CCPS School Board Member, Catalpa District
Kelley Pearson for School Board
Worth the read... My personal preference is to not endorse any candidate in our School Board race. But since other School Board members have posted on Facebook their endorsements, and have as a group endorsed one candidate (as seen on a Facebook posting by the other candidate), I feel compelled to share my support of a candidate for the School Board position in the Salem district.
It is a pleasure to add myself to People for Pearson. Why? I worked with Kelley for 27 years in various school positions in Culpeper County Public Schools. Kelley included parents when dealing with students. She took the time to understand what a child needed to be successful. She was a parent and student advocate decades before it became a political issue in Virginia. She helped students with difficult issues in their lives and helped the students include their parents with these issues. Current School Board members worked with Kelley with their own children's issues while in school. Why did she do this? Because keeping parents involved in the education of their children has always been the right thing to do.
I understand she has been labeled by her opposition as a liberal. Her focus was always on the education of our students. It had nothing to do with conservative or liberal. She, nor I, never considered those terms. It was about the students' educational needs. We dealt with many issues where she and I disagreed. Typically, we listened to each other and what resulted was a better plan to deal with the issue than either of us had on our own. She is an independent thinker. She continues in her retirement to advise special education parents on their rights within the public-school system. I have seen where people have said you cannot be nonpolitical. I disagree. I am nonpolitical because politics have no place in an organization whose goal is to provide the best possible education for our children within the limitations of our budget.