PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. – From national headlines to state discussion, standardized testing has been a hot topic among educators, parents and the general public as a whole. Are standardized tests, or the SOLs as they're known in Virginia, the right option to track the performance of our students, teachers and schools? Are there better alternatives? Or is the current education system responsible for “overtesting” students and putting extra pressure on teachers?

On Wednesday night, the Prince William Committee of 100 held a dinner and forum to address the use of SOLs and consideration of other standards for Prince William County Schools and Virginia as a whole. One of the most notable alternatives that was discussed was the Common Core, an educational initiative across the nation that sets the bar for math and English at the K-12 levels. Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus Provost Dr. Sam Hill moderated the event. He says that the basis of a thriving community comes down to the quality of education.

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Loree Williams has been a resident of Woodbridge  for over 30 years. She is running up against current incumbent Steve Keen for occupation of the Woodbridge seat on the Prince William County School Board. She says this election isn’t about competition; rather, it’s about bettering the schools.

“There are no enemies in this race,” she says. “Keen has served before and I think that he is a wonderful opponent and has done a great number of things for our county.”

Williams is a wife and mother with two sons, one who is currently attending a Prince William County school. She says this gives her the opportunity to offer a fresh perspective that is not currently being represented on the board.

“I served as a PTA president at my son’s elementary for two years and I also am currently serving on the PWC Gifted Advisory Board. When the position for school board came up, I felt like this was the next logical step for me to try to help our county’s students, parents and teachers,” she says. “Currently there is no one on the board that has young children and with the best interest in seeing our county’s schools grow and change to meet the needs of the students that are in the schools,” she says.

Challenges

Williams says one of the biggest challenges facing schools is adapting to new technologies.

 “Technology is becoming more and more imperative in our schools and education and most of the students are doing some type of online learning,” she says. Williams says it is important that students and teachers both have the technological capabilities they need in modern society.

Additionally, Williams says she will advocate smaller class sizes to allow for a better learning environment for students and teachers.

“I am fully aware of how much time it takes for our teachers, especially when they have 33 students in a class, that’s over 108 students they have to deal with in a day when it comes to grading papers and all the preparation they need for the class.” she says. “It would be to our advantage if we reduce our class sizes to alleviate some of that stress from the teachers and to provide more one-on-one attention for our students.”

Controversial Pool Proposal

An indoor aquatics facility could soon be coming to the 12th high school in Prince William County and has caused controversial opinions across the Woodbridge community. One of the first decisions the newly elected Woodbridge school board member will make is whether to authorize the school division to build the pool.

Prince William County Schools project that the pool’s cost will be $10.5 million to construct and $800,000 per year to operate, in which usage fees will cover about 70-100 percent of the operating fees. PWCS says that it will serve the entire community, providing aquatic instruction, lessons and space for private and high school swim teams.

Williams says the pool could be beneficial to educational instruction, however, she says it is important to be mindful of the budgetary and upkeep factors that come along with the proposal.

“Because our mission for PWCS is to provide a world class education for our students, I could see how having a pool inside one of our schools would be an added benefit to that, but the operation and maintenance (issues) are something we need to look deeper into and come up with some definite and final decisions,” says Williams.

2014-2015 Budget

The superintendent’s proposed budget for FY 2014-2015 will be presented this February, shortly after the school board member is elected. One of the biggest issues talked about at the board of supervisors level is how the budget can be managed properly to see that schools are funded and teachers are retained. Williams says that if she is elected she will work to form a budget committee to review the school division’s proposed budget.

“I do everything in my power to educate myself on all the issues pertaining to the schools, whether I’m elected to the board or not,” she says. “If I am elected, it would only be to my benefit to continue that habit. I can’t make an informed decision unless I, myself is informed.”

Virginia voters will go to the polls on Nov. 5 for the 2013 General Election.

 

Delegate Jackson Miller, Republican representing the 50th district (Manassas and Prince William County) has served the Virginia House of Delegates since 2006. This year he is running for reelection against Democrat Richard Cabellos. He will continue to center his campaign on public safety, criminal justice and business.

