Meet The Candidate: Bridget Shea Westfall For Alexandria School Board

ALEXANDRIA, VA — As voters begin casting early ballots for Alexandria's Nov. 2 general election, one of the races they will decide is the Alexandria School Board.

The school board is made up of three districts, each of which has three board members who serve a three-year term. Members who are elected in the Nov. 2 election will take office in 2022.
Voters will either vote for Alexandria School Board District A, B or C depending on which district they live in. There are five candidates running for three seats in District A, seven candidates running for three seats in District B, and three candidates running for three seats in District C.

One of the District B candidates is Bridget Shea Westfall, who works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has two kids — one current ACPS student and one future ACPS student.

For more information about the upcoming election in Alexandria, visit www.alexandriava.gov/Elections.

Learn more about Bridget Shea Westfall and why she is running for Alexandria School Board District B in 2021:

Editor's note: below are the unedited views of the candidate.

Age (as of Election Day)

42

Position sought (mayor, city council, school board, etc.)

Alexandria City School Board, District B

Party Affiliation

Nonpartisan election

Family

My family has lived in the Rosemont neighborhood since 2013. I live with my husband, Rick and sons, Jameson (7), a second grader at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School (formerly Matthew Maury) and Patrick (4), a pre-kindergartener at Bright Horizons Old Town in the Caryle neighborhood. Patrick will join his brother at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School next school year. I moved to Virginia in 2005 and have lived in Arlington, Washington, DC and Chevy Chase and Silver Spring, Maryland.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

My husband, Rick Westfall works for the U.S. Department of Justice and I've worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families since 2005 (16 years).

Education

Master of Social Work (MSW) in social and economic development, management, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, 2004
Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Missouri, 2002

Occupation

Supervisory Grants Management Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families since 2015. I have worked at HHS for 16 years: Presidential Management Fellow (2005-2007), Youth Program Specialist (2007-2009) in the Family and Youth Services Bureau, Senior Community Services Program Specialist (2009-2011) in the Office of Community Services, Senior Child Care Program Specialist (2011-2015) in the Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Development. Prior to federal service, I was a social worker at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Legal Advocates for Abused Women (now Crime Victims Center), Family Court of St. Louis County, Big Brothers Big Sisters and CenterPointe Hospital in St. Louis, MO. I have 20 years experience in grants policy and human service management.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

This is my first campaign for School Board or for an elected or appointed office.

Campaign website

https://www.bridgetforacps.org.

Why are you seeking elective office?

My passion is improving the lives of children, youth, families and communities. I am running for school board as an Advocate for Children and Public Schools. We need school board members who serve as advocates for the ACPS community, prioritizing the needs and interests of students and the public school system. We need leaders on the Alexandria City School Board who believe in public education and send their children to Alexandria City Public Schools. We need leaders who evaluate every decision with this question: Is this in the best interest of our students and our public school system? I am that leader. My husband and I chose Alexandria as our home because of the diversity of Alexandria City Public Schools, the sense of community, and ACPS pride. Whether you are a multi-generational Alexandrian or a new American, you are welcome here and deserve an excellent public education through safe and successful schools. I see the School Board as a natural extension of my public service. I have no desire to be a politician or cater to special interests; only to serve the ACPS community. I believe in creative problem solving, smart use of available resources, and innovative solutions to challenges faced in the pandemic and in urban public education. I pledge to be honest, transparent, and have an unwavering commitment to ethical decision-making. I will listen, advocate for student and community needs, and ask the tough questions.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Transparent decision making and communication. As we enter a third year in a pandemic, transparency in school board decisions and communication with the parents and community of Alexandria City Public Schools is the most pressing issue. With the Delta variant and returning to school after 18 months in a virtual or hybrid learning environment, parents and community members want the school board and ACPS leadership to maintain open and honest lines of communication with them. The community of ACPS wants the school board to keep them informed on decisions that are in the best interest of the school division. Our community--including students, teachers, staff, parents, caregivers and community members--are always watching and very atuned to the school board's responsibilities of managing the superintendent, governance, and policy formulation. This last year, there were times when poor communications and lack of perceived transparencey eroded community trust. From ACPS communicating the intent-to-return form was nonbinding and then changing the form to binding, to the changing timeline to return to in-person learning for the six students with disabilities in city wide, to the pushback on parents requesting use of outdoor space for learning and lunch, these are examples that eroded trust and ultimately caused some families to leave ACPS.

