Stafford School Board members offer advice on how to work together. Also in this issue: a correction.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Perhaps the biggest local story from Tuesday’s election is the flip of the Spotsylvania School Board from Tea Party-aligned control.
Incumbent Livingston representative Kirk Twigg, who described himself to voters as the “anti-woke” candidate and is facing a felony charge of forgery and tampering of public records, lost his bid for reelection to a third term to challenger Megan Jackson by 4,053 votes to 2,410.
Jackson, who ran an independent race and eschewed party affiliations, won – and received more than half the vote count – in every Livingston district precinct.
Twigg, who in 2021 gained national media attention for saying at a School Board meeting that he would like to see books with “bad” content burned, was one of two incumbents who ran for reelection this year.
Lorita Daniels, the incumbent Salem District representative, also won reelection over challenger Chris Harris, who inaccurately accused her in campaign text messages of voting “for boys to compete in girls’ sports and to use girls’ bathrooms.”
Daniels received 55.6% of the vote to Harris’s 43.4% and she also won in every precinct.
In the Chancellor district, Belen Rodas, a school social worker in Fredericksburg City schools, received 53.4% of the vote to Jordan Lynch’s 46.4%. She won in all precincts except for Ni River.
In the Courtland district, Carol Medawar appeared to be losing the race to current supervisor David Ross – who ran in 2021 for U.S. Congress on a platform that included abolishing the federal Department of Education and lost in the primary – until early votes were counted at 10 p.m.
The final unofficial vote count has Medawar with 51.3% of the vote to Ross’s 48.2%.
Ross won the Salem Elementary and Riverbend High precincts while Medawar won the Salem Library and Knights of Pythias precincts as well as early in-person and mail-in votes.
‘It’s not supposed to be about politics’
The new School Board’s challenge now is to move the division past the controversies of the past few years while not alienating the concerns of the families who support the out-going majority.
“I think Spotsy voters sent a clear message that they want our school board to focus on the real problems that are negatively affecting significant numbers of SCPS students: teacher vacancies, mental health needs, school safety, and resources for special education,” Rodas said in an email to the Advance. “Above all else, I believe the strongest message from the voters is that they are tired of the political theater and immature behavior. They elected candidates who will engage in constructive and collaborative discussions.”
In an interview, Daniels said the bottom line for her is to “focus on the children with the understanding that everyone in our education system matters.”
“It does not matter what side anybody’s on,” she said. “It’s not supposed to be about politics, but about getting our children what they need and deserve.”
Daniels said she has tried to build consensus while on the board and will continue to do that going forward.
“I’m hoping that the school division and the community know that it’s about working together and being conciliatory and respectful of each other,” she said. “We all have a goal to make sure we have a thriving community.”
Rodas said she commends her opponent, Lynch, for honoring a pledge both candidates made to run a positive campaign.
To his supporters, she offered the following message, “I look forward to earning your trust. The past two years we have seen our school board narrow the channels of communication between our residents and our school leadership. As a result, many in our community have felt as though they don’t have a voice or representation. Our public schools belong to everybody. I look forward to strengthening and expanding communication as I represent our entire district.”
Consistency on the Stafford School Board
In Stafford County, voters decided to return three incumbent School Board members to office.
George Washington district representative Susan Randall beat challenger Sarah Baker with 61.6% of the vote, and Griffis-Widewater representative Elizabeth Warner received 63% of the vote over challenger Mary Rupert.
Patricia Healy, the longtime Rock Hill School Board member, ran unopposed.
Warner told the Advance that her challenger, Rupert, was recruited to run by two sitting School Board members. But she said that even though there is sometimes disagreement on the Stafford School Board, voters see that “We make a conscious effort to try to work together.”
“It’s a board, it’s not an individual,” Warner said. “You can’t pass anything as an individual. You have to build coalition. I think that’s one thing Stafford does try to do, even though there’s definitely undercurrents of tension.”
Warner said the message she thinks voters sent both by asking for change in Spotsylvania and for consistency in Stafford is that they want “people to work together.”
“They don’t want this constant, ‘I want to get rid of you so that I can pass things without you,’” she said. “That’s like telling half the population, ‘We don’t care about you.’ I think that’s what people saw (in Spotsylvania).”
Warner said the Stafford School Board also has multiple citizen advisory committees that give parents an opportunity to participate in the work of the school division.
In addition to the committees that are mandated by Virginia Code – a career and technical education advisory committee and a special education advisory committee – there are advisory committees for gifted education; the capital improvement plan; the budget; diversity, equity and inclusion; school health; technology; transportation; and visual and performing arts.
“When people are on those boards, they have a voice, they see how we do things and they realize things aren’t as awful as they thought,” Warner said.
“Collaboration has to be a priority”
Randall said the results of the Stafford School Board election shows that voters see the board as having momentum that they want to see continue.
“We know what we’re working towards and we have the opportunity to keep working towards that,” she said.
“We have a board that will pick up the phone and call six other women,” Randall said.
Randall, who served as chair of the board this year, said all seven members have made it a priority to work together. They gather for work sessions before each regular meeting, where they have the opportunity to discuss issues facing the division.
Those work sessions also prompt each board member to pick up the phone and talk to each other about the issues that are coming up.
“We have a board that will pick up the phone and call six other women,” Randall said.
The board has gone on two retreats with division superintendent Thomas Taylor, which has helped them learn how to work together as a team, Randall said.
In addition, each board member has a regular one-on-one meeting with Taylor, which Randall said helps them see their concerns in the context of the school division as a whole.
“(Collaboration) has to be a priority, because the work is the most important, but we are the ones doing the work, so we gotta make sure we work with each other,” Randall said.
“We are seven women who have different experiences and different viewpoints, and we still know our purpose is to provide the best education opportunities for our students and our families and our staff.”
Correction
Yesterday, the Advance wrote that City Council voted to move municipal elections from May to November. In fact, this move was mandated by legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2021 and Council’s vote was to hold these elections in odd-numbered years. We regret the error.
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