As a school board member my top priorities will be to:

★ Create a safe and welcoming environment for ALL students.

★ Provide representation for all students, parents, teachers, and staff to the superintendent and central office.

★ Maintain and advance the level of excellence in our schools from instruction to facilities.

★ Advocate for school funding at the local, state and federal levels of government.

One of my top priorities is to provide representation for all students, parents, teachers, and staff to the superintendent and central office.

So let's talk about that. HOW do I plan to represent you? Well, it starts by knowing what's important to you. So if you are a student, a parent, teacher, or staff member of our Public School system, please reach out and let me know what you need. What matters most to you? How do we make MCPS the best that it can be?

While we are a varied community, I sincerely want to be the best representative to ALL constituents. We are the PUBLIC in our public school system. It's a system that needs to serve all of us and that means talking to each other and working together. That's the job of a school board member. That's the job I'm ready for.

The mental health of our children is of the utmost importance. Our students spend much of their waking hours at school. As we aim to make schools a safe and welcoming environment for all students, teachers and counselors have a unique insight into how students are performing both academically and socially, and can identify changes in students quickly that require attention, thus teachers and counselors play a vital role in aiding parents with the mental health of their students. It should be noted that for those parents that wish for their children to not partake in counseling services the MCPS policy states: “No student shall be required to participate in any counseling program to which the student’s parents object.”

In the 2023-2024 school year there is one-million dollars in additional funding for our school district via the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds to provide our schools with additional counselling services as we continue to realize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our students. The services these funds will provide come at an opportune time, as we are realizing the social and behavioral effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on our children. It is encouraging that the federal government is actively addressing mental health, as these funds are only for the 2023-2024 school year.

One of my top priorities, “Advocate for school funding at the local, state and federal levels of government”, has received attention in the news this week (https://www.wvtf.org/.../jlarc-virginia-formula...). Thus I would like to address this priority in more detail tonight.

First let’s address local school funding:

In May of 2023, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) was required to reduce the school system’s proposed budget by more than $4.5 million dollars. MCPS originally requested a little over $62 million from the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors (the remaining portion of the MCPS budget comes from the state and the federal government) but only received $58.4 million from the County- a loss of $3.6 million. An additional $874,903 was removed from the state’s portion of the budget due to a miscalculation on the state’s side (https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../virginia-schools.../).

County administrator F. Craig Meadows proposed a property tax rate of $0.73 per $100 for a total county budget of $239.9 million with revenue from the federal, state, and county governments. This tax rate equated to a modest 4.3% increase in revenue during a time of near-double-digit inflation and rapid growth in the county. In order to achieve a revenue-neutral (0% increase) tax rate of $0.70 per $100, per year, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted to slash Montgomery County Public Schools’ funding by an additional $1.3 million. Video and transcript of the Board of Supervisors meeting where school funding was cut can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JTOq1Oq-Jw

I support fully funding our public schools. Full funding will provide for increased teacher retention and a safe environment (sufficient resource officers) with appropriate instruction for our students to thrive.

Now let’s look at state school funding:

The General Assembly tasked the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to assess the cost of education in Virginia. The overall assessment identified that Virginia Schools are significantly underfunded by the state compared to the national average as well as three of our five bordering states. The 50 state average outperformed Virginia by 14% while WV, MD, and KY outperformed Virginia by 25%, 18%, and 5% respectively. As both a private citizen and a School Board member, I fight and will continue to fight for the state to fund their share of the public education system, calling upon State Senators, State Delegates, and the Governor of Virginia to increase funding to our schools.

First, let me thank our school librarians (and public library librarians) for the hard work they do with little praise. Our librarians maintain a rich selection of age appropriate works that cater to the wide variety of families with varying ideologies, religions, and politics in our community. Our community is rich in its differences, which is a great strength of the public school system. This is the PUBLIC in public schools. It doesn't cater to one group or another, and it shouldn't.

Our school librarians and English teachers are professionals with extensive education from Bachelor's degrees to Masters and Ph.D. degrees, and should not be micromanaged by a vocal minority targeting specific books.

With the exception of keeping reading material age appropriate, any book that encourages our children to read and expand their views of the world or grows their imagination, is a good book. By overly restricting the books our children have access to in the school library, we are restricting their ability to seek out resources from many viewpoints and think for themselves. As a parent, this last point is sometimes difficult, because when we allow our children to grow and think for themselves, sometimes, our children challenge our, the parents’, views; however, this is also the most rewarding part of being a parent, when the educational system of home and school combine to form a successfully independent thinking child with the knowledge to go out and challenge injustices in this world.

Any age appropriate book that a child will read encourages educational growth and builds their capacity for freedom of thought.

All families have different ideas of what is and is not appropriate. It is important to respect these differences; however, it is not the schools responsibility to parent our children. It is the schools responsibility to educate our students and teach them to be critical thinkers.

My opponent has often taken aim at members of our community, including students in MCPS, who are too often marginalized. These attacks are made based on personal ideologies contradictory to the professional consensus of the American Pediatrics Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association. I find the actions of attacking these students and the lack of interjection from my opponent despicable. Part of being a school board member is to represent all families in their district. This includes children and families with whom the school board member may not identify or even understand. In fueling the “othering” of these students and their parents, my opponent is demonstrating that she is not willing or capable to be the voice for all of her constituents and that the “parental rights” that she champions only apply to the parents that she agrees with.

