City of Alexandria

Alyia Gaskins grew up in Pittsburgh and earned her bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University. She received her master’s degree in public health from the University of Pittsburgh and recently completed a master’s degree in urban planning from Georgetown University. Gaskins currently works as a senior program officer at Melville Charitable Trust, a national philanthropic organization. She is an Emerge Virginia and the New Leaders Council graduate. She and her husband welcomed their first child last year.

If elected, Gaskins wants to address the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black and Brown communities. She sees recovery from the pandemic as a unique opportunity to discuss historical inequities in Alexandria. She plans to boost community engagement with city council by making sure the voices of people of color are heard and advocates for increased transparency so residents understand how decisions are made. She also wants to support city workers as the city discusses collective bargaining rights for municipal employees.

As a member of the city council, Gaskins will work to address educational and social inequities in the city. She will push for initiatives that provide quality, affordable childcare to working families, including the development of a program to identify and support informal providers with grants, free or subsidized training, and tax credits. Gaskins will work with educators and businesses to find funding to invest in educational infrastructure. She also hopes to collaborate with local companies to develop workforce readiness programs that will give youth access to high-paying, quality jobs following graduation.

Gaskins also plans to address the increasing costs of living and affordable housing crisis in the city. She will push for housing developments that are more inclusive of Alexandria’s diverse age community and income levels. She wants to modernize older buildings, making them safer and healthier for residents. Gaskins will actively work to expand homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents. She advocates building upon the work of the Alexandria Eviction Prevention Partnership to expand its current operations.

Gaskins is committed to addressing the consequences of climate change in Alexandria. If elected to the council, she will abide by the commitments in the Environmental Action Plan as environmental policies are created and enforced. She will support initiatives that call for more community engagement in creating environmental policies and hopes to address the intersection of Black and Brown communities and environmental justice. With the addition of more housing developments, Gaskins supports green building and clean energy options for citizens and commercial buildings. She hopes to collaborate with local businesses to reduce private-sector carbon emissions.

Due to her support of working families, public education, the environment, racial and social equity, Gaskins is a progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Amy Jackson is seeking reelection to her second term on the Alexandria City Council. A native of Alexandria, she earned her bachelor’s degree in communication from Virginia Tech and two master’s degrees in education from George Mason University. Jackson worked as an educator in Fairfax County Schools for 16 years. She serves on multiple committees and boards, including the Children, Youth and Families Collaborative Commission, and the INOVA Alexandria Hospital Task Force. She and her family reside in the Seminary Hill neighborhood.

Jackson is making recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic a priority and understands the racial disparities involved in the response to the pandemic. Jackson pursued passing a mask mandate ordinance in the city before Governor Ralph Northam had issued one for the state. She supports requiring vaccination for all city employees and public school employees. Jackson also advocates for keeping our communities safe from gun violence and pushed for an ordinance that prohibits firearms on city property.

Jackson plans to continue centering race and social equity in every issue she considers as a council member. She promises to fund much-needed social programs geared toward services like women’s issues, mental health, and youth at risk. During her time on Council, she has advocated for “All Alexandria,” a resolution that commits the city to racial and social equity. She supports holding police accountable for abusing its power by establishing a citizen review board and body cameras for police officers.

As a former educator, Jackson understands that strong schools are the backbone to thriving communities and is committed to fully funding Alexandria’s public education system. Seeing that the pandemic exposed the lack of access to the Internet, she advocates for the creation of a municipal broadband network. She will address obtaining more funding for Pre-K programs and investing in declining school infrastructure. She believes that getting to the root of Alexandria’s achievement gap involves understanding how educational inequalities start in kindergarten.

Jackson wants working families to live with dignity in Alexandria and supports the collective bargaining rights of municipal employees. She wants to encourage the construction of affordable housing units by getting rid of a waiver that incentivizes developers not to build affordable housing. She also believes in securing housing for the city’s aging population and homeless community members. She supports the use of co-location to build affordable housing on school property.

