More candidates meet with Manassas school board

Three more candidates interviewed Wednesday for the open seat on the Manassas School Board.

Former school board member Sheryl L. Bass resigned the post when she was appointed to the Manassas City Council.

A total of six candidates applied for the school board seat and spoke before the board in hopes of landing the job.

n Patrick D. Linehan, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said he favored merit pay for teachers and handing more authority to the teachers and administrators.

“I do believe in delegating as much authority as possible down to the schools,” said Linehan, the father of five.

Linehan, who first moved to Manassas with his family in 1992, said he thinks merit pay would be effective in getting and keeping the best teachers, which he said is important to the city school system.

“I think that there’s a way that we can do that and I don’t think it’s tied to the scores that the students and their classes get on their SOL [Standards of Learning] tests,” said Linehan, who served on the Manassas school board from 2002 to 2006.

He said his prior service on the board gave him valuable experience that would serve him well if he is appointed to the seat.

Linehan said that as the “ultimate arbiter of accountability” the school board was bound to provide the environment where students could learn by “having a policy, knowing the policy and following the policy.”

“The role of the public schools is to prepare our children, our students, to be successful in life,” Linehan said.

“Outsourcing” school lunches and school transportation might be a way that the school system could save money, Linehan said.

- Pamela Jo Sebesky said her years of volunteering in the Manassas school system uniquely qualify her for the position.

Sebesky told the board that she had volunteered for more than 11 years on various committees, helped in classrooms, helped school nurses and served on the Gifted and Talented Parents’ Advisory and Special Education Advisory committees, and was a member of the Osbourn High School Band Boosters.

“There was never a job too small or insignificant in my perspective. It was the experience of doing these small tasks that helped me build the experience and knowledge to better perform and be more successful in higher positions,” said the mother of two.

Sebesky, a nurse, said she thought the best way to be a good school board member would be to listen.

“You have to be a good listener to hear what the community sees in your school system and what they perceive as the good and the bad,” she said.

Sebesky, who described herself as a “reliable team player,” said she was prepared to make the “time commitment” necessary to be a school board member.

“I am very compassionate about the children of this community,” the 17-year Manassas resident said. “I will commit to doing the job to the best of my ability. If you choose me, you can count on me to be an active participant to this board.”

- Gerald A. Peters, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, who was in charge of the Marine Corps’ 172 formal training schools, said that experience overseeing the training of 144,000 to 175,000 Marines annually gave him insight into how school systems work.

“I understand metrics and I understand how to get them,” the father of five said. “I understand a little bit about training.”

He also said he understood budgets, logistics, supply, contracts, budgeting and personnel and project and program management.

Peters, a senior program manager for a software development company, said he wouldn’t bring a personal agenda to the school board and believes working together was the only way to get things done.

“If you want to get some place fast, you have to have that unity of objective,” said Peters, whose resume of volunteerism in the Manassas school system includes service on the Strategic Planning, Facility Planning and the Gifted and Talented Parents’ Advisory committees.

He also served for two years as president and one year as vice president on the City of Manassas Public Schools Education Foundation.

The chosen candidate will serve in the post until May of 2010.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.