‘Trainwreck’: New school board leadership in York County accused of militia ties, could face legal issues

YORK COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) — The York County School Division is facing a “tsunami of discontent” from employees and potential legal action under its new school board leadership.

At the Feb. 12 school board work session, board members James Richardson and Mark Shafer weren’t shy about voicing their issues with the new three-member faction led by Board Chair Lynda Fairman.

Fairman and board members Kimberly Goodwin and Zoran Pajevic were all elected this November after running on a right-wing platform in line with the “parents rights” movement championed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and a broader push by Republicans to take over school boards nationwide.

“I love this school district, I love York County, and I don’t want to see it run into the ground. And I think that if things continue the way that they’re going it will be a trainwreck,” said Shafer, who represents District 1.

Richardson and Shafer made considerable revelations at that meeting: That Superintendent Dr. Victor Shandor was considering potential legal action against the board for alleged retaliation, and that Fairman allegedly sent a local militia group to a school district event on Family Life sex education.

“What really concerns me, majorly, is that board members have been notified by our board attorney that the board may be liable because of retaliation claims made by the superintendent. This could open the board and division up to possible litigation. I’m seriously concerned about that,” Richardson said.

Shandor didn’t elaborate on those claims, but at the new board’s first organizational meeting on Jan. 8, Fairman and the board discussed having Shandor no longer sit on the dais with the board during meetings over “perception” concerns. Superintendents have long sat with the school board in places like Virginia Beach and Suffolk.

Fairman, Goodwin and Pajevic also notably indicated on the campaign trail they’d move to replace Shandor once they took office.

Fairman, a former area teacher who was elected in November to represent District 5, denied both accusations at the Feb. 12 work session, including any alleged retaliation against Shandor, who was appointed by a previous board back in 2014. She alluded to that move to try to separate Shandor from the dais in her comments.

In response, Richardson added “there appears to be consistent, constant conflict with school division staff, the citizens are even responding to it, they responded at our last board meeting.”

Speakers at that meeting shared several concerns they had with the new board, including that they weren’t focusing on the needs of students, they were intervening in decisions on books, and distracted by initiatives like one to implement prayer before meetings (approved on Feb. 12).

One speaker said she was especially concerned about the possibility of the board firing Shandor.

“I worry that our division is about to take a turn for the worst,” said Ruth Fries, a teacher at Mount Vernon Elementary School and the wife of Yorktown Middle Principal Brian Fries.

“I fear that our newest board members have already begun creating a toxic work environment. Three board members spoke on a podcast before being elected about their intentions to fire Dr. Shandor … staff here trust and respect Dr. Shandor and his decisions. We value his impact, he makes a connection with students and employees. The success of York County School Division is largely due to Dr. Shandor’s leadership. In a time where teacher turnover is a reality, why would you risk that here by firing him?”

At the Feb. 12 work session, Shandor did not expand on the matter, saying it was a discussion for the board. Though he did respond to Richardson’s suggestion to have legal mediation between the board and Shandor to potentially avoid litigation and address “elephants in the room.”

“Who does this discussion help, Mr. Richardson? The five of you? Or the 2,000 employees that are concerned and watching?” Shandor asked.

“I’m sure you’ve been inundated, I would think with employee concerns over the actions of the board over the last month,” Richardson said. “I’ve heard it from the community; I haven’t heard it from you yet.”

“I have, I have,” Shandor said in response.

WAVY reached out to both Shandor and Fairman for additional comment on the matter shortly after the Feb. 12 session. A county spokesperson said Shandor was out of the office for the rest of the week, but wouldn’t have more to say on the advice of counsel. Fairman did not respond to WAVY’s request by the time of publication.

Later in the meeting, Shafer and Richardson attempted to remove Fairman and Goodwin as chair and vice chair, but that vote failed 3-2.

Militia group allegations

The other major point of contention during the work session revolved around allegations that Fairman ordered a local militia group to film a public Family Life Education event at Dare Elementary last month.

“They were part of a militia group, they were part of it, it’s all come out on video. I’ve watched it all, I saw it all,” Richardson said. “And they said ‘oh we were sent here by Ms. Fairman and they’ve got cameras up.”

Fairman denied being a part of the militia group.

“I am not a part of that, absolutely not, and I do not support that name being changed, and that was news to me,” Fairman said. “… there were several citizens, who when they found out about the Family Life, I asked them ‘I said I can’t go, can you please go?'”

Shafer said about two hours before the scheduled event, Fairman asked the school board office “to basically jump through hoops to get a video crew over there to video tape it, which is kinda weird seeing how it came from VDOE, Youngkin’s VDOE, and was approved by us last year, has been posted forever on the website … and the counselors in charge of it, yeah they’re freaking out. I would be too if I was school counselor. Having these people show saying ‘Lynda Fairman sent me’ and they’re videotaping.”

Fairman responded: “and that’s my mistake for how I presented it to them. It was not intended to be that way,” saying she wrote hand-written letters to guidance counselors to apologize.

