ACPS - School Board Member Resigns

[Anonymous]

www.GinabaumforACPS.com

I don’t know Tim’s website address

[Anonymous]

Gina Baum has my vote. She is a very involved parent of an ACPS student who speaks at almost every school board meeting and who wants better for the children of Alexandria than what they are currently getting. No idea about the other guy. Haven't heard of him till he decide to run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gina Baum and I differ politically, but I admire her ability to get her feet wet and do the work. She is not afraid to challenge the status quo or speak up. She can also work with people who have different opinions, ideas, beliefs than her. Here is why I'm voting for Gina over Tim Beaty: Gina might differ from me, but she understands how city council and the city works. She knows how ACPS works. She might need to learn about the school board but she's politically savvy.

Gina Baum has been at the school board meetings advocating for teachers. Asking to fill staff vacancies for core classes. Asking to compensate teachers and restore steps. Asking for services for students with disabilities. Suggesting we use rec spaces during the pandemic to space our students and accommodate more students and use outdoor rec and Cory spaces for outdoor learning and outdoor lunch to mitigate COVID, which the former superintendent wouldn't even entertain.

Her son attends ACHS. She's an ACPS parent.

Tim Beaty seems like a nice guy. But he is a professional union organizer who is retired with very lose ties to Alexandria. He tutors at and is a sub. For what, to be the handpicked choice of Alexandria Dems? This is a nonpartisan race!

Before, the School Board was trying to get two former SB members to run. Neither did. So Alexandria Dems formally organized to get signatures for at their meeting on December. They didn't provide Ms. Baum the same and he easily collected signatures to get on the ballot. Mind you, this is a nonpartisan election.

Never have I heard from this guy at any school board meeting or in any parent group. I never saw him involved in any PTA or PTAC or grassroots groups. I don't know him from volunteering in the community and I'm involved in a lot of volunteer work that seems like I'd know him.

It does not appear he knows much about our public schools. He has all the right taking points. But he's focused solely on one issue, collective bargaining in a right to work state. ACPS could restore steps for the teachers if they cut their budget elsewhere or asked the city for money. With Jackson and Gaskins both running for mayor, who is going to say "no" to supporting teachers?

Please stop giving me reasons to vote for this guy. If he's never been involved with the do-nothing PTAs and ACPS loving PTAC (who stay silent unless it's to praise ACPS) then all the better!

[Anonymous]

Beaty was hand picked by the ADC. To elect him would be an embarrassment to our city. How anyone thought his candidacy would be a good idea is baffling to me. He has no website, and he literally had to collect signatures at the meeting of the Alexandria Democratic committee so that he could be on the ballot. I guarantee he doesn’t know 125 Alexandria registered voters who were willing to sign. I was walking on a street where Gina Baum was collecting signatures and speaking to voters. He just went to the good old boys meeting and got his. He has no experience whatsoever with our city, and why would we need someone who knows how to collectively bargain when we are still going to have to have 15 lawyers in the room the whole time anyway? I’m embarrassed at the possibility of this man being elected in my city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beaty was hand picked by the ADC. To elect him would be an embarrassment to our city. How anyone thought his candidacy would be a good idea is baffling to me. He has no website, and he literally had to collect signatures at the meeting of the Alexandria Democratic committee so that he could be on the ballot. I guarantee he doesn’t know 125 Alexandria registered voters who were willing to sign. I was walking on a street where Gina Baum was collecting signatures and speaking to voters. He just went to the good old boys meeting and got his. He has no experience whatsoever with our city, and why would we need someone who knows how to collectively bargain when we are still going to have to have 15 lawyers in the room the whole time anyway? I’m embarrassed at the possibility of this man being elected in my city.

The women in this town LOVED taking orders from Wilson. They are the last ones to "resist" anything much less the ADC, good old boys meeting or not. A bunch of them have a vile podcast where they cheerlead for the ADC. Please. They will be delighted to take their orders and elect Beaty.

[Anonymous]

Jacinta Green and Michelle Rief endorsed Tim Beaty on Dr. Rief's social media. They are the other District A School Board members and Dr. Rief is the chair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gina Baum and I differ politically, but I admire her ability to get her feet wet and do the work. She is not afraid to challenge the status quo or speak up. She can also work with people who have different opinions, ideas, beliefs than her. Here is why I'm voting for Gina over Tim Beaty: Gina might differ from me, but she understands how city council and the city works. She knows how ACPS works. She might need to learn about the school board but she's politically savvy.

Gina Baum has been at the school board meetings advocating for teachers. Asking to fill staff vacancies for core classes. Asking to compensate teachers and restore steps. Asking for services for students with disabilities. Suggesting we use rec spaces during the pandemic to space our students and accommodate more students and use outdoor rec and Cory spaces for outdoor learning and outdoor lunch to mitigate COVID, which the former superintendent wouldn't even entertain.

