The FCPS School Board is now preparing for the 2011 elections. On Dec. 31, the seats of all 12 school board members are up, but only six members are seeking re-election. This will create the most drastic turnover of power since 2003.

“The large turnover and new blood may bring us a more activist board. While this [number of] many new members may offer some challenges as each goes through a learning curve, I welcome the fresh perspective we will see,” Mason district member Sandy Evans said.

Chairman and Dranesville district member Jane Strauss, Vice Chairman member At Large Illryong Moon, Mount Vernon district member Dan Storck, Sully district member Kathy Smith, Providence district member Patricia Reed and Evans are campaigning once again for their respective seats.

PTSA President Emily Slough believes the most unprecedented thing about this election is the fact that the school board could possibly have 10 new members, and that there are 23 to 25 candidates this year.

“Several candidates’ decisions to run are based on dissatisfaction with the school board and/or FCPS in terms of recent decisions and rulings,” Slough said.

The AHS community has been abuzz about the fact that five of the six people who are retiring this year voted to redistrict the Wakefield Chapel and

Bren Mar Parkneighborhoods.

Many people were upset by the results of that decision, suggesting a possible correlation as to why those members of the board are not running again.

“This is an interesting observation and suggests that things might have worked out differently if the vote had been next year,” Evans said

Both Evans and Reed are uncontested in their respective seats. Another uncontested seat is the Lee District, where Tammy Kaufax is running on a campaign of strengthening the schools. “Lee District deserves a passionate and committed advocate,” Kaufax said on her official campaign website.

Evans is running for re-election because she wants to continue to reform student discipline and involve parents more in the process, create better environments in schools to work with the teenage biology and to see more input from the community in policy making. She also wants to see to the creation of an Ombudsman role to monitor the meetings.

Evans feels that many members are retiring this year because they have served a long time and want to devote more energy to other tasks. Also, many of the members work other jobs while serving on the school board.

“While the school board is theoretically a part-time job, to my mind it is really full time as we run a 2.2 billion dollar school system. It is a huge commitment and requires the necessary combination of time and energy to do right,” Evans said.

Both political parties have made their official endorsements for the elections. The Fairfax County Democratic Committee is endorsing Strauss, Moon, Stork, Smith, Evans, Kaufax, Ryan McElveen and Ted Velkoff for the At Large positions, Meghan McLaughlin for Braddock district, Pat Hynes for the Hunter Mill district and John Wittman for the Springfield district.

The McLean Patch reports that the Republican Committee is endorsing Reed, Michelle Nellenbach for Mt. Vernon district, Louise Epstein for Dranesville district, Elizabeth Schultz for Springfield district, Nell Hurley for Braddock district, Nancy Linton for Hunter Mill district and Sheila Ratnam for Sully district. The committee is also endorsing Sheree Brown-Kaplan, Lin-Dai Kendall and Lolita Mancheno-Smoak for the At Large positions. Some students believe that their parents will be influenced by a candidate’s connection to a political party.

“My Dad would be, my mom not so much,” senior Danielle Turner said.

One of the candidates who is not being endorsed by a political party and who has been garnering a lot of media attention is Steve Stuban, who is running for the At Large position. Stuban’s son, Nick, committed suicide in early 2010 after being relocated from Woodson HS for buying a JWH-108 capsule. He is running of a platform that the school board needs to take a more active role in FCPS, increase community outreach and that every student is important.

Recently, the Fairfax Education Association (FEA) released their official endorsements for the race. FEA is an association of FCPS employees. Moon, Storck, Evans and Reed were all endorsed by the association. Math teacher Leonard Bumbaca served as the President of FEA from 2007 to 2009. During that time, he was on full-time release from FCPS. He is a part of the over 6,000 FCPS faculty members that make up FEA.

“Teachers are influenced when a candidate has that [endorsement],” Bumbaca said.

The FEA sends questionnaires to each of the candidates and can even have the opportunity to interview with the association. If a teacher lives in a FCPS district, they can vote in the election.

“I’m very proud of my endorsement by the FEA. It’s important to me to hear the voices of teachers and to work with the teachers’ organizations on a wide variety of issues, since the teachers and other school-based employees are the ones on the front lines,” Evans said.

Parents who are interested in the elections can attend the Oct. 23 PTSA meeting, where they can meet with some of the candidates.

Despite all of the campaigning, there are members of the community who will not come out and vote in these elections.

“[My parents] are not going to vote. I think they are not really concerned with the School Board,” senior Lilliam Pacheco said.