Goodwin emphasized that no laws and policies were violated, but Richardson said “if you were an employee how would you feel?”

“It would be a little upsetting, but let me tell you something, if you have nothing to hide there shouldn’t be something to worry about,” Goodwin said.

Richardson didn’t have additional comment when reached by WAVY, but confirmed that the group in question is led by Yorktown resident Bob Herget, and has gone by “York Community Poquoson Community Missions (YCPCM).” The group has since taken down their website and reduced what’s shown on their Facebook account.

Herget and “YCPCM” members such as York County resident Gary Porter have spoken at recent county meetings. Herget first went before the school board in a YCPCM shirt on October 23, complained about “Marxist ideology,” and perceived moral failures in the U.S.

Herget added on Jan. 29 “we would like for we the people to understand that we are the primary branch of government within this self-governing system, particularly as a support multiplier within our local community.”

The group’s intentions came more into focus in a roughly 30-minute video of Herget posted on YouTube of an event in Southwest Virginia in October 2023, which was later set to private. In the video, which was posted online in part by a TikTok user called “YCSD School Board Watch,” Herget refers to the group as the “York County Poquoson Constitutional Militia.”

“The big issue is the big ole ‘M word’ right there,” Herget says, implying that the word militia scares people who might be involved in the group’s other stated functions, like helping law enforcement locate lost children or helping with disaster relief.

“When the time comes and everyone learns, we change the name to constitutional militia,” said Herget, who adds “on my development team I have three people running for the school board” and “one running for county supervisor.”

WAVY reached out to Herget to explain those comments, but he declined an interview in favor of a statement, in which he addressed the incident at Dare Elementary:

Meanwhile another video of the event that also features Herget provides information on the background of the group.

A man named John Leyzorek, who helped start an initiative called Tactical Civics, spoke before Herget and called him “one of my right hand people” and has “taken this idea and is running with it.”

Tactical Civics mixes deeply religious undertones with far-right concerns about the “Deep State,” COVID restrictions and other language that experts say helped fuel the January 6 Capitol attack. One of its key features includes creating the so-called constitutional militias and establishing “people’s grand juries” that would supersede local judges, prosecutors and law enforcement.

The group says it wants to have a Tactical Civics chapter in every county nationwide, and claims to have more than 500 so far.

A Tactical Civics group was formed in 2021 in Appomattox County, per a release posted in the Times Virginian newspaper, and Herget said in the now private video others were in the process of being formed in Southside Hampton Roads. Additionally, in a November 2023 online update from the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a statement from Herget said “YCPCM and Campbell County have been providing assistance/guidance to those localities throughout the Commonwealth in their development.”

The Campbell County group, one of a handful of self-identifying militias in Virginia (mostly in the Southwest part of the commonwealth) calls itself the “Campbell County Militia.” Its website features photos of members cleaning up trash and volunteering in the community in addition to training with guns and tactical gear. They claimed more than 200 members when the group was formed in Feb. 2020 amid the the “Second Amendment sanctuary” anti-gun control movement, and later “officially recognized” by the county’s board of supervisors.

Also in that private video, Herget also says he went last year to York-Poquoson Sheriff Ron Montgomery to try to get him to recognize the militia and let them use a new public safety building that’s opening this spring in order to hold monthly meetings.

Montgomery told WAVY “I know Bob, I know him very well,” and that Herget wanted to call the group the “York County Poquoson Constitutional Militia” from the very beginning.” He says he’s fielded concerns from citizens about the group since that video came to light.

“I saw that video and I immediately contacted Bob and reminded him that when he approached me almost a year or so ago about forming this organization, I told him my office nor I personally would endorse any organization in the county that called itself a militia, so he was very aware of that,” Montgomery said.

“There’s a portion of Virginia statute that talks about an unorganized militia, we’ve all seen that,” added Montgomery, “but my concern was, and concern of some of the other folks that Bob talked to was that the original description he had, of what he wanted to accomplish here in York County with this militia, I told him that I would not endorse that from the sheriff’s perspective. My recommendation to him was if you want to do something to help the community then you need to get involved in food drives, or back to school events that we do when we could use additional hands to move some of the school supplies and those types of things.”

Montgomery said he and Herget did discuss a community room for civic organizations would be in the new public safety building, but said he never promised him he could use the room for the group.

Overall, Montgomery said “what I was seeing on that video was contrary to the last couple of meetings that he had with me… the last couple of meetings we discussed he was all about civic projects, having his group participate in food drives, back to school drives for kids, and picking up trash on the side of the road and talking about CERT training for his group. No militia discussions whatsoever. So when I saw that video and called him out on it, that was contrary to what he was telling me, and I let him know that he had lost all credibility with me at that point.”

WAVY received word that citizens will voice their concerns about recent events at the upcoming Feb. 26 board meeting at 7 p.m.

Check with WAVY.com for updates.

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