Deep political divisions are on full display.
A poll volunteer displays a misleading sample ballot that a candidate for Spotsylvania County clerk of court was handing out at an early voting location in Fredericksburg, Va., Oct. 17, 2023. The blue sheet marked"" appears to come from the local Democratic Party but was distributed at the scene by Nick Ignacio, the independent candidate for court clerk, with his name checked.
It’s a microcosm of what’s happened around the country in recent years as a growing faction on the right has targeted public education, arguing parents should have more control over what their children learn and experience at school. In Spotsylvania County, both sides can agree that Tuesday’s election will determine whether any progress is possible and whether a plaintive cry to restore civility, heard from many across the political spectrum, can be met.
In September 2022, one meeting got so bad the county sheriff pulled his deputies from future ones, exasperated, he said, by demands from the chair that his officers eject citizens merely for expressing opinions contrary to the body's conservative leadership. Since then, the school board has hired its own private security to stand guard at meetings.
Democrats and Republicans implored him to stop, but he defiantly pressed on until, days later, a judge barred him from distributing the sheets. In August, Spotsylvania County became the first school division in the state to adopt the governor’s model policies on the treatment of transgender students, requiring school staff to refer to children by the name and pronoun in their official record and only use alternate names or pronouns with a parent’s written permission.
The polarization on school boards distresses Frank Morgan, a retired career-long educator in Virginia and South Carolina who said schools can only work with collaboration in the community.School board members “are just going to focus on these hot button political partisan issues and not look at really the successful operation of schools,” he said. “I want voters to look at the whole picture and not just narrow little slivers that fire people up.
“I don't want to even see them,” Rabih Abuismail, who is giving up his seat on the board this year, said of the books. “I think they should be thrown in a fire.” It then paid a recruiting company $25,000 to search nationwide for a new candidate, according to local news reports, only to select Mark Taylor, a former Spotsylvania County administrator and attorney who had no experience in public education. Taylor had previously served on the board of an organization run by Twigg's family, according to state records.
In February, just after his term as chair, Twigg was charged with criminal forgery of a public document and a misdemeanor count of tampering with a public record in an effort last year to unilaterally raise the pay of an interim superintendent above levels approved by the board. Twigg pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a jury trial expected in January.
“It just seemed like I turned around and one minute, we’re being lauded for the extra work we were doing, and the next, we were being vilified,” said Drane, who added she easily knows 10 other staff members who have left in part because of the school board’s new direction. “I do think the soul of this county is on the line.”
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Virginia school board elections face a pivotal moment as a cozy corner of democracy turns toxicOver the past three years, local school board elections have become the place where America’s deep political divisions are on full display.
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Virginia school board elections face a pivotal moment as a cozy corner of democracy turns toxicOver the past three years, local school board elections have become the place where America’s deep political divisions are on full display
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