Hartford Board of Education Elections To Be Held Tuesday, Nov. 4

Ini-Oluwa Adegbayi ’28

News Editors

Election Day for the Hartford Board of Education is today, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Visit this link to find your polling location. The Board of Education (BOE) is the governing body that oversees the public school system in Hartford, which has about 16,000 students and a budget of $450 million. There are nine board members: four are publicly elected and five are appointed by the mayor. The candidates from the Democratic Party are: Francoise Deristel-Leger, Cristher Estrada-Perez and Tyrone V. Walker and Shonta Browdy. Some of the responsibilities of the Hartford Board of Education include hiring the superintendent, adopting policies and budgets, setting educational goals, ensuring equitable resource distribution and safe school environments and providing district-level oversight. 

Deristel-Leger was born and raised in Hartford, CT, and believes in equity in education for all children and travels around the world providing educational support and professional learning opportunities for educators. Estrada-Perez is the Executive Director of the Student Loan Fund, with over seven years of experience fighting for racial and economic justice in education and beyond. She is an organizer, educator and storyteller rooted in anti-racist practices, decolonization, and collective liberation. Walker has been a Hartford resident for 20 years and volunteered over 15 years with community-based organizations focused on youth and community development/empowerment. He is also the board chair for the Center for Leadership & Justice, which focuses on community empowerment/development in the Upper Albany and North Main Street areas. Browdy is a Hartford native and has served on School Governance Councils, PTOs and facilitated many education forums and led education focused learning programs across the city. She has also held the office of Secretary for the Greater Hartford NAACP and the Police Accountability Review Board and as an Executive Committee Member of the CT Conference NAACP. 

“The competitiveness of School Board elections has decreased dramatically over the past 10 years,” Assistant Professor of Political Science Dang Do said. “Hartford went from having 10 candidates — a mix of Republicans, Democrats and independents — to just four incumbents, mostly Democrats, in this election cycle. Voter turnout has also decreased from a high of roughly 28,500 votes in 2002 to just about 6,900. I’m pointing this out to show that there’s a vicious feedback loop in candidate quality, competition and choice, and voter turnout.” 

“Keeping the Board of Education accountable and responsive is more important than ever,” Do continued, “as Hartford’s public schools face financial instability and cuts to programs and staff. This current budget faced a $30 million deficit that required state intervention and an influx of city funds, leaving an additional $6.7 million to be made up through even more cuts. The open choice system in Connecticut, where students can apply to charter schools and open seats in surrounding suburban schools as a result of the Sheff v. O’Neil decision, leads to competition for students and funding. Hartford Public Schools simply can’t compete with places like West Hartford, especially if they’re cutting more and more programs/teachers. As of this year, there still is a decline in enrollment in Hartford Public Schools.” 

“With this in mind,” he concluded, “I want to make a clear statement that even if there’s low competition, turnout still needs to be high. We should strive to push voters to vote. High turnout will apply additional pressure and bring more attention to the problems related to our public schools. It will also help break the negative feedback loop in which low turnout leads to fewer candidates, which then leads to even lower turnout.”