Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Welcome back to Learning by Design, the podcast where we explore how education can be purposeful, personal, and bold. I'm Krishna Kart, a friend, founder of the Masterpiece Academy, now proudly affiliated with Liberty University Online Academy. And today's episode is about something every family should care about. Whether you're in public school, private school, or homeschooling, it's your local school board. So these elected officials make decisions that affect everything from curriculum and school safety to teacher quality and how your tax dollars are spent.
So in this episode, I'm joined by Amy Riccardi, a candidate for the Loudoun County School Board. We're going to talk about who she is, how the board works, what's at stake in this election, and how your voice as a parent truly matters. If you've ever felt like her concerns weren't heard or that policies were being made without your input, this conversation is for you.
I'm joined by Amerie Cardi, a candidate for the for the Loudoun County School Board. So we're going to talk about who she is, how the board works, what's at stake in this election, and how your voice as a parent truly matters. Let's begin with your story. Tell us who you are as a person and not just as a candidate.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Well, Krista, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. And this is actually going to be a really interesting six months or so for this election. So, as you said, I'm Amy Riccardi. I'm a mom of four kids. We have a blended family. So I have two of my own kids and two stepsons. All of them are between 20 and 25 and are doing some really interesting things right now in their young professional career. So it's a lot of fun.
I would say. I'm a really strong faith based woman at heart, so I really try to keep that at the forefront of almost everything that I do or everything that I, that I do.
I manage a consulting business. I've had a consulting company since 2001. So I'm an entrepreneur and a volunteer. I do a lot of volunteer work as well.
I'm sure there's other things that will come out during this, during this interview, but I happen to have a Master's of education degree from George Mason University and I'm an adjunct professor there as well. I teach a class from time to time, which is a lot of fun.
So, yeah, so a whole lot of different things in my undergraduate, I went to undergraduate school at the University of North Texas.
I'm a Texan, originally, I'm from Houston, so. Yeah. So a lot of fun, little fun facts. I feel like, honestly, right now is just the right time for me to kind of get into the school board race and really see if I can make a really big difference and impact for our schools here in Sterling.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So how you said a while ago that you are from Texas originally. How did you get. How did. When did you come to Loudoun county? And what's your connection?
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. So. So my dad had a fascinating job growing up. He trained astronauts at NASA in Houston. So growing up, I grew up in the space program as a NASA brat. And he worked on all of the shuttle missions up through the Challenger. And when the Challenger accident happened, they shut down the space program for a couple of years.
So he got transferred up here to the Goddard Space Flight center in Maryland, where I. I was a summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school. So he moved me and my two siblings and my mom, all five of us came up here and I finished high school up in Montgomery county and then went back to Texas to go to college.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Oh, okay. And then like, tell me your personal story first. How did you meet your husband? And you know, you live in Sterling right now, right?
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I do live in Sterling. Yeah. And I've lived here since 2009. I started, you know, when I. After.
After high school, I went back to Texas to college. I came right back here to Northern Virginia right after school. So that would have been in 96. I had a job right after I graduated where I traveled all the time. So I kind of moved my stuff back here and then started traveling for a year and then lived in D.C. with some friends for a little bit and then moved to Arlington and then Falls Church and then Fairfax and then Loudon. So I got migrated west.
It was just pretty. Pretty fun. Yeah. And I moved.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: So you explored like the entire Northern Virginia?
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much all of Northern Virginia at some point.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Oh my gosh.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: So I moved here to Loudoun county in 2009 when I got divorced. And it was. It was a really fascinating decision from a parenting perspective too. From an academic perspective. My kids were. It. Were in school in Fairfax county in. In an International Baccalaureate IB program that Fairfax has had that for a really long time. When I moved out to Loudoun, I was shocked that Loudoun didn't have an IB program.
So my ex husband and I, we have a very amicable relationship. We made the decision that the kids were going to stay in the school in Fairfax, and they would just commute back and forth as they needed to. And so that's really what we did for them. And it was the right decision because they really needed to stay in that IB program. It was a really good, challenging program for them.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: That's perfect. Okay, so tell us about your candidacy. What inspired you to run for the school board?
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think some of. Some people kind of heard a similar story over, you know, it all kind of started during COVID And I would say this. Like so many other parents, there was a period of time I was a single mom just working, you know, as hard as I could to make ends meet. I took my kids to school before COVID every, you know, every day, and just trusted that they were getting the education that they should be getting. And I trusted in the education system.
And then during COVID it was actually September 11th of 2020, and my son was a junior in high school, and my daughter was a freshman.
And I went to go put a bagel on his desk in the morning while he was taking one of his classes, and I happened to glance at his computer screen, and on the computer screen, it said, all white people are racist.
And that started this whole conversation partially right then and there, and then after the class was over, too, because I was shocked what I was seeing on the screen. And it started this whole conversation with him about what is actually going on in your school and what's actually happening and what are you actually learning. And, you know, it was fascinating to have conversations with him because he's like, look, I know how to game the system to get good grades. I know what I need to say in my papers, and I have to say the right thing. I can't just share my viewpoints on stuff. I have to toe the party line and toe, you know, basically tell the same message that I'm being taught in order to get good grades is basically what he was saying. And I was shocked. I was really, really shocked because a lot of those values were not values that had been instilled in him as a child, but he was having to play the game in order to get good grades. And I actually asked him one time, I said, do you actually think that if you wrote what you actually feel about this topic, that you would actually do well in school? And he's like, no, absolutely not. I can't do that.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. So that was. Your son was in Fairfax, right?
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: And then that is almost like being taught on the.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: It was pure indoctrination to Be to be really honest with you, because when I really dove into what are those viewpoints, it was all, you know, frankly, really far left political views. And at the time, it wasn't super like the whole discussion around like critical race theory and all and social emotional learning. Like none of that stuff was really being talked about. And what I learned over time was that the stuff that was happening at his school, his school was actually a test bed in Fairfax County, I believe, for a lot of this stuff. Stuff. And then about 12 to 18 months later, my girlfriends in Louden out here would be talking about, hey, they're teaching this stuff in school. And I'm like, you know, my kids have been learning that for having to deal with that for like the last year and a half. And I noticed over and over and over again, like what was going on in Fairfax then made its way to Loudoun County. So it just, it really opened my eyes to the fact that our kids were not being.
The focus wasn't on core education anymore. It was some core education and then all this other social stuff.
And it was, it was really disturbing. And I think that was really kind of where the seed got planted about, you know, when my kids are done with school, I really need, you know, I feel a real calling to, to serve our community this way.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: That's, that's very brave. I thought it was only in, in the academ because that's what's happening in the academy at my doctoral program.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: So yeah, now it's full on K through 12.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I left public school 2016 when my son went to college. My youngest son went to college.
So yeah, so that was before pandemic, like four years before pandemic. Wow, that is stunning.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Now what personal values are at the core of your leadership and vision for, you know, for education, knowing that these are happening?
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's a great question because, you know, that's a great question that every candidate should be getting asked about their core values. Because I guarantee you what will set candidates apart is whether or not they've got core values that are politically based or core core values that are like human centric core values. And this is a great question. So one of the things I do with my consulting business is I help organizations create core values.
