3rd District school board: Differences on Kamras, candidates’ backgrounds define race

In the 3rd District, three candidates are vying for the School Board seat left vacant by Kenya Gibson as she makes a bid to represent the area on City Council. 

All three would be new to the School Board, although businessman and nonprofit head Kevin Starlings previously sought the 3rd District seat in 2016 and 2017. Arts nonprofit worker Charlene Riley and state government analyst Ali Faruk have also thrown their hats into the ring. 

To date, Faruk has raised the most money, with more than $19,000 at the end of September, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project. Starlings has reported nearly $7,000, mostly from businesses he owns, and Riley has brought in nearly $200. 

Faruk has also garnered the endorsements of the Richmond Crusade for Voters and Richmonders for Effective Governance of Schools, a group that emerged earlier this year to push for a more “governance-minded” School Board after several years of highly public infighting among members of the body. 

Notably, the PAC for the Richmond Education Association, the local teachers union, is endorsing none of the 3rd District candidates. Anne Forrester, vice president of the REA and a member of the PAC steering committee, said PAC members “ultimately couldn’t reach a decision because we felt all candidates had their strengths.” 

The candidates, all of whom have children in the public schools, offer an array of backgrounds, priorities and positions for voters. 

Riley, 34, who currently works for the nonprofit Black Virginia Theater Alliance, graduated from Richmond Public Schools while pregnant with her second child and has said she believes her experience gives her unique insight into the challenges many students in the division face. Additionally, she said her age would allow greater representation of younger generations on the School Board. 

“A lot of the demographics of the students are changing, the parents are changing,” she said. “And I just thought, we just need some support on the School Board that actually represented that and kind of represented the interest and what parents of those demographics wanted to see.” 

Faruk, 40, has been a Richmond resident for 20 years and now works as a senior policy analyst for the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services after jobs including stints at Housing Opportunities Made Equal, Families Forward Virginia and as a legislative aide for Democratic Del. Sam Rasoul.

“I’ve been an advocate my whole career,” he said. “I have shown up and organized lobby days. I have written bills and budget amendments. I have set up meetings with elected officials. I've set up direct actions to pressure elected officials. I've also been the person on the inside. I worked in government. I've written regulations and I've written policy that other people were advocating and lobbying on. So I know how to make change. I know how to focus, and because I'm part of the community, I have a stake in it.” 

Starlings, 38, is another longtime Northside resident and the owner of Starling Enterprises, an array of companies that include party rental business Jeremiah Entertainment, three handyman and construction businesses, and RVA Tiny Homes. He also founded and leads the nonprofit Starlings Foundation, previously known as Ignite Richmond, which focuses on “community development, public education, and assisting those that are under-represented and under-served,” and is the current chair of RPS’ School Health Advisory Committee.

“I’m not new to this,” he wrote in response to questions from The Richmonder. “My experience as a parent, music educator, and longtime Richmond resident has given me a deep understanding of our schools and the issues they face. I can get sworn in and get right to work.” 

Starlings’ legal history

Starlings has been convicted of embezzlement three times, most recently for roughly $1,359 from the Short Pump Bath & Body Works in 2017. In that case, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney was among seven people who wrote letters to the Henrico County judge ahead of Starlings’ sentencing attesting to his character. Stoney wrote Starlings was “someone who I believe should not be judged by his past mistakes.” 

In November 2023, Starlings was convicted again in Henrico of check fraud involving thousands of dollars worth of work on a vehicle. Between February and May 2024, he served a three-month home incarceration sentence at a residence he has in Sandston. He said his primary residence is in Richmond. 

Starlings told The Richmonder that a psychologist diagnosed him with kleptomania after his second embezzlement conviction and that he has since sought treatment and therapy. 

“After the third time it happened, I realized there was an issue,” he said. “I had a problem.” 

He said the check fraud conviction was due to a misunderstanding that involved insufficient funds in a checking account that he shared with another individual who was not depositing money into the account as promised. Court records show Starlings attempted to withdraw the guilty plea he had previously made as part of a plea agreement, although the motion was rejected.

Under Virginia law, people convicted of a felony permanently lose their voting rights — and therefore their right to run for public office — unless the governor grants a petition to restore those rights. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office confirmed Starlings’ rights have been restored twice, once in 2016, when he previously ran for School Board, and on Feb. 8, 2024. 

Despite the embezzlement convictions, Starlings said he believes he can still carry out the financial oversight duties expected of a School Board member. 

“I don’t have access to the funds,” he said. “Oversight I can still do.” 

He also said he was eager to let the past be the past, noting that his criminal record was also highlighted in his 2016 School Board run.

“I am committed to always regaining the trust and respect of those I’ve lost in the past,” he said. “I refuse to let this hold me back. My focus is on the future.”