As a school board member, it is my goal to be as open as pssible concerning board discussions and any decisions made on behalf of ACPS. Famillies and community members lose trust if they suspect decisions are being made outside board sessions or without community input. I will create open lines of communication for students, parents, and teachers to consistently be able to voice their feedback and understand decisions that have been made: 1. Provide comprehensive information that is easy to locate and understand on the ACPS website 2. Develop score cards to show progress and evaluate performance for the annual budget, strategic and capital improvement plans, 3. Mandate that ACPS School Board meeting agenda materials be available to the public at least 42 hours in advance. Ensure that all materials meet accessibility standards. 4. Produce a bi-weekly Board Bulletin with high-level information relevant to ACPS stakeholders 5. Hold routine office hours, town halls, and discussion circles to allow community input into decision making

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Managing the superintendent, formulating policy, budgeting and fiscal management, and governance is what I've done in my day job for the past two decades. I advise nonprofits, states, Tribes, universities and hospitals how to skillfully manage grant progams and oversee a $9B portfolio. As a grants management officer, I advise boards how to select and hire key staff in roles similar to the superintendent, formulate a budget and create internal controls for accounting and audits.

Being a school board member will not be a learning curve for me, as many of my grantees are pre-K through 12 public school systems and I have extensive experience working with boards on problem solving tasks. I've served on nonprofit boards for the Junior League of Washington, Junior Friends of The Campagna Center, St. Matthew's Cathedral, The Young Ambassadors Council of The Children's Inn at NIH, and Zeta Tau Alpha and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I train community volunteers and nonprofit management graduate students on how to serve on nonprofit boards.

I'm an expert in policy and governance, having taught graduate level courses and worked as a policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on education and health policy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education. I have direct practice work in K-12 schools as a deputy juvenile officer and social worker and was a researcher, evaluating the effectiveness of school based programs.

Lastly, I'm the only school board candidate with expertise in real property and facilities. I advise recipients of federal funds how to identify and purchase land and renovate or construct facilities. I also help establish who owns and is responsible for the property, based on the interest owned in the property.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

I'm a strengths-based person who prefers to look at missed opportunities rather than failures. Being a school board is a thankless job and I believe everyone acted with the best intentions. I identifiy managing the superintendent and transparency about decision-making and communications as two areas for growth as a school board member. My goal as a school board member is uphold my responsibilities as an elected official to manage the superintendent. We are very lucky to have an ACPS graduate as our superintendent...a member of our community as our leader. I respect the superintendent's accomplishments and will treat him with respect and professionalism. At the same time, I will hold him accountable for performance, particularly responsding to crisis, such as the pandemic and Delta variant, issues with facilities and operations of ACPS schools, transportation, central office management, and academic achievement for all students. I am not afraid to speak up and represent the community, ask the tough questions and not always be popular, if it is in the best interest of our students and public school division. As a school board member, I would want to be very open and communicative about why decisions are made and represent my constituents and the community, not my own interests. There are opportunities to improve communications by having more opportunities for community feedback and interaction with the school board and making ACPS information easily accessible and communicated in plain language.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

I think that local officials were well-intended and had success in implementing the federal meal assistance program to all ACPS students and making sure that students had access to the internet and tablets and Chromebooks. I appreciate the superintendent modeling the importance of vaccinations. That being said, local officials acted rather conservatively, saying "they have never been in a pandemic".

I would have been more proactive in using pandemic recovery funds from the federal, state and local government for mitigation strateges. For example, there were opportunities to use outdoor or city spaces for learning, provide child care to ACPS teachers, and families and most importantly, bring priority groups back to in-person learning. There was an opportunity when community spread was low, to bring back priority groups of students, such as students with disabilities, K-2 students, language learners, students experiencing homelessness, students experiencing food insecurity and students experiencing child abuse and neglect or family violence. I would have created a virtual staffing model and an in-person staffing model, so teachers didn't have to teach concurrently. Additionally, I would have liked to see students have the opportunity to have four days a week of in-person learning in the spring when community spread was low.

