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.”

Mark Kitta, candidate for the Falmouth seat on the Stafford County School Board, says he was motivated to run for the board after observing some of the major problems in the schools. Among the issues he wishes to address are: the teacher turnover rate, poor budget oversight and planning and most importantly to Kitta – addressing the planning behind the “Stafford County Rebuild Project.”

Kitta is not affiliated with a particular political party. In fact, he believes politics should be taken out of the school board decisions.

“I was approached by a number of political parties and I respectfully declined their endorsement,” he says. “I gave them the same answer; I’m more interested in providing for the citizens of Falmouth and ultimately the citizens of Stafford County then I am a political party of their agenda.”

Kitta says he is passionate about the “Stafford Rebuild Project” because it is dealing with a large amount of money and he says the plans were poorly communicated with the public.

“They’re not actually rebuilding the high school, they’re building a new school behind it and they’re demolishing a $36 million asset,” says Kitta. “That’s 250,000 square feet that they are going to bulldoze into the ground and make it into a parking lot.”

He says he supported the original plan, which was to build a high school on the newly acquired property of Ewalt Farm off of Clift Farm road. 

“In refocusing Stafford High School, they were going to build a career and technical education center, which would alleviate a lot of the overcrowding in the high schools,” he says. “It would take the career and technical education out of each high school and around 25,000-30,000 square feet in those high schools would be opened up for more classrooms with the (career and technical center) coming down to Stafford.”

Kitta says the Capital Improvements Plan is misusing the public’s funds by asking for $65 million in 10 years to build a new career and technical education center.

“The initial cost of building the new high school on the Ewalt Property was $83 million. Building the new school behind the existing Stafford High School, they didn’t have to do all the infrastructure improvements and they could use existing fields, which lowered the cost to $67 million,” says Kitta.

“Tomorrow wasn’t thought about in the decisions that were made for today,” he says. “Ultimately, it’s going to cost the citizens almost a $100 million dollars between demolishing that $36 million building and $65 million for a new career and technical education center.”

While Kitta says that he agrees that Stafford needed a new high school, he believes the school board and the board of supervisors should have considered long-term planning.

“If I were on the board, I would push to save the existing Stafford High School and renovate it for the CTE* programs,” Kitta says. “It would cost about $40 million less than what their current proposal is.”

Kitta says that the planning behind the building plan was poorly planned and communicated to the people of Stafford.

“There were only two public town hall meetings and people, to this day, when you tell them that part of the plan is to tear down the existing high school, their eyes get big and they look at me and say ‘What are you talking about?’”

He says that is something he hopes to bring to the board, open communication and a refocus on the problems that affect the public.

Employment

“It is important that the school system and the school board encourage partnering the schools with local businesses,” says Kitta.  “In doing that, you promote volunteers from local business coming in and helping the schools, but then you also open up job opportunities for your juniors and seniors and then opportunities for them when they graduate.”

Adopt-a-classroom

Kitta also says he would like to revive the adopt-a-classroom program, if he is elected. With the program, people are invited to sponsor classrooms to support teachers and students. The funds provide financial and moral support to the classrooms.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of teachers here who’s children were able to benefit from these donations (which) can be as little as $10 or $20, but an extra $10 or $20 go to that teacher and they are able to use it for the classroom and it goes a long way,” he says. “I believe that would be a great way for citizens to actually help classrooms, help teachers and help schools.”

*CTE: career and technical education

Vanessa Griffin is an active member of the Aquia community. She currently serves on a variety of different community boards and committees and helped organize and initiate the first North Stafford Farmers Market.

“Our community had a need for the production of local produce so I made it happen. I found the funding; I ran through all the red tape and was able to deliver that to the community,” she says. “Not only have we been able to partner with the local food pantry (S.E.R.V.E.) and provide nearly 500 pounds of produce per week, but are planning to implement the SNAP (food stamps) program next year to further extend our services to the lower income families in Stafford.”

Griffin is running for the Aquia seat on the Stafford County school board because she says she wants to continue to produce results for her community.

“I probably spend just as much time donating to the community as I do at my regular job,” she says. Griffin works for CACI International Inc., a professional services and information technology (IT) company that serves Intelligence, Defense, and Federal Civilian customers. When she isn’t working at her job center, she says she is working with the community as well as nonprofits to discover new ways to help Stafford succeed.

“I’ve had a lot of leadership roles and I’m extremely dedicated,” she says. “Anyone that knows me knows that I’m always in a million different places at once making things happen and that I’m 100 percent committed.”

Griffin is also currently working on the food pantry program offered by S.E.R.V.E, a nonprofit that provides emergency relief to those in need.

“I’m trying to help the food pantry down here boost their program,” she says. “When people talk to you and say ‘Thank you for making this happen,’ it really makes it all worth it. Just to see how many people you’re actually affecting.”

Issues in Education

Griffin says that it is important that Stafford County improve teacher salaries in order to retain current teachers and attract new ones. 

“The pay rate around the county has approved, but we are missing opportunities to attract quality teachers with a better salary,” she says.  Recently, Governor Bob McDonnell awarded $4.5 million in Strategic Teacher Compensation Grants, which rewarded teachers in 13 school division based on student achievement, professional growth and leadership. 

Griffin says that those grants, ranging from about $26,000 to $850,000, could have been an ideal opportunity for Stafford County to provide incentives to attract new teachers.

“If I am elected, I would be on the lookout to make sure we are not missing these opportunities that the other schools may be taking and are passing us by.”

Another issue Griffin says she would look into is a solution to evaluating the performance of Stafford schools, teachers and students.

