BREAKING NEWS/EXCLUSIVE
Garrett Sawyer has announced that he will be seeking to fill the 4th District School Board seat vacated by Jonathan Young's resignation. Recently Sawyer had planned to run for City Council, but has changed course and has filed to be appointed to the School Board.
I've encountered Sawyer in a variety of community spaces. Through his years of public service he has forged deep connections with a wide spectrum of community members.
Christian Detres of RVAMag describes Sawyer as:
"....charming, clearly attentive to style, and friendly to boot. His gentle manner cradles a striding confidence that could magnetize voters...."
"His public service pedigree is strong. His experience ranges from working with the NAACP to serving in leadership at the Ethics Reform Commission and the Richmond Public Library. He’s considered an HR wizard and gets really excited about Richmond restaurants. He’s a happy product of Richmond Public Schools and a Richmond native.
In our brief conversation early this morning, topics ranged from his motivations for seeking the 4th District appointment to improving the conditions in which children learn.
As a teacher, I was on high alert for signals that Sawyer takes the concerns of RPS education workers seriously.
What immediately rose to the surface for me, as a teacher:
- Sawyer was born and raised in Richmond and attended Richmond Public Schools, K-12 (Westover Hills, Thompson, and Open High). His commitment to the mission of public education seems unassailable.
- Sawyer acknowledges that health and safety are foundational issues that can no longer be overlooked.
- He has deep experience in operational and executive spaces. His expertise lies in crafting policies and procedures, as well as implementation.
- He said he is prepared to engage with "difficult conversations" around issues in RPS.
- He expressed that in his view, community members and stakeholders should have more opportunities to communicate their concerns, particularly during school board meetings. (I took this opening to share with him how dismayed I was that at a recent School Board meeting, an administrator was given unlimited time to speak under the cover of "the will of the Board," while during that same meeting, multiple teachers and education workers advocating for the safety of hundreds of people had strict time limits imposed upon them.)
A 2022 Style Weekly cover story listed Sawyer's community engagement accomplishments:
A graduate of Open High School and the University of Virginia, Sawyer has been an important community voice through his service on the city’s ethics commission; the board of Richmond Public Library and Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal school; as a longtime leader of the Northside Coalition for Children, Inc. that undertakes a large annual back-to-school supply drive; and as an advocate through the Richmond City Democratic Committee, Richmond NAACP and most recently, a founding member of Richmond Together, a civic education organization. (Style Weekly, March 29, 2022)
Drilling down, Sawyer already has connections to current members of the school board and the REA. He is Chief of Staff/Communications with the Northside Coalition for Children, whose executive director is 6th District School Board rep Shonda Harris-Muhammed. Former REA President and Immediate Past President Milondra Coleman serves on the board of The Coalition.
The deadline for filing to be appointed to the open 4th District position is today (April 30, 2024) at 4:30 p.m. This is going to be a tight race in the 4th. Sawyer is very well-known throughout Richmond, having launched a run at the Mayor's Office before shifting to a City Council race. Generally, Sawyer is known as a consensus builder. Other candidates will have a lot of ground work to do to match Sawyer's pre-primed path to the seat. Ultimately, the School Board decides which appointee fills the seat until the November election. That decision will be made at the May 20th School Board meeting; candidate interviews will being conducted at next Monday's meeting.
I look forward to asking Sawyer (and all candidates) about:
- how can we prioritize health and safety for our students and employees in RPS
- how do we defend our school system against a creeping takeover by charter-driven private money
- what would support for collective bargaining look like for him in the role of a School Board member
- what affirmative measures can the School Board take to stop the teacher retention apocalypse
- and many other issues
Look to this space for interviews with all the candidates....from a teacher's point of view.
***
Learn more about Sawyer here:
RICHMOND’S NEXT MAYOR? GET TO KNOW GARRETT SAWYER
STYLE WEEKLY COVER STORY, March 29, 2022
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