Seventeen candidates have filed for the first Prince George’s County Board of Education race since the state government dismissed the sitting board four years ago.
But that 17 doesn’t include any of the nine members previously appointed to lead one of Maryland’s largest school systems. So far, none of them has officially decided to campaign for a return to their seat.
As of early Friday, eight at-large, nonpartisan candidates were running for four countywide seats. The remaining nine candidates are vying for seats assigned to the county’s five districts, but only two of the county’s five districts — Districts 2 and 4 — have contested races with multiple candidates as of yet. Candidates reached Thursday by The Examiner said they joined the race for such varied reasons as encouraging new school’s CEO John Deasy to carry out his vision for the county’s schools and making sure kids don’t graduate without knowing how to read.
“There’s this false perception that to be a member of the board you have to have been a teacher,” said Ron Watson, an Upper Marlboro resident running for an at-large seat. “Our job is not to determine how to teach. That’s why we hired a great CEO.”
Others said frustration drove them to file at the county’s election board offices.
“The only excuse that people give is that we don’t have money,” said Tammie Page, an at-large candidate from Clinton. “That’s a no-brainer. We do have money. The budget is fully funded. We start off on the right page, but somehow we end up on the wrong page.”
Heather Iliff, who is running against Hyattsville resident Amber Waller for the District 2 seat, said this is a great opportunity to start fresh and new after so much turbulence.
“The system has been in a leadership crisis for nearly a decade and our test results show that,” said Iliff, who lives in College Park. “I think the entire county is ready to come together now and do what it takes to turn our schools around.”
For Donna Hathaway Beck, the decision to be a part of the board of education after attending meetings for nine years was natural. Hathaway Beck said she also wants to see Deasy succeed with his plan to improve the county’s schools.
“I’ve just been overwhelmed by him,” Beck said. “My initiative will be to keep the political piranha away from him and to support him as much as I can.”
