Tuesday night's Richmond School Board elections proved to be difficult for returning candidates.

One incumbent, 2nd District member Mariah White, was unseated by Katie Ricard, a former teacher and administrator.

In the 4th District, Garrett Sawyer, a human resources consultant who was appointed to the seat this spring after Jonathan Young resigned, lost to Collegiate School teacher Wesley Hedgepeth in a highly competitive three-way race. 

“I knew that we would be close because I knew that my competition was stiff and was energized as well,” Hedgepeth said Wednesday. He ultimately took 44% of the vote, with Sawyer nabbing 37% and consultant Angela Fontaine 17%. 

“I think that people understand the value of an experienced educator being on the School Board,” said Hedgepeth. “I think that people are excited to welcome some new ideas, fresh ideas to the board and saw that in my campaign.” 

VCU faculty member Stephanie Rizzi, the only other incumbent who faced competition, hung onto her 5th District seat in a tight race with Mamie Taylor, a former School Board member. She ended the night with roughly 51% of the vote to Taylor’s 47%. 

“I’ve always said I look forward to continuing the progress that we’ve seen in the last two years with student outcomes and student achievement,” she said. “Voters who were able to focus on evidence and wanted evidence-based leadership, I thank those voters.”  

In the night’s other three-way race, state policy analyst Ali Faruk secured a comfortable victory to represent the 3rd District. In a post on his campaign site, he described himself as “honored and humbled.”

In the 8th District on Richmond’s Southside, the ninth time was the charm for E.J. "Emmett Jay" Jafari, a former paralegal and municipal worker who had unsuccessfully sought public office in Richmond eight times before but this fall edged out Owens & Minor employee and police chaplain P.H. “Cruz” Sherman for the job. 

“It’s a new day in the 8th District,” Jafari told The Richmonder, noting he “was able to drum up support from everyday people. 

“That kind of speaks for itself,” he said.

This October, Jafari filed a lawsuit seeking to disqualify Sherman from the ballot for only listing the year and not the exact date his voting rights were restored on election paperwork. The petition also asked a judge to remove the registrar from oversight of the election. It was dismissed Friday. 

Governance

Concerns about how the School Board governs itself and its reputation for dysfunction were a major theme of this year’s races, with two “good governance” groups — Richmonders for Effective Governance of Schools and the statewide We the People for Education — putting thousands of dollars in money and in-kind donations toward their preferred candidates. 

Six of the eight candidates endorsed by REGS won their races. The two who did not were Sawyer in the 4th District and Sherman in the 8th. 

“We knew that the Sawyer race was going to be close,” said Shannon Heady, a member of REGS’ steering committee. “The 8th District was surprising because I think Cruz Sherman ran a really amazing campaign and also had a lot of community leader and activist support behind him.” 

Tiffany Van Der Hyde of We the People for Education, a group that emerged in 2023 to support School Board candidates around the state who are “focused on good governance, effective education policies and financial stewardship” as well as student outcomes, also said the 8th District results caught her by surprise. She said her group is “reaching out to Jafari and seeing how we can best support him in this new role.” 

Overall, both described Tuesday’s outcomes as encouraging.

“Richmonders have spoken, and the era of politics and dysfunction are over,” said Heady. “We need to focus on our students, and we’re demanding an effective School Board focused on governance.”

Charlene Riley, one of the 3rd District candidates who lost to Faruk Tuesday, has aired suspicion, including in a lengthy Facebook video this weekend, that REGS and We the People for Education are actually a front for efforts to introduce new charter schools to Richmond. 

“When I said the private philanthropy and charter school members were masquerading as concerned parents this is what I mean,” she said in a post with a screenshot of REGS Facebook page. “It’s all secretly about charter schools.” 

Heady said REGS is “absolutely not a front for a charter school, in no way, shape or form” and that it is solely devoted to pushing for better governance of the School Board. 

“I think that is folks that want to undermine our work and don’t want to be held accountable,” she said.

Asked about the allegations, Van Der Hyde said they “were actually kind of funny given how much we are focused on keeping public dollars in our school systems.” 

“We are absolutely not a front for anything nefarious,” she said. “Right now the citizens of Richmond, and even more broadly Virginia voters, are against charter schools, as are we.”