As a former police officer for 17 years, he is experienced with issues of criminal justice and public safety. He is responsible for sponsoring legislation that would protect victim and witnesses of crimes by requiring that the defense attorney not be able to publically disclose the personal information of the victim and witnesses. He said this exemption is only currently intact for gang crimes. His bill would include victims and witnesses of drug crimes and violent felonies.

“A lot of people assume that a violent felon who has been charged that they would not have access to the victim or witness’s information, but in fact they do,” he says. “Right now we only allow it for serious gang crimes. We should allow it for all crimes.”

Although these three areas are aligned with his professional level of expertise, Miller says he strives to represent all the issues important to his constituents. Having served as majority whip in the Virginia House of Delegates, he had the opportunity to influence legislation that he may not be a part of otherwise.

Education

Miller says he has worked hard to help fund and prioritize education properly.

“I’m proud to say that because of my previous support of education in Virginia, that I got the endorsement of the Manassas Education Association and the Prince William Education Association,” he says. “I continue to work hard on the funding of schools and classroom sizes and that’s why I have the endorsement of teachers and that’s something I’m very proud of.”

Miller’s target-area when it comes to schools has to do with security. Last session he sponsored a bill with the focus of providing experienced security personnel in the schools.

“It’s a bill that would allow retired police officers under the Virginia Retired system to be hired by a school system full-time to be a school security guard,” he says. Currently, several retired police officers are able to get jobs as school security guards, but not on a fulltime basis. He says that this bill would help provide a safer school environment, especially if a critical incident were to occur.

“It’s much safer for the schools because a retired police officer knows and understands police procedures in a critical incident,” he says. “In many cases, the police officer goes to work in the jurisdiction he was (originally) a police officer so he almost instantly knows the officers and how they respond.”

Transportation

Miller says he was not in favor of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s bipartisan transportation package because he feels it is detrimental to Prince William County. He says that in Northern Virginia’s Planning District 8, which includes Prince William County, Fairfax and Loudon counties, Miller says the region saw a 20 percent increase in sales tax and a 150 percent increase in the Grantor’s Tax, which is a tax on homes sold in the area.

“I simply couldn’t support bill that would have significant tax increases on my businesses and my constituents,” he says. “Prince William’s biggest competitors for business aren’t Fairfax and Loudon, our biggest competitors are Stafford and to a lesser degree, Faquier County, but those counties don’t have that tax increase.”

Miller says that it could be argued that the population in Fauquier and Stafford are gaining a huge increase at a higher rate than the Prince William County residents because they do not have to absorb the same tax increase.

 “I simply cannot vote for the bill when we pay much more than our neighbors, yet they commute through the same region we do at a higher percentage than PWC residents.” Additionally, Miller fears the transportation package will ultimately be damaging to business development.

“I don’t disagree that it will benefit people in Prince William County, but still I don’t think it’s worth it at the cost of us not being able to attract jobs,” he says. “It’s a lot more difficult for Prince William to attract the huge high-tech companies that bring a lot of high paying jobs to Fairfax and Loudon counties.”

Job/Business Development

As a current realtor and real estate investor, Miller is oriented toward making Virginia more business-friendly.

“I drew a lot of pieces of legislation that were created to help businesses,” he says. “They (were created) to let businesses work more smoothly under the guidelines that the state government provides for them.”

He says creating regulations is not always bad for business and that his knowledge of different types of businesses helps with making regulatory legislative decisions.

“I’ve worked to help several types of business groups eliminate regulations that weren’t necessary and sometimes create regulations that the industry thinks is necessary,” he says.

Medicare expansion

Miller says that the Affordable Care Act, a federal comprehensive healthcare reform package that is set to be expanded in Virginia on Oct. 1, could be damaging to Virginia as a state. He worries that by accepting the healthcare expansion during a time when the federal economy is fragile, Virginia will later be expected to make significant budget cuts in order to continue to fund the program.

“It’s not good policy and has the ability to break the budget of the commonwealth of Virginia,” says Miller.  “I think that expansion is way too risky for the future of the commonwealth and that it would be a direct threat to funding for education, funding for public safety and all the other services that are provided by (the state).”

Why Miller?

Miller says his experience as a delegate and with the community help to give him an advantage as a candidate in the upcoming election. He says that he respects his opponent, Cabellos, as a respectable family man, however he doesn’t believe Cabellos has the pulse of the Prince William County and Manassas communities.

