Last night, the District Parent Coordinating Council elected Sam Radford as its president.
For the past two years, Radford has pretty much been the public face of the DPCC, but technically, he was the vice president.
Until last night, Co-Leen Webb had been president -- although one who rarely spoke much at public events. I've been at more than one School Board meeting, in fact, where Radford spoke as the DPCC rep and a board member or two actually asked where the president was and why she wasn't addressing the board instead.
Webb apparently is attending college now and doesn't have the time to serve as president. Radford ran unopposed for the top job. (I'm frequently asked how much he gets paid by the DPCC. He, along with all the other members and officers of the group, are volunteers.)
His term will be for two years, as are all the officers' terms.
I'm also asked fairly often exactly who the DPCC is, or who it is that Radford represents. Each school has a representative on the DPCC, which is basically the parent group that's officially recognized by the district. To elect officers, each school gets one vote. Forty of Buffalo's 59 schools were represented at the DPCC meeting on Tuesday. Thirty-two of them were eligible voters (meaning they were the official DPCC rep for their school).
The only contested position was that of vice president. Jessica Bauer Walker and Bryon McIntyre both wanted that seat.
In his remarks to the DPCC prior to the voting, McIntyre cited his years of advocacy work for children. He also said he didn't realize Walker was running for v.p. when he decided to run, and assured parents they couldn't go wrong with either choice.
"Jessica is a brilliant mind. No matter how it goes down today, the DPCC is going to grow," he said.
Walker, who is relatively new on the education scene in Buffalo, has been making her mark by pushing for asset mapping, a way of tapping into skills and strengths of parents in every classroom.
In the end, they both won.
Radford asked the DPCC to add a second vice president's seat for Walker, which the group agreed to do.
Other uncontested races included incumbents: Patricia Elliott for treasurer; Kim Walek for corresponding secretary; and Sabirah Muhammed for recording secretary.
- Mary Pasciak
facebook.com/mary.pasciak twitter.com/SchoolZoneBlog mpasciak@buffnews.com
