Anne Holton elected to vacant Richmond School Board seat
After overseeing education in Virginia and coming close to becoming the second lady of the United States, Anne Holton is coming back to work in a more local role.
In a 7-0-1 vote at the Richmond School Board meeting Monday night, Holton was selected to fill the Board’s 6th District seat for Richmond Public Schools in the interim. Emmett Jafari (8th District) abstained from the vote.
Before the consent vote, the Board deliberated for over an hour in closed session “to consider the assignment, appointment … of specific public officers, appointees or employees of the School Board.”
“We would like to congratulate Mrs. Anne Holton for her interim appointment for the 6th District,” said Board Chair Shavonda Fernandez (9th District). “We welcome you to this dais and look forward to the collaboration, partnership.”
Holton was not in attendance at the meeting.
Before the Board voted, Jafari proposed a motion that would “end, terminate and rescind the entire current vacancy filling process, and that we restrict both the non-member and the candidate identified through non-members’ influence from any further participation or consideration in this vacancy process.”
He said that Holton’s appointment was influenced by “outside involvement” and referred to a statute regarding vacancies of public officials that requires the Board to have the sole responsibility of filling those roles.
“Once a non-Board member participated, the process no longer reflected the independent judgment the law requires,” Jafari said. "That outside influence also disadvantaged the other applicants, who were entitled to a process conducted exclusively by Board members.”
Fernandez told Jafari that another motion cannot be made while the original to appoint Holton was on the floor. She was voted in shortly after.
Holton is the wife of U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia). Shortly before her husband ran alongside former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, she was the state Secretary of Education.
She is the daughter of Linwood Holton, a former Governor of Virginia known for supporting civil rights and the racial integration of public schools in Richmond.
Holton helped integrate the current Martin Luther King Middle School – then Mosby Middle – by attending the school as a student from 1970 to 1972, an experience she shared during her interview.
“That was a life lesson for me, that we had a lot in common, but that a lot of the folks that I was going to school with did not have the same level of opportunity that I had,” she told the Board in January.
Victoria A. Ifatusin
Now, Martin Luther Middle is one of the many schools she represents.
The seat has been vacant since former Board representative Shonda Harris-Muhammed stepped down in December to become the superintendent of Southampton County Public Schools.
Four other candidates were vying for the seat and held interviews with the Board last month: Jacqueline McDonnough – retired VCU professor, Richard Walker – nonprofit CEO of Bridging the Gap in Virginia, Katina Harris – former RPS teacher and president of Richmond Education Association, and Victor Jr. McKenzie – CEO of Virginia Health Catalyst and member of the Richmond Planning Commission.
Fernandez thanked them for their participation.
“This was not an easy decision. Everyone that came brought forth so much great worth and it’s evident in their application that they had every opportunity to be a part of this as well," she said. "But in the end, Mrs. Anne Holton is the person that was chosen.”
Holton will take the oath of office on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in the Board chambers at City Hall.
Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org. This story has been updated to note when Holton will be sworn in.
