Elaine Tholen's recall is goin to court

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will fail. And maybe. If it were Novemver 2021, perhaps. But it is November 2023 and this will not be on the top of voters' minds. It is a pretty small subset now, in my opinion, and will be even less so then.

Tholen had better to work to rehabilitate her reputation if she wants a Democrat to win her seat in 2023:

- kept schools closed and then dragged feet school reopening; shill for teacher organizations

- over 5000 constituents on the record as wanting her removed

- spent months during pandemic instead fretting over TJ admissions; went along with reducing # of Dranesville kids going to TJ

- blatantly favored Langley over McLean (the more Democratic area) in boundary change

- ignored Herndon

But the Herndon precincts went heavily for her. I am not hearing a lot of clamoring for her removal from Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone you know is very shortsighted then. Are they fan of Youngkin’s “voter integrity” platform that sucks up to trump and the big lie? Are they a fan of Youngkin going on the offense against abortion rights as he stated he would at a campaign event?

People don’t have to decide who they are supporting in the Governor’s race to dislike the fact that their local School Board that is supposed to be non-partisan is instead a collection of party activists who fail to exercise independent judgment.

I agree. If you are happy with how the leadership of the past year and your child’s experience in FCPS, keep voting for Democratic candidates. Many people do not want a repeat, so they are voting otherwise.

The problem is that the R’s end up nominating someone who is worse.

Anastasia Karloutsos would have been better than Elaine Tholen turned out to be. For sure Anastasia was less of a hypocrite.

A lot of people voted for Tholen because she was a Democrat and it was assumed she'd have more ability to persuade other Ds. And then she ended up throwing them under the bus.

A.K. didn’t have experience in Fairfax County. Most likely she wanted her kids to receive the highest level of preferential treatment in FCPS.

What is that even supposed to mean? One of the problems with the current School Board is that so few members currently have kids in FCPS. Tholen hasn't had kids in FCPS for years and some members like Omeish and Frisch don't have kids at all.

I dare say if any of these childless School Board members had to stay home and supervise online education of a K-3 grader for an entire year, their tunes may be different. It’s easy to say, “Yes, online learning will be fun” without having to actually turn your family’s life upside down and deal with the consequences day in/day out.

Melanie Meren has at least one young ES. Rumor was she had a pod with a private tutor….Makes it much easier to keep voting to delay the return to school last fall.

We were in an unprecedented situation where there were no easy decisions and the “science” and recommendations for following it kept changing. You all need to stop harping on the past and work on current and future problems. You did a good job making the public aware of the huge difficulties in online learning and we are guaranteed 5 days of in person school in the fall. I don’t know what the benefit is in crucifying Tholen over this, especially since the vast majority of her colleagues agreed with her.

If every school district in the country handled school reopening as poorly as FCPS did, you might have a point. But, alas, they did not. And we're not blind.

[Anonymous]

But every district in this area handled this in a similar fashion. And FCPS opened more than most others around here did. We understand, you would have done a better job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will fail. And maybe. If it were Novemver 2021, perhaps. But it is November 2023 and this will not be on the top of voters' minds. It is a pretty small subset now, in my opinion, and will be even less so then.

Tholen had better to work to rehabilitate her reputation if she wants a Democrat to win her seat in 2023:

- kept schools closed and then dragged feet school reopening; shill for teacher organizations

- over 5000 constituents on the record as wanting her removed

- spent months during pandemic instead fretting over TJ admissions; went along with reducing # of Dranesville kids going to TJ

- blatantly favored Langley over McLean (the more Democratic area) in boundary change

- ignored Herndon

But the Herndon precincts went heavily for her. I am not hearing a lot of clamoring for her removal from Herndon.

Langley neighborhoods typically lean Republican, McLean slightly Democratic, and Herndon more heavily Democratic. If the margins change, as they probably will, she’s done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone you know is very shortsighted then. Are they fan of Youngkin’s “voter integrity” platform that sucks up to trump and the big lie? Are they a fan of Youngkin going on the offense against abortion rights as he stated he would at a campaign event?

People don’t have to decide who they are supporting in the Governor’s race to dislike the fact that their local School Board that is supposed to be non-partisan is instead a collection of party activists who fail to exercise independent judgment.

I agree. If you are happy with how the leadership of the past year and your child’s experience in FCPS, keep voting for Democratic candidates. Many people do not want a repeat, so they are voting otherwise.

The problem is that the R’s end up nominating someone who is worse.

Anastasia Karloutsos would have been better than Elaine Tholen turned out to be. For sure Anastasia was less of a hypocrite.

A lot of people voted for Tholen because she was a Democrat and it was assumed she'd have more ability to persuade other Ds. And then she ended up throwing them under the bus.

A.K. didn’t have experience in Fairfax County. Most likely she wanted her kids to receive the highest level of preferential treatment in FCPS.