As far as this year, the Delta variant brought signification operational challenges. I would have proposed using DASH transportation to address school bus driver shortages and overcrowding, use of outdoor space for lunch and learning, use of adjacent city recreation facilities, hiring additional teachers or paraprofessionals, addressing vaccine hesitancy with staff and eligible students in the summer and having a vaccine policy aligned with the FDA approval of the vaccine and additional testing for those unvaccinated in advance of the start of the school year. There needed to be clearer communication about close contacts and quarantining, including learning in quarantine. I've heard from parents that it differs from school to school and that there is a lot of anxiety due to the delay in notifying close contacts after the school receives notice of a COVID-19 case. I'd imporve the COVID-19 dashboard, having an archive of notifications and close contacts per school with a unique identifier for each case. I would update the dashboard more frequently, ideally each day. I would look at mitigation strategies aligned with the CDC guidance to reduce the quarantine through testing and shorter quarantine periods and doing system wide testing for students under 12 until vaccines are available and for the general population under teacher and staff vaccinates were mandated and implemented.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

1. Accountability through Transparent Decisions and Communication: create open lines of communication for students, parents, and teachers to consistently be able to voice their feedback and understand decisions that have been made
2. Challenge Capacity through Smart Growth and Planning of ACPS Facilities: provide ACPS with good quality facilities and safe indoor and outdoor learning environments
3. Plan for Pandemic Recovery: keep our schools safe from COVID-19 while also catching up on lost academic and developmental progress
4. Support Safe and Successful Schools: Keep our children safe, promote learning and academic success, and ensure students are socially and emotionally healthy

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

During the pandemic, I helped advise child-serving organizations how to safely reopen or provide services according to public health data and science. I had to think creatively, use available resources and implement programs and services with ever-changing information. I have a track record of working in crisis situations, from natural disasters, repatriation of US citizens, humanitarian crisises to changing political and economic situations to public health crisis, both in direct practice and at the macro-level.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

"People over Policies."
I live life according to the social justice values my parents and community instilled in me. We have far more in common than what divides us. As a school board member, I have a responsibility to people, my neighbors who elected me. Through my valued, the interests of ACPS and our community will always be placed before my own interests. The responsibility to our ACPS students, teachers, staff, parents, caregivers and community guides my day-to-day. I am a "people person" by nature and developing personal relationships in the community and restoring trust are very important to me. People, not policies drive me as a public servant. I may have to represent views that are not aligned with my own, but are the views of my constituents.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Although I am a person of great privilege, I have at times during my life lived in subsidized housing, been food insecure, lived paycheck to paycheck, held multiple jobs just to cover rent and food, been in student debt over $150K and held many hourly wage jobs. I've been a office cleaner, host, server, bartender, collection agent, dance and acrobatics teacher, paraprofessional to people with disabilities and a mental health technician. I've had a prestigious job in the highest levels of government while simultaneously worrying about getting evicted or not paying my student loans. I've stayed late at work just to get leftover food or grabbed food from the trash. While I've traveled extensively as an adult, I never went on a plane until my grad school paid for my interview at my current job in DC or really left my home state. Two decades later, I still often suffer from imposter syndrome or feelings of self-doubts despite my accomplishments.

I share this, not for sympathy, but to say that I am a firm believer in trying to walk in another person's shoes and understand their point of view and never make assumptions. You never know what someone is going through or experiencing in their life and I try to assume positive intentions. I will always try to find common ground, work with other board members and ACPS leadership as a team and have empathy and compassion for others' experiences, beliefs, and values. I never forget the fact that a great percentage of our students and families are in federal poverty and experience food insecurity or that our teachers and staff may not be able to afford to live in our community. We have so many resources in ACPS, and I want everyone to have the same opportunities and excellent public education. I will advocate for children and advocate for public education, which creates opportunities.

Anyone can contact me at BridgetforACPS@gmail.com or on my cell (314) 640-4551 if they have any questions about my positions or background and experience.