Both candidates for the vacant Ward 3 seat on the Fredericksburg City School Board say that recent experiences with the city’s school division informed and motivated their respective runs for office.
But those experiences differ significantly, as do the candidates’ priorities if elected.
Sarah Stelmok, a special education advocate, said she decided to seek public office after navigating a series of disciplinary hearings for her son, a former student at Walker-Grant Middle School.
She recalled a moment during an administrative hearing with the Virginia Department of Education when the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Rowley vs. The Hudson Central School District was referenced. That case, which has formed the basis for the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), established that students with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate education — but not necessarily a good one.
“It was the moment that I heard about that case that was like, ‘Wow, we are up against a mountain here,’ ” said Stelmok, a former speech pathologist whose two children have been diagnosed with autism. “And most parents, I would say 99.9%, would never have heard about this case.”
Her opponent, Annie Langdon, is a James Monroe High School alumna who spent six years in the classroom as a math teacher at her alma mater before transitioning to an instructional coach this past year.
“I have a lot to say as someone who lived in this division as a student, as a teacher, and also as a parent,” said Langdon, who recently accepted a teaching position at Dixon-Smith Middle School in Stafford County. “Three out of my four kids have gone through the Fredericksburg system for elementary school. So, I do have a lot rooted there and a lot of attachment and a lot of hopes and dreams for ways that we can improve it.”
Press the Issue
For more information on the Ward 3 candidates, visit their websites: Annie Langdon; Sarah Stelmok.
Ward 3, which straddles U.S. Route 1 and includes the College Heights neighborhood, is the only contested school board race in the city during the current election cycle. Andy Wolfenbarger (Ward 1), Katie Pomeroy (incumbent, Ward 2) and Malvina Rollins-Kay (incumbent, Ward 4) are all running unopposed.
If elected, Stelmok said that she would work to ensure that general education teachers have adequate training to work with the special education students whom they encounter in their classrooms.
“One of the first initiatives I would work on is making sure that all of the teachers in the district have at least some understanding of special education law and working with special education students in their classroom, especially when it comes to behavior,” she said. “Because behavior is the first line of communication for a special needs child. And if you’re reading that behavior wrong, you can end up triggering the child. You can make the behavior worse.”
On shifting state guidance and performance standards, Stelmok said FCPS “doesn’t have a choice” but to adapt, even if that means consulting with larger, more urban districts that mirror Fredericksburg’s demographic makeup.
“Our school district cannot get away from diversity and inclusion,” she said. “We are the poster children for a school district that has diversity and inclusion.”
For Langdon, accountability — or what she sees as a lack of it within the division — is a key issue.
“We do not hold anyone — teachers, students, parents — we don’t hold anybody to a high standard,” she said. “And the human condition is, if you set the bar down here, this is where everybody is going to go. Because why would you go and work any harder or try any harder? And we really need to just do more to expect more.”
In January, Langdon attended a conference for the Comprehensive Instructional Program (CIP), a consortium of public school divisions with similar challenges that Fredericksburg joined last year. Principals representing the CIP’s seven-highest performing schools spoke at the conference, sharing the recipe for their schools’ success.
“And I was amazed that every single person, all seven people that got up to speak, said the exact same thing: we hold everyone to a high standard,” Langdon said. “Their expectation of their teachers is, like, you will have a 90% plus SOL pass rate. And, if you don’t, things will happen.
“There was a very clear, very high expectation of performance from the teachers, from the students. And I was like, this is not at all what we’re doing. But this is what we have to do. And it is the polar opposite of what we do in the city.”