But back. My daughter was born in 2005, and shortly thereafter I struggled with postpartum depression. Kind of unbeknownst to myself, I just thought I kind of burnt. Was getting burned out. I was raising two little kids under two. My business was going really well, things were, you know, were just getting really hectic and busy, and I just kind of attributed everything to that. But really what happened was I was dealing with postpartum depression, and in that recovery process, I really decided to get really clear about my per. My personal values. So it, you know, I appreciate you asking that because not many people, you know, ask that, but I really have kind of six core values that I really focus on. And I've had these core values up on our website for the better part of, I mean, almost a decade now, so probably eight years or so. And the first one is speaking my truth, right? It's just, it's about being very comfortable speaking what I believe to be truth. And that's a pretty straightforward one.
One of the taglines for my business or the tagline for my business is data driven compassionate candor. All right, so compassionate candor is my second core value, which is in, in that case, and frankly, with the school board, it's really about. I want to look at the data and information, but I also want to, to deliver the truth about that in a very candid and compassionate way.
I think, I think it's really, it's really important. The third one for me is, is inquisitive. Inquisitive listening. Right? So it's, it's listening and having conversations with people and being, asking questions and really trying to understand the why behind. Why people are, you know, are. Are doing what they're doing or making the decisions that they're making or just if I'm not familiar with the topic, just really getting into it and really, really trying to understand where things are and what, what's going on. My fourth one is around what we call deep thinking, which is just really not letting myself get away with just, you know, dealing with emotions, but really kind of drill down and figure out the why. Why am I. Why am. Why do I want to make decisions the way I want to make them, what makes sense? And really kind of getting into the, the thinking process on that.
The fifth one is for me is about fairness. I don't know if it's a fact that, you know, I'm a Libra. And so I like fairness across the board. I'm just, I'm very much into fairness for everybody, which does not mean equal. And I, and I explained this to my kids in this way when they were young. The oldest was, I think about 13 or 14 at the time. The youngest was 8. And I was telling the 13 year old, I said, you know, you want me to be fair you don't want me to necessarily be equal because equal would mean all of you go to bed at 8 o'clock because the 8 year old goes to bed at 8 o'clock, that means the 13 year old goes to bed. That's equal. Right? There is you're 13 and you stay up later and you have a different circadian rhythm than the 8 year old does. And so that's really what it is. So for me it's all about really being fair. It's like creating environments that are fair to everybody and really meet people where they're at.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, it's age appropriate.
You know, it's appropriate for different situations. And I, it's very interesting that you mentioned about listening in curriculum. How it translates to our practice is right now is relational pedagogy. So it's very somewhat related to the coaching work that I do as an instructional coach and literacy coach and also in, in my world, in the literacy coaching world here with the teachers. So that is, that's perfect. And I think that's a very good core value to, to be in that platinum school board. I hope, I hope you could, you know, you could put that out there.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I hope so too. I hope so too.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: The last one for me is just about everybody's coming from a good place and I, and I say that because I, I make an assumption that whenever I'm engaging with somebody in any conversation, in any kind of environment, that they have good intentions at first and then if I figure out later that they didn't, well then they didn't. But I really do come everything very much as an optimist in that, you know, the cup is, cup is half full and you know, how do we really get people from A to B and really just being collaborative with people. But you know that I, I really do believe that people are wanting to come from a good place and I start with that as a, as a core principle. So.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: That's it. That's the, that's the list. Yeah.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: I think the, the fact that you said you listen to others like, you know, the core value is listening, that's huge I think for the constituents. You know, I hope all majority of our leaders would have that core value, you know, listening to others, which is empathy. So that was, that's good to know. Thank you so much for sharing that. So. Well, I wasn't born here, I wasn't raised here, so I don't know what Loudoun County School Board and how does it work.
So.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: If you, if you can tell us, give us, for those of us who did not grow up and were raised here, just, you know, give us an overview. Kind of like Loudoun County School Board 101.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And frankly, there are plenty of people that were born and raised here and lived here their whole life that have no idea what the school board does. So I don't think it's. I don't think it's a born here, not born anything, honestly, because I think that it's a. It's a very nebulous thing. But look, the Virginia code, the Virginia law is very clear about what the role is of school boards. It's, it's to, to ensure education excellence for our students, first and foremost.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: It's to oversee, create and oversee the budget and the financial success of the school division. So, and I'll explain the language. A school division is like, Loudoun County Public Schools is a division, Fairfax County Public Schools is a division. And then within each division there are districts. So here in Loudoun county, we have eight districts and one at large seat.
So the division itself has its own budget, obviously given to us by the Board of Supervisors. And the school board is responsible for that budget and financial responsibility of that budget. And the other really big thing, too is engaging stakeholders and making sure that stakeholders are being listened to and representing their, you know, the public. So in this case, I'm running for the Sterling district. So spending time in my district, talking to voters in Sterling is a key part of my work too.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: So that. So that's huge to have like that listening and coaching background that you have, because, you know, that's what we do as a teachers. We listen to and look at, you know, meet the students needs. So that's, that's huge for us. So basically, so is this, does the school board decide the budget, the school budget or so?
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's a really convoluted process here in Loudoun county.
The county. So when you pay your county taxes, more than about 55 to 60% of your county taxes go to Loudoun County Public Schools.
So more than half of the county budget goes to lcps, which I think most people don't know.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: I did not know that.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: And whether or not you have a kid in the school, whether or not you have kids at all, more than 50% of your money, your taxes go to the school system. Okay. That's important for people to understand and should really get people paying attention to what's happening at lcps, because, you know, some years that number's been closer to like 60 to 63% of your tax dollars goes to LCPS. So whether you homeschool or you don't, you know, your kid, you don't have kids in school anymore, or you have a business or, you know, whatever, a huge chunk of your taxes goes to the school. So you should, you should be paying attention to what lcps.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. So, like, for example, I know in our congregation, a lot of people, a lot of parents pull their students from public school system and then put them in private school so they don't get. Get tax relief from that. So they're basically, oh, wow.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: No, they don't get tax really from that. And that's. That's the big debate in. In Richmond, and frankly, that's the big debate nationally, too, about this whole school choice thing. That's what the whole school choice issue is all about, is being able to take basically what happens. Basically what the. Where the number stands right now is Loudoun county pays about just under $24,000 per. Per student per year to educate our kids.
$24,000. And so the whole school choice issue is really being able to take some portion of that $24,000 and use it in however a parent decides they want to school their child. And that's the big debate.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: That's a public school. $24,000, it's more than. It's triple than the, you know, the Cornerstone Christian Academy. And then it's more than, you know, four times double than our tuition fee here in the Masterpiece ac, The blended learning school. Oh, my gosh. Right.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: And by the way, that's up. I was just looking at the numbers earlier. In 2019, the cost per pupil was 13,600.
That was under the last conservative school board. And then when the Democrats took over in 2019, the 2023, 24 number was just at 20,000, and it's skyrocketed up to just under 24,000 right now.
And, you know, in all, in all honesty, the test score numbers are not getting better.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Right. I don't understand why from 13,000 and it becomes like 23, something like that. Why did it double? What. What's the.
Do you have any closure?
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Oh, I just increased the budgets, increased. The county keeps asking for more money because they have more programs and more services they want to offer, so they keep increasing the budget. And, you know, this last year there was like a. I want to say it was a 6 or 7% increase in the budget. And the year before that, it was, you Know a lot more. So the county just keeps giving LCPS more money. LCPS keeps asking for more money and getting it. And there's just no accountability in this whole entire process to rein in that budget and really hold account. Like, how are we spending some of this money? Yeah, nobody knows.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: The. I think the people need to know. I mean, we're the one paying for taxes. High taxes.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Oh, wow. So now I can see why we need to be vigilant in electing our school board.
