Alexandria City Council received a recommendation from the joint ad hoc committee on School Board election reforms Tuesday (Nov. 10), but it is unclear if and when the council will take up the proposed city charter amendment.
The committee recommended moving the Alexandria City School Board from three-year to four-year concurrent terms, with a targeted implementation date of 2033. All nine School Board members would be elected to three-year transitional terms in 2030, and future elections would implement four-year terms starting in 2033 to align with Virginia gubernatorial elections.
“The gubernatorial one was the choice given that we felt that the overall attention of the voters would be Virginia based and not just for the state items but locally,” Council Member Canek Aguirre, one of the committee members, said.
Three committee members — City Council Member Sandy Marks and School Board members Abdulahi Abdalla and Kelly Carmichael Booz — voted to recommend the change, while Aguirre opposed. The committee did not reach a consensus on staggered terms or board size. However, Aguirre noted the committee agreed that governance and elections should be reviewed every 10 years, beginning in 2040.
A change to the School Board term length would require a city charter amendment preceded by a public hearing at City Council. The city charter amendment would then go to the Virginia General Assembly for approval.
City Council did not have a vote on the committee’s recommendation Tuesday.
While the committee had discussed seeking the city charter amendment for the 2027 School Board elections, the committee ultimately decided pursuing the reforms before 2030 was not feasible. A 2027 city charter amendment would have required an emergency clause, 80 votes in the Virginia House of Delegates and 32 votes in the Virginia Senate.
The committee also discussed the potential to align City Council elections with the School Board elections every four years beginning in 2033.
“Aligning the City Council elections with the School Board and maintaining those in line in a gubernatorial cycle provides for lots of turnout, lots of voter engagement and it makes sure that lots of eyes are on the School Board race,” Marks said.
According to a presentation to City Council, the committee focused on continuity, candidate quality and competition, the democratic process and effective governance when considering the reforms. The push for City Council to take up staggered terms, term length, and board size reforms originated from a 2024 resolution from the School Board.
Council Member John Taylor Chapman pressed for more community input before moving forward.
“This is not something that’s coming from our community, and that is one of the bigger concerns for me if we are going to spend regular staff time on this,” Chapman said.
Chapman noted the current effort to consider School Board salary increases and past discussions about improving staff support for members that could contribute to attracting quality School Board candidates.
The School Board is separately considering increasing member pay. The proposal to increase pay from $15,000 to $28,000 starting Jan. 1, 2028, and then by $5,000 every July 1 until members make $43,000 is headed to a Dec. 3 School Board vote. The resolution also proposes an additional 15% for the vice chair and 30% for the chair. The first changes would apply to School Board members elected in 2027.
Booz noted the School Board had received a community petition in the spring seeking to look at board size and salaries.
“In terms of what we also hear from the community is that they want good schools, they want stable schools, they want stable leadership,” Booz said. “To the extent we can set something up whether it is four-year terms, giving one extra year of stable leadership, then I think that that’s something we need to consider.”
Abdalla said tabling the committee’s election reform recommendation would be a “mistake.”
“I think coming up with a decision, whether it’s do nothing or four years, whatever you guys end up coming to a conclusion with, I think we should do it sooner rather than later,” Abdalla said. “Because as a school division, we have other pressing topics that we need to address, and to have this lingering, continuous conversation I don’t think it’s productive for anybody.”
