(Updated 7/18) School Board Chair Meagan Alderton was reelected back on Jan. 5, but seven months into a one-year term, the Chair and Vice-Chair positions are up for election again.
Earlier this year, the School Board voted to change the timetable for Board elections to July rather than at the first meeting of the year in January. The new election is scheduled for Thursday, July 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) central office (1340 Braddock Place).
Alexandria School Board members spoke with leaders from nearby school districts on staggered terms and board sizes and the takeaway was: Alexandria’s School Board is too bloated and too prone to rapid turnover.
Last night, Alexandria’s School Board hosted a panel to discuss potentially staggering Alexandria’s election cycle and adjusting the size of the board. On the panel:
Some big changes are coming to the Alexandria School Board.
Tonight, the Board will conduct a work session on whether to stagger the election cycle for its members, as well as reducing the number of members. There are currently nine Board members serving three-year terms in Districts A, B and C, and their elections run concurrently with City Council.
Alexandria could be making significant changes to the way the School Board is elected, from staggered terms to breaking alignment with the standard election cycles.
A new survey suggests that School Board elections could be changed to staggered terms, meaning school board members are elected across different years rather than all at once.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine visited Alexandria for a reelection campaign happy hour on Monday, and said he’s partly running to keep Virginia out of Republican crosshairs in 2024.
Kaine says that he’s concerned about former President Donald Trump’s calls to protest if he is indicted today.
(Updated 4:15 p.m.) Are there too many Alexandria School Board Members? Should their terms be staggered and should districts be eliminated? The Board wants these questions answered by the time voters cast their ballots in November 2024.
Yesterday (Tuesday), the nine-person Board unanimously agreed to establish a process for asking the public these questions. The answers will inform a Board resolution that is expected to go before the Alexandria City Council next year and the Virginia General Assembly in 2024.
Alexandria Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker is running for reelection for Virginia’s 45th District, she announced on Wednesday.
Bennett-Parker will kick off her campaign formally on Jan. 7.
Conservative talking head Sean Hannity used Alexandria’s “I Voted” sticker in a segment attacking national elections, though why the city’s logo was used is never addressed in the ten-minute segment.
Hannity expressed frustration that some elections were still too close to call, which makes the use of Alexandria’s sticker all the more puzzling.
Alexandria’s Democrat Congressman Don Beyer was easily reelected to his fifth term in office on Tuesday.
Beyer won the race for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District with 73% of the vote (188,285 votes) against Republican Karina Lipsman with 25% (64,503 votes) and less than 2% (3,764 votes) for Independent candidate Teddy Fikre, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
Next Monday marks the last day Alexandrians can register to vote or update their registration for the Nov. 8 general election.
Applications to vote can be submitted online before midnight on Monday, Oct. 17. They can also be submitted in-person at the Office of Voter Registration and Elections (132 N. Royal Street, Suite 100) by 5 p.m. the same day or mailed in provided they are postmarked before Oct. 17.
Today (Tuesday) is the last chance Alexandrians have to vote in the Democratic primary.
In-person voting is underway for the 8th Congressional District Democratic primary, in which incumbent Rep. Don Beyer faces political newcomer, Arlingtonian Victoria Virasingh.