That is just like. These are, like, just stunning for me. And then. I did not know that until now.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Yeah, most people don't. And that's the thing. I think, you know, I think one of the things that people really have to understand is there are some really serious implications moving forward with. With school boards and especially the way the politics are playing out with the US Department of Education. And if they wind up closing that, what winds up happening is that money will go to the Commonwealth of Virginia and then they will send it to the school districts or the school divisions and the school division, the school boards will have to make decisions about how to spend that money. So it's getting more and more important. I mean, these jobs are getting more and more important as the political landscape shifts.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
Do you have any clue how it's gonna play out? That, you know, once there will be. I believe that this. The education will now be dismantled, Right?
[00:22:37] Speaker B: That's what they're saying.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Decentralized, so no one would know how it's gonna look like?
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Yeah, nobody knows exactly. I mean, they've suggested some, and I don't think there's a frame. I don't think they figured it out necessarily. But my understanding is basically that money is going to go back to the states, and some of that money that's distributed through the U.S. department of Education is going to get distributed now through other government agencies. So it's not like the Department of Education is going away and all the money is going away. I think that's a really, by the way, a really big misnomer. There's a big rumor going around that, oh, we're not gonna have money for special education or Title 1 schools or whatever. No, we're gonna have the money for that. It's just gonna come from different sources.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: So that means more money for the county.
That's it.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Well, the money's gonna flow probably to the state. So the. The Virginia Department of Education. And the thing about that is that's controlled by whatever governor's political party is in office. At the time.
Right. Because the governor appoints people to the Virginia Department of Education, and then they have to get approved by the. By the Virginia legislature. I'm not sure if it's both branches or one branch, but there's an approval process for that.
So money is flowing back to the states, but then it's going to be controlled politically by whoever the governor is at the moment. And then that money will then go down to the. The school boards.
And again, depending on who you elect, your school board will depend on what. How they spend that money, what the priorities are.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Oh, wow. So education is really political now.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: Yes, it is, and it shouldn't be. And that's the thing. I think that that's one of the core reasons why I'm running this time around as an independent is because politics should not be driving. Making good decisions for our kids.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that is.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: But that's exactly what's happening here in Loudon. Exactly what's happening here in Loudon.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: And it's the same thing in Fairfax. I think nationwide, it's controlled by. Okay, yeah.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Okay, so tell us more. So what authority does. Like, how many members are there in school board and how are they elected? You know, and then the authority.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: So other than budget, I know you talked about so much about the budget. What about, like, curriculum and, you know, safety? Yeah, everything that really, like, concerns our kids.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Yeah. So as I mentioned earlier, so there's eight districts within Loudoun County. We have a board of supervisors person in Sterling and a school board member in Sterling. We have them in Dulles, Broad Run and Little River, Algonquian, Leesburg, Catoctin and Ashburn. I think those are the apes. They can hit them all.
So we have eight of these voting districts where we have a board of supervisors member and a school board member, and then we have one at large school board member who's for the whole. That the whole county votes for. So on your specific ballot, for the district that you live in in November, there are only five. Five of the nine school board seats are up for election this November. And so if you live in one of those five districts, you'll have a school board election as well as, you know, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, maybe some other local jurisdictions, too. So some of.
And then some school board seats, not all of them.
So that's going to. That's the deal about how many people there are. So again, the authorities for the school board is really. Besides budget policy. They. Their whole job is to create and approve the po. The school board policies. That govern the, you know, the schools. And that could be everything from curriculum and accountability to hiring policy to.
We just did a whole thing about school renaming.
There's, you know, every school board meeting, There are other policies that come up for review. They just updated the grading policy in the last two school board meetings ago. So there's a lot of different items and things that they work on. So there's a board meeting happens twice a month. It happens on the second and the fourth Tuesdays of the month. And then they. And then all of the school board members are also on committees that meet once a month. So there's a series of commit, like, thematic committees, and then the board meetings themselves.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay. So that's why I've heard, I think, one of our school where I taught. I taught at Francis Hazel Reed elementary school. Yeah, I was a reading specialist there for a long time. And then that's where my two sons graduated before we moved to Fairfax. I heard it's being renamed.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: It did. Just got approved to rename it.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Oh, they approved it?
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yes, at the last school board meeting.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Oh, wow. And then I heard it takes, like, a lot of money.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: It's gonna take some money. Yeah.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: Do you have any clue how. How much would it take?
[00:27:40] Speaker B: Like, I've seen somewhere between 150 and $200,000 per school.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: And do you have any clue how. Why are they renaming it? What's the. What's the logic behind it?
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Oh, this is a long story, but the gist is. It is that during COVID LCPS hired a consulting firm to visit the names and study the names of schools. And if they had. If the names of schools had any affiliations with a number of different things, including stuff done with the Confederacy or slaveholders or other types of things, that they had a whole list of criteria, then they put those schools on a renaming list, and then the school board made a decision that they were going to look at nine of these schools first. Francis Hazel Reed was one of those.
Now, the community did not want to rename Francis Hazel Reed, but there were a lot of political activists on the board and on the committee that wanted it renamed. And so they have subsequently renamed that school.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Okay. Wow.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: And Mercer Middle School as well.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Oh, they're just. They're just. I think that's the. That's the middle school of Francis Hazel Reed. It's in the same. You know, it's the same district.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: No.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: I think so. Oh, Mercer.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: I think it's in a different district.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Oh, is it? Okay. So Francis Hazel. What's the name of the school now.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: I think it's Mildred and Richard Loving Elementary.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Oh my.
So if I put that. Okay, I'll just put former Francis Hazel in my resume now. Yeah. So let's see. What about your priorities? Let's talk about your priorities and positions. What are the top two, three. Two to three issues facing Loudoun schools that you feel the board must address?
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So Loudoun county just generally is a very, very large county. We have a hundred school facilities in Loudoun County. That's huge. And over a $3 billion budget.
Okay, so big money. Lots of schools, lots of teachers, lots of kids. About 83,000 students in our district are in our division.
So in the Sterling district itself, I think it's important to understand it because then I'll explain my priorities and why they are the way they.
So the Sterling district is the most diverse district of all of the eight districts. We have 10 schools. All 10 of them are minority majority schools.
The seven schools in Sterling park are 85, 86% Latino. And they're all Title 1 schools, which means free and reduced meal lunches and lower income households. And then the three other schools in the district are over in the Loudoun Valley Estates side and they're actually in Ashburn, but they're part of the Sterling district. And those schools are about 85% Asian.
And so the 10 schools themselves have very, very different needs, very different academic requirements, very different types of supports, different types, need different types of programs. And we really need to have somebody on the school board in Sterling who really understands that from an academic perspective. Yes. For me, academic excellence is number one priority.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: You brought teacher.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, and it's obvious that's, that's the number one thing.
What I would tell you is the Sterling park schools, when you pick out just those, those seven schools and their SOL scores compared to the rest of Loudoun county, they're anywhere between 25 and 40% lower than the rest of the county.
So for example, in reading in 2024, the SOL score in Loudoun county was at 80.
The score in Sterling park was 54.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, we have 54.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Yeah. In math it was 76 for the county, it was 46 for the Sterling park schools.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: And the, this is the, the data driven part of this of me is like, okay, we need to get real about the numbers and how our students are actually performing.
And the compassionate candor side of me is we need to be compassionate about this, but also very candid about it. Parents need to Understand that the student. The students that are in the Sterling park schools, like they're not performing to the same level as the rest of the county. Nowhere, Nowhere close.
