Candidate spotlight: Betsy Carr

Farm Team endorsed candidate and Richmond School Board member Betsy Carr has a proven track record of initiating innovative, effective partnerships and solutions to benefit the Richmond community and working hard to see that these solutions get accomplished. “I don’t have a reputation for talking a lot, but I listen a lot and I respond”, she says, “and I work and I get things done. That’s how I operate.” Carr is running in the democratic primary on June 9, for the 69^th District of the House of Delegates.

In 1999, Carr was among a group of parishioners at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond that started the Micah Initiative. It began as a partnership between one Episcopal church – and Woodville Elementary School – an elementary school in the City’s east end that had the highest proportion of at-risk students from economically depressed backgrounds in the entire city. The project paired St. Paul’s members with Woodville students as mentors and tutors. The goal was to form a lasting partnership between the two communities and to give Woodville students a better chance of lasting success. Within one year, the standardized test scores of these students doubled.

Under Carr’s leadership as St. Paul’s outreach director, the program has expanded throughout the metropolitan area. Today 80 faith communities – churches, synagogues, and mosques around Richmond, are involved in partnerships with 25 local elementary schools and provide over 1000 tutors to help make a one-on-one difference in children’s lives.

A graduate of Richmond’s Public Schools, Carr knows that improving Richmond’s public schools are vital to the city’s future vitality. In 2006, community leaders encouraged her to run for the school board in the city’s Fifth District. In November 2006 – she won 53 percent of the vote – in a five-way race. In 2008 she was re-elected by a 69-31 majority. She is chairman of the board’s Facilities Committee. In 2008, she was instrumental in bringing together city leaders to agree on the first comprehensive new school construction plan in two decades.

The Fifth District straddles Richmond’s James River. It is – more than any other of the city’s nine districts – a demographic microcosm of the City, which also makes it a particularly challenging constituency to represent.  It’s neighborhoods are known for their distinctive, diverse and involved citizens, who vote. “I’m privileged to have had a more expansive and inclusive view of the contributions, concerns and needs of all the citizens of this area,” she says, speaking about the complexities of her District, its diverse demographic, and the relationship of its needs to that of the larger 69^th District, which includes portions of South Richmond, Carytown, Byrd Park, Maymont, Randolph, the Carillon district and Chesterfield County.

Carr is invested in the well-being of her constituents. A frequent and active participant in neighborhood and PTA meetings, school festivals, and community events, Carr has knocked on a lot of doors and spent a lot of time getting to know the people she represents. “It takes care and attention to get to know individuals. That has to be done over time – not overnight. It’s an evolving process. Just like any relationship, it involves time, care, energy and trust,” she says.

The spot on the Democratic ticket has been hotly contested but campaigning in the community, the response Carr has gotten has been overwhelmingly positive, She says she feels privileged to be told, “We know you. You’ve been available to us. We will support you.”

“You need to know why you’re doing it in the middle of it,” she says, “I want to make things better…add my energy to make Virginia the best it can be.”

To find out what you can do to support Betsy’s campaign, please visit her website at www.betsycarr.org. Betsy is a Farm Team endorsed candidate. Contributions may be made online via her website, or may be sent by mail to:

Carr for Delegate
PO Box 14625
Richmond, VA 23221