Alyson Satterwhite

This page was current at the end of the official's last term in office covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Alyson Satterwhite

Prior offices

Prince William County Public Schools, Gainesville District

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Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2019

Education

Bachelor's

George Mason University

Personal

Religion

Christian

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Personal website

Alyson Satterwhite was a member of the Prince William County Public Schools in Virginia, representing Gainesville District. Satterwhite left office on December 18, 2019.

Satterwhite ran for election for an at-large seat of the Prince William County Public Schools in Virginia. Satterwhite lost in the general election on November 5, 2019.

Satterwhite completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.

Satterwhite is the Gainesville District representative on the Prince William County School Board in Virginia. Satterwhite won the general election on November 3, 2015.

Satterwhite was a nonpartisan candidate for at-large member of the Prince William County School Board in Virginia. Satterwhite lost the general special election on November 6, 2018.

Biography

Satterwhite earned her B.S. in education from George Mason University. She also attended Pensacola Junior College. Satterwhite is a military spouse, homemaker, volunteer, and was the co-leader of the women's ministry at her former church.

Elections

2019

See also: Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia, elections (2019)

General election

General election for Prince William County Public Schools, Chairman

Incumbent Babur Lateef defeated Alyson Satterwhite and Stanley Bender in the general election for Prince William County Public Schools, Chairman on November 5, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Babur Lateef (Nonpartisan)	51.1	57,071
		Alyson Satterwhite (Nonpartisan)	41.5	46,390
	Submit photo	Stanley Bender (Nonpartisan)	7.1	7,969
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	288

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 111,718
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2018

See also: Prince William County Public Schools elections (2018)

General election

Special general election for Prince William County Public Schools, Chairman

Incumbent Babur Lateef defeated Alyson Satterwhite and Stanley Bender in the special general election for Prince William County Public Schools, Chairman on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Babur Lateef (Nonpartisan)	47.7	73,247
		Alyson Satterwhite (Nonpartisan)	41.6	63,827
	Submit photo	Stanley Bender (Nonpartisan)	9.6	14,715
		Other/Write-in votes	1.1	1,742

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 153,531
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2015

See also: Prince William County Public Schools elections (2015)

The Prince William County School Board is an eight-member board elected to serve four-year terms. One seat on the board is elected at-large with the remaining seven seats elected by district. The seats of all eight incumbents were up for election on November 3, 2015.

Three newcomers each sought the at-large Chair and the Coles District seats. Ryan Sawyers defeated Tracy Conroy and Timothy Singstock in the former race, while William Deutsch defeated Reggie Henderson and William Reeder in the latter. Diane Raulston won the open Neabsco District race against Joseph George.

Occoquan District incumbent Lillie Jessie defeated two challengers, Karen Boyd and John Gray, in her re-election bid. Fellow board member Betty Covington lost to her opponent, Justin Wilk, for the Potomac District seat. Brentsville District incumbent Gilbert Trenum, Gainesville District incumbent Alyson Satterwhite and Woodbridge District incumbent Loree Williams ran unopposed and won re-election to their seats.

Results

Prince William County School Board, Gainesville District, General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Alyson Satterwhite Incumbent	98.6%	8,974
Write-in votes	1.44%	131
Total Votes		9,105
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General", accessed November 4, 2015

Funding

Satterwhite reported $4,035.71 in contributions and $2,540.22 in expenditures to the Virginia State Board of Elections, which left her campaign with $1,495.49 on hand as of October 28, 2015.

Endorsements

Satterwhite received the endorsement of the Prince William County Republican Party.

Campaign themes

2019

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Alyson Satterwhite completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Satterwhite's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am the wife of a retired military officer and mother of four, who has served on the School Board as an independent voice since 2012 with a long record of results for Prince William County students. All my children have been students in Prince William County Public Schools. I'm a graduate of George Mason University with a Bachelor of Science in Education.

I served as the School Board's Vice Chairman in 2015. From 2014 to 2015, I was the Vice Chairman with the Northern Virginia Special Education Regional Program. I've served on the Safe Schools Advisory Council since 2013 and currently serve on the Joint Board of the Governor's School at Innovation Park. I've volunteered for the Battlefield High School orchestras and marching band, served on the Advisory Council at Gravely Elementary School, as a volunteer at Tyler and Mountain View Elementary Schools, and Bull Run Middle School, and as a member of the PTO at each school. With my husband, I served on the Parents Council at Virginia Wesleyan College.

For eight years, I've been the leader in pushing money from central office back into our schools to serve our students. Under initiatives I championed: we had the first external audit of special education, we reduced caseloads for social workers, we passed plans to eliminate 80 trailers from schools across the county, we increased pay for bus drivers, we expedited key school security improvements, put a nurse in every school, and made it clear the school board opposes developments that will overcrowd our schools.

As a mother, I know the challenges our students face. I've worked with people across the county to address those challenges. I will be your voice as Chairman ensuring we have added transparency and community input on the key issues we all care about.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Move the hyper-partisan politics out of the board room and put the focus back where it belongs, on our students and academics.
• We must continue to reduce class sizes, improve our older schools, and at the same time continue to build more classrooms to house all our students.
• Ensure best practices in School Security and continue efforts to improve student mental health and wellness.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Student mental health and wellness and special education are areas I am very passionate about and have worked very hard on.

As a mother who spent 24 years attending IEP meetings for my own kids, this is a personal interest to ensure that our families are partners with us in their child's education. I pushed for the audit of our PWCS Special Education department and services. We have amazing opportunities to make a huge difference for our students and families if the recommended changes are all carried out with fidelity. I want to continue to monitor our progress and see this work carried out and completed.

