Two Republicans in the running for Mason District school board member
 |
| Pafford’s campaign message. |
The Mason District Republican Committee will select at its May 11 meeting a candidate to endorse for the Mason District position on the Fairfax County School Board.
Two people are vying for the endorsement: Linda Pelligrino (already reported on here) and Tom Pafford.
The candidate endorsed by the Fairfax County Republican Committee will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot along with Democratic candidate Ricardy Anderson, a former teacher and principal.
Pafford’s information sheet submitted to the Mason District Republicans says he is a retired Air Force officer who owns an IT company. He and his wife, an immigrant from India, have two sons who attended Columbia Elementary School and graduated from Bishop O’Connell, a private Catholic high school. They are a Christian family, he says, and “Christian values are felt in the home.”
Pafford opposes the school board’s decision to rename Stuart High School (it’s now Justice High School) and what he views as the school board’s efforts to “push an LGBTQ agenda.”
Despite a heavy Democratic presence in Northern Virginia, Pafford says he can win by tapping into people’s discontent over those two issues.
The Democrats on the school board are “happy haters,” he says, because “they are happy to pass resolutions many of the citizens hate.”
Pelligrino’s statement to the Mason District Republicans talks about her service on Fairfax County’s Community Action Advisory Board (2003-08) and her efforts to be an advocate for her father, a veteran who was mistreated by the Armed Services Retirement Home in DC. While fighting the government over its neglect of her father, she maintained honor roll status at Northern Virginia Community College.
Pelligrino also worked with the Falls Church Anglican on outreach to the minority community; participates in several arts groups; and volunteered on several Republican campaigns, including Ken Cuccinelli, George Allen, and Corey Stewart.
As a school board member, Pelligrino says she will support high academic standards for learning, fiscal responsibility in the FCPS budget, science-based education regarding human development in family life education (FLE), the requirement to inform parents of their right to opt out of FLE, and community involvement.
19 responses to “Two Republicans in the running for Mason District school board member”
Leave a reply
Thanks to the terrible job by the Democrats we now have the Republicans running amuck as candidates for many Mason positions. Only Glenda the good witch can save us now.
Yes, let's definitely elect someone who sent their children to private school to be on the board of our public schools…….
Why is this a problem?
Democrats elect hateful ignorant idiots to the school board, so the only direction is up.
Why all of the Republican bashing when you admit that the policies and ideas that the Democrats extol failed? Have you ever had a conversation with someone to ask them why they voted the way they did? If you had an open dialogue rather than jumping to conclusions, you might find out that they are not the stereotypes you have made them out to be.
Because I think both parties are out of touch with the center.
So Pafford didn't even send his kids to public school and has no discernible experience in education and his only real platform is to tap into anger over the name change as well as be anti LGBTQ?
And Pelligrino admits to volunteering for far right racist garbage Corey Stewart?
And they are going to try to run against a Ricardy who is a self-made immigrant who has extensive experience in education and sends her kids to fairfax county public schools?
It doesn't matter which of them is endorsed by the republican committee… if either were to get more than 25% of the general public vote in november I'd be surprised, and I only give that much because its an off year election.
So was he supposed to send his kids to FCPS even if he didn't think the schools were adequate for his family? Why do you need experience in education to be on the school board? Aren't parents the primary educators of children?
"was he supposed to send his kids to FCPS even if he didn't think the schools were adequate for his family" – an individual can do whatever they want, but if they want to represent the community on the public school board, they damn well better have personal investment in the public schools. Mr. Pafford has shown no personal investment in the public schools.
"Why do you need experience in education to be on the school board? Aren't parents the primary educators of children?" I certainly don't think the litmus test for a school board member should be being an education professional, I do expect the candidates to emphasize a strength of knowledge in the discipline of formal education and an understanding of what policies work and what don't, because that is what the school board does. Whoever wins this republican blessing will be running against Ricardy who has years of policy experience (both of the Dem options were better than these two IMO).
Regarding the responsibility for educating kids: it's a shared responsibility put primarily on parents but also shared by society (hypothetical: the parents are deadbeats, society has a responsibility to educate the kids).
Fairfax should allow charter schools but charge a fee for the privilege that would go directly to the traditional public schools (and their teachers). This would give options to families in struggling school districts while attracting talented teachers where they're needed most.
As best I can tell, Pafford's platform consists solely of gay-bashing and transphobia.
So you support forcing females to strip for confused males?
Why do you hate women so much?
what
Mr. Pafford, the name change at JEB Stuart/Justice HS is a done deal. Give it a rest. As for the "LGBTQ agenda," stop being a homophobe. It's not OK in 2019.
As for Ms. Pellegrino, volunteering on the campaigns of 3 of the worst Republicans in this state means she won't get my vote.
Mr. Gary Aiken, purported moderate Republican, is against the J.E.B Stuart name change as well.
The name change already happened. The community was left out of the process and left with the bill to pay for it. There are plenty of Democrats who were not happy with the name change. It's not a D/R issue. I'm open to name changes as long as we know ahead of time (1) what the new name will be, (2) how much it costs, and (3) that there is community buy-in.
Pafford's website, oh my! SO many exclamation marks! Sentences without verbs! Like this! A 3rd grade command of English! And of COURSE Hillary got dragged into it again. You'll even find criticism about leaving a greener planet for our kids and a complaint that sex has been legalized in the "it takes a village" approach. (Ah, the good old days when reproduction was illegal…)
As Tom says, "Fairfax County is ran by Village People." "Let’s see if your happy!" I'd be happy if Pafford went back to school rather than being in charge of them. Or happiest if the site were satire.
Wow… I hadn't looked at his website yet – I had just been going off of the information contained in this article. That website is a trip.
is run. (Not is ran.)
No thanks.