ST. LOUIS — The ballot to fill three seats on the board of St. Louis Public Schools will have a familiar name and connection to the district.
Karen Collins-Adams, the wife of longtime former SLPS superintendent Kelvin Adams, filed Tuesday as a candidate in the April election. Collins-Adams is director of the Rising Teachers certification program at St. Louis University and a former principal in the Hazelwood School District.
Collins-Adams said she has always been interested in serving on the school board to round out her career as an educator.
“This is truly about my intentions. It’s time to take charge of my voice here in the city,” Collins-Adams said.
St. Louis Board of Education members whose three-year terms are expiring in April are President Antionette “Toni” Cousins, Vice President Matt Davis and Natalie Vowell.
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Cousins and Vowell did not respond to questions Tuesday about whether they will run for reelection. Davis said he hasn’t decided if he wants to campaign again.
“I also don’t know if I want to leave the district how it is,” he said.
Kelvin Adams retired in 2022 after helping return SLPS to local control and full accreditation during his 14 years leading the district. The school board fired his successor, Keisha Scarlett, in September over her hiring and spending practices.
In the next year, the SLPS board is expected to grapple with numerous staff vacancies, a budget deficit and school closures.
Collins-Adams said the turmoil in the school district has been “eye-opening.”
“To watch what the team built just slowly fall apart was really heartbreaking because the impact affected the students and the community,” she said.
Other candidates who filed Monday include A.J. Foster, a 2016 graduate of SLPS, Brian Marston, a parent in the district, and former SLPS board members Bill Monroe and David Jackson. The candidate filing deadline is Dec. 31.
Monroe said he is fighting a no-trespass order that bans him from all SLPS properties until after the April election for violating public comment rules during board meetings. He waited outside the St. Louis Board of Election office downtown three hours before candidate filing opened Tuesday.
“I wanted to be first and get this thing going,” Monroe said. “There have to be Black men on that board of education that are not afraid.”
St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams reflects on his time at the helm of the school district and what his future might hold. Video by Hillary Levin
