ALERT: YSCD School Board Expected to Pay for Advice from Political Group

As rumored last week, the York County School Division is expected to backtrack on the vote taken in March to obtain policy services from both the nonpartisan Virginia School Board Alliance (VSBA) and the explicitly partisan School Board Member Alliance (SBMA). YCSD has been a member of VSBA for many years and obtains legal guidance on new policies from the new organization, among other benefits. VSBA is used by almost every school district in Virginia. On the other hand, SBMA is a brand new organization founded by disgraced school board member Sherri Story after she came under fire for racist social media postings. Prior to a presentation by Victoria Manning (also a school board member who came under fire for racist comments) on their services in March, the SBMA scrubbed its website of explicitly partisan content in attempt to allay concerns raised by York Count residents.

The three new members of the York County School Board, Zoran Pajevic, Lynda Fairman, and Kim Goodwin all individually purchased memberships in the SBMA using some public funds to do so. Only after the vote in March to obtain services from both the VSBA and the SBMA did the new organization announce that it has an “exclusivity clause” which would prevent the school division from paying for both. By backtracking on the March vote, the York County school board would effectively be ratifying three members’ individual choices over the vote of the whole board and opening itself to legal peril, as SBMA does not offer legal review of proposed school policies.