FOIA emails show district leaders coordinated with campaign staff, redirected school resources, and urged teachers to attend a partisan rally with Democrats Hashmi and Jones on paid time.
Internal emails reveal that Portsmouth Public Schools (PPS) administrators coordinated with the Spanberger for Governor campaign to stage a political rally inside I.C. Norcom High School during school hours on Aug. 8, the first teacher workday of the year.
According to FOIA records obtained exclusively by Restoration News, the coordination diverted taxpayer-funded staff time and school resources away from instruction to support a partisan event.
Photos and social media posts from campaign operatives and union officials show Democratic candidates Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi, and Jay Jones delivering campaign speeches attacking their opponents beneath political banners hanging in the school library.
Although division leaders later described the gathering as a closed “education roundtable,” evidence shows it was a publicly promoted political rally conducted during paid work hours inside a taxpayer-funded school.
Teachers Encouraged to Attend
Emails show that division administrators went further, recruiting teachers to attend the rally during their contracted workday and coordinating attendance directly with campaign staff.
On Aug. 6, Principal Teesha Sanders emailed campaign aide Annabelle Trowbridge, writing: “I have invited teachers to the event. I will also speak with them the morning of August 8.”
Sanders later followed up: “So far I have 20 teachers. How many would you like?”
Earlier, PPS Chief Operations Officer Jerry Simmons told the campaign that because it was the first day back for teachers, “Ms. Sanders will be better positioned to assist with teachers/staff attending the event.”
Among those present was Shawnee L. Perry-Wallace, a current PPS employee and 2024 Middle School Teacher of the Year, who publicly endorsed Spanberger from the podium.
Division policy explicitly forbids such political activity. PPS regulations prohibit employees from engaging “in any activity supporting or opposing a candidate or political party while on duty, while on school property during school hours, or while representing the school division.”
By directing teachers to attend during paid work hours and allowing an employee to campaign for a candidate on school grounds, administrators appear to have violated policies designed to protect the division’s neutrality and keep politics out of classrooms.