Her son attends ACHS. She's an ACPS parent.

Tim Beaty seems like a nice guy. But he is a professional union organizer who is retired with very lose ties to Alexandria. He tutors at and is a sub. For what, to be the handpicked choice of Alexandria Dems? This is a nonpartisan race!

Before, the School Board was trying to get two former SB members to run. Neither did. So Alexandria Dems formally organized to get signatures for at their meeting on December. They didn't provide Ms. Baum the same and he easily collected signatures to get on the ballot. Mind you, this is a nonpartisan election.

Never have I heard from this guy at any school board meeting or in any parent group. I never saw him involved in any PTA or PTAC or grassroots groups. I don't know him from volunteering in the community and I'm involved in a lot of volunteer work that seems like I'd know him.

It does not appear he knows much about our public schools. He has all the right taking points. But he's focused solely on one issue, collective bargaining in a right to work state. ACPS could restore steps for the teachers if they cut their budget elsewhere or asked the city for money. With Jackson and Gaskins both running for mayor, who is going to say "no" to supporting teachers?

Please stop giving me reasons to vote for this guy. If he's never been involved with the do-nothing PTAs and ACPS loving PTAC (who stay silent unless it's to praise ACPS) then all the better!

I don't think Gina is a PTA or PTAC person. She was involved with the city parks and recreation committee and served for several years on parks and rec and the waterfront commission. If you want the status quo, vote for Tim Beaty. It seems like the school board members and ADC got him to run so that a current parent would not win. Seems like a nice guy but he is not in touch with the issues that matter, like academic achievement, CIP budget, teacher vacancies, and the staffing crisis. Gina's student is in my son's class and we have experienced first-hand teachers leaving or having core classes without teachers that are required for graduation. Some of the courses my son is in are AP and he is teaching himself online! I'm a lifelong Democrat but I feel like there are people who are apologists for everything. ACPS should be so much better. We need to pay our teachers better, which both candidates support which is my #1 issue. But academics are really important to me and I am not hearing anything but collective bargaining from the other candidate. He's an expert on that and that is wonderful, but there is more than just CB in ACPS right now. I'm terrified all the teachers will walk and there will be a worse staffing crisis.

That being said, sometimes Gina inserts her foot in her mouth. She isn't always the most savvy about how to behave online. But it is better than the other candidate who isn't responding to parents and teachers online. Tim Beaty doesn't have a website and his social media is his personal website, which I think is super unprofessional. You should not co-mingle your professional work as an elected official and your private life online. I also think it's unfair for people to endorse candidates for early voting before any debates. How can Rief and Greene endorse Beaty when he has absolutely no information about his platform, other than collective bargaining online?

His article for ACHS made it seem like he's unclear about the issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jacinta Green and Michelle Rief endorsed Tim Beaty on Dr. Rief's social media. They are the other District A School Board members and Dr. Rief is the chair.

This is absolutely insane to me. What terrible people who utilize the SB as political gamesmanship when ACPS is so terribly broken.

[Anonymous]

What is Michelle Rief's connection to Tim Beaty? Wasn't her campaign funded in the past by labor unions? Does she have a conflict of interest here?

I self-identify as a democrat but I'm over Alexandria taking everything to the extreme. Willie Bailey created this mess by resigning and then two board members in A, including the board chair endorse a candidate who comes out of seemingly nowhere. I did a deep dive into Mr. Beaty and it seems like he only moved to Alexandria recently or had a property here he was renting. Who knows anything about this guy during his time working for the Teamsters? What schools does he work at currently and what are parent and staff feedback?

[Anonymous]

Is it typical for the board chair to endorse a candidate who has no public website or platform? I found a website for Tim Beaty that seemed to be written by AI. It had no real substance. Is this guy a retired lobbyist? What are Green and Rief endorsing him?

[Anonymous]

Here are the top donors for Rief: https://www.vpap.org/committees/321671/top_donors/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jacinta Green and Michelle Rief endorsed Tim Beaty on Dr. Rief's social media. They are the other District A School Board members and Dr. Rief is the chair.

This is absolutely insane to me. What terrible people who utilize the SB as political gamesmanship when ACPS is so terribly broken.

I agree. They are so afraid of having anyone one the board who does not automatically wave Pom poms for ACPS.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how or why Reif and Green could endorse a Beaty without first meeting with both candidates, which they didn't. Something is very fishy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are the top donors for Rief: https://www.vpap.org/committees/321671/top_donors/

I just looked at this list and so weird. T
Why is the Alexandria school board is being bought by the unions of other states?! What is going on? This is literally crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how or why Reif and Green could endorse a Beaty without first meeting with both candidates, which they didn't. Something is very fishy.

I don't think they should have endorsed anyone, with the full board election less than a year away--the optics ate weird. Should have just been ready to work with whoever won.