Gil Trenum (R) 
Desi Arnaiz (I)
Election Background
Milt Johns is currently Brentsville District’s School Board member. To run for Chairman of the School Board, Johns relinquished the Brentsville position. That left an open seat and Trenum and Arnaiz competing for the empty seat.
Although there relatively little information about this race in the newspaper, it is quite important. The Prince William County School Board appoints our school officials and controls a budget of over one billion dollars to educate over 70,000 students. Amazingly, however, we pay School Board members only about a thousand dollars a month. How we get good people to volunteer for this difficult job, I can only guess, but somehow we do — fortunately.
WUSA9.com provides a brief description of both candidates on its website (here).
The Issues
The primary issue is Prince William County schools is overcrowding (here).
Both candidates emphasize maintaining education quality.
Arnaiz specifically addresses the issue of ESL students, a growing issue, on his website. Nonetheless, Arnaiz does not promote illegal immigration (see his comment here).
The Candidates
Gil Trenum (R)
Gil Trenum is a relative newcomer (only ten years), but he and his wife, Michelle, have taken an active interest in local affairs. Thus Trenum has earned the endorsement of the Republican Party (here) and one of our local newspapers (here).
Trenum has a solid technical education, a good military background, and a record of local community involvement. His Nokesville neighbors know him, and they have provided him an excellent springboard into the School Board race.
Desi Arnaiz (I)
Desi Arnaiz is a local business owner, a retired senior military officer, and long-time respected member of the PWC GOP. At first glance, Arnaiz’s distinguished record and greater experience would suggest that he is the best choice for the School Board.
Citizen Tom’s Recommendation
Arnaiz actually started running for the School Board first, and he quickly got the endorsement of most local Republican officeholders. However, rank and file party members chose to endorse Trenum. Since then, Trenum has receive the endorsement of most local Republican Officeholders (here).
Exactly why PWC GOP members chose to endorse Trenum instead of Arnaiz I can only guess. I expect the fact Trenum has children in the school system, and his children represent both him and his lady well, probably explains the choice.
After Arnaiz competed for the PWC GOP’s endorsement and Trenum received it, Arnaiz should have dropped out of the race. As a condition for competing for the endorsement, Arnaiz had agreed to drop out if the PWC GOP chose to endorse someone else. Unfortunately, Arnaiz reneged on his promise (details here).
Vote for Gil Trenum.
Desi ?
Would it be politically incorrect of me to wonder if Fred Mertz is his campaign manager ?
Yes. Desi is a good man, who just made a bad choice, probably for reasons he thinks are justifiable. So I don’t think we need to make fun of his name (heck, I wouldn’t support making fun of his name even if he wasn’t a “good man”).
When I told Gil Trenum it was too bad he had to run this race (without Desi there would be no campaign), he said getting out and meeting all the people of the district was a good thing. He had a very upbeat view of it, and it made me glad I was supporting him for the position.
The Potomac News also endorsed Gil.