VOTE411 Voter Guide

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My top priority is to preserve the excellent public education our students receive in the Loudoun County Public Schools. Our public schools, both nationwide and in Loudoun County, are under attack from people who do not believe in the importance and value of public education, and these attacks slowly ripple throughout our system and manifest themselves in different ways.

My plan to address these issues and ensure excellence in public education begins with working to recruit and retain the best educators in Virginia through promoting strong working conditions and ensuring competitive salaries and benefits. It also means implementing policies to make sure all students feel safe and secure in schools, whether it is preventing and standing up to bullying, improving access to counseling and mental health resources, or working to prevent external threats like drugs or gun violence.

The answer to this is simple: personal stake and personal experience. I am the only candidate running for the Dulles District seat who is a current LCPS parent (kindergartner and 4th grader) and I have a deep commitment to ensure my children and all children in Loudoun County receive the same opportunities to succeed that I had growing up as a public school student. I am also the only candidate in this race who has experience working in public education. I have spent the last 20-plus years working as a science teacher, coach, dean, assistant principal, and curriculum developer in public schools. I hold master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction and education leadership. I’ve worked with superintendents and school boards on school system budgets, worked with teachers' unions on the process of collective bargaining, and worked to align curriculum and resources with state, national, and even international mandates.

The decision as to which materials are present in our school libraries should be made by LCPS school staff, who are experts in their field. Every school in Loudoun County is staffed with librarians who have been trained in library science, and who understand developmentally-appropriate and age-appropriate material. Additionally, administrators, both school-based and at the central office, have a say in reviewing and selecting the materials present in our schools, as they are also experts in both curriculum and the developmental needs of children. That being said, parents always have the right to review the materials in our schools, and parents should be notified of the materials their children are reading or have checked out of the library. Parents also have the right to question the presence of specific materials in our libraries, bring items up for the district to review, and prevent their own children from accessing materials that they feel are inappropriate.

Gun violence and the threat of gun violence is, sadly, something that looms large in the back of the mind of everyone who works in a public school. I know from personal experience the fear students experience when placed in an actual lockdown situation and I never want to experience school gun violence or its aftermath in person. The Loudoun County School Board took a great first step when they recently (unanimously) passed a safe storage of firearms resolution, but there is a lot more to be done. The best way to protect students from gun violence is to work with our local, state, and federal government partners to pass common-sense gun legislation. This includes things like banning ghost guns, requiring gun safety and safe storage classes for gun owners, expanding red-flag laws and background checks, and ensuring adequate mental health services and funding for those services in the community. I am proud to have earned the endorsement of Moms Demand Action as a gun-sense candidate.

I work everyday with transgender students and they deserve the same right to feel as safe and included as other students in our schools. What Policy 8040 does is remove the onus and singling-out of an already marginalized group and places the responsibility of student safety and comfort on ALL individuals in the system. Instead of requiring one group of students to use individual or gender-neutral facilities, it allows any student to do so if they do not feel safe or comfortable. This also extends to any harassment or discrimination of these students, as they are protected by Title IX. The federal government’s decision to restrict funding from LCPS and other school divisions is a classic example of federal government overreach in local decision-making. It is also an example of the Trump administration’s authoritarian attempt to bully those with whom they disagree rather than trust the individuals (students, parents, educators) in LCPS who are affected by policy.

Civic education – understanding our government and becoming an active and involved citizen in our democracy is one of the most essential components of public education. This begins in elementary school with lessons on what it means to be a good citizen and continues through middle and high school with formal courses on Civics and U.S. Government. This is also why we should support learning about history through a variety of lenses, and supporting courses like African American history as an alternative for verified social studies high school credit is a great start to doing this. Additionally, students need opportunities to see government and civic engagement up close, such as serving their community outside of the school walls, allowing them to participate in events like student council campaigns or mock elections, or having local officials visit schools so that students can ask questions of their community leaders.