“Mr. Cabellos doesn’t know the district. He’s only lived here for a couple years. A vast majority of his political work is in the Arlington and Alexandria area and I believe he has the Arlington and Alexandria type of mentality,” he says. “I was a police officer for almost 12 years. I served on the Manassas city council for two years. I’ve been very involved in a variety of other organizations.”

Winifred “Winnie” O’Neal is the current treasurer of Manassas Park City. She first worked as a banker in Tidewater, Va. for over 12 years and after relocating to Manassas Park City she worked for the parks and recreation department as an aide. In 2008, she was appointed by City Council to serve as treasurer and then elected to serve her first official term in 2009. Her experience as the City’s Treasurer motivates her to want to continue serving Manassas Park.

“Now that I have some experience under my belt and I’ve taken some classes, I’ve gotten the office to a good position with our collection rates and customer service and I want to keep that going,” she says. In short, the City Treasurer works with the commissioner of revenue and is responsible for handling the tax collections and funds coming into the area.

“The commissioner of revenue basically assesses the taxes, hands the book over to us and we bill and collect the taxes,” says O’Neal. She says that many people don’t realize that a large part of the responsibilities of the treasurer’s office is tax collections.

“This includes personal property taxes, real estate taxes, decals and state funding for the schools and city.”

The city treasurer plays a major role in making decisions on where to best invest the city’s funding. O’Neal says these decisions have a lot to do with relationships.

“The treasurer gets to pick our everyday banking relationships and there are a lot of great state-sponsored programs for deposits. We take all of that into account,” she says.

The treasurer’s office in Manassas Park is currently operated by a staff of four employees. The office is partially state funded and because the city had furloughs, O’Neal says that the employees that were not state-funded were laid off. She says these staff cuts over the past three years have created a challenge to providing adequate customer service.

“Right now the biggest challenge is staffing. We have portions of the day from 1:30 to 3 p.m. that we are closed and we used to be able to stagger the hours but because we’ve lost staff, we can’t provide the quality customer service that we want to provide,” she says. “We have some state mandated functions that are required, such as making our deposits daily and that’s definitely affected our customer service.”

One “hot topic” issue on the minds of many citizens in light of recent complications within federal government services is public disclosure of funds raised and spent by local, state and federal government. O’Neal says that the treasurer’s office maintains a fair level of disclosure for its citizens.

“How the money is handled in the treasures office is completely open for public inspection,” she says. “We have books with past records that the public can come in and view and we also have online systems where public knowledge is accessible.”

O’Neal says she is pleased to be able to continue to serve the citizens of Manassas Park City. She says that her five years of experience in the office, banking background and past success in handling various duties required by her role as treasurer make her a dependable candidate for treasurer. 

Mara Sealock, (D-Aquia) running for the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, is not the average candidate As a 21-year-old graduate of Marymount University, Sealock represents a stark contrast from her opponent, current incumbent since 2010, Republican Paul Milde III.

Sealock says that she found out about the open seat from Alane Callander, chairwoman on the Stafford Democratic Committee. She says she had worked with the committee before, volunteering at primaries and attending board of supervisor meetings.

“I started talking to people about the things I’ve learned while getting my degree in political science and a lot of the issues that came out within the county (were the same),” she said. “I spoke to Alane Callander and she told me the Democratic seat was open so I decided to go for it to reach out to the other voters in the community.”

Sealock works over 65 hours a week between two part-time jobs. At the age of 16, she graduated from Hayfield High School in Alexandria and immediately enrolled in classes at Marymount University. Her experience leads her to focus for her campaign on areas of education, government transparency and employment development.

Education

Sealock says her educational background and ability to appeal to the younger generation will serve as an advantage in the upcoming election.

“I know the schools within Stafford are experiencing major issues with overpopulation and financial support through the county,” says Sealock. “Being younger, I feel I could appeal to the younger voters and I could get an insight of what is going on in the school system and actually speak to the ones that are involved in it and using it.”

Sealock says education is important to her because of her experience and close ties within schools.  She says she hopes to improve the relationship between the school board and board of supervisors in order to be able to effectively tackle the major issues.

