Election Day is a week away, and there are three candidates running for two available seats on the Ypsilanti Community Schools Board of Education.
The only incumbent on the ballot is Yvonne Fields, who is wrapping up her first six-year term. One of the things she is most pleased with in her time on the board is obtaining state funding to eliminate the debt from merging with Willow Run Community Schools. Fields says the district can now do even more for its students.
“Trying to keep them in our district, give them all the different opportunities that are out there for students to excel. So I'm just thinking about making sure we have the right resources, the right teachers, the right funding, giving them all the options that are available.”
Jason Sprague has been an educator for 20 years, mostly in higher education. His grandfather was once school board president. Sprague says he has a wide range of skills that would be a good addition to the school board.
“I'm very policy-driven. I’m the type of person who is going to be looking at the policies of the district first. I'm going to be following those policies. And where those policies need to be updated, I'm going to make sure that we're doing our due diligence.”
KJ Pedri is a longtime community advocate and a member of the Washtenaw County Continuum of Care Board. She says student safety and inclusion are some of her top priorities.
“And making our classrooms places where all kinds of people who are neurodiverse, who might be LGBTQ, who might be coming from another country, all feel like their voices are heard.”
Early voting in the district runs through Sunday.
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