Opinion

Welcome back to another school year here in Prince William County; I am confident it will be a great one.

My name is Wendy Dempsey. I am a resident of Prince William County and a mother of two Prince William County School students: one is in middle school and the other is in elementary school. We have been in the Prince William County Public School System system going on seven years; I am a strong believer in Prince William County Schools. In 2013, I was appointed by my School Board representative, Loree Williams, to be a member of the Safe Schools Advisory Council.

Maureen Caddigan has served the Potomac District well for many years and continues to persevere on issues of smart growth, age restricted communities, big box stores, schools, parks, regional library, storm water management, transportation, and employment opportunities.

Take a drive along Route 234, Spriggs Road, Cardinal Drive, Route 1 to Quantico and Fuller Heights Road. You will see many of Maureen’s accomplishments.

Western Prince William County is a wonderful place to live. We chose to live here because we love the sense of community and the cost of living is lower.

Many other families chose this area for similar reasons. When we moved to Gainesville over a decade ago, traffic was challenging, but not impossible.

Prince William County is made up of close to half a million people.

Millennials (people born between 1980-2000) make up 23% of that population, though at the polls in an election year you wouldn’t know we existed. In a Presidential year, we are underrepresented, and in an off-year state and local election like this one, we might as well not exist.

Over the past decade, our local government, through its land use decisions and budget process, has created an infrastructure deficit that continues to have significant impacts on our quality of life as residents and our ability to entice businesses to bring more high-paying jobs to our community.

That infrastructure doesn’t just include roads – it’s also schools, public transportation, parks and libraries. These services, and their need for greater support and investment, frequently get the media coverage and attention they deserve.

When I moved to Prince William County in 1972, the population was 111,000. Today, we have almost 450,000 neighbors.

The County has had monumental growing pains in the interim with a need to build an infrastructure of roads, schools, and County services to this enormous population growth. Our population is 60,000 more than the City of Cleveland and more than twice the size of the City of Richmond.

Corey Stewart has been Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors for almost ten years. In order to fund his election campaigns, he has raised almost $1 million from real estate developers.

As we enter the final few weeks of campaign season, it is important to remember that we have a great school system in Prince William County.

Charter schools certainly have merit for some parts of the country but we don’t need them here in Prince William County. My campaign platform in 2015 focuses on class size reduction, competitive teacher pay and safe schools.

Every seated school board member and candidate in Prince William County readily agrees our class sizes are too big. Having the highest student to teacher ratios in the state is not “world class.” It is disgraceful.

In the 2015 Superintendent’s Budget presentation Dr. Walt’s stated, “Lowering class sizes by one is not likely to lead to clear and measurable improvements in test results. But it will provide teachers and students with increased one-on-one time.”

Every year at back to school night, teachers like myself are required to show a promotional video which boasts that Prince William County schools are “world class.”

Having taught in the school system for seven years now, I can assure you, we are far from achieving such a lofty title.

I wish to take this opportunity to heartily endorse Paul B. Ebert for reelection as the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Prince William County.

Mr. Ebert has dedicated his life to his chosen profession. He has built a solid foundation by skillfully and professionally prosecuting some of the most heinous, complex and highly-publicized crimes of our times.