APS - Who is running for School Board?

[Anonymous]

Sandy will be my last vote and I'll leave the ballot blank before I vote for her. I've worked with her and she's a real know it all. Hardly helpful at all.

[Anonymous]

Anyone catch the school board race in Fairfax? They elected 22 year old Abrar Omeish... https://www.facebook.com/AbrarforSchoolBoard/
Watch out! The kids are taking over, and that might just be a good thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So how is Symone divisive? I worked with her on school poverty concentration issues and she get it - concentrated poverty in schools is bad for everyone.

Get her going and you will regret it! No point in even having a conversation sometimes. Major tunnel vision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone catch the school board race in Fairfax? They elected 22 year old Abrar Omeish... https://www.facebook.com/AbrarforSchoolBoard/
Watch out! The kids are taking over, and that might just be a good thing!

Little different. Omeish is a lifelong FFX county resident, attended FFX county schools. I wouldn’t mind if a local 20-something candidate stepped forward, like someone who went through APS. I mind an aspiring politician moving here for the express purpose of using this seat for a stepping stone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm voting for Cristina. The detachment in this forum is humerous. If some of you did your research you would see that she actually has 10 years experience in education, many more years in education than most of the other candidates (combined?). Besides Sandy, she would be the only other person (on the board or as a candidate) with classroom experience. I'm looking forward to change on the school board. They have been failing for years with the same o same o approach.

Is she actually in her 20s or is that just hearsay? What's the timeline?

To expand on this, how does this add up to 10 years? https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-diaz-torres-87a52548/

Seriously. She got her BA in 2013, and her Masters in 2016. She taught for three years, was on the Hill for about a year, and has now been consulting for about 3. Total post-undergrad work experience: 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm voting for Cristina. The detachment in this forum is humerous. If some of you did your research you would see that she actually has 10 years experience in education, many more years in education than most of the other candidates (combined?). Besides Sandy, she would be the only other person (on the board or as a candidate) with classroom experience. I'm looking forward to change on the school board. They have been failing for years with the same o same o approach.

Is she actually in her 20s or is that just hearsay? What's the timeline?

To expand on this, how does this add up to 10 years? https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-diaz-torres-87a52548/

Seriously. She got her BA in 2013, and her Masters in 2016. She taught for three years, was on the Hill for about a year, and has now been consulting for about 3. Total post-undergrad work experience: 7.

Interesting. Now I'm curious to know if any of the other candidates have formal education credentials. Anyone know??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone catch the school board race in Fairfax? They elected 22 year old Abrar Omeish... https://www.facebook.com/AbrarforSchoolBoard/
Watch out! The kids are taking over, and that might just be a good thing!

Thats pretty remarkable all things considered. With an annual salary of $20K a year, who else could possible afford to do that job? Thats the real conversation. If these elected offices paid a reasonable salary perhaps more qualified candidates would emerge. The budget is already almost 700M in Arlington... whats another 250K to pay these pubic servants better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charter schools are few and far between in Virginia. Get over yourselves and your implicit bias. It's showing, and from the sounds of it, not one person on this thread has commented on a personal interaction with her.... so let's hear the facts and base a decision off of that instead of the hearsay.

That term has a meaning that you seem to be unaware of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Seriously. She got her BA in 2013, and her Masters in 2016. She taught for three years, was on the Hill for about a year, and has now been consulting for about 3. Total post-undergrad work experience: 7.

Interesting. Now I'm curious to know if any of the other candidates have formal education credentials. Anyone know??

And to be clear, she taught for two years before she got any sort of teaching degree (and TFA provides about 5 weeks of training before dumping its "corps members" in classrooms to teach for two years. Admittedly, she stayed for three years instead of bagging at the first opportunity. But ask any teacher, even one who was sufficiently trained before teaching. None of them are going to say that their first two or three years were when they did their best work.

If she came out and said "TFA is a danger to public education, and I wish I had known how poorly equipped I was for teaching. I am not suited to a career in the classroom, but I wanted to be involved in education, so . . ." I would at least give her points for honesty and self-awareness.

[Anonymous]

The thing about one’s local schools is that it’s a very important and very personal issue. It’s not a lofty political view that we’ve embraced because it matches our values. It’s where we send the people we care about most in our lives. It is a part of every day. It matters to us and we pay attention. I think it makes sense for aspiring politicians to seek election to school board seats because you need to start somewhere, but you should do it in a community where you have either personal or professional roots. Not just fertile ground where the democrats thought they could get you elected with blind allegiance from voters to the endorsed candidate. This kind of garbage makes me more sympathetic to voters who have thrown their hands up and given up on the democrats. All politics are local, and the democrats are repelling me with this. This is why people go for the third party candidate even though it promises disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was personally unsure about Cristina's campaign because of some of the things that have already been mentioned. I did email the campaign to see if I could meet with her personally and we had coffee together. I would encourage you all to at a minimum make your consideration on who she is, what you think her capability and impact will be, and from hearing her personally. You are free to vote for whomever you choose, but again I would encourage you to at least hear what she's got to say. She's got one of my votes and I can't wait to learn about where my second vote will go.

