Toni Cousins

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Teri Powers, a life long city resident, product of our public school system and proud graduate of Roosevelt High, and an active member of the RHS alumni association. Have two adult children, a daughter who traveled internationally as a shoe designer and manager of the Life Stride division of Brown Shoe Company. She tired of the travel and now owns a marketing company and sells real estate. My son is a talented musician and a 100% service connected US Army veteran who served in military intelligence. He now resides in a veterans only facility in Cuba, MO with 17 other veterans. This facility works with the veterans at regaining self sufficiency and independence.

As a single parent, I managed to earn a bachelors of arts in education followed by a masters in social work and post graduate work that prepared me for a career of teaching, social work, case management, child welfare specialist, therapist with people living with chronic mental illness in outpatient behavioral programs, a private psychotherapy practice and adjunct faculty with the St. Louis Community College.

I am passionate about our city and our children. A particular concern is that one in five of our students is homeless. Stability is crucial to academic achievement. I currently volunteer with a nonprofit in Soulard and spent recent evenings of frigid temperatures at a women’s shelter there. 

I am happy to share my home with furry family members, love to garden and borrow other peoples’ grandchildren. Several benefit from 24 childrens books each December 1st. These books are wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and the children choose which book to read with their parents for cuddle time before going to bed all through the month of December. On December 24th, the book is always a copy of “The Night Before Christmas”. Watching a four year old boy hum as he turns the pages of a book is a special source of joy for me. There are many ways of instilling a love of learning in children. This is just one.

I look forward to bringing my education and career experiences to work at finding harmony and solutions as a member of the STLP school board.

My name is Brian H. Marston. I’m running for school board out of a sense of gratitude and duty. I attended public schools from kindergarten through college and benefited immensely from the education I received. I want others to have the same opportunities.

To whom much is given, much is expected. I’ve gotten comfortable in my old age, which is nice, but comfort often leads to complacency. I’m willing and able to step up to serve the St. Louis community.  I believe in the sanctity of public education. Democracy depends on it. Both are under attack. I want to set an example of engaged citizenship for my kids and others.

I’m the proud parent of two St. Louis Public Schools students, ages 11 and 16. I’m the only candidate who has kids enrolled in SLPS. They’ve attended four SLPS schools during the last 13 years. I’ve been a city resident since 1997 and pay property taxes on a car, house, and two four-family apartment buildings. In 2024, that amounted to $6,038 in revenue for SLPS, roughly what former Superintendent Keisha Scarlett and her department spent using district credit cards for coffee cups, charcuterie boards, a birthday lunch, and flowers ($6,006). Taxpayer money should be spent wisely for its intended purpose, not treated as a personal expense account by someone being paid $268,000 a year in a district where new teachers make $49,745 and often buy school supplies with their own money.

I’m a first-generation college graduate with an education degree from Mizzou, in addition to degrees in math and philosophy. I earned all three summa cum laude and am a member of Phi Beta Kappa. If I’d done my student teaching my senior year instead of starting a web development company, I’d be certified to teach high school math and Spanish.

I was the director of North St. Louis YouthBuild, a construction training and GED program in the Hyde Park neighborhood. It was the hardest and most meaningful thing I’ve done. I recruited 47 students; hired, supervised, and evaluated a staff of six; handled other human resources functions, including payroll and insurance coverage; set up the school’s computer network and provided technical support for the staff and students; designed and implemented organizational policies, schedules, and processes; developed partnerships with other service providers; coordinated volunteers; served as the media spokesperson; taught academic classes; tracked student contact, demographic, achievement, and attendance data; oversaw leadership development activities of the Youth Policy Committee; sought out employers to hire graduates; created and managed a $630,000 annual budget; wrote grant proposals; solicited donations from individuals; and made reports to funders and the board of directors. We converted a two-story, 112-year-old Sunday school building to a two-family home. When we started, the roof was in the basement, which was an apt metaphor for a lot of things. Some of the 18-to-24-year-old students entered the program with fourth-grade reading levels. 

As president of Metropolis St. Louis, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and promoting an environment in the city of St. Louis that attracts and retains young people, I oversaw a board of 11 directors and represented a paid membership of 1,000 people. We partnered on projects with more than 90 community organizations during my term.

In another volunteer role, I was president and a co-founder of The Commonspace, a nonprofit organization that promoted grassroots civics and culture in St. Louis. We published an online magazine and operated an innovative community center at 615 North Grand where we held events ranging from bboy jams to knitting circles, sometimes at the same time.

I was vice-president of BWorks, where I helped teach kids how to repair bikes and use computers to develop their leadership, academic, work, and entrepreneurial skills. I’ve also served as president of the Tower Grove Heights Neighborhood Association in south city and treasurer of Friedens Neighborhood Foundation in north city.

I’m a web developer at WashU Medicine and have more than 25 years of information technology  experience. I’m data driven, some would say data obsessed. As an example, I’ve used a counter app on Halloween for seven years to create a heat map visualization of the time distribution of trick-or-treaters. We had 641 kids come to our door in 2024, a new record. Halloween is my favorite holiday because it’s a public celebration, rather than a private one.

I strive to connect and support people. I’m fiercely independent and not beholden to any special interests, unless you count SLPS students. I’m the only candidate who filed a January Quarterly Report with the Missouri Ethics Commission, an indication of my commitment to financial transparency. As a responsible, ethical, capable grown-up, I pledge to listen with curiosity and humility to all stakeholders. If the voters decide I’m one of the three best options during this election, I’ll work together with the six other board members and superintendent to help all SLPS students fulfill their potential through the power of education.