it."

Also in the race with Bystrom are Karen Morehead and Erin Turner. All the candidates live in Forest Lake.

South Washington County

With a new superintendent under contract and a new high school successfully opened this year, most of the big initiatives for the district are in the rearview mirror for a while. "Now we need time to let the place settle in and figure out where do we go next with this," said Denise Kapler, a school board member whose term is expiring. Ellen Ayers also isn't running again.

Four seats are up for election in the district and two other incumbents, Marsha Adou and Tracy Brunnette, are running. Eight other candidates are in the race, including Katie McElwee-Stevens of Newport and Alberder Gillespie of Woodbury, who were appointed to board seats but lost election bids two years ago. They are joined by Laurie Johnson, David Kemper, Edward Nowak, and Mike Thissen of Woodbury; and Walt Lyszak and Gina Taft of Cottage Grove.

West St. Paul

The contest in the West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Eagan School District has three open seats, eight candidates and no incumbents. They are Patricia Barnum and Kelly Gibbons of West St. Paul; Anne Byer-Rajput, Dewayne Dill, David Koziol and Joel Stone of Mendota Heights; and Jim Cichy and Brenda Norman of Eagan.

White Bear Lake

Five candidates are pursuing four school board seats. They are incumbents Janet Newberg and George Kimball of White Bear Lake; challengers Kim Chapman of White Bear Township, Vince Miller of Vadnais Heights, and Bob Shevik of White Bear Lake.

Gregory A. Patterson • 612-673-7287