Washington Post Reports on Most Important Fairfax Political Races: The School Board

The Washington Post has two recent stories about the all-important Fairfax County school board races that we'd like to recommend to the neighbors.

"Half of the 12 Fairfax County School Board members have chosen not to seek re-election, guaranteeing that the board that oversees the region's largest school system will undergo its most substantial turnover since 2003," The Post said in its Wednesday story.

The story sets out very clearly who is running and from where in the Nov. 8 election.

Half of the incumbent school board members are not running and another four, including McLean's Jane K. Strauss, face stiff challenges in November, the story explains. Eight candidates are running for three at-large seats. Only one is an incumbent, Ilryong Moon, according to the story, which is a great primer on the races.

Why the interest? The school board has tackled two very controversial issues in the past two years - closing Clifton Elementary School (which lead to a lawsuit) and getting the board to modify the district's controversial zero-tolerance disciplinary policy.

Steve Stuban, father of a Fairfax student whose suicide led to changes in the schools' disciplinary policy, "is one of several political newcomers whose entry into the normally sleepy School Board elections has transformed them into this year’s marquee event in Fairfax politics in November, potentially overshadowing the races for the more powerful Board of Supervisors, which governs the county of more than 1 million residents, " the Post story said.

Stuban's only child, Nick, committed suicide while being punished under the district’s zero-tolerance disciplinary policy, and the Stubans got a troubling look inside a system that seemed to them to run on auto­pilot, as if its administrators were so thoroughly convinced of its excellence that they no longer listened to the families it served, the Post reported.

Some are casting the race as "traditional" board members vs. "reformers".

An Aug. 14 Post story stated that the school board races would be the county's marquee election. Fairfax pols had been saying that, but the Post was among first to report it in a complete story.

The new board will vote on the contract of long-time school Superintendent Jack Dale in 2012.

Read Wednesday's story here. Read the Aug. 14 story here.

Full Disclosure: McLean Patch was a long-time reporter and editor at The Washington Post. McLean Patch is a (very small) Washington Post stockholder.