Due to her support of working families, public education, the environment, racial and social equity, Jackson is a progressive choice in this race.

Canek Aguirre was first elected to Alexandria City Council in November 2018, making him its first Latino representative. He holds several leadership positions in the city council, including vice-chair of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), Alternate Director of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), and chair of Alexandria’s 2020 Census Complete Count Committee. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Canek lives in the West End.

A primary concern of Councilman Aguirre is the affordable housing problem in Alexandria. He supports various options to create more housing opportunities, including colocation on school grounds, which involves building affordable housing units on school property. Aguirre has actively worked during the pandemic to address affordability issues by helping form the Alexandria Eviction Prevention Task Force. Prior to being elected, Canek served as president of Tenants and Workers United and chair of Alexandria’s Economic Opportunities Commission, where he worked to ensure Alexandria remained affordable for families across the city.

Aguirre will continue his efforts to improve access to healthcare in the city. He voted to reallocate funds from the school resource officer program to a new teen wellness center program, which will provide schools with mental health resources such as mentoring, nurses, and therapists. The councilman has also been a key factor in prioritizing multilingual information and multilingual healthcare workers for residents. Aguirre believes that health encompasses more than just physical well-being. He has put into place efforts to address emotional and environmental health as well by supporting infrastructure that would promote pedestrian safety and address climate change.

The son of a retired school teacher, Aguirre advocates for quality education for all students. The councilman has pushed for budgets that provide more funding for school resources and infrastructure. Aguirre wants to reduce overcrowding in schools and guarantee students’ access to the Internet. He supports increasing teacher wages and will work to retain the most qualified educators for students. He continues to address the growing achievement gap in the Alexandria school system and disproportionate suspension rates amongst Black and Brown students.

Aguirre is working to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic by pushing for equitable responses to the racial disparities in healthcare. In addition to his work on the Eviction Prevention Task Force, Aguirre voted to provide housing and rental assistance to those in need. He prioritized small businesses by approving additional funding and grants to entrepreneurs. Aguirre said that in his next term he hopes to continue working toward equity in language access, vaccine distribution, transportation, and identification of women and minority-owned small businesses for COVID-19 funding.

Due to his support of working families, public education, the environment, racial and social equity, Aguirre is a progressive choice in this race.

John Chapman was first elected to Alexandria City Council in 2012 and is currently seeking his fourth term. His family has lived in Alexandria for four generations. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in social studies education from Saint Olaf College. Chapman works as an educator in Fairfax County Public Schools and owns Manumission Tour Company. Before serving on the city council, Chapman was president of the Alexandria NAACP. He and his wife currently live in the Taylor Run neighborhood with their son.

As an educator and council member, Chapman has experience working on budget advisory committees for the city and the school system. He believes more funding could attract more teachers, hire more teachers, and invest in the system’s infrastructure needs. His plans include providing more apprenticeship opportunities for Alexandria City Public Schools students by partnering with local private businesses. He advocates for increased access to pre-K education and after-school education opportunities. He supports safely reopening city schools based on the advice from health experts and in compliance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

During his three terms on the city council, Chapman fought for more affordable housing by supporting the Alexandria Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s (ARHA) efforts to increase the number of affordable housing units. Chapman believes the city should demand more from developers to guarantee the construction of affordable units. Recognizing that many working-class residents cannot afford the cost of living in the city, Chapman has promised to devote more resources to homeownership and expand the city’s Homebuyer Program.

As a small business owner, Chapman understands that local businesses were hit hard by the economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. He wants to assemble a Small Business Recovery Task Force to create a policy framework aimed at helping the local economy regain its footing. He is interested in working with local financial institutions to expand access to capital for small businesses. Chapman will continue to push for training and workforce development programs to provide residents with skills, training, and entrepreneurial support.

