The president of the Arlington Education Association says she will give up the position if elected to the School Board.
“Would I step down if elected? Yes, I would,” June Prakash said when questioned on her plans by Arlington NAACP education chair Tia Alfred at the civil-rights organization’s online candidate forum earlier this week.
While she had checked with the organization and determined that “from a legal standpoint, there’s not a conflict,” Prakash said that she recognizes it could raise concerns for some people.
“I can understand why people would assume there was a conflict,” she said.
Prakash has led AEA for three years. During that time, the organization embarked on collective-bargaining efforts with Arlington Public Schools and dug out from a scandal involving its former president, Ingrid Gant.
Gant was arrested in Prince William County in January 2023, charged with embezzling more than $410,000 from the organization. Those charges were dismissed later that year, but Fairfax County prosecutors said they were keeping the case open.
The case was handled in Fairfax County because that’s where AEA offices are located, and came after several years of turmoil within the organization.
Prakash, who had no involvement in alleged irregularities, took over the leadership after the departure of Gant.
“We have gotten our governance back in order,” she said, acknowledging at the NAACP meeting that the association had endured “a huge scandal.”
In the Arlington County Democratic Committee School Board caucus, Prakash is facing off against Monique “Moe” Bryant.
Bryant is executive director of Challenging Racism, a training organization. Alfred also asked her if she would stay in her post if elected.
Because the organization does not have memorandums of understanding with the school system, Bryant and the Challenging Racism board of directors determined there “was not a conflict of interest” that would require her stepping down, she said.
But, Bryant told NAACP members, she would depart the post “if there came a point that there was a conflict.”
The winner of the caucus will move on to the general election and become the odds-on favorite to succeed School Board Chair Mary Kadera, who is not seeking a second term.
Kadera’s successor assumes office Jan. 1.
