School Board candidates faced off this week on the question of whether front-line educators are getting enough support in Arlington.
“We are not supporting our teachers [and] they are burning out,” said James “Vell” Rives IV, a Forward Party-endorsed independent challenging Democratic incumbent Bethany Zecher Sutton.
The two squared off in a Sept. 8 candidate forum hosted by the Arlington County Civic Federation.
Zecher Sutton, who is completing her first term, concurred that teachers need additional support.
“We’ve done great work, but I know there’s more,” she said. “We have to make sure they have all the resources to do their job.”
Zecher Sutton was the lone candidate to seek the Democratic endorsement for School Board earlier this year. She received it in March by a unanimous vote of the party’s rank and file.
She and her four Board colleagues all are Democratic endorsees. The last non-Democrat on the School Board was Republican-leaning independent David Foster, who won four-year terms in 1999 and 2003.
This is Zecher Sutton and Rives’ second faceoff. They previously met in the 2022 general election, where Zecher Sutton won 68.2% of the vote.
“I have a track record of being a thoughtful, capable and strategic leader,” the incumbent said.
Zecher Sutton said that the School Board has listened to concerns of teachers. She pointed to instructional revisions that include changes to the way math and literacy are taught, along with limits on the amount of time students spend on electronic devices.
Rives pushed back, circling around to again address the concerns of teachers.
“They are telling me they feel helpless, they don’t feel supported,” he said, zeroing in on what he termed a breakdown of discipline in schools.
“Teachers want to know the administrators will back them up,” Rives said.
Rives raised concerns about intolerance and drug use at some schools.
“We have to get back to real consequences,” he said, contending schools have become an “amnesty zone” where students know they can escape severe punishment for behaviors that would not be tolerated outside school facilities.
As he has in past runs for office, Rives pressed for a return of Arlington County Police Department resource officers (SROs) to schools. Zecher Sutton said the use of school system security personnel in collaboration with the police department was working well.
“Our officers receive extensive training beyond what is required by the state,” she said.
That wasn’t enough for Rives, who said that security personnel “were not armed, not sworn, not trained as police officers are.”
Zecher Sutton said even if the School Board wanted to bring SROs back, it would probably take three to four years.
Candidates were questioned about the potential of having to close one or more elementary schools in the wake of declining enrollment.
Both suggested looking at adding students in grades six, seven and (Zecher Sutton said) even eight to fill empty space in elementary-school buildings.
Rives voiced concern about building or expanding schools during a time of flat enrollment, and urged focus on constructing schools that can stand the test of time.
“School buildings should last 100 years, not 30,” he said.
In his closing remarks, Rives reiterated concerns — also expressed in his previous runs for School Board — about the school system’s policies on transgender students.
Early voting for the Nov. 3 election begins Friday, Sept. 18.
