Erie School Board appoints a former candidate to fill vacant board seat
A candidate who unsuccessfully ran for Erie School Board in 2021 is the board's newest member.
Zakaria Sharif has been appointed to the nine-member board to fill the seat that became vacant with the resignation of Leatra Tate, who was elected in 2021 but stepped down from the Erie School Board on Dec. 31 after leaving Erie to take a job out of state.
The School Board unanimously approved the appointment of Sharif at its meeting on Wednesday night. The school directors made their decision after he and other applicants for the seat addressed the board. The names of 16 applicants for the unpaid job were on the agenda for the board to consider.
Sharif, 35, said he applied for the seat for the same reasons he ran for School Board in 2021.
"I want to continue to represent the students who don't have voices and the students as a whole," he said.
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When he ran for School Board in 2021, Sharif was one of seven candidates seeking four seats. He was also on a slate of three board candidates affiliated with Erie County United, a group that advocates for social justice.
The other two Erie County United candidates won: Tate and Lauren Gillespie, who remains on the Erie School Board. Sharif called Tate's departure "a big loss."
Sharif will serve as an appointed School Board member through Dec. 4. At the same time, his seat will go on the ballot in the municipal primary and the municipal election this year.
The winner will serve the remaining two years of what had been Tate's four-year term. Sharif can run for the seat.
Six seats on the Erie School Board are up for election this year. The number of seats up for election would have been five had Tate not resigned.
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Sharif is married with five children, and his school-age children attend the Erie School District's Lincoln Elementary School. He is a public health educator for the Erie County Department of Health and has a bachelor's degree in business management and a minor in marketing from Penn State Behrend.
He was born in Somalia, which his family left due to war. He and his family lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for five years until they arrived in Erie in 1996. Sharif graduated from Erie's East High School, now East Middle School, and describes himself as "a poster child for the Erie public schools."
Sharif is a Democrat who cross-filed as Democrat and Republican on the 2021 ballot for School Board.
When he ran for School Board, Sharif said in an opinion piece for the Erie Times-News that he wanted "to make sure we give our teachers, students and parents the accommodations and resources to be successful."
"Providing equality in educational opportunities to all is one of the cornerstones of American democracy," he also said.
Sharif's view:Erie School Board candidate: Education is the cornerstone of democracy and success in life
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie School Board appoints former board candidate to fill vacant seat
