Copyright M Live Michigan
SAGINAW, MI — Mattie Thompson, one of the longest-serving leaders in the Saginaw Board of Education’s history, died at the age of 80. Thompson died Tuesday, Nov. 11, at her Saginaw home, her obituary stated. She died almost 20 years exactly after the death of her husband, Willie Thompson, another Saginaw Public Schools board member with a powerhouse legacy. Mattie Thompson was first appointed by the school board to fill the vacancy left by her husband, who died Nov. 18, 2005. She was appointed one month later and sworn into office on Jan. 4, 2006. She won her first election to the board in November 2007, and never lost an election since then. Her latest term was to expire in 2026. Her legacy spanned a period of substantial change for Saginaw County’s largest public school district, including a $100 million school bond approved in 2020 that funded construction of Saginaw United High School as well as the new Handley Elementary School facility. “Those older buildings, some of them are quite antiquated,” Thompson told The Saginaw News/MLive in a 2021 interview. “You need a lot of things for our kids to learn. We’re really going in the right directions, and I thank the community for that. You really need to invest in our children, ‘cause that’s our future. I am so proud that we are changing our educational system.” In that same interview, Thompson talked about her dedication to uplifting the underprivileged and providing equitable access to education. She advocated for foster kids, having fostered four, saying far too many slip through the cracks. Through the local Lions Club, Thompson said she worked to make sure students have their basic needs met, whether that’s providing socks and shoes, deodorant or feminine hygiene products. “So many of our kids, they live in poverty, and personal stuff for girls is expensive and social services doesn’t cover that,” Thompson said in the 2021 interview. “My girls gotta have self-esteem, they gotta be bright. You’ve got to provide certain things for our girls before they can even get in a classroom and learn. ... We make sure every school in our district has that, they have that support. Whatever the kids need, you really can’t learn if you’re not looking like the other kids.” Thompson’s role as an advocate for students stretched further back than her tenure on the school board. When her husband — the namesake of Willie E. Thompson Middle School — was on the board, Mattie Thompson shared in her husband’s work. “For 40 years, we were a team,” Thompson told The Saginaw News immediately after she was appointed to the school board in December 2005. “My husband and I always said that children and family come first.”
