Malik Evans, a longtime Rochester school board commissioner, is running for a seat on City Council. All five at-large seats are up on Council this year.
Evans, a Democrat, won his seat on the school board in 2003, roughly a year after graduating from the University of Rochester. He is the youngest person to ever be elected to the board.
Evans has two years left in his current term.
“I never run away from a challenge,” he said in a phone call earlier today. “And serving on the school board is one of the most challenging elected positions in New York State.”
There are so many issues that many of Rochester’s students and families confront that need to be addressed outside of the district for them to succeed, he said. Evans wants to devote his attention to Rochester’s extreme level of childhood poverty and related issues such as the city’s high rate of teen pregnancy.
Evans in many ways is the most recognizable face on the school board. He was president of the board from 2008 to 2013, and dealt with some controversial issues. For instance, he strongly opposed a contentious bid for mayoral control of the district by then mayor Bob Duffy.
Three school board seats will be available in this year’s election. The terms of President Van White, Vice President Cynthia Elliott, and Jose Cruz end in December.
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2017.
There ya have it. Same people, day in day out. Rochester, get wise. Vote the person who u’ve never heard of. Vote the person who’s face u’ve never seen. If you wonder why this place never can get off the ground, here’s a, ” face with a name”.
City Newspaper, thank you for being the last local publication, that I know of, to actually let us comment on issues. Some good, some bad, but at least we can. Great sounding board !
COMMUNITY ALERT — We have an important and interesting, new twist in the upcoming 2017 Local Elections, i.e., Malik Evans has announced that he’s running for Rochester City Council, which of course means that if he wins — that will leave ANOTHER open seat on the Rochester City School District Board of Education (in addition to the three that are up for re-election — Van White, Cynthia Elliott, and Jose Cruz), which also means that (theoretically) — the community could change the MAJORITY of school board members in 2017. I’m not sure about what happens if Malik Evans wins a Council seat, i.e., not sure if he gets to choose the individual who will finish out his remaining, two-year term, or if there would be a special election. I assume it’s the former — rather than the latter. In any case, this IS important news (at least potentially).
CERA, out can comment on the DandC on local issues. But you have to use your real name.
Howard,
A special election is the protocol. But in Rochester, who knows. He definitely needs to LEAVE the School Board with the rest of the useless crew!