Increasingly we are seeing our schools having to play a much greater role in student mental health and wellness. Anxiety is at an all time high with our students, often leading to hospitalizations or home bound school services. A recent government report confirms that over the last decade the number of suicides has increased nationwide, a tragic trend that we had already noted in Prince William County. I am working to save student lives. I have proposed and led efforts to: add more school nurses to our budget in FY18; add 12 more school social workers and a human trafficking specialist in FY19; and supported adding 46 school counselors to the division. These efforts help to reduce the caseloads for these specialists so that they can spend more time with our students giving them the support they need.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

With over 90,000 students, and over 11,000 employees, the role of School Board Chairman is critically important in our community and can make a profound difference for all our students.

For the last four years, we've seen what progressive leadership on the school board has looked like. Unfortunately, we had over two years of chaos and dysfunction under the deeply partisan former chairman. Now we have a Chairman who simply does not have the time to put into the job and in the process surrenders his job to the Superintendent and refuses to hold him accountable.

Neither of those models serves the community. The school board chairman needs to be an advocate for students, parents, and teachers. We are not elected simply to go along with or serve the school administration, but to be a voice for the community.

It's time for a change. We need a new chairman with a proven history of steady leadership, who delivers results for the community. This November, I'm asking for your vote to bring proven independent leadership to the Prince William County School Board.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I want to leave people knowing that I care, that I am passionate about education, and that I tirelessly supported and encouraged my community through servant leadership.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was working with kids. I applied and was hired to be a summer day camp counselor at my church. My responsibilities included leading a group of 8 - 12 children to different activity stations throughout the day at the church camp and keeping track of all of them when we were on field-trips. Once the summer ended, I applied for the after-school day care program at the church. For four years I worked at the day care during the school year and the day camp during the summers, later being promoted to Assistant Director for two summers.

One of my first campers was Allyson. She spelled her name with one more "L" than in my name. She was like a little sister to me. She even had a special part in my wedding. We have stayed in touch all these years, even through frequent military moves with my family. It was a complete joy to see her a few months ago while I was visiting my parents.

She wrote this shortly afterwards, "Back in August one of my very first mentors and role models came home for her high school reunion and we got a few sweet minutes and a picture! As a young girl, I simply adored Alyson, a church counselor at my daycare and summer camp, and we formed a very special bond. I remember when she met Doug and how excited and in love she was...at their wedding I thought she was the most beautiful bride, Doug so handsome in his Navy uniform, and the sword arch (and the swat!) was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Today is their 33rd wedding anniversary and I want to just thank her again for befriending that little 9 year old girl all those years ago!"

Teachers and those who work with our students have the ability to make a lasting and positive impact on the lives of the students they work with. I am so thankful for my friend Allyson and the opportunity that I had to impact her life as she grew up.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

The last song that got stuck in my head was "Baby Shark"! Why? Because the Washington Nationals are currently in the World Series and that song has become the unofficial theme song of the team and the entire Washington Metropolitan area! Go NATS!

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

For four years, the school board governs the school division and provides oversight. The school board determines how 57% of your property tax dollars are spent. This election is the time for the public to decide who they want making those decisions.

We need independent school board members who will advocate for the community and not a chairman who is focused on hyper-partisan politics. There is still much to do to improve educational opportunities for every one of our students. We need to elect a chairman who will hold the superintendent accountable, providing the needed checks and balances in local government. We need a new chairman with a proven history of steady leadership, who delivers results for the community.

In what areas would you like to expand curriculum? For example, do you see a need for advanced technical training or apprenticeships? What sort of innovative programming would you advance if given the opportunity?

I want to see expanded opportunities for our students to be able to graduate from high school with an Associates Degree. Partnering with Northern Virginia Community College, one of our high schools now has this program in place in IT and it is designed to be duplicated.

This past year we saw another high school that started an internship and job shadowing program as an end of the year project. Other schools and community members are looking to duplicate this program as well.
We know that not all students will go to college. With that in mind, I want to see us doing more to prepare our students to go straight into careers out of high school with certifications needed to succeed.

There is growing talk of having a more centralized Career and Technical Education (CTE) center. I would like to explore this further and see how we might be able to leverage corporate sponsorships to support a venture such as this.

How might you support the mental health needs of students/faculty/staff?

The ratios of our school counselors, social workers, school psychologists, and school nurses to students are still too high. We must continue to work with members of the General Assembly to reduce these ratios and provide funding for our schools to be able to hire more of these professionals. For example, one nurse or social worker per 2800-3000 students in a high school is simply not enough for the support that is needed.

We must continue to work on the culture in each of our schools to make our schools safe places to learn where each student and staff member is respected and made to feel welcome. Encouraging and funding programs such as Rachel's Challenge can bring positive results to a school campus.

Our students need to learn coping skills that they can use as tools to help alleviate the impacts of stress and anxiety. Therapy dogs are also a different kind of tool to use in our schools for staff and students. Incorporating visits to schools in times of high stress and before testing helps tremendously. Many of our schools are beginning to incorporate some of these strategies and are reporting a decrease in disciplinary problems as a result.

Reducing class sizes is something I see as a move toward supporting the mental health and wellness of our staff members and students. Several teachers have shared with me how frustrating it is to have class sizes so large that they are not able to get to each student daily or even able to make eye contact with each one. Reducing class sizes gives our students more individual academic support as well as promoting teacher satisfaction in an environment that is not overwhelming and frustrating.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Prince William County Public Schools
• Prince William County Public Schools
• Office website
• 2015 campaign website