Chapman advocates for updating the city’s aging infrastructure with an emphasis on the sewer system, transportation, and school facilities. He also wants to refocus efforts on developing digital infrastructure. He believes the city can pay for the upgrades by shifting the burden of revenue from residential property owners to commercial property owners. He wants to make the city more pedestrian-friendly, and improve transportation options for those who work and live in Alexandria and in neighboring communities.

Due to his support of working families, public education, the environment, racial and social equity, Chapman is a progressive choice in this election.

Originally from Texas, Kirk McPike earned his bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University and his master’s degree from George Mason University. He came to live in Alexandria to work on a state senator’s campaign for office and is currently the chief of staff to Congressman Mark Takano. He previously served as chair of the Alexandria Economic Opportunities Commission, which supports low-income residents of the city. McPike and his husband reside in the Seminary Hill neighborhood of Alexandria with their beagle.

If elected, McPike will prioritize the city’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He advocates for supporting businesses to recover lost revenue and restoring the social safety net so people can rely on the government more. He supports using federal funds to pay for equity initiatives and improved infrastructure. He agrees that the city needs to expand broadband access, but believes the city could offer different choices for consumers beyond just a municipal broadband infrastructure.

McPike wants to guarantee access to affordable housing that reflects the city’s diverse needs in an eco-friendly way. He is committed to finding diverse solutions to affordable housing, including investing in affordable purchasable units and subsidizing rent. McPike also supports developing affordable assisted living facilities in the city so senior residents aren’t pushed out by skyrocketing housing costs.

McPike sees that the city’s problems with flooding are worsened by climate change and believes the city should act more quickly to address the issue. He believes that funding can be pulled from outside sources to address this problem rather than residential taxpayer dollars. He believes that using money sources such as the American Rescue Plan and federal and state dollars will expedite the process to improve Alexandria’s sewer system.

McPike believes that transparency and communication are essential parts of government. He believes that Alexandria’s government has disconnected from its residence. As a member of the City Council will push for fully open communication between the city and its residents. He plans to hold virtual and physical town hall meetings in which all citizens may voice their concerns. By restoring trust between residents and local government, McPike believes the policymaking process will be more efficient.

Due to his support of working families, public education, the environment, racial and social equity, McPike is a progressive choice in this race.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Sarah Bagley is an activist, attorney, and executive director of an affordable housing nonprofit. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in government from The College of William and Mary and her law degree from The Catholic University of America. Bagley previously worked at two DC-based law firms and served as a clerk at the District Court in Montgomery County. She is a community organizer who has worked with organizations such as the Alexandria Democratic Committee, MOMS Demand Action, and Postcards4VA.

A top priority for Bagley is ensuring that safe, sanitary, and affordable housing is accessible for those unable to work or earning low or part-time wages in Alexandria. She wants to rebuild the affordable housing stock that the city has lost during the past 20 years. She also wants big corporations building in the area to consider environmental impact and commit to investing in infrastructure. In addition to preservation and redevelopment, she wants to provide a path to homeownership for first-time buyers in order to secure greater financial security.

If elected, she will work to make communities safer and more inclusive for everyone. These efforts include reducing gun violence, suicide, and guaranteeing that LGBTQ students are accepted and supported in public schools and city space. She hopes to partner with law enforcement agencies as means of providing gun training and education to owners. Bagley will also push to distribute trigger locks to provide safer storage and reduce unintended usage. She will also work to remove access barriers to technology and help break down existing language barriers. Bagley hopes to bridge a connection between historically marginalized communities and the newly formed Community Police Review Board by including community members in the review process.

Bagley is committed to addressing the impacts of climate change on the city. As a council member, she will seek funding to invest in public transportation methods that are safe and affordable. She believes incentives should be provided to businesses to convert existing structures to renewable energy sources or more energy-efficient programs. She’ll address the city’s flooding and outdated infrastructure issues by working with environmental groups knowledgeable on stormwater and stream restoration.

To combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bagley will support relief efforts geared towards communities most in need. She believes the city’s recovery plan must be equitable, transparent, and flexible. She supports individualized programs that provide rental assistance to renters, mortgage assistance to landlords, and financial assistance to businesses economically impacted by the pandemic. She also supports using relief funding to provide support to programs that tackle the city’s infrastructure needs, such as the sewer system and street conditions.

Due to her support of working families, public education, the environment, racial and social equity, Bagley is a progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent School Board Member Jacinta Greene was elected to represent District A on the Alexandria School Board in 2018. Greene is a native of Richmond and attended Virginia Commonwealth University where she earned her bachelor’s degree. She was involved with the Alexandria Young Democrats and the Alexandria Democratic Committee. Professionally, she worked in corporate sales and marketing and now works as an independent marketing consultant. Greene has served on the Alexandria Commission for Women for ten years.

Greene is dedicated to racial equity and believes closing the achievement gap is one of the biggest challenges facing the school district. On the school board, she helped create the “Equity for All 2020-2025 ACPS Strategic Plan,” which prioritizes eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps in the district. In particular, Greene would like to see greater representation of Black and Latino students in the district’s Talented and Gifted (TAG) Program and in advanced level classes in high school.

Greene voted against renewing the district’s contract with Student Resource Officers, who contribute to racial disparities and the school-to-prison pipeline. She would like to see the district reduce suspension rates, which disproportionately remove minority students from the classroom. She supports teaching about systemic racism and race relations in schools. Additionally, she supports implementing restorative justice training for teachers and students in Alexandria. She also voted in favor of renaming TC Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School.

Greene has worked to increase equity in access to school resources and information. During the pandemic, she was proud to help ensure all students had access to the internet and laptops while participating in virtual learning. She has prioritized family involvement in the school system, emphasizing the importance of including immigrant families and families who do not speak English. The 2020 Strategic Plan she helped create includes a system to analyze what communities and schools are most in need of support so that the school board is better able to distribute resources to the correct areas.

Greene recognizes how teachers are the backbone of the school system yet remain underappreciated and underpaid. She supports competitive salaries for teachers and school support staff so that the district is able to recruit the best teachers. Greene successfully advocated for one-time bonuses for teachers who were not receiving pay raises during the pandemic. She was endorsed by the Alexandria Political Action Committee for Education, which represents the majority of teachers and school support professionals in Alexandria City Public Schools because of her commitment to providing school employees with resources and support.

Due to her advocacy for educational equity and support for teachers, Jacinta Greene is a progressive choice for this race.

Incumbent School Board Member Michelle Rief was first elected in 2018. Growing up in a military family, she attended public schools across the country and earned her undergraduate degree from Florida State University. She earned a doctorate in African American Studies from Temple University. Previously, Rief held leadership roles in the Mount Vernon Community School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the Alexandria PTA Council. She has lived in Alexandria for 15 years and her three children attend local schools.

Rief advocates for policies to increase equity in Alexandria Public Schools. She supports changes to increase the number of Black and Brown students involved in the district’s Talented and Gifted Program. While serving on the school board, she helped implement a new strategic plan to ensure students have equal access to academic enrichment and advanced coursework, regardless of race. This plan also carried out new policies to facilitate restorative practices between teachers and students to build trust and community.

As a former union member with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Rief has worked to represent teachers’ interests on the school board. She supports competitive pay so that the district is able to recruit the best teachers. She would like to increase opportunities for professional development for the district’s teachers. She advocates for collective bargaining for public employees, including teachers’ right to unionize. She was endorsed by the AFT for her dedication to improving school employees’ pay and working environment.

Rief has supported infrastructure investment to keep the district’s schools up-to-date and students safe and healthy. She’s advocated for the acceleration of modernization projects of school buildings as well as increased maintenance. Since the pandemic, she’s worked to update the districts’ ventilation systems so that the return to school can be as safe as possible. Additionally, during the pandemic, she supported the superintendent’s efforts to provide laptops and internet access to all students who needed them for virtual learning.