I don't need to have coffee with her and ascertain whether or not she is a pleasant person. I can see that she is a carpet bagger and the darling of the ACDC. She's not the ACDC darling b/c of the good they think she can do for APS- she's the ACDC darling because they are grooming her for higher office and think that SB is a good stepping stone.

I don't want a SB member who is using it as stepping stone. I also don't want a SB who taught for three years with no training (other than minimal teach for america training) and thinks that experience tells her everything she needs to know about teaching in APS. (And note she refers to herself as an 'educator' and and education policy expert.)

I want a SB member who knows when to push back on the staff and when to respect their expertise. I want a SB member who will hold the superintendent accountable. I want someone who has a personal stake in what is happening- who realizes that the mundane issues (e.g. the calendar) really affect us- and that the science of reading matters. The other 4 candidates all offer this in some degree-- Sandy Munnell clearly has the knowledge and experience. Simone has been extremely focused on promoting the science of reading. She also has a focus on inequities in the system- she knows what the APS inequities actually are. Terron and Dave offer this to a lesser extent. Cristina offers it not at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, how do we stop people like my Dem. obsessed DINK friends who campaign any and all things blue from pushing Christina down our throats? Anyone who is a parent should vote against her.

You can’t. DINKs and Boomers are the core of the local Democratic Party. Parents of school age children are a distinct minority in Arlington County, and the local party doesn’t see this as a school board seat, they see it as a stepping stone and as another place to put policy priorities in action. One of those things is making sure that schools don’t interfere with their AH policy. For example, They just spent the whole 20m amazon wad on bringing more high needs children into APS, and set aside not a cent for schools or resources to serve them. That’s of course because AH is about an industry of players, not poor kids. But it’s also why the party wants someone like her. The other candidates owe the party nothing. She’d owe the party everything, and do whatever they told her to.

Childless millennials and DINKs won't show up to the School Board caucus. (Or at least that's my hope.) I think there were fewer than 2,000 voters for the last Priddy/Goldstein caucus. More people showed up when they were joint County Board/School Board caucuses, but now that the County Board moved to a real primary election, the School Board is the only race on the caucus ballot. The key to defeating Christina (as someone said above) is making sure there aren't too many split votes. Ideally, you would only have 3 people running and everyone would vote the other two candidates as #1 and #2. Alternatively, people need to just leave Christina off their ballots completely.

Caucus rules here, but below (#9) is most relevant:

https://arlingtondemocrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2019-SB-Caucus-Rules-1.pdf

9) ?Elimination and redistribution rounds within each stage ? . In the second and subsequent rounds for each stage, the candidate with the lowest number of votes in the previous round will be eliminated and ballots previously allocated to that candidate will be re-allocated to other candidates according to the next highest preference indicated on the ballot. Those ballots will be sorted, stacked and counted (as needed) in the manner described in this Rule. If a ballot does not indicate a next higher preference, it will be set aside for the remainder of the stage and will not be an active ballot in any further round in that stage. If after any round of counting, one candidate has a majority of active ballots, the preference vote counting for that stage will conclude. If no candidate has a majority, another round will commence (again eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes in the current round and re-allocating the ballots accordingly).

Childless DINKs, no. Boomers, yes. I think she’ll get the endorsement. The people who don’t want her aren’t party regulars, and won’t go. But the AH crowd will be there and she’s their pick. The caucus is an internal dem party event, not an open primary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm voting for Cristina. The detachment in this forum is humerous. If some of you did your research you would see that she actually has 10 years experience in education, many more years in education than most of the other candidates (combined?). Besides Sandy, she would be the only other person (on the board or as a candidate) with classroom experience. I'm looking forward to change on the school board. They have been failing for years with the same o same o approach.

Is she actually in her 20s or is that just hearsay? What's the timeline?

To expand on this, how does this add up to 10 years? https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-diaz-torres-87a52548/

Seriously. She got her BA in 2013, and her Masters in 2016. She taught for three years, was on the Hill for about a year, and has now been consulting for about 3. Total post-undergrad work experience: 7.

Interesting. Now I'm curious to know if any of the other candidates have formal education credentials. Anyone know??

