ELECTION 2023: Three Chopt District school board race has seen it all – divisive issues, fierce accusations, and some unusual funding reports
Table of Contents
With Election Day coming up in less than a week, all eyes are on several key races in Henrico County – including the three-way race for the school board’s Three Chopt District seat.
Eleina Espigh, endorsed by the Henrico GOP; Madison Irving, backed by the Henrico Democrats; and Kristen Vithoulkas, who has no party connections, are ramping up their campaign efforts. As the most partisan school board race – other races are uncontested or are between candidates backed by the same party – the Three Chopt candidates have been under increased public attention – and scrutiny.
Espigh, a director of enterprise data at Capital One and a parent of HCPS graduates, has been endorsed by U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman (R-First District) and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Spears. She has also campaigned alongside State Senator Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico) and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Espigh has said her priorities on the school board are to address COVID learning loss and the decline in SOL scores as well as social and cyber bullying in schools. In the past, she has criticized the school board for its decision to enforce mask mandates in schools, saying she “recently led the way to return schools to normalcy.”
“I saw what the COVID years did to our children, including my own. I watched the negative effects on learning, social skills, and mental health,” Espigh said in a video posted to her Facebook account. “Now more than ever before, our school board needs a responsive, experienced, and fearless leader – a proven advocate for our children. We can no longer afford complacency or inaction.”
Irving, a high school teacher in Chesterfield, has emphasized his focus on fixing the “critical staffing crisis” in Henrico Schools by providing more benefits and resources to teachers. He has been endorsed by U.S. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-Seventh District), U.S. Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (D-Fourth District), and several organizations.
Irving has also focused his campaign on the importance of fostering welcoming school environments for students, speaking out against the Virginia Department of Education’s 2023 model policies regarding transgender students.
“Our LGBTQ+ students deserve to feel loved, valued and respected, and school board members are duty-bound to ensure every student’s safety, regardless of their identity,” Irving wrote on his campaign website.
Vithoulkas, a school volunteer and parent of HCPS students and graduates, has focused her campaign on her history of volunteering within the schools and parent-teacher associations. She described herself as an “independent” and “moderate voice,” saying that her priorities are to listen to and include everyone when making decisions.
“I care about our kids. I want them to be safe, to feel supported, to be academically challenged, and to have opportunities,” Vithoulkas wrote on her campaign website. “This isn’t about politics for me; it’s about our children.”
* * *
Along with several other school board races in Virginia, the Three Chopt race even has garnered some national media attention, which has spotlighted Espigh’s past comments to the school board during the pandemic.
Irving and Espigh were both mentioned in a Sept. 23 Rolling Stone article, “Right-Wing Activists Are Trying to Take Over Virginia’s Schools,” that focused on efforts by the “right-wing ‘parents rights’ movement” to win seats on Virginia’s local school boards, as well as attempts to counter these candidates by progressive groups.
The article cited comments Espigh made via social media on her Truth Social account, describing herself as “[T]hat mom. Anti-mask, anti-vax, anti abortion…the school board’s worst enemy.” Espigh also posted on her account in April of 2022: “Virginia: time to take back the schools and school boards!”
Rolling Stone also cited comments Espigh made at a Jan. 27, 2022 Henrico School Board public forum, during which she spoke out against the Henrico Schools’ mask mandate saying her son, who she said had suffered chronic hearing loss, was a “political prisoner” and “unjustly quarantined” after he did not wear a mask to school.
“People have elected a governor who would free us from this unjustified discrimination and tyranny,” Espigh said. “HCPS and the administration are nothing more than paid bullies.”
Espigh told the Citizen she would only agree to be interviewed for this article if she were provided a list of all questions in advance and if she were permitted to review the article prior to its publication. The Citizen, in keeping with standard journalism ethical practices and its own policy, declined those requests.
Rolling Stone also mentioned that Irving had received an endorsement from the progressive organization Run For Something, which pledged to spend $10 million on school board races throughout the country over the next two years in order to counter efforts by conservative groups such as Moms For Liberty, a group that has fought to remove several books that it deems inappropriate from libraries and school instructional materials.