And so we need to be looking at how can we do things differently here in Sterling to really get our kids performing at least, you know, as well as the rest of the county.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: That is just a sad number. I'm a specialist. And yeah, 54, 40. That is.
That. That's even not acceptable. And then we're paying these huge taxes to educate our kids.
I don't know how. What do they teach?
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Well, that's, you know, it's. It's, you know, there's a really large English learner population in the Sterling schools. And I think, frankly, we got to really focus in on how we're educating our kids in the el. In the el tracks. And it's not a. It's not a knock on EL teachers or anything like that, but I think that we've got to look at. Educate education differently in Sterling park and figure out how can we transform this to really get the best results for these students? And what does that actually look like?
[00:33:22] Speaker A: So basically, when you get there, you're gonna dig into the data and then pinpoint.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Why this number? Why we have these numbers?
[00:33:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Because nobody wants to talk about these numbers, by the way. And here's the. Here's another thing. In 2023 or 2022, they redistricted and they moved schools around and the boundary lines around for the districts, and they added in these three schools over in Loudoun Valley Estates that are. Rock Ridge High School is. Is the high school on that side, and it is one of the top five high schools in the state. Their numbers are crazy. Amazing numbers. Right. And I think they did that to help balance out the total Sterling district test scores to make them look better.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Which is why I pulled out the Sterling park school specifically because I wanted to see what was going on here. It. When. When you read district and the district doesn't make sense, like the. The lines don't make any sense, it raises a lot of flags for me. And again, I'm question and I'm asking questions like, well, why would you do that? Why. Why would you add three schools on the other side of Dulles Airport to the Sterling district?
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Which is far.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is very far. They don't go to the same shopping centers. They don't go to the same, you know, anything.
So why was. Why were those schools put into the Sterling district? And this is why is to help balance out the district numbers.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: To cover up.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: To cover it up. Yes. It's a political move. Yeah.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So that's vigilant, then.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's one bit. You know, so academic excellence is my first. The second one we've already sort of talked about, which is accountability. Right. We have got to start holding our. The, you know, the school administration accountable. We've got to start holding our schools accountable to our students. And we've got to hold our students accountable, too, to the learning process. So that's the second piece of it. And the third is really. We alluded to it earlier, which is really having sound education principles over political agendas.
Right. We've got to make sure that we are making really good education policy decisions and not making them based on political party views. Yeah.
And right now, almost all of the decisions are made on. Based on politics. 100 party line politics.
Almost 100 of the time.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: That is so sad.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: And it's. Yeah, it's crazy. We really need to bring some common sense and some just really good business decision making to the school board.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it should be apolitical, I guess.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Yeah. We're supposed to be running as independents, to be honest with you. None of us are supposed to be running necessarily with party affiliations, yet many do.
And that really is not the way it's supposed to be. You'll notice on the.
On the bat in the ballot in November that the school board does. Members don't have an R or a D or an I next to their names. And that's because the constitutional officers and the school board members are not supposed to be running on. On party lines.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: And then now it became party lines. It's basically you feed, you know, in. And so that's how we get this. These books, the, you know, like these books that are opposed to some of the values of our families.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: From kindergarten to. Oh, and then that's why those. Proliferation of books that are, you know, sexualized books.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that. Those books and that purchasing process was really interesting. That was done in 2019, right before COVID And to be honest with you, that was one of the first items I really did a deep dive into. I really wanted to understand because I was hearing people talk about the books and then the book banning and all this stuff, and I was like, what is going on with this? Like, what's the real issue? And so I dug into it quite a bit. And to be honest with you, the. I think the initial intent was a good. Was. Was a good intent. The initial purchasing of these books, or of books in general during that time was to inject books that had more diverse characters in it so that kids could see themselves reflected in the stories and in the books that they were reading. So they wanted to diversify that in a lot of different ways. I think the problem came in is they added to that diversity this whole issue of the LGBTQ community. And it wasn't just that, because I, you know, I don't have a problem with that. I have a problem with the fact that some of the subject matter within these books aren't even allowed to be read on public television or shown on public television or read on public radio because they're so graphic. And it's not just one scene in the book, but it's themes within the whole entire book. I mean, some of this stuff is, is really explicit. And so my whole take on, on all of that is if you can't show it on public television or read it on a, you know, public radio station, then we probably shouldn't be giving it to our kids in schools.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's the mass exodus. That's the reason why there was a mass exodus.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Yeah. You mean to private. To private schools and home.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: Private schools and home schools. You know, those who cannot afford private schools, they just do homeschool. But, you know, if you do homeschool, then you just have to.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: You know, like, this is just a.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: Common sense approach too. This isn't like, I'm not, I'm not saying, you know, I am not for book banning. I. But I do think there are, there are, there is a level of responsibility that, and, and purpose that parents have in raising their child and, and the values that your family wants to raise your child in. Like, it's the parents responsibility. If you want to share those kind of books with your kids, by all means, you're a parent. That's your child. You can expose them to whatever you want to expose them to.
But if you, you know, in the public education setting, I do want to see diverse characters in books, in our teaching material and in the library books that the kids are reading. I want them to have access to all of that. I do not want kids exposed to highly sexualized content.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: Without peer. I'm going to put a period on that, especially without parental knowledge of the fact that those books are being given. Let me give you a really good example of this. Yeah.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: So what about to ask from you. What. Give me a good example.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: I'll give you a great example of this. So I, I Coached youth volleyball. I played volleyball in college. I was a Division 1 player in Texas and my daughter got into volleyball when she was young. I coached youth volleyball both club and locally. And then I became a USA volleyball referee. In that process of working with youth, we have to take a class called Safe Sport every single year. The first year I took it, I was appalled. It was all about how coaches and other adults that have access to kids groom them about sex trafficking, trafficking of kids, sexual abuse of kids, and how to see the, see the warning signs and then be a reporter of these kind of incidents if you see them. And I was just shocked that this happens, but it does and it's very, very sad.
So you have, you get this education in this whole entire process. So let's just say I am the volleyball coach of a 14 year old girl, which is the age group I was coaching and she some for somehow gets into a conversation with me about her sexuality and I give her one of these books that we're talking about that has lots of sexually graphic material in it.
I could be arrested for distribution of pornography to a minor.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: Grooming.
All kinds, all kinds of charges. I could get tossed at me for doing that. But if I had that exact same girl, I was her teacher in her classroom and I gave her that book, it's considered education material.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's a lot of disconnection.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: So which is it?
[00:41:47] Speaker A: Yeah, which is it?
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Is it education material or is it sexually explicit material distributed to a minor?
[00:41:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
Wow.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: Because some of this, some of the subject matter, I don't care what anybody says. I've read it. I, I've, I've bought the books because I, some of them because I want to read for myself. What is actually, what are people making.
[00:42:06] Speaker A: Us think about habit with you that you can show.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: Yeah, but I don't want to. Yeah, I have, I have ones for each of the ages and just talk about so explicit. It's explicit. I mean I would never share the content of it, but I have shown parents the books and I've gone through and read them and they, they talk about very explicit sex acts. Very explicit.
[00:42:26] Speaker A: I think I remember when I was in reading a reading specialist at Frances Hazel Reed and way back yonder.