“The No Child Left Behind Act was a little too extreme with encouraging teachers to just “teach to test,” she says. “This skews how kids are actually doing and how the schools are performing, because you’re not teaching concept as much so as memorization.”

The General Assembly passed legislation last session that assigns a letter-grade rating system to schools based on performance. Griffin says that one blanket solution doesn’t necessarily work for every school.

“We have to be somewhere in between. We need to monitor the progress of the students but also how trusted the teachers actually are,” she says.

Griffin says she would like to see STEM-based educational programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) expand in Stafford County.

“One in every five jobs now is STEM related,” she says. “There are grants out there right now that are trying to boost this level of education. Stafford County started and they have a small program that is developing right now but if we seek out the right kind of funding and make the right budgetary decisions, we could really make it into a very strong program.”

Mark Dudenhefer, Republican delegate representing the 2nd Virginia house district in Stafford and Woodbridge, has participated in major legislative changes since he was first elected in 2012. He is being challenged by Michael Futrell (D) for the 2^nd district seat, which includes Prince William and Stafford counties.

This past session, he is responsible participating in the passing of legislation that helped give teachers raises, veterans more opportunities, as well as initiated “Gwyneth’s Law,” which was inspired by a woman named Gwyneth Griffin who passed away in July of 2012 after going into cardiac arrest at her middle school.

“One particular piece of legislation that I carried and spent a lot of time getting passed was a requirement for school teachers to receive CPR training and for high school kids to have CPR training as part of their graduation requirement,” says Dudenhefer.

He says, if reelected, he will continue to focus on areas such as transportation, education and the economy.

Transportation

Dudenhefer says there are many improvements that are in progress or on the agenda for the near future that will greatly improve transportation issues in the Northern Virginia region. After losing his daughter Emily in 2004 to a car accident in Stafford, Dudenhefer became determined to advocate for safer transportation in the region.

“One thing I learned early on is that I ran (for delegate) thinking I was going to fix all transportation problems by building more roads and widening the roads we already have,” says Dudenhefer. “You find out very quickly when you’re dealing with those problems that it takes an ‘all of the above’ approach. We need to fix the roads to make them more efficient and help with the flow of traffic but we also need to study and invest in mass transit.”

Dudenhefer refers to two studies that he says will be useful in determining what more needs to be done to fix transportation in Virginia. The Virginia Department of Education is conducting a study of the U.S. Route 1 corridor in Fairfax and Prince William Counties to determine what improvement approach will be most effective. Dudenhefer says he hopes to expand this study to cover more area.

Additionally, Dudenhefer says he supports another study proposed by Gerald Connolly, (D-Fairfax, Prince William) which would explore transportation alternatives.

“I have endorsed Congressman Connolly’s efforts to get a congressional study on the entire Route 1 corridor and that we’ll look at, amongst other things, the metro extension,” he says. “We need to start talking about that. It is many years down the line because it takes many years of planning and negotiating and it will be very expensive, but this is a long-term possible solution.”

Education

Dudenhefer says while Virginia has one of the best rankings in education, there is always ways to make improvements. He says Virginia should invest more in teacher salaries, training and performance in order to ensure they are “the best of the best.”

“I voted for the pay raise that most of the teachers in the Commonwealth received, but I think at the state level there are some areas of Virginia that aren’t as rich as Fairfax County or Prince William or Stafford, so they struggle with funding and bringing in good teachers,” he says.

Dudenhefer supported legislation signed by Governor Bob McDonnell last session that will provide a letter grade based on performance for schools in Virginia.

“(The legislation) is particularly beneficial to parents who want to know whether their school is performing at a high level,” he says. It will add pressure to local school boards to improve those particular schools. You have to build some kind of consensus that what you’re doing is fair otherwise it will fail. You have to listen to the educators; you have to listen to the parents and the school boards.”

Dudenhefer says that Virginia has some of the best schools and universities in the country. As a member of the Higher Education Subcommittee, he says it is important that Virginia strives to get more people college educations.

Further, Dudenhefer says Virginia not only set an example for other areas, but can learn from them. As a native of Louisiana, he says there are quite a few differences in the school systems. While he says Virginia’s schools tend to perform better than those in Louisiana, Louisiana can teach Virginia some things about education as well.

“In some of the areas (of Louisiana) where the public schools have failed miserably for generations, there are now charter schools, and the same kids are excelling,” he says. “We should always be open to looking at what other people do that is successful.”

Obamacare expansion

Dudenhefer says he is not a fan of the Affordable Care Act, which has been fought by Republican legislators and thus has not yet been expanded in Virginia.

“Medicaid by itself needs to be revamped, revised, and updated,” he says. “We would expand Medicaid to 400,000 more people on the fact that the federal government is going to give us almost 100 percent the first year and then 90 percent thereafter, and they’re borrowing 40 cents of every dollar they give.”

“We are going to hurt many more people than its going to help. And the people that are paying for it are the ones who are going to be hurt the worst.”

He says that representatives from the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have created a commission and are observing and working on Medicaid reform before making the decision to expand Medicaid in the state.

Jobs/Economy

 Dudenhefer says regardless of what position Virginia holds, they are always in the top tier among the best business states. However, he says, the reason Virginia has not been able to secure the top spot in recent years comes back to transportation issues.

“If you go to any of the chambers of commerce and you ask that they’re business and growth is being inhibited by the traffic problem,” he says. Once transportation issues are addressed, he says, there will be more opportunities for employment.

Additionally he says that Virginia is an ideal area for small business creation, but the level of bureaucracy involvement inhibits Virginia’s creative potential.

“The best incentive we can give a small business is to get government out of the way,” says Dudenhefer.  “I think we would see some dramatic improvements.”