Buffy Lael-Wolf The Springfield Public Schools Board of Education will soon welcome two new
members who could shift the balance on decisions like the best way for students to return in the fall. Both are newcomers to public office and work in the medical field. Both were also endorsed by the Springfield Education Association, which represents teachers in District 186. Erica Austin, who won the Subdistrict 6 seat, is deputy director for the office of community care at SIU School of Medicine, where she s assisted COVID-19 testing and vaccine efforts. She s also pursuing a Ph.D. in higher education administration. Austin beat Tom Shafer, a retired firefighter and frequent candidate for local office, and Michael Washington, a former District 186 employee and volleyball coach.
Grants To Local Organizations Will Address Ongoing Pandemic Needs
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Springfield Illinois school board candidates square off
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by afampov · March 2, 2021
By Frederick A. Hurst
Jynai McDonald is running for Springfield’s Ward 4 City Council seat placing her in position to join several other local African American women elected officials who have been playing a significant, if not dominant, political leadership role for the benefit of the African American community and Springfield in general.
32-year-old Jynai is the daughter of Lester McDonald III and Victoria Lewis. Her paternal grandparents migrated to Springfield from Mississippi and North Carolina many years ago. Her maternal grandparents migrated to Springfield from Georgia and South Carolina. Along with the McDonald and Lewis families, she is also connected to the Washington, Redd and Wilkerson families just like so many of our Springfield African-American families are so interconnected. And, like so many of us, Jynai is a product of the distant generation of Southern migrants who escaped to the North for a better