St. Paul voters elected two newcomers to the St. Paul Public Schools board on Tuesday, while board chair Uriah Ward won reelection, according to results with all precincts reporting. Stephanie Anderson and Omar Syed will join Ward on the board starting in January, filling three seats.
The three winners emerged from a field of seven candidates competing for three seats, as reported by the Pioneer Press. According to that outlet, Anderson received 22% of the vote, Syed received 21%, and Ward received 20%. The other candidates—Tamara Mattison, Teresa Glass, Michael Schell and Kris Taylor—finished behind them. Anderson and Syed will replace outgoing board members Halla Henderson and Brandon Lowe, Sahan Journal reports.
Who Are the Winners
Anderson is a third-year PhD student in literacy education with two children in the district, and she was endorsed by DFL groups including the St. Paul DFL, per the Pioneer Press. In her candidate questionnaire with the paper, she pointed to a Full-Service Community School model as one way schools can address inequity, saying, “One way schools can work to address inequity is through a Full-Service Community School (FSCS) model.” She also listed intentional classroom use of technology and artificial intelligence, growing language immersion programs, and collaboration with educators and organized labor among her priorities, telling the paper she favors “insisting that technology and AI be used intentionally in our classrooms; following best practices and current research in the field; growing and strengthening our language immersion programs.”
Syed, one of the two newcomers elected, told the outlet his campaign was about building bridges in a diverse community: “I want to build the bridge between a diverse community and ensure that our public schools are safe and welcoming for every student.” Syed's stated priorities also included closing achievement gaps, strengthening parent and community engagement, and supporting English language learners, per the same report.
Chair Ward Keeps His Seat
Ward was reelected to the board.
Budget Pressure Looms Over English Learner Programs
The newly elected board inherits a district already grappling with English-language staffing strain. St. Paul Public Schools reported 542 fewer English learners than it had projected back in January, a decrease the district attributed to Operation Metro Surge, the same Sahan Journal report notes. In response to that enrollment shift, the district approved an early retirement plan for English language teachers, a compromise that followed an earlier proposal to terminate 16 of those teachers midyear.
That early retirement plan brought the district's fund balance to 5.01%, just above the 5% reserve threshold, per Sahan Journal's reporting. The district has warned that further cuts to English language teachers will be necessary at the end of the school year, leaving the incoming board to navigate the fallout almost immediately after taking office.
A Different Outcome Across the River
St. Paul's relatively calm election contrasted with a more combative race in neighboring Minneapolis, where school closures were the defining issue. Newcomers Christin Crabtree, Becca Dryden and Shannon Gibney won seats on the Minneapolis School Board as a slate endorsed by the group Minnesota Families for Public Schools, having pledged to oppose a proposed closure plan, according to Sahan Journal. Incumbents Collin Beachy and Abdul Ali, also union-endorsed, won reelection there as well.
The Minneapolis transformation plan at the center of that race could have resulted in closing up to 16 schools.
As for St. Paul, Ramsey County notes that election results remain unofficial until they are canvassed and certified by the local jurisdiction, per Ramsey County. Anderson, Syed and Ward are set to begin their terms in January.
