STAFFORD, Va. – Three candidates are running for the Garrisonville District seat on the Stafford County School Board, setting up a closely watched contest centered on transparency, parent engagement, and education priorities.
Maureen Siegmund, the incumbent and current chairwoman of the School Board, will seek re-election to a second term. She faces a rematch with Wanda Blackwell, who lost to Siegmund in 2021 by just 41 votes, and Stephanie Mojica, a first-time candidate and Stafford County mother of three.
Blackwell was the first to launch her campaign, hosting a kickoff event on July 20 at Vinny’s Italian Grill on Garrisonville Road. Her campaign is being promoted primarily through her personal Facebook page, where she has shared family photos and inspirational images of Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. She is raising funds through ActBlue, a platform commonly used by Democratic-aligned candidates. While school board races in Virginia are nonpartisan, political parties frequently support candidates behind the scenes.
Blackwell’s campaign messaging includes the slogan “A New Voice, A New Vision!”, though she has not yet shared specific policy positions publicly.
Siegmund, who was elected chair of the school board in January 2024, will officially launch her re-election campaign with a Family Literacy Night on Wednesday, July 30, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Porter Library. The event will feature free book giveaways, crafts for kids, voter registration, and multilingual translation services.
“Literacy is the foundation of a strong education and strong communities,” Siegmund said in a statement. “This event is a chance to celebrate that joy while hearing directly from families about their hopes for our schools.”
As chairwoman, Siegmund has led the school board through a challenging year that included the start of a superintendent search and a transportation crisis that left thousands of students without bus service at the beginning of the 2024–25 school year. She supported hiring an independent investigator to review the failures and has pledged to rebuild trust in the school division.
Newcomer Stephanie Mojica is also seeking the seat. A longtime Virginia resident and mother of three children, Mojica says she was motivated to run after dealing firsthand with “inadequacies” in the school system and hearing concerns from fellow parents. She is advocating for greater transparency, increased parental involvement, and a greater emphasis on student well-being.
“I want to ensure our children are the top priority and that parents are being heard,” Mojica said in a public statement. “From IEPs to mental health to bullying and testing, I want parents involved so we’re all working together for the success of the children.”
Mojica is promoting her platform through social media, where she has posted detailed messages outlining her positions on issues such as nutrition, device usage, and concerns about the school calendar.
The Garrisonville School Board race is one of several local elections scheduled to appear on the November 2025 ballot, with early voting set to begin in September.
