Four years after knocking off an incumbent herself, Springfield District School Board member Cathy Belter is fighting for her seat against Scott Martin, a George Mason University professor and political newcomer, who has been endorsed by the GOP.
With Supervisor Elaine McConnell (R-Springfield) unchallenged, the School Board race is the district's only local contest this year. The candidates have been campaigning aggressively, hitting Back-to-School Nights and community associations.
So far, the race appears close.
"It's hard to judge those races, I guess because they don't run on party lines" said McConnell. "I think it's anybody's guess about who will win it this time."
McConnell has endorsed Martin. "Scott has a good educational background, and he certainly was very supportive of me in my election."
MARTIN SAID he got interested in the school system last year when his oldest son, Prescott, started at Clifton Elementary. He was shocked to find out that Clifton Elementary doesn't have an assistant principal.
"If there is an emergency, and we've had quite a few around here lately, where the principal is not at school where there is no one with signature authority," he said.
When he looked at the school system's budget, he said he found that the school system was anticipating keeping students in trailers for many years, which did not please Martin, whose three sons are about to embark on a 20-year adventure in the county's schools.
"The district wasn't well-represented," he said. Belter, at the time, was in the middle of her unsuccessful Senate bid against Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37th).
"It looked to me and my neighbors that she was using this as a stepping stone, and we have real problems," Martin said. "I'm not against anybody running for another office after they've accomplished their objectives."
Belter, for her part, said she decided to run for Senate after being encouraged by Sen. Janet Howell (D-32nd).
"I went back and forth for a while and thought if I could be one other voice down in Richmond that really, really believed in the needs of our education system, I would do it."
She added Springfield was in line for some renovation money from the county with an expansion plan to Lake Braddock Secondary School, which was adopted under her watch.
On the issue of assistant principals in all of the county's elementary schools, Belter said the reason why some schools have only one principal is simple: "We just didn't have the additional funding to do it."
But, she promised, "We will be looking at this again."
FOR BELTER, issues related to the national No Child Left Behind Act will dominate the next four years.
"What we have to do is make sure that our teachers are prepared for this," she said.
If the schools are going to implement new standards, they are going to have to get more funding, she said.
"We're hoping that we'll see a little bit more coming, if not a lot more coming from the state than we've had in the last year," she said. "The Board of Supervisors are the ones that unfortunately we have to go to, to get the money, more than any other place."
Belter is well-poised to wrestle some of that money from Richmond, said Barbara Allen, president of the 6,500-member Fairfax Education Association.
When Belter served as the School Board's legislative chairman last year, said Allen, "she did an outstanding job of keeping on top of the issues that are coming out of Richmond."
In 28 years of advocating for schools, Belter has spent a considerable amount of time in Richmond, both as a gubernatorial appointee and as a lobbyist for the state's PTAs.
Belter also mentioned class sizes as another area of concern. She said she would try to keep classes under 30 students, but "with the continuing student population, it's going to be a challenge for us."
With 3,000 new students expected this year, "We have to look at how we can accommodate our children."
Meanwhile, the School Board has indicated to the Board of Supervisors that even with an increase in funding next year, the county's school system will be $80 million short, forcing the School Board to make often painful cuts.
"If people think we have waste in the budget, then all of us should be put out to pasture," she said.
MARTIN has proposed reducing the system's administration and focusing more money in the classroom. In order to do that, he said, he would be in favor of dismantling the present cluster system, which carves the county into eight areas, and restructuring it into three or four areas.
At the same time, Martin has proposed combining the schools' Department of General Services and the Department of Facilities Management with similar departments on the county side.
The mergers and the cluster restructuring could save $150 million, he said.
At the same time, the school system could see more revenue if it sold some of the computer programs developed by its Department of Information Technology, he said.
"It could be commercialized, and there are clients anxious to license this stuff," he said. "I've mentioned this to the superintendent, and he also was very excited about this proposal."
The plan could generate $35-$40 million annually within five years, he said.
Part of the savings and new revenue could be used to provide assistant principals in every school and to make sure that every school has a registered nurse or nurse's aide.
"I've gone to these schools," he said. "There's nobody in the clinic. There's a table there, there's a curtain and there are pharmaceuticals all over the place."
Martin also is in favor of hiring an inspector general who would report directly to the Board of Supervisors to oversee the School Board's finances.
"[The supervisors] give us the money. We spend it. They get to see how it's spent, and so do the taxpayers. There's no other way to do it," he said.
Martin's positions have gotten him the endorsement of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers (FCFT), which represents 3,200 school employees.
"This was an easy decision," said FCFT president Judy Johnson. Martin is more likely to fight for higher teacher salaries and smaller class sizes, said Johnson.