5 want 2 GRPS board seats

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Two sitting Grand Rapids Public Schools board members will face three challengers in their fight to keep their seats Tuesday. The election comes as district administrators are pushing course changes that have stirred controversy.

Harry Campbell, who is finishing his first term, told 24 Hour News 8 he's running for the same reason he ran the first time: he does not believe all GRPS students feel valued -- and he says they should.

The changes to class structure pushed by the district administration could be a success, Campbell said, if everyone works together.

GRPS would be better served if top administrators spent more time in schools to understand the issues they face, he said.

Amy McGlynn wants a fourth term on the school board.

"We're making elementary work really well and we've got middle school working really well and I wanted to stay and I want to make high school work well," she said.

The third-term board member said the changes pushed by Superintendent Bernard Taylor are needed to make to give more students a chance to learn.

"The delivery model that we have doesn't work for an ever-growing percentage of our students," McGlynn said.

Challenger Roger McClary is running because he said "there seems to be a problem in the way the administration deals with both the community and the parents and there's a lack of civility and one of the things that I want to do is to help restore that."

Proposed class changes were not well thought out, McClary said. And the district needs to prepare students to compete with their peers. "With a 52% graduation rate, we are nowhere close to that," he said.

Challenger Jon O'Connor, a neighborhood association president who works in real estate, said he sees first-time homebuyers who hesitate to purchase homes in the city because of the school system. Class changes could be another "obstacle" that keep families away, he said.

Administrators, O'Connor said, didn't put out enough information about major changes.

"Whether it's the right decision or the wrong decision, we need to better educate the public about the decisions the district is going to make," he said.

Former GRPS teacher and administrator Maureen Quinn Slade is a challenger vying for a seat.

"I have 31 years of experience in education and I think that matters," she said.

It was "kind of late in the year" to push the changes Taylor has, Slade said. "We probably should have involved parents and family and students who are concerned as well as teachers and other staff as to what the ramifications are and also what the costs would be."

The two candidates with the highest vote totals will win seats and take office in July.