School Board Chair, Vice Chair Seeking Re-election

The current vice chair and chair for the Manassas City School Board (MCSB) are both seeking re-election this year, and both are saying experience counts in this most-important election.

"It takes many years to learn how to be a successful school board member," Albrecht said.

Albrecht said he would like to continue serving the residents of Manassas for four more years so he can help the schools continue to improve, and he has the necessary experience on the state and local level to do so.

"We are a good school system, and we can be a great school system," he said. "We need to improve and that starts with getting the public's confidence back."

Albrecht serves as the vice chair of the Governor's School at Innovation Park— a joint effort with , Prince William County and Manassas Park— and also as the Northeast Region chairman of the Virginia School Board Association, a position he was elected to by his peers across the state. He's also a seven-time recipient of the Virginia School Board Association Star Fish award.

MCSB Vice Chair Art Bushnell, who is also running for re-election May 1, said he will work to continue what he and others on the board have started.

"We are already taking action and attacking problems that we know exist," he said.

He said the city is facing challenges and the board is making changes to meet those challenges. He said his number one priority for the upcoming term is as early as July this year.

"These kind of seat changes don't happen often and we need to make sure it happens as smoothly as possible...in a way that it improves the educational opportunities of all students," Bushnell said. "The most important thing that this school board will do in the coming year is to work with a new superintendent and make sure their priorities and the city's priorities are united, and to get everyone behind the new superintendent so that they can be succuessful." 

Bushnell pointed to the school board's adopted FY 2013 budget as proof : and low test scores in literacy and math.

Next year's adopted budget allows for "increased touch time" by implementing a class size reduction with a . This comes at a time when surrounding jurisdictions are increasing the student to teacher ratio, Albrecht said.

He said the schools continue to implement programs at the high school to add rigor and challenge to course work, and over a three-year period, there will be an additional.

This year's budget includes money to pay for the AP tests as well as funding to continue/expand programs such as Freshmen Academy, which has been .

Nathan Fritzen, a student at , said he is pleased with the boards move to keep class sizes down.

Fritzen said he had too many classes with "unacceptable" student to teacher ratios. He said there were classes with 35 students and one teacher and sometimes there were not enough desks in the class.

Fritzen said he has also notice disciplinary action is down at the high school in just one year's time. He credits this to new Principal Dr. Werner and the knowledge/enforcement of rules through programs such as Freshmen Academy.

Bushnell said the board continues to embrace the schools commitment to science and technology throughout the system by .

"When other jurisdiction are cutting back on their commitment to science and the arts, we are continuing to maintain our support in those areas," Bushnell said.

He said the board is already looking at ways to further embrace technology, such as e-textbooks and e-notebooks, to increase learning. We need to find ways to be innovative in moving forward, he said.

Bushnell, who serves on the city's , said the city and the board realize these and other challenges facing the schools,  and they are dealing with it.

"At a time when we are facing a number of challenges, when we're making dramatic changes within the school system...my experience and my perspective as a businessman who manages large budgets and a fiscal conservative is an important position to have when at the helm, Albrecht said.