Article VIII Section 7 of the Constitution of Virginia vests authority for public school districts in a school board, which may be either elected or appointed in a manner defined by law. The Loudoun County School Board is an elective board composed of nine members. One at-large member is elected in a county-wide race, and the remaining eight members are elected by voters in each of the eight named county districts.
Previously, members served concurrent four-year terms on the same election schedule as the Virginia Senate. The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation in 2021 allowing for the board’s terms to be staggered, which the board approved.
Four seats, which were chosen in a random drawing by the Loudoun County Electoral Board, are now at the mid-point of a normal four-year term. Those will continue to hold elections every four years on the same schedule as the Virginia Senate. The other five seats are up for election this year following a one-time shortened two-year term. These will continue to hold elections every four years on the same schedule as the Governor of Virginia.
School board seats are legally nonpartisan offices. Candidates will not be labeled with a political party on the ballot, but political parties often endorse their preferred candidates.
Dulles District
Santos Muñoz and Jon Pepper stand as candidates for the open Dulles District seat on the Loudoun County School Board. Incumbent Member Melinda Mansfield (Dulles) is not seeking reelection.
The Dulles District encompasses far southeastern Loudoun County, South Riding, Stone Ridge, Dulles West (south Arcola), and the Loudoun portion of Dulles International Airport.
Santos Muñoz
Santos Muñoz stands as a candidate for the open Dulles District seat; he is endorsed by the Loudoun County Republican Committee. Muñoz is a U.S. Air Force veteran who currently serves as Chair of the Education Committee for the governor’s Latino Advisory Board.
If elected, he promises to restore “common sense leadership,” improve transparency and fiscal responsibility, protect student and teacher safety, and focus on education fundamentals. He promises to fight for justice for the victims of the insane policies of our previous school boards and ensure that every child “inherits an education that honors their potential and our shared heritage.”
Muñoz is saying the right things . . . but as I’ve said in past years, many school board candidates said the right things during their campaigns and did the wrong ones after we put them on the board. It is very difficult to trust anybody anymore.
But I don’t see any obvious red flags. . . .
Jon Pepper
Jon Pepper stands as a candidate for the open Dulles District seat; he is endorsed by the Loudoun County Democratic Committee. Pepper is a public-school educator who served twenty years as a teacher, coach, and middle school assistant principal.
If elected, he promises to improve career and technical education, recruit and train “the best educators,” promote student safety, maintain “community” schools, and ensure lines of communication between the board and the public. He says, “Loudoun County is blessed to have an outstanding public school system,” and he will fight to “maintain these excellent schools.”
I’m not sure where Pepper has been for the last six years. . . .
Our schools are a mismanaged mess that continue generating embarrassing national controversies. They are doing real damage to the kids they’re supposed to be educating, and they have badly broken the public trust. The first step is admitting we have a problem.
Conclusion
Loudoun County Public Schools have been mired in six years of needless controversy—the destructive COVID-19 closures, adopting racist and anti-humanist curricula, mishandling sexual assaults, prompting state investigations that uncover criminal coverups, incoherent bathroom and locker room policies, and a lying superintendent who, when the board finally fired him, got a $300,000 “golden parachute” at the taxpayers’ expense.
In the last two years we got a new superintendent and the voters replaced the entire school board. The new leaders are, somehow, proving nearly as bad as the old. Now they’re refusing to comply with state and federal “Title IX” guidelines and actively perverting the same law to harass and punish victims of illegal harassment.
It’s hard to imagine a path forward. The voters have been pretty clear about their feelings but the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. I have zero confidence that our next board will be any better than the last two . . . but there is a clear choice in this race. Pepper seems to have been asleep for the last six years. Muñoz may or may not live up to his promises, but at least he shows evidence of consciousness.
Vote Santos Muñoz for the Dulles District seat on the Loudoun County School Board.
Other Districts
I make the following recommendations for contested races in other districts. I have evaluated each race and candidate individually according to the same general criteria described in the endorsement article above.
- Sterling District: Incumbent Member Arben Istrefi (Sterling), who is endorsed by the Democratic Party, is challenged by Amy Riccardi, who is endorsed by the Republican Party. I recommend voting for Amy Riccardi.
- Algonkian District: Incumbent Member April Chandler (Algonkian), who is endorsed by the Democratic Party, is challenged by Matt Malone, who is endorsed by the Republican Party. I recommend voting for Matt Malone.
- Broad Run District: Ross Svenson, who is endorsed by the Democratic Party, and Samuel Yan, who is endorsed by the Republican Party, stand as candidates for an open seat. I recommend voting for Samuel Yan.
- Dulles District: See long-form endorsement above.
- Leesburg District: Incumbent Member Lauren Shernoff (Leesburg), who is endorsed by the Republican Party, is running for reelection unopposed.