This is way back 2005, 2008, we approve books. And then if you see something like that, we approve books before we put in, into the library. So that's why I was, you know, I was stunned when they said, you know, there's a lot of that in the, in the library. Public School library and the library itself. And then so it seems like the process, it goes through the approval committee and one of those is, you know, one of the approval committee member is a reading specialist like me. And then we read through the books and see if there's an explicit sexual stuff. If we, if there's an explicit sexual stuff, we cannot put it in our book room because I manage the book room right now. It seems like that's not the case anymore.
[00:43:18] Speaker B: Well, and the policy about reviewing the books is a school board decision. Now the school board makes the policies that frame those committees. And, and what's considered okay. And what's not considered okay. So here's the, here's the thing about that Krishna, is that it's one thing that those books are in the library because they're trackable in the library. But what about all the teachers that have them just sitting on their bookshelves in their classroom?
[00:43:46] Speaker A: Oh, okay. I think I have, I think it just reminds me of one, I think two or three teachers who are in our congregation who said that they just received those books and then, you know, so did they just keep them? And then if someone asks them, they, they put it out on their closet, but they said it's really, you know, it's against their values. But the thing is, they cannot leave public school because that's the only thing they can do to teach. And you know, of course the salary. So that's.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: The plight.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, this is, this is why in today's age, if you have young kids or you have kids In K through 12, as a parent, my best advice to you is get really nosy and get involved. Like, you don't have to spend a huge amount of time, but what you do need to do is be very aware of what's going on and ask a lot of questions. And if something is gnawing at you and you're like, I don't know, it just doesn't seem right, you need to dig down into it because what you'll find is sometimes it's going to be really, really crazy. I got into this thing with my kids. I would always ask about kind of what they learned during the day. And I would include myself in this conversation. Right. So it wasn't just one sided. And I made a game of it when my kids were little. And I think that that helped us have some really frank conversations about some of the stuff that was going on. Because when I did realize in like middle school, but really in high school, during COVID what was Going on my kids and I had some really frank conversations and I think a lot of that is because early on in their education I was asking questions on the drive home or at night, you know, at dinner or in the morning or whatever, when I could, you know, and just asking them questions about what you learned today. Tell me a little about what you think or, you know, whatever. You can find out an awful lot from your kids.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Wow. This is just, that's kind of. Well, I've been out of the public school system, so.
Oh, okay. Well, that's the, probably the reason. Thank you so much for giving this information to us because I don't know, you know, I hope you know, this will be informative to some of our parents.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: So let's see.
So you, it seems like you've talked about already some of the roles of parents in educational, you know, in educational decisions. What's your approach to balancing student achievement with mental and emotional well being?
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Oh, that's such a good question.
You know, the schools are getting more and more involved in mental health.
I didn't realize this, but in Loudoun county, K through 5, kids have 50 minutes of, and I'm going to put in air quotes here, counseling every two weeks. And I don't know what the counseling agenda is. I don't know what the curriculum is for that.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: So is that like a mandatory counseling?
[00:46:54] Speaker B: It's something I don't know and I don't.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: What age is it again?
[00:46:58] Speaker B: Eight through five.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: Okay. To five. I thought the family life education is only like.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: I don't think this is family life education.
I don't know what this is, to be honest with you. And that's, you know, it's a, it's a really interesting thing, but it's under this whole mental health and emotional well being. It might be social, emotional learning. I, I don't know what exactly it is.
I believe parents can opt out of it, but I'm not sure that's an easy process to do. But here's, here's what I would say.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: Wait, wait, when did it happen? So that's. I did not know that. When did it start happening?
[00:47:34] Speaker B: I didn't know that until last year when I was working for one of our school board members and there was a presentation talking about the K through 5, like the, the schedule during the day, like what the curriculum. Generally the curriculum segments are throughout a week or for those kids. And there was this whole thing about counseling. And it's 50 minutes every two weeks. So it could be like two, 25 minute sessions or it could be a longer session. I don't really know and I don't know what the curriculum is for it, but these are questions that I have. It's like, what are we talking, what are we covering during this kind of stuff?
[00:48:12] Speaker A: Oh, my.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: And it gets to this whole issue of that's 50 minutes of time. Our K through 5 kids, our elementary, our littles, our littlest learners could be spending in academic achievement, reading and writing and math.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: Yeah, 30 minutes is huge when I pull students. It's, you know, 30 minutes is huge for those struggling readers and writers.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: Yeah. This is 50 minutes every two weeks that they're taking, doing this stuff. So here's the thing. On one hand, we do have a mental health crisis problem in Virginia, probably in this country, but, you know, in Virginia for sure. So we have need kids have needs to be supported emotionally, and we do need to have some support systems for that. But I feel like we have taken so much academic time away from our kids to deal with all of these other things. And we're seeing test scores either flatline or they're. They've dropped and they're not improving in a way that's.
That's purposeful.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, that's a good chunk of time. That's a lot of time, you know?
[00:49:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And so I wonder, like, way in the middle school and in the high school curriculum, how much time are we spending actually on academic excellence versus all the other things that we're trying to teach? And why are we trying to teach all the other things? And what are those other things? So I think they kind of fall into this, you know, social, emotional, learning, mental, emotional well being, you know, and it's couched as being like, we're trying to teach kids to be good citizens.
We've always been trying to teach kids to be good citizens. I. I went through that, you know, when I was in K through 12.
We're always trying to teach kids to be good human beings, but I wonder how much time we're focused on that versus how much time we're teaching our kids actual learning outcomes.
Wow.
And I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer.
We've really hit a lot of really big topics, but I think that there are a lot of things our schools and our teachers and our students are doing really, really well. And, and we need to make sure we're honoring that. But I think that there are a lot of things that are not necessarily going well, but we're not being told the truth. It's Kind of like lying by omission.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Now let's talk about, like, the teachers. So how can the board support teachers while still ensuring accountability and oversight? Like. Yeah, because for sure, there are some things that parents needs to be concerned about. But. But what about the teachers? What's the.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I wonder.
I've had a lot of conversations with you. I have a lot of teachers actually here in my neighborhood, and I've wondered how much what outlets teachers actually have to air grievances and be heard.
Because what I hear is that if you rattle the boat, if you're not in line with the direction that your principal or the school district or the. The division is going, those teachers get weeded out. Like they, they don't get their contracts renewed, whatever. And I feel like there are a lot of teachers who don't really have a place to. Or a person to go to to really have their concerns addressed.
[00:51:49] Speaker A: That's what I thought. There's a lot of intimidation.
[00:51:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And I hear that. I'm hearing that a lot. And actually it's not just teachers. It's bus drivers, it's cafeteria staff, it's support staff within the schools. It's. It's a lot of people that are. That are saying this.
So here's, here's my, My kind of take on this is I want to be a school board member that people know and access and can come and speak, email, text call, sit down with, attend town halls, whatever it is, and feel comfortable and safe to be able to come and say, look, these are my issues. I don't know how to navigate my situation. I want to keep my job, but I need to, you know, I feel like I need to be heard.
And that's the kind of school board member I want to be. I want to be accessible. I want people to feel very comfortable reaching out to me and sharing whatever they need to share. Know that that's being held in confidence. But then I'm also going to work to get a resolution for them, too. And because I feel like there are plenty of people that work within lcps that need that kind of outlet.
[00:53:00] Speaker A: Perfect. Yeah. Because I don't know. I don't know. I don't even know who are. Who's my school board in the South Riding. I live in South Riding. And then the Masterpiece Academy is in Ashburn. So.
[00:53:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah. I did not know the. That. Well, this Loudoun County School Board 101 is. Is very helpful.
