New School Board Member Had Strong Union Support

Kate Vannoy

The April school board elections were pretty quiet, but the behind-the-scenes action was revealing.

The control of the Milwaukee school board was never in doubt. Liberals with strong ties to the teacher union were going to maintain the majority of the board’s votes after the April 1 election. Only one district on the southwest was contested. The incumbent, Henry Leonard, chose not to run. Competing for district 7 was Kate Vannoy, a teacher at Greenfield High School, facing off against Molly Kuether-Steele, a staffing service manager for the city of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission.

Traditionally, competitive Milwaukee school board races have pitted one candidate who is pro-teacher union, pro-public school and anti-school voucher, against another candidate who is often supported by the business community and backs various school choice options. This election didn’t follow that template.

Vannoy clearly fit the pro-teacher, public school and union model, endorsed by the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA).

But Kuether-Steele was harder to pin down. She was endorsed by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, former aldermen Jim Bohl and Michael Murphy, Democratic congresswoman Gwen Moore, and longtime Milwaukee school teachers-reformers Donelle Johnson and Rita Tenorio. Kuether-Steele used the services of HSG Campaigns, a consulting firm from California which first began in Milwaukee, headed by Eric Hogensen, a longtime Democrat consultant. What was missing from the Kuether-Steele campaign was any real support from the pro-voucher/privatization and business communities.

Kuether-Steele had money, but may not have had the volunteers so necessary to win a local campaign at the doors. At least, that was the opinion of Leonard. He was knocking on doors mostly in support of liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford. “I never saw anyone knocking on doors” for Kuether-Steele, said Leonard, even though “I was out there so much.”

This race became a battle between those supporting the teachers’ union who wanted one type of MPS reform against those who wanted more radical changes. But even within those forces wanting greater change, there seemed to be no consensus what those changes should be.

When asked by WUWM radio on their opinion of the efficacy of School Resource Officers, Kuether-Steele ducked the question. “Whether or not you agree with it, it is currently the law and is being enforced by a judge.” Mayor Johnson, one of her supporters, clearly supported placing SROs in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), but the current school board was clearly against this.

Vannoy was more direct. “I believe officers should be in our community, not in our schools.”

When asked by WUWM why you are running, Kuether-Steele stated, “Enough is enough – I do not support the status quo. MPS needs to improve financial accountability and transparency.” Other than stating that MPS need to be “right-sized,” meaning closing some schools, she leaned heavily on citizen grievance with MPS and the need for trust.

Vannoy hit on educational themes with appeal for teachers and many parents. “We must know our learners, their strengths, in order to develop an educational plan that is relevant and respectful,” she said. “There should always be one qualified adult in a classroom with no more than 20 students.”

Leonard was a strong supporter of Vannoy and donated to $1,400 to her from his unused campaign funds. However, he met with both candidates together and asked them to avoid mudslinging. The public was “sick of it,” he argued. Both agreed and personal attacks were avoided during the campaign.

Although Leonard was handing out literature for Crawford, many people at the doors knew he was their school board representative and asked him questions about that race. Which helped Vannoy. As did her campaign literature, Leonard said: “One thing I thought helped Kate was her flyer that she sent out about accountability to the district and continuing that process. Some constituents liked that.”

That message, Leonard felt, was well-timed. “You don’t know how angry they [the voters] were over that referendum. They were just upset with MPS, upset with public education… but they liked the fact that the board was, overall, cleaning things up in the district. They felt that there was some optimism.”

It helped that the new superintendent, Brenda Cassellius, jumped right in on March 15, only a couple weeks before the general election, even though she was originally hired to start on July 1.

Neither candidate had run for the elected position before. “I’m not sure she [Vannoy] actually ran the campaign,” said Leonard. “She had a small team of 10 or 12 people that she knew personally.”

But union support was crucial. Many of Vannoy’s canvassers came from the ranks of teachers, mostly the MTEA. And she took much of her direction and support from Anna Dvorak, Assistant MTEA Executive Director. That included even whether to have an election watch party.  Dvorak told Vannoy to save the celebration for after the election, and Vannoy complied, according to Leonard. “There would be no election watch party,” he notes, “she was out there collecting votes right up to 8 o’clock.”

The southwest district 7 has many residents who are MPS teachers, but also many city employees. So Vannoy’s likely support  from teachers living in the district must be weighted against Kuether-Steele, a city employee, being able to tap into that base.

“An older gentleman told me,” said Leonard, “if you are a city employee and running for office, that was almost a guarantee that you were going to get elected. But this day and age, that is not the case.”

The end of the city residency requirement has meant this district has less teachers and city employees than in past years. And many public employees, including teachers, utilize open enrollment and vouchers for their children’s education. For city employees in the district who don’t have children enrolled in MPS, the board race may not be as important to them. But for MPS teachers living in the district, the election directly affects their lives.

The final vote on April 1 was Kate Vannoy, 8,078; Molly Kuetner-Steele, 7076. The result is a school board where seven of nine members were endorsed by the teachers union. Rarely has the union enjoyed as much clout.

Correction: an early version of this story wrongly reported that all nine board members were supported by the teacher’s union.

Disclosure: Terry Falk is a former MPS teacher who served from 2011 to 2019 as a school board member with union backing.