Despite receiving comments from people voicing their concern about the outcome of the Three Chopt race, Irving said he tries to not focus on his opponents and wants to keep his public comments positive.
“In terms of one of them, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and say that they’re very concerned about them winning,” Irving said. “But I’m not going to say personal opinions that I have one way or another.”
However, Irving did speak out against Espigh at an Oct. 6 school board candidate forum hosted by the Henrico Democrats, saying that beating Espigh is critical to move the school board in the “right direction.”
“I have an opponent who is a far-right MAGA supporter, and beating her and ensuring the school board is moving in the right direction rather than in the direction of discord and chaos is of the utmost importance,” Irving said.
Irving also said he believes that Espigh is aligned with Moms For Liberty.
“So I’ll handle the Moms For Liberty piece because my opponent is one,” Irving said in response to a forum question for candidates on how they will address book banning attempts from groups like Moms For Liberty. “These people are a minority movement. They only care that they can control what’s happening within our buildings because they are uncomfortable with the change that they are seeing.”
Though Espigh’s campaign account on Facebook asked followers this summer whether any had contact information for Moms for Liberty, follow-up posts from the account indicated that she was not familiar with the group and was merely seeking to learn more about it. The group has not publicly endorsed her and has only publicly endorsed one school board candidate in Virginia.
* * *
According to Virginia court records, Irving was charged and convicted with a misdemeanor DWI in 2013 while he was attending Virginia Tech. He told the Citizen that he had learned from the incident and grown as a person in the years since.
“Over a decade ago while in college, I received a driving while impaired charge, which has been removed from my record,” Irving said. “Since then, I've been very upfront about sharing that experience, learning from that experience, and I am now a dedicated parent, teacher, and advocate for our schools.”
On her social media accounts, Espigh has also accused Irving and his supporters of taking down and damaging her campaign signs.
“It’s abhorrent that my opponent’s campaign continues to steal and damage my signs, often replacing them with his, even on my property,” Espigh wrote on Facebook. “It’s nonstop. But I’m not deterred.”
Irving said Espigh’s comments were “baseless accusations” that he had tried to ignore.
“I’ve noticed my signs disappearing too, and while I understand how frustrating it is, I’m continuing to prioritize talking to voters, not making baseless accusations or pointing fingers,” he said. “I’m making my campaign about Henrico’s kids, not yard signs.”
The Rolling Stone article did not mention Vithoulkas, who has been endorsed by current Three Chopt District school board member Micky Ogburn. Other than Ogburn, Vithoulkas said she has not pursued any other political endorsements, saying she doesn’t want to pressure Democratic or Republican officials to publicly support someone outside of their party.
But Vithoulkas said it has been “definitely intimidating” campaigning against opponents who have public backing from political parties.
“I notice the difference because there are a lot of benefits that they have that I don’t have,” she said. “I just don’t have the backing of a party like they do, so it’s a little more challenging when it comes to doing things.”
* * *
Irving, Espigh, and Vithoulkas all differ in their stances on several hot-button issues. When it comes to the VDOE’s 2023 model policies on transgender students, which would require school staff to refer to students by names only approved by their parents and for school services to be sex-segregated, all three candidates have expressed different views.
In a Q&A with the Citizen, Espigh said she is in full support of the policies.
“The new model policy will hold HCPS accountable for ensuring a student environment free from bullying, harassment and discrimination, and I’m fully supportive,” she said.
Irving said that he would want the current HCPS Student Code of Conduct to remain unchanged, saying the new policies are not needed.
“We already have protections for our students and it’s about making sure that our students feel safe in their classrooms and safe in themselves and free to be who they want to be,” Irving said during the Henrico Democrats forum. “I have a pride flag in my room. It’s not something I discuss with my students, it’s just to let my students know that I am someone who is there to support you.”
Vithoulkas has neither come out for or against the new policies, instead saying she would listen to all sides of the issue before making a decision.
