The Manassas & Manassas Park Cities Democratic Committee (MMPCDC) voted unanimously on August 17 to endorse incumbent Manassas City School Board candidates Jill Spall, Lisa Stevens, and Alex Iqbal for the November 8, 2022 General Election.

• Lisa Stevens, first elected to the school board in 2019, is a special education teacher and parent of three Osbourn High School graduates and one current Manassas City Public Schools (MCPS) student.

• Jill Spall was unanimously appointed by the Manassas City School Board in October 2021 to fill the vacant seat previously held by Sanford S. Williams. Jill Spall and her husband are local small business owners and parents of three Osbourn High School graduates.

• Alex Iqbal, a Manassas City Public School system alumnus, is a recent graduate of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering and employed at Micron Technology.  In January 2022, the Manassas City School Board unanimously appointed Alex Iqbal to fill the seat vacated when Tim Demeria became the City’s Commissioner of the Revenue.  

Co-chairs Almstead and Macias recently commented… “Lisa, Jill, and Alex are devoted to the City of Manassas and to the education of every child and are all well equipped, through training and experience, to ably serve as productive school board members from Day One.  Furthermore, they are all firmly committed to providing first-rate educational and extracurricular opportunities and outcomes for all MCPS students, including enhanced Career and Technical Education courses and certifications for students who are not college-bound.”

The City of Manassas holds an election every two years to fill either three or four seats on its seven-member School Board.  In Virginia, school board positions are officially nonpartisan, meaning school board candidates may not have party affiliations next to their names on the official election ballot. However, as a consequence this endorsement, the Democratic Party’s sample ballot for Manassas will clearly identify Lisa Stevens, Jill Spall, and Alex Iqbal as its recommended School Board candidates. 

“Our Democratic committee has only twice endorsed school board candidates previously.  In recent years, however, school board elections and deliberations across our nation have grown contentious and partisan.  Increasingly, private schooling and home schooling advocates seek to divert tax revenue away from public education, while opponents of culturally responsive teaching and of LGBTQ equality seek to establish discriminatory school policies.”