Choosing Free Press for the 2024 Detroit School Board Elections

Detroit Free Press Editorial Team
| Detroit Free Press

On November 5, Detroit voters will elect three members of the Detroit Public School District Board of Education. Board members Misha Stallworth and Sonya Mays chose not to seek re-election.

Incumbent board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo and 20 new candidates are seeking re-election. (Candidate Jason Malone withdrew from the race due to injury.) All board members are elected at-large and serve four-year terms.

Three Detroiters rose to the top of this crowded field.

Opinion: Trump shoots in Detroit, in Detroit. The joke is on him.

Teacher

Sherry Gay-Dagnogo won a seat on the board in 2020. She was previously a teacher and state legislator. Has comprehensive knowledge of education policy combined with practical classroom experience.

Since joining the board, she has supported teacher pay increases, helped establish the district’s $94 million literacy fund and included teacher perspectives in board deliberations.

Gay-Dagnogo says the district needs to address truancy and chronic absenteeism while solving transportation issues that many parents face. Recommends a nationwide campaign, in partnership with other governments and civic groups, that addresses how district school closures have made it more difficult for parents to get their children to school while also improving outcomes for Detroit students.

He says equitable funding is a key agenda item for the next term, as is transparency – “making sure taxpayers know how their money is being spent” – such as a dashboard showing the district’s contracts with vendors.

SHERRY GAY-DAGNOGO is a strong voice for teachers and accountability, and deserves a second term on the board.

Annotations: Free press coverage of the Michigan House, Senate and House of Representatives in the November 5 elections

Lawyer

BOYD WHITE IIIHis work experience alone makes him a strong candidate for the Board of Education.

He is an attorney, a partner at the national law firm Dykema, a former prosecutor and a former admissions counselor at the University of Michigan.

For a time, he represented the Detroit Community School District in vendor contract disputes and also spent years visiting classrooms and advising students on college admissions and life.

But this childhood experience and its long-term effects made him a tireless advocate for Detroit and the people of Detroit, and a perfect fit for the school board.

While in ninth grade, one night he heard gunshots and commotion outside his house. His mother sent him to get towels for the gunshot victim and returned to the sound of his father’s voice singing.

It was his father who was shot during the robbery. He lay on the ground and sang the gospel song “Victory is Mine.”

“In that moment, I intuitively understood — taught me — that even in my darkest moments, I have a choice in how I respond,” White said.

His father was a survivor, which taught White personal resilience in a way that allowed him to focus throughout his life on improving the lives of Detroiters.

He believes Detroit’s recovery hangs in the balance as the school district works to improve its performance and reputation.

White’s priorities include advocating for equitable funding, addressing the district’s serious absenteeism problem and pushing for district-level school board elections in the future.

Advocate

Toson Knight has spent much of his career directly reaching out to Detroit students, offering them guidance and encouragement, demonstrating a rare understanding of what it’s like to grow up as an at-risk youth in the city.

Knight says he was a “tough-minded” youth himself who was kicked out of school 11 times while growing up in Detroit and Highland Park.

A chance meeting in church with a woman who would become a mentor guided him through college and set him on a career path to improve the lives of Detroit children.

He founded the mentoring group Caught Up, which has been running youth programs in Detroit for 10 years.

He was the Dean of Students in the Detroit Public School District and currently serves as the Director of Prevention and Diversion in the Wayne County Juvenile Justice System.

There may be others in this broad field of school board candidates who know more about financing, contracting and curriculum, but no one is more familiar with the daily challenges of being underprivileged Detroit youth trying to get through the school day.

School safety and facility upgrades would be among his top priorities as a board member.

TOSON’S KNIGHTHis unique voice and knowledge will make him a major asset to the board.

The fourth candidate, Sherisse Butler, also caught our attention. Butler, a lifelong resident of Detroit, worked as a lobbyist for DPSCD.

She is currently the executive director of City Year, a nonprofit program that places college graduates in Detroit classrooms to provide teachers with a few helping hands. Butler is also well-qualified and has great ideas for improving conditions for Detroit students – and fortunately, she can do just that at City Year.

With Gay-Dagnogo as a returning member, White and Knight as additions to the board, and Butler continuing her exemplary work in the community, Detroit students will be well served.

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