“I graduated high school at 16 and went straight into a university. Education is important, not only for students, but for society,” she says. “I know that students who aren’t in school are more likely to commit crime and so forth so if there’s more focus on school and it is more important community-wise, then the students will receive a better education and Stafford County schools can move back up on a  regional ranking.”

Transparency

“On the board of supervisors right now there’s a lot of back and forth about the transparency and how the citizens aren’t aware of the issues going on,” says Sealock. She refers to two issues that are being discussed on the board- the “Waste to Energy” plant, a proposal to allow power generating facilities on government-owned property in Stafford, and the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR).

TDR was envisioned as a solution to limit development in areas where it would be least desirable and place it in areas with the infrastructure necessary to support growth.

Proponents hope it will help to preserve land and private property rights and target development in the Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve. However, those who oppose the litigation argue that is flawed, restrictive and doesn’t allow for efficient citizen input. Sealock says that the program could have consequences for the entire county.

“To me, it ties into the schools because as Stafford is developing, the contracts are coming in really fast and that will add to the overpopulation in the schools because families are going to move with their students,” she says. Additionally she said, because the program removes the rezoning process for the Courthouse area, it will lead to a lack of standards, proffers and citizen input.

“I feel that it’s not a conservation program, and the supervisors are looking at the financial benefits, and not at what is best for the citizens right now,” she says. “With the development proposals coming in at the rate they are at now, things could only get worse.”

Employment and Economic development

Sealock says with the economy as weak as it is right now, it’s almost required that one has a degree to get any type of recognition. This area hits close to home for Sealock, who says she has been working her way through high school and college to help her family make ends meet.

“My mother is unemployed and has been searching for a stable job for two years. She was a stay-at-home mom when my father passed away,” she says. “From then on, my brother and I picked up jobs through high school and college to help. Now as she continues to look for a job, being older without a college degree, it’s hard.”

 She says she will promote a bottom-up approach for those that have the capacity to hold stable jobs, but may not have the ability to show that with a piece of paper.

“Being young and looking at it from a different perspective, I think it is important that people get out there and start somewhere to get where they want to be.”

Pamuela Yeung, candidate for the Garrisonville seat on the Stafford County School Board, has been living in Virginia for over 30 years and in Stafford since 1983.  She is originally from the Netherlands and speaks Dutch, Spanish, English and Portuguese.  She says she was originally inspired to move to the county to raise her children in an area known to have an excelling academic environment.  She says her background and experience will be a valuable attribute to the school board.

“I can bring the board diversity, a business and technology background, an opportunity for critical thinking and decision making and I could bring transparency and trust working with the board of supervisors,” she says. “I’m focused on continued growth and achievement and ensuring that the mission is to build students as leaders of tomorrow and provide resources for acceleration for improvement in needed areas.”

Yeung says she choose to run for the school board because she is looking for changes in the current school system.

“I believe there needs to be an adequate balance of individuals that are on the school board members to help improve the educational experience of children, parents and teachers,” she says.

Improving Student Achievement

Yeung says that education can affect virtually all aspects of life and that many people do not realize that when there is a decrease in the education level, other areas suffer as well.

“One of the issues that were having is that 25 percent of the (Stafford) population is disadvantaged children and it affects everyone, rich and poor,” she says. “It will affect your home and even your social security later on because children are going to become adults and then they are going to work and collect social security and we will be collecting social security. We want (the current generation) to get the best jobs as possible, so we need to reduce the number of disadvantaged children in our communities.”

Teacher Retention

“We need to make sure that we maintain highly skilled teachers, administrators and employees and make sure that they don’t go north or south for better competitive salaries,” says Yeung.

She said this includes making sure teachers have the resources they need to prepare students for the future.

“Right now were asking for a lot from our teachers. We’re asking them to be parents, behavioral health social workers, teachers, really a little bit of everything but without their tools,” she says. Yeung says there is too much dependence on test scores to determine student and teacher achievement.

 “We’re asking these teachers to be able to test these tokens and put their jobs on the line when these students don’t test well,” she says. “We’re allowing the children to memorize material and be able to spit it out, but what are they getting out of the study?”

