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.
“Both (the SOLs and Common Core) are about setting standards to provide opportunities to teachers and students to meet high achieving goals,” says Dr. Hill.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
