School board's empty 8th District seat draws two candidates

In Richmond’s Southside-based 8th District, former paralegal and perennial candidate E.J. “Emmett Jay” Jafari is facing off against Owens & Minor employee and police chaplain P.H. “Cruz” Sherman for the School Board seat being vacated by Dawn Page. 

Page, who has served on the board since 2016 and is its current chair, announced she would not seek reelection this May and has since endorsed Sherman. 

Jafari, who has run unsuccessfully for office eight times before, is pointing to his familiarity with the community and experience working with youth and in social and other public services as reasons for voters to back him. Besides working as a school safety officer for Richmond Public Schools, his resume also includes stints with Richmond’s social services and parks and recreation departments, Goochland County’s Office on Youth, the former Virginia State Penitentiary and GRTC. For a number of years, he operated the African American Tours of Richmond company.

“In me the district gets a native Richmond and neighborhood product who has intentionally purposed himself in the dedicated service of others, with a background honed for the times we live in and the problems we face,” he wrote in response to questions from The Richmonder. 

Sherman is seeking office for the first time, although he had a brush with the School Board in 2015, when former member Mamie Taylor hired his media firm to issue statements on her behalf. (Taylor is challenging current member Stephanie Rizzi for the 5th District seat this November.) He has previously worked as a special education instructor in Chesterfield County and as a youth crisis counselor in Richmond Public Schools. In 2021, he founded anti-gun violence group Virginians in Action after a quadruple shooting at the Belt Atlantic apartments left a mother and her newborn dead. 

He has said his “working understanding of governance” through his professional experience, as well as community relationships and time in the schools qualify him for the School Board. 

“People know me. They trust me,” he said. “I've been getting calls already in terms of people asking for solutions, and even though I'm not on the School Board at this time, I direct them to people that can help them, and that's what I am. I like to consider myself a problem solver.” 

The latest campaign finance numbers show Sherman as having raised over $17,000 — much of it in the form of in-kind donations — to Jafari’s $4,600. A few notable names appear on Sherman’s fundraising roster: 8th District Councilwoman Reva Trammell, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin and colorful local politician and attorney Joe Morrissey. 

Sherman has also racked up a list of significant endorsements, including those of the Richmond Crusade for Voters, the PAC for the Richmond Education Association (the local teachers union) and Richmonders for Effective Governance of Schools. 

The race between the two contenders took an unexpected turn earlier this month when Jafari filed a petition seeking to disqualify Sherman from the ballot on the grounds that he only listed the year and not the exact date his voting rights had been restored after a felony on a required elections form. Jafari argued Sherman consequently “did not satisfy the basic lawful requirements to run for public office.” 

In a lengthy Facebook post this August about the elections paperwork, Jafari described his opponent as an “unknown newcomer,” raised questions about his criminal record and wrote that “I, my campaign, support complete restoration of rights upon fulfilling all sentence mandates but oppose skirting or waiving legal requirements to achieve privileges of that status.”  

Sherman, whose felony record stems from 1988 convictions for passing bad checks in Memphis, Tennessee, has said he’s been transparent about his background and that he fulfilled all the requirements the courts imposed on him. In prior interviews with WTVR, he’s also spoken about his past troubles with the law, including his involvement with a gang as a young man and his attempt to shoot someone while on probation. 

“That is why I have been so transparent, because I want to teach all the kids: don’t get in trouble from the beginning, but understand it, and look at me as an example,” he said. “If you do, that’s not the end of your life, and you can go on to be a productive citizen. You can go on to have a positive impact.” 

Sherman said his rights were restored in Tennessee on May 8, 1995, and prior to running for office, he called the Tennessee Department of Elections and the Memphis Circuit Court to check that there was nothing remaining on his record to prevent him from running for office. 

“I firmly believe that I am eligible based on everything I’ve been told,” he said. “I’ve researched everything, and before I even decided to run, I went back and asked those critical questions: Is there anything in my past or now that would prohibit me from becoming a candidate? And had there been anything in my mind, as far as my knowledge, I would not have run for this office.” 

