For Fairfax County School Board candidate Steve Stuban, the death of his son Nick earlier this year was more than a tragedy. It was a call to arms. Nick, 15, admitted buying synthetic marijuana and was suspended for weeks as his case worked its way through Fairfax County Public Schools’ disciplinary system. Eventually he was expelled and moved to another school. He committed suicide in January.
That’s when Stuban, a program manager at the Department of Defense and a longtime officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, went to the school board calling for changes in the disciplinary process that he said took too long, was too harsh and ultimately too much for some students to handle.
“We weren’t looking for a pound of flesh,” he said. “We were looking to make something positive out of this tragedy.”
Stuban did win concessions from the board. Schools reduced the time it takes to notify parents that their child faces disciplinary proceedings and relaxed punishments regarding students’ possession of prescription drugs.
But Stuban says his experience with county schools left him frustrated and inspired him to run for an at-large school board position as an independent. Though he’s never run for office before, he’ll face seven other candidates in the Nov. 8 elections.
“It doesn’t matter what topic it is — their solutions are not fully thought out,” he said.
Like many candidates in this year’s school board election, Stuban is calling for comprehensive audits of the school board’s budget and increased transparency on the board.
School board members say the county’s current disciplinary policies aren’t as harsh as they’re made out to be and that only a small percentage of students accused of infractions wind up in front of the school board at a disciplinary hearing. And the board has already adopted some of Stuban’s proposed reforms, said schools spokesman Paul Regnier.
But Stuban, whose campaign slogan is “every student matters,” says he’s determined to fight for more changes.
“The board has to be cognizant,” he said. “It can’t just sit behind a long table and look down on the audience and be deaf to concerns rased by the public.”
