Sean McCord Considering School Board Run

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 11, 2007 in Blogs, Education and Politics. 3 Comments

Normally it wouldn’t be news that somebody is thinking about running for the Charlottesville school board, but it’s not every day that a) Sean McCord runs or b) that somebody blogs about the decision process. Sean is a well-known local blogger, regular cvillenewser, head of the Local Support Partner Program at UVa, and has three kids in city schools. By way of introduction, the Johnson Village Democrat opens his blog with this post:

I am considering running for the Charlottesville School Board. What seemed a simple idea when it was first presented to me has become unexpectedly complicated. I have decided to document the process here. In this space, I will gather the information that one needs to run. If I run, I will write about my experience. If I win, I will maintain this blog as a School Board member. If I do not win, I will offer this blog site to a sitting member or members of the Board. Above all, I intend to conduct all of this business in an open and honest manner, and I expect all of you to call me to task if I stray from the pledge.

Sean is like City Councilor Dave Norris in that what would make him such a great candidate are precisely the qualities that he possesses that would make any reasonable person assume that he’d never run for an office. Whether or not he runs, though, I’ll enjoy following his decision process on his blog.

We’re #17! We’re #17!

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 8, 2007 in General News. 95 Comments

Good news: The latest edition of Frommer’s “Cities: Ranked and Rated” has Charlottesville ranked as their #17 city, Brian McNeill wrote in yesterday’s Progress, down from its #1 ranking in the first edition of the book. The top ranking, bestowed three years ago, brought a great deal of attention to Charlottesville, particularly in the form of people moving here because they heard it was a good place to live. Hence, the price of housing went way up (hey, it’s a bargain if you’re from Jersey) which, ironically, is precisely why we’ve dropped to #17. As Mayor David Brown points out, “a little breather would be a good thing.”

But, if anybody from outside C’ville asks why we dropped in the rankings, tell them it’s because of our failing schools, legions of homeless, out-of-control STD rates and, of course, that serial murderer who’s still on the loose.

Loach Running for Supervisor

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2007 in Politics. 13 Comments

Things just got interesting in the Albemarle BoS race in the White Hall District: Crozet’s Tom Loach is running. Already Democrat Ann Mallek of Earlysville is challenging incumbent Republican David Wyant. The volunteer firefighter and UVa employee is campaigning against development, as would be expected from an ASAP board member. He’ll presumably be running as an independent.

Not Enough School Board Candidates

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2007 in Education and Politics. 9 Comments

Only one candidate has declared for the Charlottesville school board election, Alyson Smith reports for NBC-29, leaving three seats without a candidate. Three of the incumbents have bowed out rather than run for their first election. Last year was the first school board election, and we had six candidate for three seats. It’s not clear whether disinterest this time around is a problem of it seeming so far off from November that would-be candidates aren’t even thinking about it, or if there just aren’t people willing to go through the rigors of an election for something as minor as school board.

The filing deadline is June 12. If there aren’t enough candidates, the seats will be filled by judicial appointment pending a special election to fill them properly.

UVa in Bloom

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2007 in Blogs and UVa. Closed

Cotton Candy

By UVa student Mike Loew. Not news. Just a nice picture from the Charlottesville Flickr pool.

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