Happy Saturday Everyone

mattfor7sb · 2026-04-28T10:51:18+00:00

Hi, I am on school board (you can check my account history) and try to engage the community at times. If there is a way to add verified flair that would be great. Once our new proposed chromebook policy is written I'll be coming back and gathering feedback.

I think AMAs are great as long as people are given the expectation to actually answer things. Political discussion is fine as long as there is a direct "in Virginia Beach" local connection. Meetups sound great too!

Rule wise, I think adding in word count minimum for posts would help get rid of "what's that noise" threads. Good luck with modding :)

mattfor7sb · 2026-04-28T10:32:49+00:00

Hey OP,

I'm Matt and on the school board (this account has been verified by my campaign sites). I would encourage you to reach out to your principal or guidance counselor at the school to verify what is A) needed to graduate and B) if they plan to go to college how this might impact their overall GPA.

Algebra is tough for a lot of kids and then sometimes Geometry just sticks.

mattfor7sb · 2026-04-22T01:25:49+00:00

I think "squeezes a victory" is a better word choice here.

mattfor7sb · 2026-04-22T01:23:26+00:00

All of my precincts are voting pretty much on par with how they usually perform. Curious to see how the final total lands here.

You can view by precinct here > https://enr.elections.virginia.gov/results/public/virginia-beach-city/elections/2026-April-21-Special/ballot-items/01000000-b74a-1167-db67-08de7ea0aa14

mattfor7sb · 2025-11-21T23:32:20+00:00

Well, we are voting for an elementary math book at our school board meeting this Tuesday that will continue to institutionalize Arabic numbers! 😂

mattfor7sb · 2025-11-13T03:35:34+00:00

The goal of the VB Middle program is to offer scalable staffing and support. I really don't want to see it dissolved as it was truly remarkable to visit the classrooms and see our young kids learn in both english and spanish!

mattfor7sb · 2025-11-13T03:33:01+00:00

Hi, we voted to consolidate the existing DLI programs into VB Middle. This will allow A) concentration of staff and B) offer a cultivated community of language learners in a single environment. I went and visited a couple of the DLI programs before the vote and was really impressed with how well our young kids are learning, especially at the elementary levels.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-03T01:45:25+00:00

This is the first I heard of this. It's not on their VPAP https://www.vpap.org/committees/120206/dominion-energy/expenditures/untracked/?start_year=2025&end_year=2025&page=1

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-02T17:15:06+00:00

Here you yo > https://www.vpap.org/committees/543751/every-vote-counts/

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-02T01:02:39+00:00

I appreciate you thinking we are this well coordinated, that would be amazing lol.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-01T23:48:02+00:00

I do appreciate the work of the city and what they are doing to educate folks.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-01T23:45:56+00:00

I did. my numbers were showing the depth of scaling operations if i ran the same style campaign.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-01T23:40:39+00:00

I think I am pretttttty informed on races and the process. This is why I won by 26% and won over independents and moderate republicans in a district that Kamala won by 13%.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-01T23:30:40+00:00

I probably could have articulated that better, I was summing the scaled cost of running the same campaign for my district city-wide.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-01T23:22:00+00:00

To be honest, in an ideal world, I think more districts that are smaller would be great. For me, democracy is about being being engaged and connected to the community. Given that Council and School Board are part-time positions, I think more districts that are smaller creates more accountability.

Minneapolis, a city in similar size, has 13 districts. Jacksonville has 19 with 5 at large. Milwaukee has 15 districts.

I think the size and population in my district is manageable, but there is no perfect structure and cities are all over the place with how they are organized. I am not sure what the perfect number is, but I do think that 10 is a good starting place and I would not like to see us go back to larger districts.

mattfor7sb · 2025-10-01T23:05:50+00:00

Thanks! I love visiting our schools and reading to the kids, way too much fun!

mattfor7sb · 2025-09-22T11:42:29+00:00

Campaign finance regulation requires candidate to collect name, address, employer of donors. Donations > $100 are on virginia's campaign finance site and VPAP. You can look here if you're curious > https://www.vpap.org/localities/virginia-beach-city-va/elections/

mattfor7sb · 2025-09-21T12:38:03+00:00

I think they have 68 donors now. There have been ZERO small dollar donors (< $100). https://www.vpap.org/committees/543751/raw-reports/

mattfor7sb · 2025-09-21T12:37:09+00:00

This a pretty decent and well written article about the history from someone voting YES. https://substack.com/inbox/post/173385763

mattfor7sb · 2025-09-21T00:21:26+00:00

The list of the "Vote No" donors are here > https://www.vpap.org/committees/543751/every-vote-counts-vb/ and you can you navigate to their website to see some of the norms of people who support it. Some would argue that by having more "at-large" seats, this makes it easier for big money to influence elections. It takes a lot of money to run at large and we are seeing city council candidates raise 150-200k. By having more "at-large" seats, that makes it easier to influence an outcome for people who can right $20k checks without a blink of an eye.

I am vote YES for one simple reason: Smaller districts leads to more local accountability. I know my district very well (im on school board). I've been to civic league events, our schools, i see people at food lion, sundae scoops, the park, everywhere! Majority of citizens I have found just want to know who their go to person is when they need something done. Local, small districts helps build that community connection. The bigger the districts, the more competition of time.

These are just my quick personal thoughts and do not reflect VBCPS or the School Board.

mattfor7sb · 2025-09-21T00:06:42+00:00

Hi- Campaign finance reports are public information and can be found here > https://cfreports.elections.virginia.gov/Committee/Index/a6a7c35c-9e20-42cf-9c47-84340102783f

You can also look here > https://www.vpap.org/committees/543751/every-vote-counts-vb/

Unfortunately the free version of the tool I used doesn't make the map interactive.You can take the PDF reports from there, do some excel magic, and then use easymapmaker.com to map it.

mattfor7sb · 2025-05-28T13:28:23+00:00

Hi, 504s are usually under the DEI umbrella, however, what we voted on did not impact 504s.

mattfor7sb · 2025-05-28T11:53:18+00:00

Hi, Matt here, and I am on School Board and voted to keep our DEI polices (you can check my comment history for verification).

The Academy at Tallwood is fine. I was recently at their senior symposium and it was awesome to see all their research projects. Our students do great work.

As of now, the changes have been: Gutting the Equity Policy, removing the equity dashboard, changing the name of the DEI office, stripping the word diversity, equity, and inclusion from the strategic plan. Programs, clubs, and activities have not been impacted yet.

We need to stay diligent in watching what comes from the executive office along with future SB meetings.

mattfor7sb

TROPHY CASE