Brandon Lowe, a district parent with an administrative background in pre K-12 education who works for the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district, will join the St. Paul Public Schools board as an interim member on April 10.

The SPPS board on Tuesday selected Lowe to serve through December after interviewing five candidates. Lowe will take former board member Jim Vue’s seat on the seven-member board. Vue, who had served on the board since 2020, resigned Feb. 17.

Board Chair Uriah Ward recused himself in February from the candidate selection because of a potential conflict of interest — candidate Lesley Lavery is the co-chair of the dissertation committee overseeing Ward’s doctoral dissertation at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Ga. Board member Chauntyll Allen also previously notified the board she would be absent Tuesday.With the two absences, the interim candidate needed to be unanimously selected by the remaining four board members.

Lowe could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Serving remainder of Vue’s term

Lowe will serve the remainder of Vue’s term, through Dec. 31. Vue’s term was set to go through 2025 but was extended through December of this year because of a change in election years. In discussing his resignation, Vue said he did not plan on serving beyond his four-year term.

The seat will be on the ballot in November and the elected member will hold it for a four-year term. In order to be eligible for the interim position, applicants interviewing Tuesday were asked to indicate they have no plans to run for the seat in the November election.

Board Chair Uriah Ward and board member Halla Henderson are the only board members whose terms end in December and whose seats will be up for election in November along with Lowe’s seat. Other current board members’ terms go through 2028.

Brandon Lowe

Lowe is an assessment, data and research coordinator with the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district. He previously worked for Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Fla. as an assistant principal of instruction, assessment coordinator, instructional coach and teacher.

He is a parent of two students at Jie Ming Mandarin Immersion Academy. He moved to St. Paul in 2021, which he said was specifically because of its “diverse educational ecosystem” and so his children’s family structure, which Lowe described as “a two-dad house raising BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) kids,” would be valued.

“And also it was very important for us to find them a school or an educational experience where they would be challenged, where there would be rigor, where they could grow and could thrive academically,” Lowe said during Tuesday’s interview by the board.

Lowe received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida and his master’s degree in educational leadership from St. Leo University in Florida. He then received his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Central Florida. His doctoral research focused on the “community partnership school model of schools,” he said.

“We have to recognize that our schools are hubs for emotional support. Sometimes health care, social support networks,” Lowe said. “These are the things that our schools are providing to our students and to our families. And in the community partnership model of schools, the idea is that you’re looking for external partners to come and be a living presence at each site.”

A student-centered approach

Lowe said he sees the value of the district’s specialized programming and his family has participated in the district’s Discovery Club, Community Education and summer camps.

During his time as an administrator at Jones High School in Orlando, the school increased its graduation rate from 86% to 99%, Lowe said. School-wide GPA also increased, he added.

“We achieved this by auditing our internal gatekeeping, looking at who was allowed into advanced courses and who was being pushed out by our system,” Lowe said of the increased graduation rate. “We structured ways to ensure individual students’ needs weren’t being overlooked. It was about removing barriers, seeking ways to make our curriculum more equitable and individualizing student support.”

Lowe said he would like to bring a collaborative, evidence-based and student-centered approach to the board.

“I just want to provide myself as a resource, a steady professional hand, for the next several months,” Lowe said. “My goal is to try to serve as a high-capacity bridge that allows this board to maintain the momentum that you have already had and to continue the work on the strategic goals without there being a severe learning curve.”

Budget challenges ahead

The board, and SPPS administrators, work to establish a budget for the district.

In June, the board unanimously approved a $1 billion budget for the 2025-26 school year. The board will vote on the 2026-27 budget no later than June 30. As of February, the district expects a budget shortfall of approximately $21 million for the 2026-27 school year.

Maintaining district programs requires sustainable funding, clear operational oversight and data-driven evaluation, Lowe said, calling the moment a “critical juncture.”

“We’ve navigated the sunsetting of pandemic-era funding. We are rebuilding from the trauma that our community has experienced over the last few months. We are doing this while trying to simultaneously stabilize enrollment,” Lowe said. “We also need to ensure that the vital resources that are provided by their recent levy are managed with the highest level of fiscal discipline. For me, this isn’t about maintaining status quo. Moreover, it’s about protecting the long-term viability of the programs that make St. Paul Public Schools stand out.”

The research experience Lowe brought up is germane to the district’s needs, said board member Yusef Carrillo.

“I think there is the fact that people who choose specifically St. Paul because of the great programming that we offer, speaks volumes to somebody who cares deeply about sustaining that experience and making sure that other parents have the ability to say, ‘Oh, yeah, St. Paul is the place I want to go to because of the schools.’ And I think that speaks volumes to who he is as a person,” Carrillo said.

SPPS board

Other members of the board include Board Chair Uriah Ward, Erica Valliant, Carlo Franco, Chauntyll Allen, Yusef Carrillo and Halla Henderson.

Carrillo, Franco, and Valliant joined the board most recently in 2024. Henderson and Ward joined the board in 2022 and Allen in 2020.

More information on the board, including how to contact them and to see upcoming agendas, is available at spps.org/about/board-of-education/board-members.