Chesterfield’s lone school board race pits a political veteran against a newcomer

With early voting opening Friday, two candidates are running in Chesterfield County’s Clover Hill District — one has years of elected school board experience under her belt, while the other is a first-time candidate and mom to current Chesterfield students.

The Clover Hill seat became vacant last year after former school board representative Dot Heffron resigned following backlash over a post she made after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. Jenna Darby has served as the district’s interim representative since January, but did not seek the seat in the special election. 

The winner will serve the remainder of the term, which runs through Dec. 31, 2027, and will represent the Brandermill and Woodlake neighborhoods, among others.

The district is one of five in the county, and has consistently voted for liberal candidates in recent years. Each of the district’s precincts voted for Gov. Abigail Spanberger by at least a 10-point margin last year, and 16 of the 17 precincts chose Kamala Harris in the most recent presidential election.

In Chesterfield, school board candidates don’t run under a party affiliation.

Political newcomer leans on parental experience

Christina Brady said she’s had an eye on this race for a while, but wasn’t expecting the seat to open up when it did. While she wasn’t expecting the chance to open up so soon, she said she felt it was important to throw her hat in the ring. This is her first time running for an elected office.

“I think a lot of school boards get distracted by culture war topics. Our kids need us to be focused on how they’re using technology and how they are getting … mental health support and are they getting to and from school safely,” Brady said. “The only way I can guarantee that is if I’m on the school board.”

She’s the mom to four daughters. After moving to Chesterfield County in 2021, she saw her kids navigate a COVID-era school system firsthand and how parents struggled to keep up. 

Particularly, she said parents may have a difficult time trying to help their special needs students receive the in-school care they required — such as 504 plans or Individualized Education Programs (otherwise known as IEPs). Not only is this a tricky process to navigate, but not knowing the right questions to ask also proved to be a massive roadblock, she said. If elected, she hopes to bridge that gap between understanding and action.

“We know that kids who aren’t doing well, who are unhappy, who are tired, who aren’t fed, aren’t going to learn as well as a kid who is getting those needs met. So I think it’s really important that we figure out how to meet as many needs as possible.”

Besides in-school support, technology is another major topic on her radar. Brady, who works in IT, said she recognizes the importance of technology but believes students do not retain information as well when learning is delegated to computers rather than activities such as writing by hand.

“My goal is to significantly reduce screen time for elementary school and figure out where we could pull it back in middle school and high school and give them time to interact and be humans,” Brady said.

Elizabeth Schultz returns to politics

Elizabeth Schultz said she entered the race just a few days before the filing deadline, but her experience serving on Fairfax County’s school board has helped her put her foot on the gas.

She was elected to represent the county’s Springfield District in 2012, and occupied the seat until 2019. Her initial motivation for running was a sense that the county hadn’t been transparent with its parents, and “it ended up being the finger pointing, and there are three fingers pointing back.” 

She later worked on education policy at the federal and state levels, including in the U.S. Department of Education during the Trump administration and in the Youngkin administration. Her federal work included serving as deputy director of the Office of Educational Technology.

She settled in Chesterfield County, with her youngest of four sons having just graduated from Clover Hill High School. She said Heffron’s social media comments and resulting resignation shook her, and she once more felt called to run for office.

“I am about parents, students and taxpayers,” Schultz said. “Each one has a different need from elected representatives, and if we aren’t focusing on that then we are focusing on the wrong thing, which is why we got here in the first place.”

That philosophy also extends to how Schultz would approach the school board itself. She said her biggest priority, if elected, would be to listen directly to parents and students and give them a more direct role in decisions about their education.

While serving in Fairfax, Schultz said she held student town halls at high schools in her district and asked students what they wanted from their schools. She said those conversations informed her education-focused work and that she would like to establish similar forums in Clover Hill.

Schultz said Chesterfield students should receive a fulfilling, meaningful education — one that prepares them for a range of paths after graduation, not just college. She wants students to be aware of alternatives, including the trades and military.

Contact Eleanor Shaw at eshaw@richmonder.org. She is a Report for America corps member.