Priorities

Asked about what his priorities would be if elected this November, Sherman identified improvements in graduation and accreditation, as well as addressing overcrowding in schools on the Southside, where populations continue to grow rapidly. 

Graduation rates for Richmond Public Schools rose from 72% to 78% last year, and Sherman said he wants to see them continue increasing — “realistically” to 81% or 82%. He also said he would focus on increasing the percentage of division schools that are accredited by the state: Currently, 24 of Richmond’s 44 schools, or 55%, are accredited, but he said that number needs to move towards the 80% range. 

“Those are the simple metrics that I will look at to really give a fair evaluation of how we’re performing as a school board, how we’re performing as a school system,” he said. 

Jafari highlighted three priorities: revamping schools, particularly those in the Richmond Highway corridor, to meet “crime prevention through environmental design” or CPTED standards; adding crosswalks near district schools to improve student safety; and revisiting HeadStart and preschool zoning and enrollment policies. 

“Substantive steps must be taken [to] ensure equitable distributions of the funding and attention on par with the City’s other schools and districts,” he wrote in an email. In particular, he flagged building issues at Ruffin Road Elementary, a building that is owned by Richmond Public Schools but is not currently being used for instruction, and Summer Hill Preschool. 

The school division and School Board have floated the idea of reopening Ruffin Road as a possible way to relieve overcrowding on the Southside. 

Jafari said while he believes Richmond Public Schools has issues that need attention, he “can vouch for the overall efficacy of the system itself, and the policies undergirding it.”

“RPS is a winning school system, having produced some of the nation’s and indeed the world’s top acidemias, broadcasters, athletes, public servants, attorneys, educators, jurists, and entertainers,” he wrote. “Despite all the naysayers and doom-and-gloomers, and those who use singular instances of violent occurrences to exploit community tragedy and color the entire school division, RPS’ schools and families thwart all such negativity and continue to strive forward.” 

Kamras 

Jafari said recent improvements in the division’s test scores and chronic absenteeism rates indicate Superintendent Jason Kamras is performing well. The School Board is set to consider Kamras’ contract this winter. 

“While I do have concerns about areas deemed to stand in need of attention, i.e. policy adherence, student protections, etc., that does not rise to the level of nor warrant superintendent termination conversation,” he wrote. 

Sherman declined to offer an evaluation of Kamras in an interview with The Richmonder or at a League of Women Voters forum this September, saying he doesn’t have enough information to make a responsible assessment and would want to know more about the goals the School Board previously set for Kamras and what progress he had made in meeting them. 

“I don’t have all the data to evaluate him,” he said. “And I don’t think it would be fair for any of us that are coming in at this particular time to make a snap judgment.” 

Overcrowding 

Both candidates acknowledged significant population pressures in Southside schools, a growing concern frequently mentioned by the School Board. The issue became a political flashpoint in 2022, when a split board rejected a rezoning proposal put forward by Kamras’ administration to relieve overcrowding at River City Middle School. The board later reversed the decision. 

Sherman has said that as division leaders consider how to alleviate pressures, it will be critical to base decisions on both data and community input.

“We have to come back to the 8th District residents,” he said. “Would they be inclined to an acceptable rezoning, or are they more inclined to have new schools?”

During the September forum, he also argued officials should be cognizant of neighborhood dynamics as they consider possible rezonings or consolidations. 

“We have neighborhoods right now that are a block over from each other and they’re in conflict,” he said. “So we have to make sure that we’re not creating a problem while we’re trying to repair a problem.”

Jafari said he “won’t vote to lump schools together to give a false sense of solving our enrollment problems.” 

“Enrollment levels spike and ebb and we must have a place in place that meets that need in that moment, for as long as it takes to develop and implement a long-range solution,” he wrote in an email. “This is particularly relevant to the 8th district which has seen a major rise in its Hispanic and Latino families and student populations; it is not just a matter of buildings, teachers, and desks but also a need to assure multicultural and language adaptations. Absent these additional adjustments expect attendance and grades to suffer.”