On Wednesday, the Green Party of St. Louis hosted a rescheduled school board candidate forum at Legacy Bar & Grill in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers (Local 420), St. Louis Democratic Socialists, Universal African Peoples Organization, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Communities’ One Project, Ecumenical Leadership Council of Missouri, and Organization for Black Struggle. The event was covered by KSDK. My 10-year-old campaign manager made it into the newscast.
Transcript of my opening and closing statements
Opening
My name is Brian H. Marston.
I’m the only candidate who currently has kids enrolled in SLPS. I’ve been an SLPS parent since 2012.
I’m the only candidate who filed a January Quarterly Report with the Missouri Ethics Commission.That’s an indication of my commitment to ethics, transparency, and accurate accounting.
I’m a first-generation college graduate with an education degree. I also have degrees in math and philosophy.
I’d be a certified high school math and Spanish teacher, if I’d done my student teaching my senior year. Instead, I started a web development company because I fell in love with the idea that information wants to be free.
I have more than 25 years of IT experience. I’m good with spreadsheets and making systems and processes more efficient.
The hardest and most meaningful thing I’ve done is being the director of North St. Louis YouthBuild, a construction training and GED program in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
I worked with neighborhood residents, students, board members, union representatives, social workers, parole officers, politicians, government officials, donors, and volunteers to build the program from the ground up.
We converted a two-story Sunday school to a two-family building. When we started, the roof was in the basement, which was an apt metaphor for a lot of things. Some of the 18-to-24-year-old students entered the program with 4th-grade reading levels.
YouthBuild was housed on the corner of 19th and Newhouse at Friedens Church, which suffered a horrible fire two days ago, on Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King Day. I’m still trying to process that.
In other volunteer roles, I’ve been the president of The Commonspace, Metropolis St. Louis, and my neighborhood association, and vice-president of BWorks.
I have a solid track record of working with people in north city, south city, and the central corridor to help make St. Louis a better place.
Closing
Thank you to Legacy Bar & Grill for hosting this event, and to all the sponsoring groups for organizing the forum.
Most of all, thank you to all of you for caring enough to be here tonight. Our public schools are worth caring about. They’re the cornerstone of democracy. Both are under attack. Monday wasn’t just MLK Day and the day Friedens Church burned to the ground: it was also Inauguration Day. We’ve got some difficult days ahead.
The district and the board have received a lot of attention lately, most of it negative. I’m hoping we can work together to take that attention and turn it into positive outcomes.
My campaign site is at brianhmarston.com. I’ve got yard signs in my car, if you’d like one.