Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
Beverly Anderson
Beverly Anderson was an at-large member of the Virginia Beach City Public Schools. She assumed office on January 1, 2013. She left office on January 1, 2025.
Anderson ran for re-election for an at-large seat of the Virginia Beach City Public Schools. She won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Biography
Anderson retired from her job as an educator in 2012. She taught in the Virginia Beach City school district for over 38 years. Anderson earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Concord University.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Virginia, elections (2020)
General election
General election for Virginia Beach City Public Schools, At-large (2 seats)
Incumbent Beverly Anderson and incumbent Victoria Manning defeated Matthias Telkamp, Lauren Logan, and Jeffrey Feld in the general election for Virginia Beach City Public Schools, At-large on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Beverly Anderson (Nonpartisan) | 31.1 | 94,666 |
| ✔ |  | Victoria Manning (Nonpartisan) | 29.2 | 89,094 |
 | Matthias Telkamp (Nonpartisan) | 14.8 | 45,201 | |
| Lauren Logan (Nonpartisan) | 12.1 | 36,870 | ||
 | Jeffrey Feld (Nonpartisan) | 11.9 | 36,279 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 2,488 | ||
| Total votes: 304,598 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Justin Burns (Nonpartisan)
2016
Five of the 11 seats on the Virginia Beach City Public Schools school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. In the Kempsville District, incumbent Dan Edwards ran unopposed and won re-election to his seat. Rose Hall District incumbent Joel McDonald also won re-election by defeating Stephen Johnston. Trenace Riggs defeated Eric Wray to win the open seat in the Centerville District. Incumbent Beverly Anderson and Victoria Manning defeated Kristine Caalim, Ken Falkenstein, and Frances Knight Thompson for the two at-large seats up for election.[2]
Results
| Virginia Beach City Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Victoria Manning |
27.51% | 62,669 |
| Beverly Anderson Incumbent |
25.85% | 58,882 |
| Ken Falkenstein | 19.20% | 43,740 |
| Frances Knight Thompson | 17.71% | 40,345 |
| Kristine Caalim | 9.04% | 20,588 |
| Write-in votes | 0.68% | 1,559 |
| Total Votes | 227,783 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2016 November General Official Results," accessed November 30, 2016 | ||
Funding
Anderson reported $5,354.31 in contributions and $4,397.73 in expenditures to the Virginia Department of Elections, which left her campaign with $956.58 on hand as of October 17, 2016.[3]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Beverly Anderson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Beverly Anderson participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on October 14, 2016:
| “ | I was a teacher for 36 years before being elected to the Board. My goal was to bring the perspective of a classroom teacher to the board and I have done a good job of that for the past four years. I want to continue to be an advocate for the students and teachers of our district.[4][5] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Virginia. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | Balancing and maintaining the budget is a top priority but we should always keep in mind the achievement of our students.[5] | ” |
| —Beverly Anderson (October 14, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. The answer should be yes and no. Standardized tests are just a snapshot of what a student knows on a particular day. Standardized tests give us part of what students know but there are other ways to determine what students know and other methods of evaluating students. Other evaluation tools should be used in conjunction with standardized test to determine what students know or have achieved. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Virginia does not follow the Common Core standards because the Virginia Standards of Learning are better than the Common Core standards. The Common Core standards were designed for states that had inadequate curriculum's for their students. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Teachers need to have a probationary period where they have a mentor for the first 3-5 years. In many cases teachers need help with the management of the classroom so they can hone their skill of teaching the lessons. Classroom management can be the most challenging and teachers feel frustrated that they can't teach due to poor student control. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Merit pay is usually based on standardized tests and they are only a fraction of what students have learned. I don't feel it is fair to base pay on one snapshot in a day of a student's educational year. Even if the principal has observed the teacher often and determines that the teacher merits a bump in pay, that principal may not be as objective with one teacher as he/she is with another. The observation is subjective and can be flawed due to human nature. We need to pay teachers a salary commensurate with their professional status. Teachers should not have to work two or three jobs just to make a living. Virginia ranks 30th in the nation for teacher salaries and is more than $7,000.00 below the national average. We need to put more money into attracting teachers to the profession and keeping them in the profession for the duration of their career. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| When students are a threat to other students expulsion should be used. We have an alternative school that is used to accommodate students have been expelled so we usually suspend their expulsion and send them to the alternative school. However, if the student is a physical threat to others, we have to think about the safety of other students. Safety of students should always come first. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Student-teacher ratio |
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Beverly Anderson," accessed October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Virginian-Pilot, "11 people file to run for Virginia Beach School Board," June 15, 2016
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed October 18, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Beverly Anderson's responses," October 14, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
