New School Board Includes Six First-Time Members

Six first-time members were elected to Alexandria School Board on Tuesday in an election that saw current Vice Chairman Helen Morris ousted from District A.

District A candidate Stephanie Kapsis, a former department director at Teach For America and elementary school teacher at P.S. 1 in Brooklyn, N.Y., earned the most votes (11,261, 24.56 percent) of any candidate in any of the city’s three geographic districts.

“I am incredibly honored to receive the support of the Alexandria community,” Kapsis, a first-time candidate, wrote in an email to supporters late Tuesday night. The final results were not available until early Wednesday morning because of a delay.  

Karen Graf (20.36 percent) and Bill Campbell (18.02 percent) were also elected from a six-candidate field in District A.

“I feel absolutely blessed and confident to have Steph on the board,” Graf said. “With her professional experience, she can grasp content quickly and indentify where we might have missed criteria to make a decision. … Bill has a unique experience in having had kids in every level of ACPS. He’s also a Jefferson-Houston parent and has a firm understanding of achievement gap challenges. “

Campbell edged Morris, also a Jefferson-Houston parent, by just 658 votes to claim the district’s third seat. Campbell ran an unsuccessful bid for the board in 2009.

In District B, newcomer Kelly Carmichael Booz, the director of civic education at the Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, Va., claimed 25.88 percent of the vote. Newcomer Justin Keating (20.64 percent) and incumbent Marc Williams (20.42 percent) were also elected out of a five-candidate field.

"I am thrilled and humbled to serve on the Alexandria School Board," Booz said. "We have a lot of work to do in Alexandria with the school budget facing us first thing in January. As we get to work, I am committed to adding greater transparency and communication with the community as we tackle capacity issues and work to close the achievement gap and raise the bar for all students."

Three candidates ran uncontested in District C. Former School Board member Pat Hennig received the most votes (34.23 percent), followed by first-time candidate Chris Lewis (33.28 percent) and incumbent Ronnie Campbell (31.03 percent).

Ronnie Campbell and Williams are the lone incumbents on the new board, which will take office in January.