Thirteen (!) School Board Applicants

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 21, 2005 in Education and Politics. 4 Comments

A pool over a dozen masochists have joined Peggy Van Yahres (seeking reappointment) in applying for one of the three positions on the school board that open July 1. Bill Igbani and Byron Brown have said that they will not seek reappointment. New applicants are Louis M. Bogard, Jean S. Chase, Alvin Edwards, John J. Gaines III, Blair Hawkins, Kenneth Jackson, Sue Lewis, Brynda Loving-Kotter, Joseph Mooney, Chad Everette Thorne, David Randle and Karen Waters.

The most notable of the bunch, in light of recent controversy, would have to be Alvin Edwards, as he was an outspoken advocate of Scottie Griffin and, consequently, opponent of the school board.

James Fernald has the story in today’s Progress, which includes brief bios of each applicant.

Griffin Applies for Arkansas Position

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 17, 2005 in Education and Politics. 5 Comments

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Scottie Griffin is one of the seventeen people who have applied to be the superintendent of the Pulaski County, Arkansas school district. The $142,659/year job is available after the current superintendent retired after just three years. Their school board is going to pick out finalists in the next week or so to pick out finalists. Hopefully that school board will do a better job on background checks than Charlottesville’s.

Loudoun Man to Run Against Rooker

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 17, 2005 in Politics. 1 Comment

Christian J. Schoenewald, age 32, just moved here from Loudoun County two years ago, and thankfully knows everything that’s wrong with Albemarle and just how to fix it…though on the specifics, not so much. In today’s Progress, Claudia Pinto reports that he’s seeking the Republican nomination to run against Board of Supervisors incumbent Dennis Rooker. Schoenewald claims that Loudoun has implemented “zero-growth policies” that have bizarrely led to “wall-to-wall condominiums and the traffic is horrible” — he proposes removing our non-existent growth restrictions in order to preserve the rural character of Albemarle County.

There’s no word on what brand of carpetbag that he prefers. Not that I’m bitter.

Public Housing Director Dismissed

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 13, 2005 in Politics. Closed

Paul Chedda — the Executive Director of the public housing authority for less than a year — was given the boot on Wednesday. He was an import from New York, brought in for the job, and is said to have just been bad to work with, unable to accept criticism. He ended up firing most of the maintenance department, leaving just two employees to make repairs in all seven public housing developments, leaving a $9.5M repair backlog. The board basically hated working with him, so they made use of a severance clause in his contract. Chedda followed Del Harvey, who resigned out of the blue in May of 2003.

John Yellig has the skinny in the Progress.

Collins Arrested for Trespassing while Campaigning

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 12, 2005 in Politics. 6 Comments

Rich Collins, Democratic candidate for the 57th District House of Delegates seat, was arrested last Saturday for trespassing. Collins was campaigning in front of Whole Foods when the property manager of the shopping center asked him to leave. Collins refused, the police were called, and Collins asked to be arrested on principle, saying that the shopping center is functionally public, and he has a First Amendment right to campaign there. The police disagreed, and he was taken into custody.

The Daily Progress has an editorial on the matter, which runs down the basic story, concluding that “[h]e is raising a legitimate public issue in perhaps an unorthodox way,” but that “it probably doesn’t rank in the top 10 on the list of issues facing Virginia.”

Disclosure: I’ve been known to volunteer my time for the Collins campaign. My fiancee is the campaign manager. We’re also blood brothers in the local chapter of the Illuminati.

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