Buffalo school board race attracts at least 4 challengers: Investigative Post

Two incumbents and at least four challengers are vying for three at-large seats that will be placed on the ballot in November. Three of the challengers work together to participate in the ballot.

News and analysis from Investigative Post political reporter Geoff Kelly

Ed Speidel, chairman of the district’s Parent Coordinating Council. Photo by Garrett Looker.

Three at-large seats on the Buffalo school board will be up for election in November.

Two incumbents, Larry Scott and Terrance Heard, are running for re-election. The other, Ann Rivera, will not seek another five-year term.

So far, there are at least four other candidates, three of whom are working together to make the ballot:

• Ed Speidel, chair of the district’s Parent Coordinating Council and former co-chair of the district’s Special Education Parent Advisory Committee. He is the parent of two current Buffalo Public Schools students. He recently occupied a fundraiser for a meat raffle at the South Buffalo Moose Lodge.
• Raziya Hill, founder and executive director of Every Bottom Covered, a nonprofit that provides diapers and other products to low-income families. Hill earned her bachelor’s degree last weekend from Villa Maria College.
• Janita Everhart, Street Team Ambassador for 43Norththe state-funded technology startup competition, and former program director of the Federation of Buffalo Neighborhood Centers. She is the sister of Masten District Common Council member Zeneta Everhart, who chairs the council’s education committee.
• Adrianna Zullich, an attorney who co-chairs the district’s special education parent advisory committee. (She took Speidel’s place.) Zullich has four children in the school system. She testified to Common Council public hearing on the budget last week (approximately 58 minutes) to advocate for an increase in the city’s $70 million in annual funding for the school district.

The top three – Speidel, Hill and Everhart – functioned as a list during the petition period, which began in mid-April. It requires 400 valid signatures on a nominating petition to qualify for the November ballot. School board races are nonpartisan, so there is no primary in June.

Petitions are due to the Erie County Board of Elections next Tuesday.

Supporters of Speidel, Hill and Everhart went door to door collecting signatures for all three candidates. The other three candidates — Scott, Heard and Zullich — are circulating their petitions separately.

Terrance Heard, at-large member of the Buffalo Board of Education. Photo by Garrett Looker.

Speidel considered running for the Park District board seat in 2022, but deferred to retired Buffalo Schools Superintendent Terri Schuta. He now counts Schuta and North District school board member Cindi McEachon as allies in his race for an at-large seat.

He is also close to board chair Sharon Belton-Cottman.

Scott and Heard, on the other hand, are part of a board faction often at odds with the board president.

Buffalo School Board President Sharon Belton-Cottman. Photo by Garrett Looker.

Rivera, who joined the board in 2019, was aligned with Scott and Heard. Earlier this year, she was named dean of Villa Maria College, where she was an English professor.

The school board has nine members – three at-large seats and six district seats. General terms are five years. District seats serve three-year terms. All district seats will be allocated next year.

School board members receive $28,000 a year, thanks to a substantial raise for municipal officials passed by the Common Council last year.

published 1 min ago – May 22, 2024