Crystal Parker (Virginia)
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Crystal Parker ran for election to the Henrico County Public Schools to represent Fairfield District in Virginia. She lost in the general election on November 7, 2023.
Parker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Crystal Parker was born in Richmond, Virginia. She earned a bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2006 and a graduate degree from the Union Presbyterian Seminary in 2009. Her career experience includes working as a minister, financial educator, Girl Scout Council staff member, and in early childhood education. Parker has been affiliated with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbytery of the James, Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Virginia Credit Union League, and Virginia Jump$tart Coalition.[1]
Elections
2023
See also: Henrico County Public Schools, Virginia, elections (2023)
General election
General election for Henrico County Public Schools, Fairfield District
Ryan Young defeated Terrell Pollard, Tommie LeVar Jefferson, Crystal Parker, and Keith Hicks in the general election for Henrico County Public Schools, Fairfield District on November 7, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ryan Young (Nonpartisan) | 26.2 | 5,034 |
 | Terrell Pollard (Nonpartisan)  | 25.9 | 4,973 | |
 | Tommie LeVar Jefferson (Nonpartisan) | 20.0 | 3,847 | |
 | Crystal Parker (Nonpartisan) | 17.6 | 3,375 | |
 | Keith Hicks (Nonpartisan) | 9.6 | 1,838 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 153 | ||
| Total votes: 19,220 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Roscoe Cooper III (Nonpartisan)
Endorsements
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Parker received the following endorsements.
- Henrico County, Va., Democratic Party
- Everytown for Gun Safety
- Her Bold Move
- School Board Project
Pledges
Parker signed the following pledges.
Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Crystal Parker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Parker's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Rev. Crystal Varner Parker is a Presbyterian pastor and mom to two HCPS students. As a multi-racial woman (third generation Japanese American and Native American), she found a welcome home in Henrico County in 1995 as a student and has been a resident of the Fairfield District since 2010. When elected, Crystal will be the first woman to represent the Fairfield District and the first AAPI to serve on the school board.
As a Presbyterian minister, Crystal knows the importance of education, collaboration, and representation. She is skilled at knowing how to work alongside staff, volunteers, and students of all ages. Cultivating relationships and partnerships, investing time, listening, and being present is a crucial part of what she does.
Prior to returning to the parish (church) ministry in 2021 after 10 years in the not-for-profit sector, Crystal was the financial educator for Henrico Federal Credit Union. In that role, she oversaw the student-run in school branch program at three high schools and one middle school. On a broader scale, Crystal created the award-winning game “SCORE!” to teach students and young adults about credit scores, while also working with financial educators across Virginia to provide continuing education for economics and personal finance teachers.
Throughout her work and advocacy, Crystal never lost her passion for supporting education. She is a trusted advocate for students, teachers, and school staff in the community.
- Advocating for and Empowering Educators
- Student Safety and Mental Health
- Community Partnerships
I believe in the transformative power of being a listening presence in our schools.
Every student, parent, educator, and staff member has a voice and should be heard.
Community listening sessions are a crucial need and part of a successful school board.
The School Board must be responsive to the needs of the students, schools, teachers, and staff.
With this focus we can work to address teacher retention and foster healthier relationships in our schools between students, families, teachers, and school staff.
As a Presbyterian minister, I greatly look up to Mr. (Rev.) Fred Rogers. His commitment to the thoughtful, intentional, and loved filled education of children is something I have always admired. He viewed his calling as a minister as something that required him to be engaged in making the world a better place.
The moment that will stick with me forever was September 11, 2001. I was teaching preschool when the first attack happened. Over the course of the morning, as teachers, we learned what was happening. My goal in the midst of a terrifying situation was to remain calm and ensure that the children knew they were safe, loved, and unaware of how scared we were as adults.
I was in college when 9/11 attack happened, so this moment in our history is a vivid and strong memory. Like many Americans, I have personal connections to be people who worked either at the twins towers or the pentagon. While our students today may only know of 9/11 as a moment in history, it’s a moment in time many of us will never forget.
The role of the school board is to ensure for the care and management of our school division, to ensure the safety to students and staff, to determine length of the school term, the studies pursued, and ensuring that the content taught is consistent with statutes and regulations. To be as fully informed as possible about the conduct of the schools and school division to ensure they are conducted according to law and with efficiency. To ensure that our school boundaries are consolidated and distributed effectively and efficiently, and to effectively redistrict them when necessary. A final and crucial part of the school board role is to listen to the public through public comment and survey’s of the division, as well as other duties are required by the state of virginia.
The residents of the Fairfield District, the students, teachers, and school staff of Henrico County Public Schools.
This will require a lot of listening and discerning what the actual needs are of our diverse school system. As the granddaughter of an immigrant from Japan, I know how it important it is to listen to the needs of an individual rather than assume the needs. Each family has a different set of skills/abilities/situations, that in turn affect the needs that they may have. It will require working collaboratively with one another, to learn of different needs, language abilities, and resources to bridge the divide whenever possible. As a lover of languages, I have studied nine, I know that communicating in a shared language can break down the communication divide. It is incumbent on all of us to listen directly to the needs of our families to address not only the educational needs of students and their families, but connecting them with resources within the community.
Being a listening presence in our schools and community. Every student, parent, educator, staff member, and community member has a voice and should be heard. Community listening sessions are a crucial need and part of a successful school board. The School Board must be responsive to the needs of the students, schools, teachers, and staff. Through listening to various needs of our community, I would work to connect with various organizations within our community working to strengthen and support our communities. A few great existing partnerships are the Henrico Education Foundation, Henrico Pals, Henrico Federal Credit Union, The Giving Wall, and countless others. We have a community rich in assets that can support the needs of our students, families, and community to help it grow and flourish.
Endorsed by Her Bold Move
Endorsed by the School Board Project
2023 Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate
My ideal learning environment for students is one in which they feel that they belong, that their needs are being met, their classrooms are not overcrowded, the community is involved, the teachers/staff/admin love where they work. This ideal environment may seem like a lofty goal, but I know that it is possible. I have witnessed firsthand, schools where students feel that they belong, that staff openings are flooded with applicants, that teachers have said they love where they teach, and the community partnerships grow year after year.
To ensure that classrooms are not overcrowded, it will require fostering a deeper and stronger relationship with the Board of Supervisors so that we can proactively address projected growth to address overcrowding. Having served on our comprehensive redistricting committee for our schools, I know that this can be done and I'm committed to making it happen.
As I mentioned before, this will require a lot of listening. By being a listening presence in our schools and community. Every parent, can have their voice heard. This will be done through community listening sessions held both in-person and virtually, attending school and community events, and being responsive to communications from parents. Truly listening and making the voice of the parents feel heard is crucial to a successful relationship between parents and the school board.
Henrico County Public Schools has fostered great relationships with our colleges and universities with teacher preparation programs to recruit new teachers to our school division. A challenge currently being faced is that there are not enough students graduating from these programs to meet the state-wide needs for new teachers. Continuing to invest in our teach education programs and specialty center at Glen Allen HS is one way to get students into those programs, to then graduate from those programs, and return to Henrico County Public Schools as teachers.
Recruiting teachers, staff and administration is important, but we also have to work to address retention. Many will that we have a shortage of teachers and staff, but this is due to a critical retention problem. We have to work to address that fact that teachers, staff, and administrators not feeling that their voices are heard, that their needs are not being met, and creating a culture and climate that breeds belonging.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Parker completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
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Candidate Henrico County Public Schools, Fairfield District |
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Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 22, 2023
