The candidates running for Richmond School Board

These are the candidates who have filed:

1st District

Matthew Percival is a security engineer for the State Department and was among the 10 candidates who sought to fill the 1st District seat when Glen Sturtevant ran for state Senate in 2016.

2nd District

Incumbent Mariah White is an RPS and VCU graduate and a retired Army officer who has worked at the Department of Defense for nearly 30 years.

Kathryn Ricard is an educator and the former William Fox Elementary School PTA president.

3rd District

Ali Faruk, an RPS parent and longtime Richmonder, is looking to replace Kenya Gibson, who is seeking a City Council seat after six years on the School Board.

• He's the former director of public policy at Families Forward Virginia, which focuses on preventing child abuse.

Charlene Riley, an RPS parent of three, has been vocal about school issues and told WRIC earlier this year that there's a need for more resources toward mental health counseling and reducing poverty.

Kevin Starlings is a lifelong Richmond resident, an RPS grad and a father of four. His site is here.

• He's the executive director of the Starlings Foundation, a nonprofit about education reform and is chair of the RPS School Health Advisory Board.
• He previously lost a special election for this seat in 2017 to Gibson.

4th District

Angela Fontaine is a mother of a Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts student.

• Her campaign, per her site, focuses on increasing school funding, involving teachers in policy and prioritizing mental health resources for students.

Wesley Hedgepeth is a social studies teacher at Collegiate in Henrico and the president of the National Council for Social Studies.

• Per his site, he's running on improving the safety of RPS-owned buildings, fully accrediting RPS and ensuring oversight of RPS.

Garrett Sawyer was appointed to represent the 4th District after former member Jonathan Young stepped down in April. His site is here.

• He also briefly ran for mayor and City Council this year and is CEO of Sawyer HR Consulting.

5th District

Incumbent Stephanie Rizzi has been on the board since 2020, an educator for over 30 years and an interim associate dean at VCU since 2022.

Mamie Taylor, a former RPS teacher, represented the 5th district on the board after being elected in 2012 but lost her re-election campaign in 2016 and lost 5th district City Council elections in 2019 and 2020 to Stephanie Lynch.-

6th District

Incumbent Shonda Harris-Muhammed is a longtime educator and Richmonder who founded Northside Coalition for Children, a nonprofit giving teachers and students the supplies they need.

7th District

Incumbent Cheryl Burke, a retired RPS teacher and principal, is a Church Hill resident who has represented the district since 2017.

8th District

E.J. Jafari is a Virginia Union graduate and owner of African American Tours of Richmond.

• He previously ran for Richmond sheriff in 2017 and Richmond court clerk in 2014 and 2011.

Patrick "Cruz" Sherman is a chaplain at the Richmond Police Department, a former special education teacher at a Chesterfield high school and a crisis counselor for RPS, per his Facebook.

9th District

Shavonda Dixon, an RPS graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School, was appointed by the School Board after Nicole Jones took over Michael Jones' 9th district City Council seat.

Go deeper:

• The candidates running to be Richmond's next mayor
• Here's who's running for Richmond City Council in 2024

Editor's note: This story has been updated with new additions, and to remove people who dropped out.