Alywn Foster made history in Sun Prairie on Tuesday night winning a seat on the school board of the Sun Prairie School District and becoming the first African-American man elected to office in the City of Sun Prairie
Foster and Bryn Horton earned 33.7 percent and 36.3 percent of the vote, respectively, to win the two open seats in the Sun Prairie School Board election. Becky McCright came in third place with 3,203 votes or 29.3 percent.
Foster, a service facilitator for Anesis Family Therapy, became the second Black person elected to the school board in Sun Prairie after Marilyn Peebles Ruffin, who chose not to run for re-election this term.
“I believe that representation matters,” Foster told Madison365’s Ayomi Wolff in a profile piece in January. “I believe to see a Black man and a Black individual at the Sun Prairie School Board table is significant because when I sit there, little brown faces and other little faces that look like me — Asian, Hispanic, Black, people of color — and say, ‘Well, this is an opportunity for me, as well.’
“I think it communicates to them that somebody knows what they are going through, somebody knows what it’s like.” Foster continued. “And not only that, it communicates that the city is not only growing — because Sun Prairie is the fastest growing city in Wisconsin — but it’s also evolving and changing, and that’s important not only to grow but to evolve and change and to get better.”