Additionally, Rief supported the renaming of TC Williams High School, which was named after the district’s pro-segregationist superintendent, and Matthew Maury Elementary School, named after a Confederate Navy Veteran. She supported the removal of School Resource Officers from schools. Though this was not successfully completed by the school board but rather carried out by the city council, she supported the policy and helped divert the funds to mental health resources. She also supported putting charter schools under the school board’s control and increasing their transparency and access to ensure educational funding is supporting all students equally.

Due to her support for equity, teachers, and infrastructure, Michelle Rief is a progressive choice in this race.

Former Alexandria City Councilmember Willie Bailey grew up in Alexandria. He served in the U.S. Army for 21 years and, upon his retirement from the Army, became a firefighter with Fairfax County for over 30 years. He served on the Alexandria City Council from 2015 to 2018. He is a youth sports coach and is involved with many philanthropic organizations, including Toys for Tots, Carpenter’s Shelter, and Operation Warm. He is a single father of two adult children.

While serving on the city council, Bailey was a strong advocate for affordable housing. He currently serves on the board of the Alexandria Redevelopment Housing Authority, which provides affordable housing for low-income individuals in Alexandria. On the council, he introduced and passed a proposal to increase funding to prevent low- and middle-income residents from being priced out of the area as the cost of housing rose, including many teachers.

Bailey has also worked to ensure every child in Alexandria has the resources they need to learn and thrive by volunteering with multiple organizations that give back to local students. He is a founding member and president of Firefighters & Friends to the Rescue, which works with local schools and charitable organizations to provide school supplies, backpacks, hair cuts, and winter coats to in-need children. He’s also a local coordinator for Toys for Tots, which hosts a toy drive every year.

Bailey also supports ensuring higher education is affordable and accessible to all. He is a founding board member of Educational Opportunities for Alexandrians, which is a non-profit that funds scholarships for Alexandrians whose immigration status prevents them from receiving financial assistance in higher education. The organization works closely with the city council and the school board to identify and support these students. He will work to ensure that every student in Alexandria is able to achieve their goals beyond high school.

As a graduate of ​​T.C. Williams High School, Bailey cites the districts’ teachers and coaches as influential to his success. Accordingly, he will serve as a strong advocate for teachers on the school board. He was endorsed by the Alexandria Teachers’ Union, which represents the district’s teachers. He understands the high levels of responsibility placed on teachers and will work to ensure teachers will receive fair compensation and benefits, as well as the support and resources they need to be successful. While on City Council, he was most proud of his votes to increase funding for schools.

Due to his support for access to housing, school supplies, and higher education, as well his support for teachers, Willie Bailey is a progressive choice in this race.

Dr. Ashley Simpson Baird is a teacher and native of Northern Virginia. After earning her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Pennsylvania State University and the School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute, Baird volunteered with the Peace Corps to teach English in Bolivia. She later studied at the University of Virginia to earn her doctorate. She founded her own firm that carries out equity-focused research and evaluations for schools. She and her husband have three children.

As a former educator, Baird understands how teachers are the foundation of student success. Her top priority will be ensuring that the districts’ teachers and staff are adequately supported and wants to increase opportunities for training for teachers. She supports the creation of a program to assist Alexandria school employees with down payments for home buying and low-interest mortgage rates so they can afford to live in the area. She would also continually evaluate whether the district is paying area teachers competitive salaries that reflect how critical they are to student success.

If elected, Baird would invest in student achievement and ensure every student is receiving high-quality education that will allow them to be successful. She supports the use of federal COVID-19 relief funds to hire additional support staff so that class sizes are smaller to give teachers more opportunities for one-on-one and small group instruction with students. She would like to see more options for tutoring and catching up on skills students may have missed during virtual learning. She wants to increase opportunities for wellness and mental health care in schools, as she knows mental health support is critical to academic success. This includes hiring additional counselors and allowing opportunities for physical activity.