She also says that in order to attract and retain quality teachers, it is important that the school board review the policies and procedures that are currently used and pinpoint what works and what isn’t working.

Security

As a mother of four, Yeung says she has always been an active volunteer in the school system, attending meetings and field trips and serving as vice chairman on the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) for 2012-2013 school years. 

One area that she says she will continue to advocate is for safety through increased security.

“One of the things that I like is that my children are able to walk to school,” she says. “In order to not have to bus children, that means we have to have good quality schools and teachers in every neighborhood.”

Performance

Legislation that was passed in the most recent General Assembly session will soon place a letter grade on Virginia schools to test their performance. Yeung does not support this measure and says just as with student grading, the value should emphasize the content being retained, not the grade.

“I think we’re moving away from what the problem is and result-based (practices) are dangerous because you’re looking for the end product versus understanding what we are supposed to be teaching the children for the duration of their life, for them to be able to find jobs and compete with not only other states, but the world,” she says. 

She says that education has to move away from “teaching to a test” in order to preserve the best students and teachers.

“The grades will speak for themselves. You have to make sure that the students enjoy the education.They don’t enjoy the fact that they have to be memorizing in order to achieve that grade and the teachers don’t enjoy it either, the teachers want to teach because that’s their job.”

School board and board of supervisor relationship

Yeung says the school board and board of supervisors need to be on the same page when it comes to the issues affecting schools in the county.

“The relationship between the school board and board of supervisors needs to be in touch so that they both understand the dilemmas of the school system,” she says. “The school board needs to understand what the teachers are going through. The teachers need the tools to be able to educate the children and the school board needs to be able to deliver that information concisely to the board of supervisors throughout the entire school year and not when it’s time to discuss the budget.”

Holly Hazard, current incumbent of the Hartwood seat on the Stafford County School Board says her interest in the county and ensuring that students receive a good education is what motivates her to run for reelection in November. Hazard has two daughters who attend Stafford County Public Schools and is very involved in the schools in her community.

She says that being able to work locally and be visible and active in the schools is something that is valuable to the community and her role as a school board member.

“I believe part of a school member’s job is to be in the schools, active and visible and to promote the schools themselves, be a little bit of a cheerleader for the school system and for the students,” she says. “It gives you an insight of some of the challenges that are faced on a daily basis and how (the school board) can be helpful.”

Hazard is centering her campaign on areas such as prepping students for the future, retaining quality teachers, and school safety.

“It is important we make sure students have the best education that they can, especially with so much changing in the world and make sure our kids are able to be competitive in this environment,” she says. “We have some really great teachers and people involved in our education system. I think we also need to make sure that we recruit and maintain the best teachers and continue to build upon our success as a school district.”

Hazard says she has some concerns with the current methods on testing performance of schools.

“I understand that there needs to be some type of analysis on how schools are doing, but I believe any overemphasis on one area of test scores or certain things doesn’t give the whole picture,” she says. “I am very concerned, as many are, that we are teaching to a test.

I want to make sure that our students are very analytical and that they have the skills that they need in the world.

However, Hazard says that over all, Stafford ranks well when it comes to performance.

“We are one of 36 schools in the commonwealth that has gotten full accreditation. Only 27% of schools in commonwealth met that goal and we were one of them.”

Another area that Hazard is focused on is school safety and security. She says she is pleased with the initiative to add more resource officers to the school with the aid of a grant that was approved for the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office.

“This year as we opened schools we had our resource officers very visible. I think it’s a wonderful piece that we’ve been able to add in conjunction with our sheriff,” she says. “Going forward I would like to explore whether a more permanent presence might be more available at our elementary school level.”

Hazard has been working as an attorney for over 20 years. She says her experience in her profession has helped her role as a school board member.

“One of the things an attorney is called is a counselor and I think that the desire to problem solve, think innovatively and try to consensus-build is an important attribute, because a school system is a people organization,” she says. Hazard says with over thousands of school employees and over 27,000 students and others involved in the school system, this is an important characteristic.

She says the effectiveness of a school system is important to outside factors as well, such as business development and the economy.

“A lot of times when business comes to potentially settle in Stafford County, one of the top things asked is ‘What are the quality of the schools?’ and we want to make sure that we can maintain that quality,” she says. “The best economic development is also an investment in our public education because these are going to be our students and our workers of tomorrow.”