Teacher retention and Kamras 

All three candidates pointed to teacher retention as one of the biggest problems facing Richmond Public Schools.

Starlings described the district as “hemorrhaging talent” during a September League of Women Voters forum. In an email, he pointed to “ineffective building leadership” as a key problem and pledged to provide “livable wages and comprehensive wrap-around support.” 

In an interview with The Richmonder, Faruk said the issue is the number-one concern he has heard when knocking on doors in the 3rd District. 

“People are worried, even non-teachers, that we’re not doing enough to support the teachers, that the job’s gotten harder, but we’re not really — we meaning the school system — doing enough to support them,” he said. That’s more than just salaries, he insisted: “Everyone thinks teachers should be paid more, but I also hear, if you’re not creating a supportive working environment for the teacher, people leave jobs because of bad bosses.” 

Riley was even more blunt during a 3rd District forum earlier this fall: “We have to stop giving the teachers pizza parties and actually give them incentives and a chance to move up within their company,” she said. “So when we have openings for principals and other things in the building, we need to start saying, Hey, let’s look at how long we’ve been on the job and let’s look at the job performance and start hiring and promoting from within.” 

Riley carries that view all the way up the ladder, saying that she wants to allow Superintendent Jason Kamras — of whom she is critical — to finish his term next year and then replace him with someone already in the division rather than conducting a broader search. 

“I hope to implement a policy where we are hiring and promoting our superintendent from within RPS, and I would like our next superintendent to at least be a key-holding principal of a building,” she said during the League of Women Voters forum.

On that point, Faruk disagrees with her. Asked about Kamras, he has said he supports the superintendent and believes any decision about his continued employment should be based on data regarding student outcomes. In his view, data showing increases in Standards of Learning test results, graduation rate rises, decreases in chronic absenteeism and the accreditation of five new schools justify retaining the superintendent. 

“Everything has to be about student outcomes. That is the whole point,” he said. “And our student outcomes are moving in the right direction. That’s why I support keeping him.” 

Starlings has been vague about his position on Kamras, telling The Richmonder a decision about hiring or firing the superintendent “demands rigorous scrutiny of data, outcomes, and community input.” At the League of Women Voters forum, he said that he didn’t “have the information to be able to determine that.” 

“Being on the public side, it’s a personnel thing, and you know, I can’t really see or measure really what the outcomes are that are required,” he said. 

Other priorities

Riley is emphasizing transparency and accountability in her campaign, and has made pointed criticisms over the past few months of what she says is a lack of critical information that is being shared with the public. In particular, she has said the School Board and Richmond Public Schools have not been transparent about the events that led to the Huguenot High School graduation shooting in June 2023 that left two dead or the budget. 

Asked about how the school system is spending its money and whether — as boards regularly insist — more funding is needed for the division, she said that “we don’t have enough information to determine if we’re spending too much, too little or not enough.” 

Faruk said there was no question that Richmond schools need more funding. While he said it’s important to assess whether the division is spending money with “efficacy and efficiency,” he maintained that RPS budgets “have never been fully funded.” 

“It's been close, which is good, and I will give absolutely all the credit in the world to the mayor and the current council, who for the last several budget cycles have worked hard to bring in more, including more recently, the council approved more funding for facilities and upgrades and things like that,” he said. “But the reality is even something as humble as a strategic planning process … even that isn't getting fully funded.”

Starlings too said he believes Richmond “is spending too little on education” and said that if elected, he would push for changes at the state level to allow Richmond to hold a referendum on a 1% local sales tax increase to fund school construction (only nine local governments in Virginia are currently allowed to do so, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently vetoed an expansion of the power) and adjust the state’s local composite index, which drives state assistance.

For Faruk, key priorities include increasing the graduation rate, further decreasing chronic absenteeism — a perennial problem in the division in recent years — and improving literacy skills by the 3rd grade, a time educational researchers have flagged as a critical predictor of a student’s future educational success. 

But he also said that if the broader School Board didn’t share those priorities, he would follow the will of the board, saying it’s crucial for the body to unify behind several shared goals and outline a strategic plan for reaching them.

“I just think that's so fundamentally important to do from a governance perspective, because I firmly believe that's how you rebuild trust with the public,” he said. “You have to tell them what you're going to accomplish and what you're going to do when you get there, and also that gives you a chance to explain why you do or didn't meet that goal.” 

Starlings too said in an email that the board “should create clear expectations and goals, and the superintendent must provide regular, data-driven updates on progress toward those goals.” 

His priorities, meanwhile, center on “college and workforce readiness,” including expanding access to vocational training and apprenticeships, “authentic learning, engagement, facilities and infrastructure, health and wellness.” 

“While RPS has areas of strength, the serious issues in academics, staffing, leadership, and safety overshadow the positives,” he wrote. “Addressing these challenges is crucial to improving the district's performance and providing the quality education our students deserve.”