NORFOLK, Va. — There are several candidates on the ballot for Norfolk School Board this November. 13News Now has gathered all the information you need to know about before heading into the voting booth on Tuesday.
Superward 5
Special Election
Ken Paulson is running unopposed in a special election for the Superward 5 seat. He served the U.S. Army for 23 years, notably as the US Army Aviation School Deputy Director of Training and Doctrine. He then joined work at an airline after the Army, working in labor union activities.
In Norfolk, Paulson started as Chief of Election in Bayview, also serving as a member of the Norfolk Coastal Resource Management Board, Norfolk Erosion Control Board, and Civic League VP and President. He currently serves as the interim President of the Cottage Line Civic League, Chair of the Norfolk Wetlands Board, and Ward 5 Ambassador to the Norfolk Plan 2050 Committee.
He has said he wants to innovate student learning, fully accredit all schools by retaining high quality teachers, consolidate some schools in order to modernize them and strengthen accountability actions for "students who disrupt the learning environment with violent behaviors."
Superward 6
Sarah DiCalogero
Sarah DiCalogero has lived in Norfolk for the past 25 years. She currently is an associate professor of mathematics at Tidewater Community College, but teaching wasn't her first career choice. After being stuck in Boston on 9/11, she said, she decided she wanted to do something more meaningful with her life, and found her way to teaching through Old Dominion University's Career Switchers program.
She taught math for Norfolk Public Schools and eventually TCC for over two decades. Her three daughters also all went through, or are currently enrolled in, the Norfolk Public Schools system. She was PTA president of her daughters' elementary and middle schools.
Rebecca Danchise Topping
Rebecca Danchise Topping is currently the communications director at First Presbyterian Church as well as the secretary of the Blair Middle School PTA. Her two children have been enrolled in Norfolk Public Schools since they were in first grade. She has lived in West Ghent since 2008.
Topping's priorities for Norfolk Schools include enforcing cell phone free education, improving academic performance and boosting school accreditation, improving teacher and student morale and implementing listening sessions to hear from teachers.
Superward 7
Alfreda Thomas
Alfreda Thomas went to Granby High School and Tidewater Community College. She is currently a math tutor specialist and teacher in the Norfolk Public Schools system. She also ran for school board in 2018 but was not elected.
She's said some of her primary focuses will be on the wellbeing of teachers and ensuring there is adequate support for students who are falling behind because of unstable home lives.
Ron White
Ron White is an assistant professor at Norfolk State University, and has a Ph.D. in Educational Management from Hampton University. Originally, he graduated from Norfolk Public Schools.
He was endorsed by the Education Association of Norfolk and the New Virginia Majority. He also has said he advocates for safer schools, support for English-language learning families and safer schools.
