THE INDEPENDENT NEWS
COURTHOUSE — One of the four members of the School Board who live within the same new voting district says she will not seek reelection.
School Board Member Dottie Holtz this month told The Independent News she will not pursue the new District 9 seat.
“I’ve had a good run,” said Holtz, whose term ends this year.
In December, a federal judge ordered Virginia Beach to enact a new local voting system after finding the former at-large system violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The decision, now being appealed, came in a suit that dealt only with the council, but the new 10-district system is expected to be in effect for both bodies during local elections this year.
New district maps considered the residencies of council incumbents but not sitting School Board members. That left eight of 11 School Board incumbents in new districts with at least one other board member.
Holtz is a retired educator elected to an at-large seat on the School Board in November 2010. Holtz now lives within District 9 along with incumbents Laura Hughes, Vicky Manning and Carolyn Weems.
Weems, who has represented the Bayside District, has filed petitions to run in the new district. Hughes, elected to an at-large seat, filed petitions to seek an at-large seat, though no such seat is scheduled to be on the ballot in 2022. The current terms of both Hughes and Weems end this year.
Manning, who was elected to an at-large seat, is serving a term of office scheduled to end in 2024, when an at-large seat may be on the ballot.
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