You don’t need a formal credential to do that work. You need to have put in the time as a parent, teacher or volunteer. To have spent time in the trenches.

Cristina was fast tracked/handpicked for a plum committee over people who had put in the time and have a personal stake in these issues, and I find it really, well, unfair. And careerist and distasteful. And not “experience” in my book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was personally unsure about Cristina's campaign because of some of the things that have already been mentioned. I did email the campaign to see if I could meet with her personally and we had coffee together. I would encourage you all to at a minimum make your consideration on who she is, what you think her capability and impact will be, and from hearing her personally. You are free to vote for whomever you choose, but again I would encourage you to at least hear what she's got to say. She's got one of my votes and I can't wait to learn about where my second vote will go.

I don't need to have coffee with her and ascertain whether or not she is a pleasant person. I can see that she is a carpet bagger and the darling of the ACDC. She's not the ACDC darling b/c of the good they think she can do for APS- she's the ACDC darling because they are grooming her for higher office and think that SB is a good stepping stone.

I don't want a SB member who is using it as stepping stone. I also don't want a SB who taught for three years with no training (other than minimal teach for america training) and thinks that experience tells her everything she needs to know about teaching in APS. (And note she refers to herself as an 'educator' and and education policy expert.)

I want a SB member who knows when to push back on the staff and when to respect their expertise. I want a SB member who will hold the superintendent accountable. I want someone who has a personal stake in what is happening- who realizes that the mundane issues (e.g. the calendar) really affect us- and that the science of reading matters. The other 4 candidates all offer this in some degree-- Sandy Munnell clearly has the knowledge and experience. Simone has been extremely focused on promoting the science of reading. She also has a focus on inequities in the system- she knows what the APS inequities actually are. Terron and Dave offer this to a lesser extent. Cristina offers it not at all.

Why do you think so many prominent people have endorsed her? If she’s as awful and horrible as some make her seem, why would these important county folks stake their good name and come out in sweeping support for her when they could easily just stay quiet. They could easily have said no thanks. Of the endorsements that I have found, the sheriff, school board chair, commonwealth attorney, and one of the two county board members have children. It makes zero sense for them to endorse if they also personally didn’t think she was the best fit for their own kids. At this point, I agree that this is all very mysterious and I do plan on learning more about all the candidates and giving them all a fair shot after I have more information. It’s too early to tell as of now, but there is a craving to learn more about this Cristina candidate and see what all the hype is about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was personally unsure about Cristina's campaign because of some of the things that have already been mentioned. I did email the campaign to see if I could meet with her personally and we had coffee together. I would encourage you all to at a minimum make your consideration on who she is, what you think her capability and impact will be, and from hearing her personally. You are free to vote for whomever you choose, but again I would encourage you to at least hear what she's got to say. She's got one of my votes and I can't wait to learn about where my second vote will go.

I don't need to have coffee with her and ascertain whether or not she is a pleasant person. I can see that she is a carpet bagger and the darling of the ACDC. She's not the ACDC darling b/c of the good they think she can do for APS- she's the ACDC darling because they are grooming her for higher office and think that SB is a good stepping stone.

I don't want a SB member who is using it as stepping stone. I also don't want a SB who taught for three years with no training (other than minimal teach for america training) and thinks that experience tells her everything she needs to know about teaching in APS. (And note she refers to herself as an 'educator' and and education policy expert.)

I want a SB member who knows when to push back on the staff and when to respect their expertise. I want a SB member who will hold the superintendent accountable. I want someone who has a personal stake in what is happening- who realizes that the mundane issues (e.g. the calendar) really affect us- and that the science of reading matters. The other 4 candidates all offer this in some degree-- Sandy Munnell clearly has the knowledge and experience. Simone has been extremely focused on promoting the science of reading. She also has a focus on inequities in the system- she knows what the APS inequities actually are. Terron and Dave offer this to a lesser extent. Cristina offers it not at all.

Why do you think so many prominent people have endorsed her? If she’s as awful and horrible as some make her seem, why would these important county folks stake their good name and come out in sweeping support for her when they could easily just stay quiet. They could easily have said no thanks. Of the endorsements that I have found, the sheriff, school board chair, commonwealth attorney, and one of the two county board members have children. It makes zero sense for them to endorse if they also personally didn’t think she was the best fit for their own kids. At this point, I agree that this is all very mysterious and I do plan on learning more about all the candidates and giving them all a fair shot after I have more information. It’s too early to tell as of now, but there is a craving to learn more about this Cristina candidate and see what all the hype is about.

You know Cristina works at the same consulting firm as Katie Cristol, right?