RSSSchool spending is key issue in board's special election
Mason District candidates tout experience in special election race
How important is experience in a school board election? It could depend on what kind of experience you are looking for.
In the special election race between candidates Sandra Evans and Samantha Vanterpool Rucker, Evans touts a portfolio of local issues like FAIRGRADE. Rucker says she has a history of fighting for education on the state level including helping eliminating the threat of freezing the Local Composite Index, which could have cost Fairfax County millions in school funding.
Rucker and Evans are competing for the Mason District seat, left empty when now-Del. L. Kaye Kory (D-Dist. 38) of Falls Church left to serve in the state legislature. The special election will be held Tuesday.
"Community experience is absolutely essential in a race like this," said Evans, a former Washington Post reporter and mother of two students who attended Fairfax County public schools. "I've had a daughter go through k-12 and I know how [the system] works."
Evans, 58, is endorsed by local Democrats, Kory and five of the 11 school board members. She has served as Sleepy Hollow Elementary School's PTA president (2000-2001), a member of several education councils and committees and was active in FAIRGRADE -- an advocacy group which successfully sought to move all Fairfax County public schools to a 10-point grading scale.
Rucker, 39, comes to the race with endorsements from Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), former U.S. Rep. Thomas Davis and Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield). She currently serves as an assistant attorney in the Office of the Attorney General. Rucker has been a member of the Bren Mar Park Elementary School PTA since last September and worked as an instructional assistant at Weynoke Elementary School from January to August 1993.
Rucker said she spoke to McDonnell about abandoning a freeze on the Local Composite Index, a formula determining a school system's ability to pay education costs.
"I was not happy with that," she said. Rucker, who was married in May, does not have children, but says her experience with the minority achievement group Head Start and working with special-needs children will help her make decisions as a school board member.
"I've worked in the classroom. I know what it's like to be a teacher and work with students," she said. "In addition to that I have experience with state laws and policy making [on education issues]."
Both candidates said budget cuts facing Fairfax County Public Schools could be devastating to student achievement scores. Fairfax County's school system is facing a nearly $200 million budget shortfall in its $2.3 billion budget for 2010-11.
"I think the budget proposed by [Superintendent Jack D. Dale] is an awful budget," Rucker said. Dale's proposed cuts included the loss of about 600 positions and $104.8 million in cost cuts. "I think it cut essential programs. They should cut the bureaucrats. My main priority is saving teaching jobs."
Rucker said she would support the switch from step-based pay to merit pay, a proposal included in the governor's education reforms.
"I believe teachers should be able to be competitive," she said. "Teachers who go above and beyond deserve to be paid more."
Inversely, Evans said she would fight for step increases, saying teachers deserved to be paid a wage that would allow them to live in the communities they work for. Evans received endorsements from the Fairfax Education Association -- an educators' advocacy group -- and Mark Glaser, president of Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, also an advocacy group for educators.
"Sandy Evans. I'm concerned that she may be a one-issue candidate, which you can't be," said School Board member Elizabeth T. Bradsher (Springfield).
Evans said she feels she -- unlike Rucker -- will be able to dedicate the time necessary to being a school board member.
"It's a 60- to 80-hour a week job. That's the way I'm going to handle it," she said. "She's focused most of her attention on being a lawyer for Bob McDonnell. Her involvement hasn't been what mine has been."
candidate web sites
Samantha Vanterpool Rucker
www.samantharucker.com
Sandra Evans
www.evans4sb.org
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Rucker currently serves as an assistant attorney in the Commonwealth's Attorney Office; she serves as an assistant attorney in the Office of the Attorney General. It also stated she is a member of the Weyanoke Elementary School PTA; she is a member of the Bren Mar Park Elementary School PTA. She worked as an instructional assistant at Weynoke Elementary School from January to August 1993.