Yeah.
What about. So you talked about a lot about the Public schools. So what about schools like Masterpiece Academy? We all blended learning school and then recently we just got affiliated with Liberty University Online Academy. And I guess it's. There's just like a mass exodus for the past few years from public school.
Do we have. What is our part? Like, do we, you know, so how, how do we, like, how can we be.
How can we be engaged with the Loudoun County School Board? Or do you have like over.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: Well, you can be. Even if your kid doesn't go to school in Loudoun county, but you live in Loudoun county or you have a business or you're a tax pair in Loudoun county, you absolutely can speak at school board meetings and reach out to your school board members. That's. And you should. They're your public officials and they're really truly here. They're supposed to be listening to the public and, and responding. So you can go on to LCPS.org and in the top right there's a school board tab. If you click that, it'll it. You can get to the contact list of your school board members.
You can sign up to speak at school board meetings, all kinds of things. So I think that's. That's part of it. You know, one of the things I am really trying to understand is where are, what are the resources that LCPS has for homeschooled and online school kids? I mean, LCPS has its own online program, but I don't know how LCPS integrates or if they do, I'm going to guess they probably don't. But I could be wrong. If they integrate with some of the other online programs. The, the private online programs that are in, like yours that are housed in the, you know, in the county, I believe the homeschoolers have some opportunity possibly to participate in like sports or maybe some other activities at the schools if they live in that district. I'm not sure, to be honest with you. It's one of the. This is one of the areas I really want to look at because what I have found over the last two years, I have a lot of homeschool kids here in Sterling.
When I'm out in the afternoons walking my dogs, I see these young kids. I'm like, they're supposed to be in school, but I found out that they're homeschooled. There's a couple different gaggles or pods of them around that I see during the day and they're kind of like out free ranging in the four in the four in the wooded area back here and whatever Else. And I'm like, aren't you guys supposed to be in school? Oh, no, no, we're homeschooled. I'm like, oh, okay. So I'm like shocked at how many kids around here are homeschooled.
And it's great, it's great. It's a great thing. Look, I, I'm obviously running for a public, the public school board and I believe in public education, but I also believe that everybody has, should have an opportunity to choose the right education environment for their child.
I have a nephew who's got some learning challenges and a Montessori program was perfect for him.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: And so, you know, they have chosen to, to approach his education with that model in mind because he wasn't having his needs met in the public school system the way he needed. And so that's the parent, the parents absolute right to do that. And I think parents should have that flexibility.
There are some kids that need to start off in a private program and then maybe flip to public schools at, you know, maybe middle school or high school for any number of reasons or vice versa. They start off in school, but then need to be homeschooled for a period of time. Like, I think there's, there's, there needs to be more flexibility and acceptance of, you know, coming up with the right path. And it's, it's interesting that I kind of say that because I also advocate for that in the workplace too.
People hit different life cycles and have different needs in the, from their employer at different points in their life. And employers need to have that kind of same flexibility. And I feel like our education system needs to have that for our kids as well.
Right. It's not a one size fits all.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, you know, 50 of our tax dollars, we need to be vigilant.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: Yeah. More than 50. Yeah. Wow.
[00:57:36] Speaker A: More than 50. That's right. Why? Yeah. So let's talk about like, let's see, what else did we cover?
So we talked about, you know, public school system, the alternative education system, the faith based model, hybrid, online, digital, digital school like ours.
Let's talk about the bigger picture. So if you had five minutes with a room of high schoolers, what you, what would you want them to know about your candidacy and why it matters to them? Like these are like high schoolers who's about to vote like 17 years old.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, so I just, I teach at George Mason, a C, an undergraduate senior level class. So I get to see them after their, you know, freshman, sophomore, junior year of college and in their, in the, in their senior year of college. And so honestly I think I would say to them, and you know, one of the reasons why I want to run for school board is college is not for everybody. I have, my daughter has, has not decided to go to college yet. She's working right now. She got some certifications as a Pilates instructor. So she's teaching Pilates and you know, a ton of hours.
College is not necessarily for everybody. Sometimes it's the, a military track is the right thing. I have, we have one son who's getting ready to do military service. We've got kids that are doing sports. We've got, you know, there are kids that want to go into the trades or want to pursue careers in specialized areas that don't necessarily require a four year degree.
Some kids just need the break after school and need to work and have a job to help support their family or maybe they have a family business and they want to go to work for a family business and college may not be in their path. Some kids want to go to an Ivy League school or go abroad to a school internationally. I mean there's all different kinds of options available. So I think for me, and this is kind of an interesting fun thing where my, my consulting experience and the school board kind of merged together, which is, I work in the HR and human capital space. Right. It's all about meeting somebody where they're at and giving them lots of different options that are available to them to meet their needs.
[00:59:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: And I wish high school did more of that.
[01:00:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:00:01] Speaker B: Right. Where when you come into high school, you've got a really solid foundation that our kids are up to reading level and in math and by the end, by the end of middle school, so they're on par with all of that and they're coming into high school and getting to branch out more and understand the world and all of its possibilities in a bigger way and then helping them kind of map out some first steps for them with a clear understanding that not everybody that's in high school or even graduates from high school or even in their 20s or 30s or even 40s really know what they want to be when they grow up. You know, some people are still figuring that out. Right. But that there's lots of different options. Maybe you want to start a business.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: Right.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: We don't teach entrepreneurship.
[01:00:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:00:44] Speaker B: We don't teach a lot of just frank basic finance. Yeah. Skills to kids or light general life skills. Like how do you, you know, if you're going to go live on your own what does that look like? How do you budget for things? What do things actually cost?
We have to pay taxes, we have to pay for insurance. There's like things that you don't even realize you've got to pay for and we just don't. We don't teach life skills like real life skills.
And I even found that at the college level, teaching as an adjunct where my class was based on an academic book that wasn't based in what I see every single day with my corporate clients. Right. So I'm teaching the practical, like, okay, this is what you're learning theoretically, but in reality it looks more like this.
[01:01:29] Speaker A: Right.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: We don't use those terms. That's not what people in the corporate world say. That's not how they describe things. But that concept looks like this in the real world.
And we need a lot more of that, I think in high school to get kids really prepared. So that's way more than five minutes of what I'd say to a high schooler. But that's really what I want, the experience I want them to have in high school, which is whatever it is you're really passionate about. How do we get you more of that and get you really good at that so that you can make a career of it? Yeah.
[01:02:01] Speaker A: So we actually, through Liberty University Online Academy, we actually offer associates degree and certificates degree. So while they are in high school, starting 11th to 12th grade, they can take those classes. And of course, Masterpiece Academy is faith based, the private school. And they have, they will have Liberty University professors and they will graduate from Liberty University Online Academy. So that was, that's good that you have that vision. So that's kind of like encouraging for us.
[01:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So maybe they want to go into, into, you know, be a pastor or want to go into pastoral studies or theology or whatever, you know, whatever. I mean, there's, there's like a million different things. You know, I say kids because my kids are, are that age of that age group, but you know, that students would want to do and we just need to expose them to lots of different things so they can really see what's available to them.
[01:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah, well, let's see. The Loudoun county is technically well divided and you know, I think the whole country is divided. But how do you build bridges across differences? Like ideological, you know, you've got Republicans and Democrats, ideological, cultural or otherwise. You know, with other, you know, how do you build that bridges in that way? We are kind of like one, especially just in your sterling district or something.
