Chesterfield County's only contested School Board race this fall is a special election in the Clover Hill District, where first-time candidate Christina Brady is facing off against Elizabeth Schultz, a former Fairfax County School Board member and Trump and Youngkin administration education official, for a seat that covers 13 schools and runs through the end of 2027.
The Clover Hill seat became vacant last year after former representative Dot Heffron resigned amid backlash over a social media post she made following Charlie Kirk's death, according to richmonder.org. Heffron's interim replacement, Dr. Jenna Darby, opted not to run for the seat herself, per WTVR. Whoever wins on Nov. 3 will serve out the remainder of the term, which ends Dec. 31, 2027, the same outlet reports.
Brady, who is running for elected office for the first time, has made reducing elementary school screen time, shoring up aging school buildings and expanding student mental-health resources the center of her campaign, according to the Virginia Mercury. She has pointed to crumbling structures, mold and portable classroom trailers as infrastructure problems she wants addressed, the outlet reports, and has said she wants to significantly reduce screen time for elementary school students while reconsidering technology use in middle and high school, per richmonder.org.
A Veteran Educator Jumps Into the Race
Schultz brings a very different résumé. She served eight years on the Fairfax County School Board representing the Springfield District, from 2012 to 2019, and went on to work as a Virginia Department of Education assistant state superintendent and a U.S. Department of Education official, including as deputy director of the agency's Office of Educational Technology, richmonder.org reports. The Virginia Mercury reports that local Republicans called Schultz to ask her to enter the race on a Sunday morning, and that she has said she needed to go to Mass and pray before deciding to run.
If elected, Schultz said her biggest priority would be listening directly to parents and students and giving them a more direct role in education decisions, according to the same account from richmonder.org. The Virginia Mercury also reports that Schultz has said she would focus on parental rights, building maintenance and student privacy in locker rooms and bathrooms. She has also said she wants Clover Hill students to be aware of postgraduation alternatives beyond college, including the trades and military service, per richmonder.org.
Where the Candidates Agree — and Where They Split
Despite their different backgrounds, Brady and Schultz find common ground on at least one hot-button issue: both support the school system's decision to limit Chromebook usage for elementary school students amid parental concerns about excessive screen time, according to VPM News. Brady also told the station she supports Chesterfield's current policy on parental notification when students request changes involving names, bathrooms or pronouns.
The candidates diverge sharply on gender-identity policy in schools. Schultz told VPM News, “I do not support boys being in the girls' private spaces nor girls in the private spaces of boys,” extending that position to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams. Jason Spoon, director of the faith-based group Speak Up! Chesterfield, which advocates for parental rights in school systems, handed out flyers for Schultz's campaign outside a Clover Hill High School homecoming football game on Oct. 23 and praised her state-level work on gender identity in schools, per the Virginia Mercury. Spoon homeschools his own children, the outlet notes.
A Resurfaced Photo Draws Scrutiny
Schultz has also faced renewed attention over old social media posts. The Virginia Mercury reports she posted a tweet featuring a 2017 photo alongside Gavin McInnes, who founded the far-right group the Proud Boys, taken at the Deploraball, an event celebrating Donald Trump's first inauguration; a separate 2017 post from Schultz referenced McInnes and included the hashtag #ProudBoys. Schultz has since deleted her social media account, according to the outlet.
The Proud Boys' record since those 2017 posts has drawn additional context from the Virginia Mercury's reporting, which cites George Washington University's Program on Extremism in noting that members of the group attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where one woman died, and clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters nationwide following George Floyd's death in 2020. Members of the group also participated in breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and several were later convicted of seditious conspiracy for their actions that day, the outlet reports.
Funding Fight Over School Construction
Money is also on the ballot. Chesterfield voters, along with those in Richmond and 45 other Virginia localities, will decide whether to authorize up to a 1% sales tax dedicated to public school construction and major renovations, according to Axios. In Chesterfield, that tax is projected to generate up to $70 million annually for school reconstruction, Axios reports. Whoever wins the Clover Hill seat would help decide how those dollars are allocated if the measure passes, the Virginia Mercury notes.
Brady told VPM News she supports the ballot referendum allowing voters to approve the 1% sales tax hike, while Schultz declined to take a stance on the tax increase, according to the station. Brady has separately said the district needs to fully fund school infrastructure, pointing again to the building conditions she has raised throughout the campaign, per the Virginia Mercury.
What Clover Hill Parents Are Watching
Local parents interviewed by the Virginia Mercury offered a range of priorities heading into the vote. Suzy Juhase, a small-business owner and Clover Hill parent, identified technology use as her top concern and said an ideal school board member should be open-minded regardless of political affiliation; she also said she teaches her own children to respect all gender identities. Cynthia Losen, a retired teacher volunteering for Brady's campaign, and Mahdi Dublin, a middle school administrator with children enrolled in the district, were also cited among those weighing in on the race, according to the outlet.
The Clover Hill contest is one of more than 300 school board seats on Virginia ballots in November, the Virginia Mercury reports, and one of five districts that make up the Chesterfield County School Board, which has one elected member representing each magisterial district, per Chesterfield County Public Schools. Chesterfield school board candidates do not run under a party affiliation, richmonder.org notes. A similar dynamic is playing out elsewhere in the region: Richmond's 6th District has its own special election for a seat vacated by Shonda Harris-Muhammed, with incumbent Anne Holton facing longtime Richmond educator and former VCU professor Jackie McDonnough, according to Axios.
