The Faith Coalition for the Common Good and the League of Women Voters of Illinois Springfield Area will host a virtual forum for Springfield District 186 school board candidates from Subdistricts 5 and 6 at 6 p.m. Thursday.
There are contested races in those subdistricts in the April 6 consolidated election while two other incumbents are running unopposed.
The forum will be moderated by Jim Leach, the news and program director at WMAY-AM.
Each term is for two years. In 2023, all seven seats will be up for election, reflective of the 2020 census.
In Subdistrict 6, three candidates are vying for an open seat due to the retirement of Judith Johnson, who has served on the board for the last 20 years.
In a sometimes contentious and spirited District 186 school board meeting Monday, some members openly questioned the transparency of the administration especially around COVID-19 data.
A particular issue was a meeting two board members J. Michael Zimmers and Micah Miller had Friday with several teachers who professed concern about safety issues in their schools and a lack of details being shared with them.
An email listing those concerns in part prompted a correspondence from Superintendent Jennifer Gill Sunday that gave a more exact and detailed set of COVID-19 cases per school, something Gill promised she would be furnishing publicly on the district s website.
Monday, January 18, 2021
If ever there was extraordinary significance in the celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it is now. Everything Dr. King, the civil rights icon, worked and died for; his voice and vision, and what he continues to represent is being tested in today’s America and the world at large. The bedrock of Dr. King’s life and legacy social justice, racial equality, equity and inclusion, human dignity and non violence are being tested: in emerging democraciesin which the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and similar organizations typically provide democracy strengthening technical assistance, and here in the very heart of the oldest, established democracy, the USA. Most notably, the storming of the U.S. Congress on January 6 had the world gaze in amazement, wondering whether in the words of the 20th century Irish poet W.B. Yeats (in the Second Coming) later adopted by the Nigerian literary icon Chinua Achebe (in his seminal novel ‘Things Fall Apar
By WMAY Newsroom
(Kyle Hutchinson / Mid-West Family Broadcasting)
A hearing is set for Tuesday on an objection to the nominating petitions for a Springfield school board candidate.
Michael Washington is one of three contenders running for the seat currently held by Judith Johnson, who is not seeking re-election. A complaint filed by Ana Gragg contends that most of Washington’s petition signatures are invalid because they are not genuine or the signer lives outside that school board subdistrict.
The challenge will be heard Tuesday at 2pm by the three-member Sangamon County Electoral Board.
An objection has been filed to the nominating papers of Springfield School District 186 school board candidate Michael L. Washington.
Washington is running for the seat being vacated by Judith Johnson in Subdistrict 6 in the April 6 consolidated election. Washington faces Erica Austin and Tom Shafer in that race.
Both Washington and Austin are political newcomers. Shafer lost to Johnson in the subdistrict race in 2017.
Washington won a lottery Tuesday against Austin to have his name appear at the top of the ballot.
The objection to 80 of the 126 signatures filed alleges that they are either not genuine, that signers weren t registered at the address they provided or that signers reside out of the subdistrict.