Local school board races include 8 challengers and 6 incumbents
Newport News, Hampton seats up for grabs May 5
A long list of candidates are running for school board in Newport News and Hampton, including five people vying for one seat on the Newport News board.
Fourteen candidates met the deadline of March 3 to gather enough petitions to get on the ballot in the new cities. The election is May 5.
Newport News
Three seats are up for election — one from each of the north, central and south districts.
The central district is the most hotly contested. Five people qualified to be on the ballot for the seat, which Shelly Simmonds vacated when she was elected to the House of Delegates in November.
Former Norfolk elementary school principal Maritsa Alger was appointed to the seat by the school board in January. Her four challengers are running for public office for the first time:
■ Rebecca Aman is an attorney who grew up in Newport News and specializes in estate, business and tax law.
■ Holly Kidd is a former high school math teacher who is a supervising engineer for the city and adjunct professor at Christopher Newport University.
■ Peter Mercier III retired in 2018 as director of apprenticeship and adult training at New Horizons Regional Education Center.
■ Cameron Bertrand is a community activist and the founder of Violence Intervention & Prevention LLC.
Incumbent John Eley III, a local business owner who was first elected to the board in 2016, faces a challenge from Marlon Pendergraft Sr., a lieutenant in the Newport News Fire Department.
The north district race is uncontested. Marvin Harris, a training executive for the Department of Defense, was first elected in 2016.
Hampton
All three Hampton School Board members whose terms are expiring are running for reelection.
■ Ann Cherry, chair of the board and former school division spokeswoman, was first elected in 2016 after retiring from the division in 2013.
■ Phyllis Taylor Henry, the board’s longest-serving member, is a former principal of Phoebus High School. She was first elected in 2004.
■ Reginald Woodhouse was first elected in 2016 and is the pastor of First Baptist Church Jefferson Park.
A fourth at-large seat is also open, formerly occupied by Martha Mugler before she was elected to the House of Delegates. Monica Smith, who was also appointed in January, won’t be on the ballot in May.
Three others are challenging the incumbents for a seat on the board:
■ Tina Banks-Gray is currently manager of neighborhood centers for the city and a past PTSA officer.
■ Stephanie Afonja coowns Family Restoration Services, which provides non-traditional counseling and therapeutic services for children, with her husband.
■ William Melgaard is a licensed engineer running for office for the first time.