 

Reed Heddleston is the democratic candidate for the 51st VirgiiaHouse District, which includes Prince William County.

“This elction is going to be about choices,” said  Heddleston.

He’s up against incumbent Richard Anderson, who has held the seat since 2010. Heddleston says there is a stark difference between his and his opponent’s overall approach in the upcoming General Election.

Although Heddleston says he respects Anderson’s military service, as both candidates have served for the U.S. Air Force, Heddleston says his experience within his industry will make him a better candidate. Anderson retired from the Air Force a Colonel in 2009.

“I’ve hired people into jobs and I know what it takes to win contracts and to build business,” says Heddleston. “It’s not something I’ve read about in a book or that someone gave me in a ‘talk and pat’. My opponent can talk about things but I have done them.”

Heddleston currently works as a managing director for defense and government for the Luthan Group, a financial consulting firm based in Richmond. Prior to that, Heddleston worked for 14 years as an operations manager for the Science Applications International Corporation (SCIC), a Fortune 500 Company located in McLean, Virginia. Within his work at the SCIC, Heddleston says he gained valuable experience that would be useful as a delegate.

“I understand what it’s like to lose contracts and I understand what it’s like to win contracts,” he says. “I know what it’s like to hire veterans. I personally hired 30 veterans during my time with SCIC.”

Heddleston is focusing his campaign on major issues such as transportation, education, and equality in the workplace.

Transportation

Heddleston says he supported the transportation reform package, signed off by Governor McDonnell during the last legislative session which eliminates the gasoline tax and raise the state’s sales tax in an effort to raise funds for transportation issues.

“It took all these years to get a bipartisan transportation bill and it’s been 26 years since we’ve actually had a transportation bill,” says Heddleston. “Transportation is a long-standing problem and you don’t fix it one year at a time, you have to have a long-range plan.”

Further, he says transportation isn’t only about building more roads.

“We need to look at alternatives and be very careful where we spend that money. We need to look at light rail, metro expansion and at highways and improving traffic,” says Heddleston.

However, Heddleston does not support the development of the Bi-County Parkway, which will connect Prince William and Loudon Counties. Proponents say that the road will help promote economic development by improving the transportation network. However, opponents of the parkway fear that it will be costly to surrounding residents and damaging to the Manassas National Battlefield Park and the official historic district.

He said there are three reasons why he doesn’t support the bill: the fear that it will add to traffic congestion, create unnecessary development in the Rural Cresent, and will not be a viable long-term goal.

“I believe it doesn’t address our transportation problem, which is getting people to and from work,” he says. “What that will do is just create more development in the Rural Crescent and that will just add to the congestion load.”

“That is a distinction because my opponent supports the Bi-County Parkway and he voted against the transportation reform plan.”

Education

Heddleston says the main problem with  Prince William County Schools is that the county has the largest class sizes and also the lowest teacher pay in the region.

“If we’re not in a crisis, we’re approaching crisis,” he says. “We need to raise teacher pay to the national average. We know that if you’re looking for disciplined classes, you need smaller class sizes but really it’s not a question of discipline, you need smaller class sizes so teachers can pay attention to students. “

Heddleston was recently endorsed by the Virginia Education Association. He says public education is a fundamental part of democracy.

“It’s where you meet and compete with your peer group that you’re going to work with for the rest of your life,” he says.

Another issue Heddleston points out is how Virginia currently tests the performance of schools and teachers.

“At the same time that we’re not putting enough money into the public schools and we have difficult to manage class sizes, we’re now asking teachers to bump up the standards of learning at the federal and state level and even within the county,” he says.

Heddleston says the soon-to-be enacted legislation which will place a letter grade on schools based on their performance is not an adequate measurement.

“We need to take a long look at the standards that we’re testing for and ensure that we’re not overtesting our (students) and teachers.”

Jobs

Heddleston says it’s important to realize that the job market is a competition and Virginia needs to be aware of how that market is continuously changing.

“I have spent 14 years in high technology and business. I understand how it works. I will tell you that what’s you’re interested in is intellectual capital,” he says. “You are interested in getting the brightest people you can because we compete. “

Heddleston says in order for Virginia to improve businesses, the state will have to diversify and be more welcoming to minorities.

