Kelsey Dawson Walton seeks return to Osseo School Board: 'education is the key to unlocking your dreams'

Photo above: AFL-CIO endorsed candidates for Osseo School Board (left to right) Keith Tate, Tekoa Cochran, Kelsey Dawson Walton.

By Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor

MAPLE GROVE — Kelsey Dawson Walton sees so many outside societal pressures impacting our schools. She believes its important to stand up for the “freedom to learn, freedom to read, freedom to teach.” She adds, “we really need to be uplifting and supporting our students and our educators.”

Walton is running to reclaim a seat on the Osseo School Board —where she previously served —and she’s running with the endorsement of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO and Education Minnesota Osseo, the union which represents the district’s teachers, nurses and KidStop instructors.

Six candidates are running, with the top three vote-getters to be elected. No incumbents are running this year.

Walton is campaigning together with Tekoa Cochran and Keith Tate, who like Walton also are running with the endorsements of the AFL-CIO and Education Minnesota Osseo.

The other three candidates are backed by the so-called Minnesota Parents Alliance, a culturally conservative group which purports to speak for all parents.

Walton served previously on the Osseo School Board, winning election in 2018, when she became one of the first women of color elected to the board.

During her time on the board, she also chaired the Association of Metropolitan School Districts.

For Walton’s last two years on the Osseo School Board, she was elected as the chair of the board by her fellow board members.

“During that time, we passed some of the most trail-blazing equity initiatives,” she tells the Labor Review.

She led an effort to develop a new strategic plan for the district which focused on equity.

She also worked to create a school culture welcoming to GLBT students. For Walton, it’s important for every student to be valued for who they are, “so everyone feels safe, seen, and heard.”

Walton also worked to uplift and support school staff at all levels, from custodians to lunchroom staff to teachers to administrators.

As board chair, she led the effort pass the operating and capital improvement levies which voters approved in 2022.

Seeking re-election in 2022, however, Walton ran fourth out of the six candidates and was not re-elected. She was targeted for defeat, she reports, by the conservative Minnesota Parents Alliance.

In seeking to return to the Osseo School Board, “I’m so passionate and committed to the power of education,” Walton says.

“A lot of that goes back to my parents,” she says. Both of her parents — her father a librarian, her mother an educator — worked in Minnesota’s community college system.

“Education is the key to unlocking your dreams,” Walton believes.

All four of Walton’s kids have been enrolled in the district, including one who now has graduated and now attends Howard University. Her younger kids are in grades 2, 7, and 8. “I have a vested interest in their education and outcomes,” Walton says. “I want that for each of our 20,000 students.”

“I believe in parents' and care-givers' active engagement,” Walton says. “Teachers and educators can’t do it alone; It has to be a partnership… We’re all in this together.”

“Part of the educational experience has to be beyond academics” including sports, the arts, music and clubs, Walton maintains, experiences which allow students to connect with each other and with their passions. “It’s so important to feel a sense of connection,” she says, and she wants “to encourage all our young people to have access to those enrichments.”

“When you feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself, that’s what makes a difference,” Walton says. “You learn how to work with people… I just want that for everyone.”

Born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Walton moved to Brooklyn Park at age 8 and graduated from Champlin High School. She earned both her undergraduate degree in political science and a graduate degree in public policy and leadership at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. (St. Thomas highlighted her as a “pioneering alumna” championing diversity in public service. See story). 

Walton currently works for Hennepin County leading truancy initiatives.

Website:
https://www.kelseyforosseo.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/kelseyforosseo

See also:
Osseo School Board: Tekoa Cochran, Kelsey Dawson Walton, and Keith Tate run with AFL-CIO endorsement
(Minneapolis Labor Review, October 19, 2024)