What is that even supposed to mean? One of the problems with the current School Board is that so few members currently have kids in FCPS. Tholen hasn't had kids in FCPS for years and some members like Omeish and Frisch don't have kids at all.

I dare say if any of these childless School Board members had to stay home and supervise online education of a K-3 grader for an entire year, their tunes may be different. It’s easy to say, “Yes, online learning will be fun” without having to actually turn your family’s life upside down and deal with the consequences day in/day out.

Melanie Meren has at least one young ES. Rumor was she had a pod with a private tutor….Makes it much easier to keep voting to delay the return to school last fall.

We were in an unprecedented situation where there were no easy decisions and the “science” and recommendations for following it kept changing. You all need to stop harping on the past and work on current and future problems. You did a good job making the public aware of the huge difficulties in online learning and we are guaranteed 5 days of in person school in the fall. I don’t know what the benefit is in crucifying Tholen over this, especially since the vast majority of her colleagues agreed with her.

If every school district in the country handled school reopening as poorly as FCPS did, you might have a point. But, alas, they did not. And we're not blind.

Bingo.

[Anonymous]

All this work to kick someone out who was never going to run for re-election anyway. She was the stand in when the first choice candidate stepped out to run for BOS at the last minute. I doubt she intended to stay for more than one term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will fail. And maybe. If it were Novemver 2021, perhaps. But it is November 2023 and this will not be on the top of voters' minds. It is a pretty small subset now, in my opinion, and will be even less so then.

Tholen had better to work to rehabilitate her reputation if she wants a Democrat to win her seat in 2023:

- kept schools closed and then dragged feet school reopening; shill for teacher organizations

- over 5000 constituents on the record as wanting her removed

- spent months during pandemic instead fretting over TJ admissions; went along with reducing # of Dranesville kids going to TJ

- blatantly favored Langley over McLean (the more Democratic area) in boundary change

- ignored Herndon

But the Herndon precincts went heavily for her. I am not hearing a lot of clamoring for her removal from Herndon.

+1
I live in the Dranesville district and Herndon parents seem fine with her.

[Anonymous]

I'm ambivalent about Tholen - personally, I think the SB members who really need to go are Omeish (top of the list), Frisch (a strong second), and Cohen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if the petition ultimately fails, the School Board members are put on notice that their actions are being monitored (and no longer blindly trusted by FCPS families). Plus, I think the recall/frustration with current School Board will bring motivated voters to the polls in November.

Agreed. The biggest benefit of the petition, even if it fails, is making voters aware of the loonies on this SB and hopefully voting accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that is the best likelihood - members choosing not to run again. I really do not know if Tholen is subpar or not. I know some people hate her., based on reading here I'm a Herndon parent. No one I know is talking about her one way or the other. Some overall irritation or not over the opening of schools, but no one is naming her as the issue.

+100
The SB members I hear the most about are the three mentioned in the other post - Omeish, Frisch, and Cohen. The worst of the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if the petition ultimately fails, the School Board members are put on notice that their actions are being monitored (and no longer blindly trusted by FCPS families). Plus, I think the recall/frustration with current School Board will bring motivated voters to the polls in November.

Agreed. The biggest benefit of the petition, even if it fails, is making voters aware of the loonies on this SB and hopefully voting accordingly.

we know who the loonies are, and they are not on the school board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this work to kick someone out who was never going to run for re-election anyway. She was the stand in when the first choice candidate stepped out to run for BOS at the last minute. I doubt she intended to stay for more than one term.

I think the backlash has been building for decades. Years and years ago, Fairfax was a majority GOP county and slowly it changed to purple and now blue. There are some that at angry and want things to go back to they way there were. However, the electorate does not favor them. For some reason, they have moved to the fringe right instead of staking out the moderate middle. They have no chance going with the fringe right, they have a chance to get a few seats with a moderate middle approach- but they will never be majority in the foreseeable future.

Fairfax County has also grown from a suburban county to a huge urban county. It is still run more like a suburban county and there will be more growing pains since it is hard to run things without someone at the top that can make fast decisions. We have two Boards- BOS and the School Board, they have to figure out how to be able to make decisions faster as issues arise. They can’t debate endlessly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if the petition ultimately fails, the School Board members are put on notice that their actions are being monitored (and no longer blindly trusted by FCPS families). Plus, I think the recall/frustration with current School Board will bring motivated voters to the polls in November.

Agreed. The biggest benefit of the petition, even if it fails, is making voters aware of the loonies on this SB and hopefully voting accordingly.

we know who the loonies are, and they are not on the school board.

The vast majority of FCPS voters disagrees with you.

[Anonymous]

I am not hte PP, but I think you are wrong. The vast majority of DCUM Fairfax County voters may disagree, but not the majority of "FCPS voters" as you put it do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this work to kick someone out who was never going to run for re-election anyway. She was the stand in when the first choice candidate stepped out to run for BOS at the last minute. I doubt she intended to stay for more than one term.

So low expectations and even then they weren’t met. Good reasons for a change.