“I’m not interested in who you are, I’m interested in how you think,” he says. “The majority of engineering students are now women. Thirty-percent of high-technology businesses and engineers are going to be run by women and CEOs.”

He says that social issues are also economic and civil rights issues and should not be used as a means to deny an individual employment.

“I support marriage equality because you cannot discriminate in the work place, so why would we discriminate in Virginia?” says Heddleston. “What Republicans do not understand is that they’re in a competition. You have not made the investment in services nor do you have a welcoming atmosphere in your industry and it’s going to continue unless we change what happens in VA.”

Jerry Foltz, Democratic candidate and church minister, is challenging Republican Delegate Tim Hugo this fall for the 40th seat of the Virginia House of Delegates. The district, which includes Prince William County and Fairfax County, has been occupied by Hugo since 2003.

Foltz is very active within his community as a protestant minister at the United Church of Christ.

“I’ve dealt with building communities; I’ve dealt with decision making among people in our churches that don’t always see eye to eye with their points of view,” says Foltz. “I try to build consensus with decision making and not divide churches – they don’t last long if you start dividing every time you make a decision and that division (also) hurts our state.”

Foltz has also served as chaplain for the Centreville Station #17 Volunteer Fire Department for over 16 years, providing support to fire personnel and aid for victims of tragedy. He says in the end, his motivation all comes back to the families.

“I would like to deal with issues that are really important to our families,” he says. “There are a lot of things that relate back to the families; our schools, transportation, our healthcare, and I’d like to overall build a sense of community.”

Transportation

Foltz supported the transportation reform passed last session. Still, he says, more needs to be done. He says he will advocate addressing alternative methods of transportation including the metro and transit system as well as support safer roads for bicyclists.

“More needs to be done to support other transportation,” he says. “The transits systems need more support. Both the metro and bus services need to be upgraded and made more accessible and we also need more parking for some of the metro stations.”

Education

Foltz says Virginia has some of the best quality schools, however, he says the legislature needs to be reprioritized to address some of the issues affecting education in the state.

“The state legislature should stop mandating the things that cost money without providing assistance for it,” says Foltz. As an example, Foltz says requiring certified teachers to monitor the SOL’s when they are needed in the classrooms. Requirements such as these inspire Foltz to want to influence reform. He says that schools rely too much on testing to evaluate students as well as teachers.

“Testing needs to be reoriented to help the students in terms of what their learning needs are and not used to punish the schools,” he says. “We also want to make sure, between our partnership with the state and the counties, that our teacher pay is adequate and what it should be.”

Obamacare

Foltz says he supports the expansion of Medicare to those in need and says that all Virginians deserve access to affordable health-care options. However, he says there are some implications that could result from the new healthcare changes.

“For the state as a whole, I see a potential for improvement of people’s health,” says Foltz. “However, I’m getting some indications that businesses and even nonprofit groups may be cutting back on the hours of employees to avoid having to provide health care, and I think that’s immoral. It’s exploiting people without providing the benefits they need.”

Jobs

According to Foltz, Virginia has great potential for employment growth, but the state needs to be more adamant about enforcing anti-discrimination policies and offering healthcare for domestic partners.

“That has discouraged businesses from coming here,” he says. “Employees will not feel secure, combined with the fact that some of the (future) healthcare provisions will not be provided for partners in whatever committed relationships people are in, and I think that that discourages businesses from coming here.”

Immigration

Foltz and his wife, Alice, helped to organize the Centreville Labor Resource Center in 2011 as a way to help immigrants find work in Northern Virginia and pave their path to citizenship. He advocates an appreciation for diversity and says that is has helped reduce cases of wage theft and provides more accountability for employees.

“It has been in place for over a year and a half with no tax money spent on it. It’s a $200,000 operation all with private funding. About 450 workers are registered and 35 of them are women,” says Foltz.

“I’d like to bring an appreciation for our racial and ethnic diversity in our district,” says Foltz. “Our racial and ethnic diversity really is a strength. My opponent has shown hostility toward the immigrant community and I resent that. I’d like to end that and help people appreciate each other more.”