[01:03:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, so look yeah, I'm going to be like super transparent. So as I. As I always am. So I ran in 2023. I got in the race very last minute. There was already an independent and a Democrat endorsed candidate. So I got the Republican endorsement because that's just what I assumed I had to do.
I've since. And this last year I worked for our, our independent school board candidate from Leesburg, Lauren Chernoff, as a policy aide to her and, and really kind of understood the inner workings. And the reason why I'm running as an independent now in Sterling is I do want to be able to remove the politics from the decision making. And I really just want us to be able to talk about common sense solutions for our kids, which sometimes may lean one direction or the other, but really at the end of the day, it needs to be what's in the best interest of our students. What is going to get them the best result, the largest number of them, the best result possible. Right.
So for me, what I'm doing now is I'm really focusing on that independent message because I want people to understand that I have both. And I'm probably only one of two candidates that has truly bipartisan support. I have Republican donors, I have Democrat donors, I have independent donors. I have all people from all three groups backing my campaign. And a big part of that is I don't. The nature of my professional work is it's not political. I have to deal with people in reality every single day.
[01:04:55] Speaker A: Good. We need more like that. Yeah, we need more like that because we just need to lobby for our kids.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:01] Speaker A: Future our country.
[01:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And so that's really kind of where I'm at right now. You know, this district has a lot of people from a lot of different parts of the world with very, very interesting dynamics. I was just at Forest Grove Elementary School last week for their.
It was a multicultural day for them. It's called tradition. It's called traditions. And I think they had 12 different countries represented. And it was, it was a fantastic, A fantastic evening.
Food and dance and dress and crafts from all these different countries. And it was such a great experience. Experience. And that I think helps bring more awareness to, to our schools and to our kids.
[01:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just diversity with not, you know, that that would. I hope we could go back to that.
[01:05:53] Speaker B: I do too. Because it was amazing to learn and be able to experience that. And I want everybody to be able to do that.
[01:05:59] Speaker A: And then you remove the sexualization and then focus more on. Just focus more on the academics yeah, you know, it's just common sense. I think I just, just, you know, I'm craving for that moment again.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think a lot of parents are, I think a lot of parents aren't aware of just exactly what's actually happening and what their kids have access to.
And so I think that we just have got to get back to having some really good common sense, business focused people on our board that know how to collaborate and work across the aisle and, and have a wide range of experiences to be able to navigate this. Yeah.
[01:06:38] Speaker A: And then let's see. How can we, how can the, our parents and families get more involved? So talk about like, you know, what's the, what does this election matter now more than ever? What's a common misconception people have about school boards and like the voting timeline? Because I don't even know.
Yeah, it's like, like presidential election that that's like publicized. This local school board is almost like silent. There's not, not much banners out there.
[01:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah, not yet. Not yet. Okay, so here's what, here's what I'm going to say that I think most people that live in Virginia have no idea this is the case. But our Virginia founders created our system here in Virginia. So we have elections every single November, every November. We are voting on something like yearly, every year, every single November. Plus we have these special elections that happen periodically if a vacancy occurs in the Virginia House or Senate or some other position. So we have elections every November and then sometimes even in like January or you know, early in the year. And then we have primary which are coming up here in for the Democrats are having a primary in June. So we have elections here in Virginia all the time. And when parents fall asleep and don't pay attention, things like the school board get really political and flip in one direction or the other.
[01:08:16] Speaker A: Right.
[01:08:17] Speaker B: That's what happened with our school board here in 2019, where it was more conservative school board members and we were paying lower cost per student and getting better results. And then nobody came to vote in 2019. And then all of a sudden the school board flipped to very, very, you know, very far left. So we swung the pendulum. Right. Because people weren't aware of the fact that we have elections every single November.
That can be very weary for voters. But the reality of it is if you have kids in schools or you're, you know, you pay taxes, you want to vote for people that share your value, values.
[01:08:53] Speaker A: Of course.
[01:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's, I think the number one, I think the common misconception right now with the school board is, you know, generally, you know, they're, they're doing their job. They're, you know, I don't really need to worry about this too much. They're doing, they're doing what they need to do.
That mindset is what got us into trouble in 2019. Like I just explained the school board, we, we stopped electing professionals that, that have sat on boards before and have business backgrounds and started electing, you know, and voting straight ticket, including school board. And the problem with that is we're electing people that really don't have our kids in at first and foremost, they have their political career first and forensic. And I mean, my opponent is a perfect example of that. He got on the school board, said he was all about the kids, and then one year later ran for a Virginia House seat.
[01:09:53] Speaker A: Right.
[01:09:54] Speaker B: So it's used as a stepping stone for some to move up the political ladder. It's not really what they want to do. Long term. I have no interest in being in the Virginia House or Senate or the U.S. house or Senate. I literally just want to do school board work and then when I'm done, I'm done. And that's really my focus. So.
[01:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah, because you're an educator.
[01:10:15] Speaker B: I'm an educator, yeah. I have a master's degree in this. Yeah, I love it. That's what I do. So, voting timeline. I think that was the other thing you'd mentioned to me too. So election day is November 4th.
We have early voting here in, in Virginia. And so the Leesburg voting office opens in September. It's usually around September 19th.
Early voting here in Sterling at the Claude Moore Rec center and at Dulles south, which is where the Loudoun Valley Estates folks usually go to vote. That opens around October 20th this year. And I'll tell you what I did is I signed up. Governor Youngkin had a big push for people to go online and sign up for the online voting.
So what happens is every election cycle I get my ballot mailed to me at my house and then I can take that ballot with me to the in person voting location and they will give me, they will trade it out for an in person ballot and I can vote a regular ballot right there in person. But it reminds me when the vote like that it's time to vote and who's on the ballot.
So I highly recommend people going online and signing up for that because that's been a great, a great tool for me.
[01:11:32] Speaker A: Okay, so that's one online. Okay.
[01:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:11:34] Speaker A: I hope I could post that on my, on I'll send you the link.
[01:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah, let's definitely post that because it's. Yeah, it was a really great program he pushed a couple years ago and I think it's a, it's a really good one. Yeah.
[01:11:45] Speaker A: Because our students we, you know, we review for Academies of Loudon and then we do test preparation. So majority of our students live in Virginia, Fairfax and you know, we do TJ test prep, Fairfax and Virginia. And now we have the Masterpiece Academies, Liberty University Online Academy.
So yeah, I hope I could, you know, put that in one of our newsletters. In that way we get, you know, we get reminders.
[01:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And that's why I like getting the ballot in the mail is because I know it's time to go vote and then I can look at, I can look at the ballot ahead of time. I can go research the candidates if I, if I need to and then I just take the ballot with me to go vote when I go vote in person and they just take my mail in ballot and they exchange it for a in person ballot and then I vote. So super easy.
[01:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, let's see, let's see. Do you, what are, are there. Do you have some inspiration like a book or a quote that shaped your leadership? Like how did that leadership, how did that values and core, you know the one that you talked about in the beginning, your core values formed?
[01:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:12:59] Speaker A: How did that get into being.
