This fall, Stafford’s voters will also choose their representatives for the School Board and Board of Supervisors for Garrisonville, Hartwood, Falmouth, and Aquia. George Washington, Rockhill, and Griffis-Widewater are up for election in 2027.
To help local voters learn more about their candidates, Potomac Local News invited all School Board candidates to a virtual interview with the same five questions; their answers have been condensed into a series of articles.
The videos are available here. Two candidates did not respond – Wanda Blackwell (Garrisonville) and Steve Epple (Hartwood).
Annette Scharpenberg (Aquia): An almost 30-year resident of Stafford, Scharpenberg has a K-12 certification and has taught in both public and private schools, at the university level, and in adult reading English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. A military wife, she also taught at Department of Defense schools. Scharpenberg is an active volunteer with the Regional Food Bank, Thurman Brisbane shelter, and a member of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary.
Josh Regan (Aquia): Regan has begun his 19th year as a public school teacher and is also a varsity basketball head coach in Fairfax County. Regan taught in Stafford schools for 11 years and has four children, two of whom graduated from Stafford’s public schools. He has two Master’s degrees in education – one in Special Education and one in Educational Leadership.
Sarah Breedin Chase (Falmouth, incumbent): Chase is finishing her eighth year on the Stafford School Board, having served two terms. She has three children, all of whom graduated from Stafford’s public schools. Chase’s background is in cognitive neuroscience, and she has taught at the University of Mary Washington.
Fawn Chergosky (Falmouth): In Stafford for almost 30 years, Chergosky recently moved to Falmouth. A military spouse, she has children in the Stafford School system and serves on the Transportation Advisory Committee. Chergosky was a county bus driver in 2021 and now serves as a routing specialist. She is also active in her daughter’s school PTA.
Maureen Siegmund (Garrisonville, incumbent): A 20-year Stafford resident, Siegmund has lived in Garrisonville for 10 years and has four children in Stafford’s public schools. She is finishing her first term on the school board, having run in 2021. Siegmund and her husband volunteer as coaches for youth sports teams and at the food pantry. She works for a defense firm.
Stephanie Mojica (Garrisonville): A Stafford resident since 2007, Mojica has two children enrolled in Stafford County schools. She has a background in Criminal Justice, having worked as a Docket Clerk for a judge, and also as a collections specialist in the Stafford County Treasurer’s Office.
Shannon Fingerholz (Hartwood): Fingerholz has one daughter in the Stafford County schools and has been an active volunteer at her school and on her school PTA. She has attended both school board meetings and board of supervisor meetings, and has made public comments to the board of supervisors.
With Stafford’s rapid growth and increasing school enrollment, what are the biggest challenges ahead—and how should the School Board plan to ensure schools are ready to meet demand?
Scharpenberg (Aquia): 
Stafford is going to continue to grow. Right now, we are underfunded. We are going to have to build new schools, and it’s going to be on the school board to go back to Richmond, to our legislators, and be aggressive, because you can’t keep going back to Stafford taxpayers for this. Stafford is underfunded. Funding for special education has dropped from 2013 all the way to 2023. It’s a big issue, so the school board is gonna have to go back and not let them off the hook. We need better funding.
Regan (Aquia): 
The growth in Stafford County has been tremendous – Stafford County’s population has increased 25.8% since 2010, and it’s going to continue to grow. We’re going to have more students, and we’re going to need more schools. So the school board needs to make smart, data-driven redistricting decisions to minimize the impact on our students. That’s gonna make things seamless, hopefully, for the students and tamp down a lot of anxiety and concern in the community. I think one thing that’s really important when we’re looking at redistricting or opening new schools is to get input from the staff in the buildings that would be affected, because they know their students, and take their opinions into account.
Breedin Chase (Falmouth, incumbent): 
We have had pretty steady growth. However, we currently have some interesting demographic trends in the country as a whole. The birth rate has been dropping in the United States – most areas of this country have the opposite problem of Stafford’s with declining enrollments. Stafford has just had this incredible growth, but we have to keep an eye on it to make sure that we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves in terms of growth. So we have a phenomenal demographer working in Stafford County Public Schools, Lionel White, and we really need to have him keep an eye on this for us. We are aware of this [growth] issue. That’s why you see next fall, we have a new high school coming online, and we have two new elementary schools coming online. So, Drew Middle School is the oldest building being used for school at this point in time, and so I have advocated to get Drew Middle School replaced. Currently, it’s on track to open in the fall of 2028. Heartwood Elementary School is the next, and it also is supposed to be opening in 2028. Part of making these things happen is having a good relationship with the Board of Supervisors and having conversations with them.
Chergosky (Falmouth): 
The county schools budget is a huge challenge, making sure we have enough money to cover everything from teachers’ salaries to economical programs, while also anticipating the growth of the county.
Siegmund (Garrisonville, incumbent): 
We don’t have a growth problem; we have a growth management problem. Prior boards of supervisors approved some of the development happening now, and we haven’t prepared for it. We need to look at where our children are and build schools where we need them. We need to be prepared for the students as they arrive, instead of playing catch-up later. It is much more expensive to pay for emergency fixes than to plan ahead. The best thing for my district is to have a school built where it’s needed, so that every student can be at a school close to their home. Busing kids through [another] district costs more money, time, and resources.
Mojica (Garrisonville): 
There are a lot of challenges facing the school system. Redistricting is one, with the overcrowding of the system in general. We hear that no kid left behind, but we have students who are being left behind when they move to the next grade level, and can’t read or write well. Then they fall further behind. A teacher I spoke to mentioned that reading textbooks and handwriting help students retain more than learning from the Chromebook. When it comes to redistricting, students really should be attending schools nearest to their homes. Students live right next to a school, and are sent 6 miles away to a different school. Parents also want more stability when it comes to their children not being shuffled around. It’s disrupting stability. I want to see Stafford County thrive, improve, and be a supportive environment for all students, focusing on the curriculum with more involvement from parents in their children’s education.
Fingerholz (Hartwood): 
We’ve had some growing pains, and we are finally getting 5 new buildings, which sounds so massive. Two brand new elementary schools, and then rebuilding Hartwood, a rebuild for Drew, and we’re getting a new high school. And that’s not enough – when they open, they’re gonna be very full. We can’t keep doing reactionary repairs. Maintenance is always gonna be a need. We have to plan accordingly and do something like a revenue-sharing agreement between the Board of Supervisors and the school board, where an agreed-upon percentage is transferred each year from the county budget to the schools. A revenue-sharing agreement allows both the county and the school system to plan four, five, and 10 years out. That ends up being more efficient and more cost-effective. We’ve got to monitor the growth, plan for it, and budget accordingly and responsibly.
In Stafford County, early voting will be held Monday through Friday at the Registrar’s Office at 124 Old Potomac Church Road, Ste. 205, from Friday, Sept. 19, through Friday, Nov. 1, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The only Saturday voting days will be Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The deadline to register for voting or request an absentee ballot is October 24.
👉 Next in our series: Other than funding, what should the school board’s priorities be? Stay tuned for the answers in our next installment.