“As a school board member, my job would be to listen to these different ideas and to represent every child,” she said. “The many legal questions surrounding policies such as these require thoughtful consideration and the inclusion of all stakeholders.”
Book-banning has been the top issue Vithoulkas has heard about from voters, and one of the most polarizing issues in the Three Chopt District. She said she wants to look into solutions that address concerns from both sides, such as implementing a library system that would allow parents to restrict books their own children can check out without removing certain books from school libraries.
“It allows those parents to control what their child reads, but not affect the rest of the children’s choices,” she said. “And that is the type of reasonable solution that I’m trying to look at for other issues – how can we address each side’s concerns?”
Irving said he believes that Henrico Schools’ current review process of library and classroom books does a good job ensuring that all books are age appropriate.
“I’ve had some librarians actually talk to me about the process and it is very extensive and they really try to do their best to make sure that there’s nothing on the shelves that would be considered inappropriate,” he said. “When these decisions happen, we always focus on the one person who’s making the complaint and this is a very small group of people.”
However, both Irving and Vithoulkas have said that they want to refrain from making the school board a political arena for national issues.
“I always try to reiterate to folks that I’m trying to make school boards boring again,” Irving said. “I really want to just focus on those bread and butter issues of, you know, are teachers taken care of well enough that they don’t want to leave the profession? Do we have enough bus drivers to make sure kids get to and from school on time?”
“One of my biggest concerns and maybe some of the motivation for me running was to keep the school board from not being political, because ultimately we’re talking about our children here,” Vithoulkas said. “If we let politics get in the way of what we can do for them, we’re going to be hurting our kids.”
* * *
Campaign funding for all three first-time candidates also has attracted some attention. Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26, Espigh received $9,236 in funding – with $7,686 from the Middle Resolution PAC. She had raised a total of $25,300 as of Oct. 26.
Irving had a large spike in funding between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26, receiving $22,665 – with $16,589 from We the People for Education and $4,267 from the Democratic Party of Virginia. As of Oct. 26, he has raised a total of $37,082 – which Irving said was also from contributions of more than 100 individual donors.
When it comes to funding, Vithoulkas is the notable outlier. She raised $0 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26 and a total of only $3,361 as of Oct. 26, most of which she received from herself, her husband or her mother, with only two in-kind donations from other individuals.
But Vithoulkas said she actually doesn’t want to raise much money and has denied every donation request from individuals outside of her immediate family except for those two.
“When I said I didn’t want to raise money, people thought I was a little odd,” she said. “And I’ve actually turned down every other offer of cash for donations – respectfully, I mean I’m happy that people would like to support me financially, but I don’t want to be tied to any person or to anyone else’s agenda. I want to be able to do this truly as an independent.”
Vithoulkas said the money she has raised went to only a few things – some signs, bookmarks, business cards – but she was able to minimize most of her expenses by relying on word-of-mouth and by using public spaces at no cost for her campaign events.
As Election Day approaches, Vithoulkas told the Citizen she wants to remind voters of her dedication to Henrico Schools as a longtime volunteer.
“Look at my history. I’ve been volunteering almost full time in the schools for 20 years. This is a job that I have kind of naturally grown to,” Vithoulkas said. “I’ve been very excited about all that I could do for our schools.”
Irving emphasized to the Citizen his focus on promoting student- and teacher-centered policies and involving parents “in as many positive ways as possible.”
“I’m not really interested in the culture war issues. I’m not interested in banning books. Not interested in bringing in this rhetoric that tries to pin teachers and parents against each other,” Irving said. “Because as a high school teacher, I very much believe that we should be partners in the students’ education and working together in positive ways is only going to benefit the kids.”
* * *
LEARN MORE
Eleina Espigh’s campaign website
Madison Irving’s campaign website
Kristen Vithoulkas’s campaign website
Virginia Department of Elections – Citizen Portal
Map of Henrico’s magisterial districts
Henrico Office of the General Registrar and Electoral Board
* * *
Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.
