Elechi Kadete was born in Tanzania, East Africa. He came to Cambridge when he was 4 and got his entire elementary and high school education in the Cambridge Public School System. He attended the then Joseph Maynard Elementary School, Mariah L. Baldwin School and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, from where he graduated in 2007. For college he first attended Green Mountain College in Vermont, then transferred to Brandeis University, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in politics in the Class of 2012.

After working for Partners HealthCare systems, Kadete now works at WGBH as a financial analyst. This is his third campaign for School Committee.

Kadete has been involved in community efforts including coaching girls’ basketball and teaching young children chess.

Top priorities:

Reviewing and reforming the CRLS guidance system. We need to thoroughly review our guidance system to ensure that ours is up to the task of preparing students for life after Cambridge Public Schools, wherever that may take them.

Expanding early education opportunities. Early childhood education has been shown to improve young learners’ brain development and social abilities.

Supporting the recruitment and retainment of high-quality teachers of color. It’s important that we hire and retain high-quality teachers of color to reflect our diverse student body.

Expanding the world language K-5 language immersion program. The world languages and K-5 language immersion programs are vital tools not only for learners’ brain development, but for their preparation for a future in the workforce.

Adding family liaisons and other resources to the Innovation Agenda upper schools. Evaluate and fix deficiencies found in the upper schools and address concerns.

Connecting families and students to the innovation and advancements around the city.

Other issues include expanding the Rindge School of Technical Arts, addressing the achievement gap, and introducing a Massachusetts Chess Association program for K-3 classes.

Compiled from the candidate’s words and statements in publicly available sources. 

Kadete’s statement to the Cambridge Education Association is here.

In his third campaign, Kadete remains vibrant and enthusiastic. Running again shows commitment and passion, and he has sharpened his message. Although he is no longer the only recent Cambridge Public Schools graduate running for office – see Will MacArthur – Kadete in many ways bridges different populations at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. He was an English-language learner, an immigrant, a child of a single mother, a struggling learner and a student whose “life was changed” by a CRLS teacher giving him Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” – in a class for which he took a whole grade penalty by being tardy too many times (getting from gym class to the fifth floor in four minutes proved impossible, yet he was still punished). Those experiences make him keenly awake to the importance of high expectations, fair policies, diverse staff and differentiated instruction in non-tracked classrooms. Kadete has grown since first running, and would be an asset to the committee.