Departing School Board member Mary Kadera is taking a different approach to assessing her four years in office.
Elected officials preparing to leave office often begin their end-of-term speeches rattling off a litany of real or perceived successes. But Kadera prefaced her comments at the Dec. 18 School Board meeting — her last after four years in office — by noting a series of regrets.
Among them, Kadera wished she had found a way to better interact with those serving alongside her during the early part of her term.
“I regret that I didn’t have better relationships with some of my former colleagues,” Kadera said, adding:
“Building good relationships takes effort from everyone involved. I know I didn’t communicate perfectly, and there were things I likely could have done better. I wish we’d had more positive interactions.”
Those imperfect relationships with former colleagues came to the forefront in January, when Kadera announced she would not seek a second term.
At the time, she suggested being worn out from trying to combine the “toxicity” of School Board work with a full-time job and parenting. Adding a political campaign to the mix would be too much, she said in remarks to the Arlington County Democratic Committee.
In her Dec. 18 remarks, Kadera said her relationship with the four current Board members was solid. She noted a “positive culture change” in recent years.
“I’ll miss being on the Board with all of you. I will really miss it,” she said to her four colleagues on the dais.
Kadera also expressed regret about voting in 2022 to effectively eliminate the Virtual Learning Program, a pandemic-era online-learning effort that had a rocky rollout but, she said, was stabilizing by the time a decision was made to put it on hold.
“That vote was the only time I’ve stepped out of a School Board meeting to cry, and I still wonder if there’s something different that I could have done for that community,” Kadera said.
Kadera also expressed regrets about the school system’s calamitous rollout of health-care changes in 2023, along with her “big misstep” in not giving colleagues and staff advance notice that she planned to vote against the $570 million capital improvement program in 2024 and explain to them the reasons why she opposed it.
At the Dec. 18 meeting, her colleagues said Kadera’s tenure on the body had been a successful one.
Board member Kathleen Clark, who is a neighbor of Kadera’s and frequently goes on morning walks with her, said her colleague would be remembered for taking the position seriously and keeping a steady focus on what she was elected to do.
Clark praised “her listening and putting students at the center of every single decision she is contemplating.”
“The thought process she puts in, the deliberation, the time, the consideration, are all things I strive for,” Clark said.
Bethany Zecher Sutton, who in July succeeded Kadera as chair, praised her “thoughtful stewardship” and, like Clark, said Kadera could be counted on “always keeping students at the center of any decision.”
Kadera in 2021 was elected to the School Board after defeating Miranda Turner in the Democratic caucus and Major Mike Webb in the general election. Turner won a School Board seat in 2023.
Given a large amount of recent turnover, Kadera leaves office as the most senior member of the School Board despite a relatively modest four years of service.
After Kadera’s announcement in January 2025 that she wouldn’t seek re-election, Monique “Moe” Bryant won the Democratic caucus and general election. Bryant’s term begins Jan. 1.
“I hope she will be very successful,” Kadera said.
Though officially nonpartisan seats, all current School Board members have won a Democratic caucus before moving on to general-election victories. The last non-Democrat to serve on the body was David Foster, a Republican-leaning independent elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.
The new year will bring another race for School Board, with Zecher Sutton’s seat on the ballot.
Zecher Sutton has informally announced plans to seek a new term, with a kickoff event set for January. If she receives opposition within the Democratic Party, Democrats will hold a springtime caucus to determine their endorsee.
All other candidates will have until mid-June to file paperwork for the Nov. 3 general election.