Baird will also work to increase equity on the school board. She supports updating the district’s Talented and Gifted Program so that enrollment in the initiative is more equitable by increasing transparency about how students are referred to the program and ensuring Black and Brown students are equally represented. Baird also supports increased investment in special needs and English as a Second Language programs. She supports the removal of School Resource Officers to allow for increased funding for mental healthcare at the schools. She would like to require data collection about student discipline to better track disparities in the school system.

Baird will also prioritize school board transparency and increased communication with all stakeholders in Alexandria City Public Schools. She will work to ensure parents and educators are not receiving conflicting messages from the school board and would like to improve the sense of community within the district. Additionally, she would like to increase investment into communicating with families without English literacy. In these cases, she would like to utilize audio and video messages. She supports the reinstatement of the Parent Leadership Training Institute to provide parents with more opportunities for involvement.

Baird’s support for teachers, student achievement, equity, and transparency make her a progressive choice in the election.

Kelly Carmichael Booz served on the Alexandria School Board from 2013-2015 and is running again to represent District B. Booz received her master’s degree in education at the University of Virginia and her undergraduate degree at Carleton College. She’s a director at the American Federation of Teachers, where she runs the development of the organization’s digital resources. Her husband is a teacher at Fairfax County Public Schools. They have two children who attend Douglas MacArthur Elementary School.

As a school board member, Booz worked to improve the district’s infrastructure.While on the board she helped craft a 10-year plan to address repairs in the district’s buildings and the growth of the student population. She will prioritize upgrades to the school’s ventilation systems so students, teachers, and staff can safely remain int he buildings during the pandemic. She plans to work alongside the city council to review all the deferred maintenance projects on school buildings. She will also work to address the district’s capacity issues.
Booz is passionate about improving civic education in Alexandria Public Schools. She taught civics seminars for a non-profit and served as the director of civic education at Montpelier and serves on the board of directors for Virginia Civics, which works to promote constitutional literacy and civic engagement. If elected to the school board, she will work to protect and support civic education classes, so that Alexandria is producing students who are well-informed and active citizens.

With a husband who is a public school teacher, and as an educator herself, Booz understands the important and difficult job teachers have. She would like teachers to have more say in the districts’ decisions and provide them with more support during the implementation of new procedures and policies. She was endorsed by the Education Association of Alexandria, which represents the teachers and staff at Alexandria schools, for her dedication to supporting educators.

Booz will work to improve communication and transparency on the board and rebuild public trust in the board. She will implement new policies to promote community relations including emailing out the board’s agenda and summary of discussed topics before meetings, hosting regular office hours, and sending out a newsletter. She would also like to work to keep school websites up-to-date with the latest information. ​Particularly during the pandemic, she understands the frustration of feeling uninformed and left behind and will work to address this issue.

Due to her support for infrastructure, educators, civic education, and transparency, Kelly Carmichael Booz is a progressive choice in this race.

Abdel Elnoubi is an engineer and parent running to represent District C on the Alexandria School Board. After graduating from the City College of New York, he worked in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He received his master’s degree in engineering management from George Washington University and is currently an engineering project manager at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. His two children attend Samuel Tucker Elementary School. His family lives in the Landmark Area of Alexandria.

Elnoubi is a strong advocate for policies that uplift students of color. He is involved in advocacy groups working to expand restorative practices in schools rather than punitive actions against students. He hopes to end the racial disparities in student discipline and address policies that perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline. He is dedicated to addressing the economic and social factors at play that lead to achievement gaps. He supports increasing the number of Black and Brown students represented in accelerated and Talented and Gifted courses.

Elnoubi also supports updating and modernizing the school district’s aging buildings. He understands that students need a safe, clean environment that is conducive to learning and is particularly concerned with the increasing number of buildings in the district that are in need of renovation. He will work to ensure buildings are safe and healthy for students, particularly upon the return to in-person teaching during the pandemic. He will work alongside the city council to address the district’s increasing student population and lack of facilities to support the increase.