[01:13:02] Speaker B: You know, I'll say this, as far as my leadership style in particular, I think honestly it was one of those things. I was more born with it versus learned. And I say that only because I've my whole life up until this point, I am usually in a leadership role in whatever it is I'm doing. It's just a natural part of, of what I like doing. But you know, I, I think for, for election stuff and especially the school board. So James Madison spoke at the Virginia Convention in 1788 and this is when he was trying to convince the Virginia delegation to sign on to the Constitution to the Constitutional Convention. And Virginia was going to be and was eventually the 10th state to sign on to that. And he gave a really big elaborate speech. And during that speech he made a statement. He said something along the lines of that there are more instances of like minor infringements on our freedom by that are kind of gradual and silent encroachments is the phrase he used. Like they were gradual little, little things that would happen by elected and officials and those in power that would kind of slowly, erode your rights versus any one big, you know, active activity that would happen, that they would do, that would usurp our. Our freedoms. Right. It's this, like, little, tiny, little bit by little bit by little bit that your freedoms get taken away versus one big action and event. And honestly, I feel like, for me, that's what's happened over the last decade with the school board board. It's been one little thing after one little thing after one little thing, and nobody's paying attention. Parents are asleep. They're busy working. They send their kids to school. They're not paying attention to what's actually happening. And. And little by little, things have shifted. And now that we're waking up to it, it's like, oh, my gosh, what is this? We have boys and girls sports, boys and girls locker rooms. We have these books that are really questionable. We've got a lot of teachers quitting. We've got parents pulling kids out of schools for a whole bunch of reasons. I think people are just now waking up to it. I think this is what Madison was referring to. Right. It's like these little things over time get taken away. And then all of a sudden you're like, wait a minute, what's happening?
[01:15:25] Speaker A: Reminds me of the saying, the devil gets in the detail. It's in the detail.
[01:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it really is. Really is.
[01:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It's kind of like your laundry, you know, it keeps on piling up. And then, you know.
[01:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And I would just say get involved. Like, pay attention to what your kids are doing. Pay attention to what. What's happening in their class. Look at their homework. If you can't see their homework because it's all online these days, ask them to log in in front of you and just show you what they're doing. And I'm so curious about what you're learning in social studies or what you're learning in English or what you're learning in, you know, your reading class or, you know, social studies or whatever it is that, you know, science or whatever, and just have them show you and just come at it with curiosity and see what.
[01:16:06] Speaker A: See what you find stuffer to parent nowadays. Wow. So let's talk about, like, how you, like, how you work with pressure. What keeps you grounded when the work gets tough. Like, how do you work under pressure?
[01:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[01:16:21] Speaker A: You know, because it's in the school board, probably a lot of pressure. So how would you think you would handle that?
[01:16:28] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think it's kind of. I think there's two pieces to that. Number one is I'm really grounded in my faith. So for me, that's kind of my home base for everything. When I feel really stressed out, I can get really quiet and. And pray and just really kind of focus on the things that are really, truly most important. I think the other part of it too is because I've played volleyball for so long in very high pressure situations, and now my. In my work for the last almost 30 years is in management consulting, which has its share of pressures. I work with a lot of CEOs and executive teams, so there's a lot of pressure along with that too, that I just.
I just tend to be pretty calm, cool and collected even when I'm under pressure. Because honestly, I work best and make the best decisions when I'm calm. And I know kind of how to keep myself really centered and grounded. So that, for me is a real key thing. I do not make emotionally based decisions. It's not how I naturally operate.
While I'm empathetic, if you looked at my Clifton strengths profile, empathy is there, but it's not. What. I don't lead with it by any stretch of the imagination, but I do. I am very empathetic in a lot of ways, and I like relating to people, but I like making business decisions that are. That are based on the facts and the data and the information and what's in the best interest of the majority of people.
[01:17:50] Speaker A: Right.
[01:17:50] Speaker B: And then make accommodations where there are special circumstances because we need to have that flexibility.
[01:17:56] Speaker A: Perfect. Yeah. So you balance that data and, you know. Yeah, that's good. So what do you pray for or hope for most of this season? Like. Yeah, what? Just this season? What do you think.
[01:18:13] Speaker B: In this season? Do you mean like just this election cycle or do you mean like this spring and summer?
[01:18:20] Speaker A: I could do both this election cycle?
[01:18:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:18:22] Speaker A: Like.
[01:18:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:18:23] Speaker A: What do you pray for or hope for most?
[01:18:26] Speaker B: We actually have the opportunity to flip the school board. And when I say flip it, I don't mean swing it from, you know, far left to far right. But I. But I think we have the opportunity to bring it from far left to center.
And people that are, you know, just on either side, left or right, but mostly they're just centered, you know, kind of independent in the middle. We actually have the. The really good opportunity to do that during this next election cycle in November. And I think we need to.
I think the country is wanting that same kind of thing. I think the last elections kind of show that we need to get things back to some kind of center I think here Loudoun county we need to do the same and the school board definitely can do. Could use that. We have. There are some people that are running that have good solid business backgrounds. There's some of us like myself who have been on boards before who have worked with really large, multi billion dollar clients before. So we're familiar with the business model and working in those in large systems. And I think we need to start electing people based on their professional experience, not just on whether or not they hang an R or a D.
Their name.
[01:19:38] Speaker A: Exactly. You know, based on just people.
[01:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah. If you wanted somebody to manage your $24,000 a year or if you have multiple kids, you're $48,000 a year, whatever, you know, who are you going to pick? Are you going to pick somebody that's going to just do it based on politics and emotion or are you going to do it somebody based on facts and data and information and that's really what, you know, what you. What people need to really look at.
[01:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. That's good. Thank you so much. Now where can people learn more or follow your campaign or you know, get involved for those, those for those of our students or families who live in Sterling. How can they.
[01:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah, well I would love. Anybody can help, anybody can volunteer, anybody can donate. So would welcome any and all of that or if you want to come to some of our events. We're getting ready to line up a whole bunch of great events this summer. You can go to amy4sterling.com so it's just Amy. It can be the number four or f o r sterling.com both of them will go straight to the website. So amy4sterling.com there's a volunteer page, there's a donate page and then some policy statements in there too.
You know, we're going to be, I'm sure we're going to be doing some debates. I'm definitely doing some events coming up. I did a couple of listening sessions last campaign. I'm definitely going to be doing some more of those where we can get the community involved because I really do want to hear from people.
I have. You know, my opponent has had one town hall in the last two years that he's been in office and honestly that's not nearly enough. We need to be doing that very, very regularly. And I definitely want to be doing that in the Sterling community because I want to hear from people. So yeah, that's Amy from Sterling. That's it. Yeah.
[01:21:25] Speaker A: Thank you so much. This is great. And I hope this would be the start of.
We could have access to our local school board. So, yeah, yeah, I might probably reach out to. I don't know who is my local school board here in. In South Riding.
So now that I learned about this, you know, this school board thing, I think I need to be vigilant myself.
[01:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Are you in Dalit? You're in the Dulles district, Out Riding or Ashburn. I don't know which.
[01:21:58] Speaker A: South Riding. It's clo.
Kind of close to Chantilly. We are actually Chantilly, but south.
[01:22:04] Speaker B: Oh, you're south. So yeah, you're Dulles district, probably Dallas district.
[01:22:07] Speaker A: Okay. So, yeah, I think I should reach out and thank you so much for this information, and I hope we could invite you again in our next podcast.
[01:22:18] Speaker B: Well, thanks, Krish. I really appreciate it. I appreciate your listeners and podcasts are such a great platform. So I'm so glad you're doing this and you're having success with it. So thank you so much for having me.
[01:22:29] Speaker A: Thank you so much. And then we will link that blog in your on your website.
[01:22:35] Speaker B: Okay, great.
[01:22:37] Speaker A: Stop the recording now. There you go.
