Margaret Lorber
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Margaret Lorber is a District B representative on the Alexandria City School Board in Virginia. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[1] Margaret Lorber won the general election on November 3, 2015.
Elections
2015
Opposition
The Alexandria City School Board is a nine-member board elected by district to three-year terms. There are three districts on the board with three board members per district.[2] The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[3] The seats of all nine incumbents were up for election.[4]
Incumbents William Campbell and Karen Graf and challenger Harold Cardwell ran unopposed and won the three District A seats. District B incumbent Kelly Booz lost her seat after facing challengers Cindy Anderson, Mimi Goff, Margaret Lorber and Veronica Nolan. Anderson, Lorber and Nolan won the three District B seats. The District C race for three seats featured incumbents Ronnie Campbell, Patricia Hennig and Christopher Lewis and challengers Darla Dillard and Ramee Gentry. While Campbell and Lewis won re-election, Henning lost her seat to Gentry.
Results
| Alexandria City School Board, District B, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Veronica Nolan |
26.2% | 5,986 |
| Cindy Anderson |
20.9% | 4,761 |
| Margaret Lorber |
18.6% | 4,239 |
| Mimi Goff | 16.8% | 3,828 |
| Kelly Booz Incumbent | 16.5% | 3,755 |
| Write-in votes | 1.07% | 245 |
| Total Votes | 22,814 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General", accessed November 3, 2015 | ||
Funding
Lorber reported $11,174.60 in contributions and $10,525.64 in expenditures to the Virginia State Board of Elections, which left her campaign with $648.96 on hand as of October 28, 2015.[5]
Endorsements
Lorber received the endorsement of the Alexandria Times.[6]
Campaign themes
2015
Lorber answered the following questions from The Connection about issues in the district:
| “ |
What is one issue that defines your call to serve, why does it matter, and how will you tackle it? I deeply believe in the mission of public education to help all children reach their potential, a mission that is challenged by the diverse needs of our student population at a time of increasing enrollment. It is not sufficient to celebrate diversity in our system; we must make it work for all students by providing the learning environment and strong academic program that enables all our students to succeed. Schools must be in good repair, with sufficient space to accommodate all students; teachers must have the supports essential to respond to the needs of our diverse student population, and parents must feel welcomed and empowered so they can help their children succeed. To create this environment I would place a high priority on improved planning for capital and operational needs that include a new or expanded high school, renovated elementary and middle schools, classroom supports for teachers, and more intensive outreach to parents. These initiatives should be coupled with engagement of the entire Alexandria community to develop support for the financing needed to achieve the plan. What distinguishes you from your opponent(s) and why should voters choose you? For 25 years, as a parent of two children who attended Alexandria’s public schools and more recently as the bilingual parent liaison for our schools, I have been a passionate advocate and committed innovator to improve our programs, support our families, and promote equity and excellence in education in our city. I have been recognized for my success in improving communication between families and schools — which resulted in academic improvement — and creating a tutoring program at the high school, to support students who will be the first in their families to attend college. That leadership, combined with a track record of national advocacy for nationwide expansion of the school breakfast program and increased services for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities, demonstrate that my background and experience have prepared me well to serve on the Alexandria City School Board. How can Alexandria address overcrowding within the current budgetary confines? What ideas and skills do you bring to solving this? We need to do three things: first, plan for maintaining current facilities while expanding capacity. Overcrowding is affecting all of our schools from K - 12. Piecemeal maintenance without comprehensive planning has resulted in schools that are overcrowded and sorely in need of repair; second, reach out to the larger Alexandria community to help citizens and the City Council better understand our budget and the needs of our schools; third, provide confidence to the community by engaging in rigorous budget oversight, including ongoing accountability to citizens through the revived budget advisory committee. While the majority of Alexandria schools remain accredited, what can be done about continuing problems facing Jefferson Houston? For incumbents, what lessons have been learned from the problem? For nonincumbent candidates, what would you have done differently? Jefferson-Houston has a history of educational challenges, but has made progress. It is now on a course to become accredited ahead of schedule. But Jefferson-Houston also illustrates the need to be more rigorous in our approach both to achieving academic excellence and to designing and maintaining our schools. The community needs to be more deeply involved than it was in the core policy decision to create a large K – 8 school at Jefferson-Houston. Strong and consistent leadership at the top are also critical. [7] |
” |
| —Margaret Lorber (2015), [8] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Margaret Lorber' 'Alexandria City Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia
- Alexandria City Public Schools elections (2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "List of Candidates," September 9, 2015
- ↑ Alexandria City Public Schools, "School Board," accessed September 17, 2015
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November Election Calendar," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Alexandria City Public Schools, "School Board Members," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Virginia State Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Alexandria Times, "Alexandria Times Endorses Local Election Candidates," October 23, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ The Connection, "School Board–Alexandria District B: Margaret Lorber," October 26, 2015