Alongside renovation, Elnoubi advocates for policies that make the school district’s buildings eco-friendly. He supports the electrification of all of the districts’ school busses. He wants to move school buildings to renewable energy whenever feasible and will support discussions of climate awareness on the school board. He has taken the Virginia Justice Democrats’ Candidate Pledge, which includes a commitment to prioritize environmental justice. Additionally, the pledge includes refusing to accept donations from publicly regulated utilities and fossil fuel interests.

As a union member, Elnoubi is a strong supporter of workers’ rights, believing in teachers’ right to unionize and collectively bargain. He will help the district recruit and retain high-quality teachers and staff through providing competitive pay and strong benefits. He understands how teacher retention is critical to student success. Additionally, during the pandemic, he emphasizes providing teachers sufficient resources to be safe and successful at school. He received an endorsement from the Education Association of Alexandria for his support of policies that uplift teachers.

Christopher Harris is an ACPS graduate and parent. Harris is a lifelong resident of Alexandria and alumni of Alexandria City High School. Professionally, he owns his own business, Harris Safety Management and Training, and works as an occupational safety engineer. He served as a football coach and substitute teacher at Alexandria City High School. He also serves as President of the Alexandria chapter of the NAACP and on the City of Alexandria’s Human Rights Commission. He’s raised three children, all of whom attended ACPS.

As president of the Alexandria NAACP, Harris has been an advocate for racial equity in Alexandria’s schools and other communities. The work of the NAACP was Instrumental to changing the name of TC Williams High School.

Harris knows that a critical aspect of education is providing children with an environment that is conducive to resources. He has decades of experience in engineering and construction project management, which he believes will be invaluable to helping the board modernize school buildings. He believes he can lead the conversation on renovation so that the board can address capacity and infrastructure issues.

He will work to ensure school resources are equitably distributed to all students. He supports increased access to technology and equipment. Additionally, he would like to decrease class size to increase opportunities for one-on-one and small group instruction.

Another one of Harris’s priorities is ensuring teachers receive sufficient support. He would like to increase compensation and ensure they are all provided with the tools and resources they need to be successful.

An absence of online information about Harris means we cannot guarantee he will make progressive choices.

Meagan Alderton has served on the Alexandria School Board since 2019 and is the board’s current chair. She was a special education teacher at George Washington Middle School, Francis C. Hammond Middle School and Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School. Currently, she works for the D.C. Special Education Cooperative, which is a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of students with disabilities. She has lived in Alexandria for over a decade and has two children.

Alderton has done critical work to keep equity in academic achievement as the top priority of the board, helping to craft and implement the “ACPS 2025 Strategic Plan: Equity for All.” As a Black woman, she is proud to represent diverse populations on the school board. One of her top goals is closing the achievement gap and is working to increase representation of minority and disabled students in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) and advanced courses. She also wants to adopt new policies to help student groups that have historically underperformed on Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests.

Her classroom experience as a special education teacher makes her uniquely qualified to be a voice for children with disabilities on the board and is the reason she decided to run. Her experience with both special education law and classroom environments means she is able to advocate for policies that will uplift and support students with special needs. She is also understanding of the resources special education teachers need to be successful.

Alderton advocates for policies that improve the working environment for the city’s teachers. She supports increasing teacher pay and developing strategies for teacher retention, seeing the “revolving door” of educators and staff as one of the biggest threats to the school district. Additionally, she lobbied for legislation in the General Assembly that creates increased training opportunities for teachers, including training in crisis prevention, de-escalation, and positive behavioral interventions and supports. As a member of the division transition team, she worked to ensure staff was supported during the shift to remote teaching and the return to in-person school during the pandemic.

Additionally, Alderton led the process of renaming both T.C. Williams High School, and Matthew Maury Elementary School, which were named after a segregationist and Confederate officer respectively. She worked to ensure that there were opportunities for community engagement throughout the process. Additionally, ​​she helped create a new process for the superintendent’s annual evaluation, to increase accountability and opportunities for improvement. Alderton also supported the acceleration of facilities modernization, to ensure school buildings are safe and conducive to learning.