As I previously stated in an extended dialog with one of my opponent’s supporters in the thread, https://www.facebook.com/groups/everyoneblacksburg/permalink/910572890248455/

“The nuances in accepting a historically marginalized community are complicated, and I do not pretend to know all the answers as our society transitions to acceptance of transgender people. As I appreciate the advances made with respect to previously marginalized communities and people in America— American Women, Black Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Lesbian Americans, Gay Americans to name a few, we still have work to do with demarginalizing these communities as well as the transgender community and other marginalized communities and people.” I am committed to the work of breaking the marginalization and "othering" of these communities.

As a dad of two MCPS students, husband to a preschool teacher, a VT student on April 16th, 2007 and a teacher of many MCPS students during Girl Scouts and religious education classes on Sundays; school safety and security is of utmost importance to me. I too have questions regarding visibility into our schools, and I am interested in having security experts provide guidance on this issue. I know of several education facilities moving towards privacy mirror window tinting on ground level windows. These allow people inside the classroom to have natural light in the classroom and see outside, but do not allow for viewing inward. As a school board member, I will work with the superintendent, school administrators, teachers, security experts, parents, and community members to identify areas to improve the security of our students, teachers, and staff. No matter the solution that security experts propose, the solution will require funding. I will work with the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors to fund the needs of MCPS. I encourage everyone to support those board of supervisor candidates that will fund our schools at an appropriate level for SAFETY, MAINTENANCE, and TEACHER AND STAFF RETENTION. These candidates are:

District B – Mr. Derek Kitts

District E – Mr. Anthony Grafsky; https://www.facebook.com/grafskyforsupervisor

District F – Ms. Mary Biggs; https://www.facebook.com/BiggsForSupervisor

District G – Ms. April DeMotts; https://www.facebook.com/DeMottsforDistrictG

Our children are the future of our communities. Their education is the foundation on which those futures depend. Our teachers and staff are critical to creating the best possible educational environment for MCPS students. Are we competitively compensating teachers towards providing our students the best education?
No, we are not.
On average, teachers in Montgomery County are paid $6,000 below those in the rest of the state and $9,000 below the national average. Unfortunately, this gap is compounded because the housing costs in Montgomery County are higher than the state average.
Our State can do better on school funding and I view a significant portion of my job is to work with state and local elected officials to increase school funding. I have already begun this work by meeting with state and federal legislators. I would also like to research the Virginia Department of Education grant program. I am confident I can find allies and colleagues to work with in the VA Senate, VA House of Delegates, and on the Virginia Board of Education.
If Virginia’s Department of Education were to review its calculations for quality salaries while taking into account the housing costs in our county, we would likely see an increase in funding to schools that would bring our teachers’ salary closer to the national average. However, this pay gap needs more direct attention by our Board of Supervisors.
If we do not pay our teachers a competitive wage, they will leave. We will not attract top quality teachers to our district, as Roanoke, Charlottesville, Lexington, Lynchburg, and Richmond school districts provide better pay.
There are also non-pay related areas we can work on to boost morale and create a better work environment for teachers.
1) I consider myself to be an advocate and conduit for teachers and MCPS staff. As such, if elected I plan on developing a schedule for office hours at each school in my district to meet with any members of the staff during normal school hours at least once per month. I am happy to encourage more participation if needed by holding these as anonymous meetings.
2) I would work with the Montgomery County Educational Association (MCEA) to understand and address the current teacher concerns and develop a plan of action with stakeholders such as the PTA/PTO, Board of Supervisors, School Resource Officers, etc..
3) In the coming year we have a wonderful opportunity to seek and validate teacher input on the next school calendar where we can place adjustments to increase education and work-life balance.
4) Finally it is always important to continue outreach with teachers when setting and adjusting curriculum standards, finding ways to cut down on redundancy in paperwork, and discussing ways we might lessen the burden that our teachers carry.
Regarding severe discipline issues, my preference is to try to keep students in their school through programs such as in-school suspension or after school service. When there are particular difficulties that cannot be managed in their home school, it may become appropriate for the student to attend one of Virginia’ alternative education programs, Montgomery Central in the case of Montgomery County students; however, there needs to be a clear path for these students to re-enter their home schools when they show they have corrected the actions of concern.
Additional posts of mine on teacher retention, funding, and student safety can be found at:
MORE ON SCHOOL FUNDING:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=209364868799204&set=a.116129618122730
MORE ON SPECIAL EDUCATION AND SCHOOL FUNDING:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=218557007879990&set=a.116129618122730
STUDENT SAFETY:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=204605669275124&set=a.116129618122730
MEET & GREET w/questions from constituents:
https://www.facebook.com/SDerekRountree/videos/1969544716749508

I've stated before that one of my top priorities is to provide representation for ALL students, ALL parents, ALL teachers, ALL staff and ALL Montgomery County stakeholders to the Montgomery County Public School school board, superintendent, and central office.

I feel like the first step in doing that is pretty obvious. I need to actually LISTEN to YOU - the stakeholders.
I have heard from quite a few people that they’re frustrated that they aren't able to ask questions of my opponent because many have been blocked from her page and community groups that provide access to a large portion of the Blacksburg community. So many people have questions and concerns because these are their children we are campaigning to represent and educate. It’s fair to ask questions of those seeking public office. The electorate should be informed of where every candidate stands and what each candidate brings to the table.

Let me be clear here, I understand that if I want to be your representative on the school board, then I need to actually listen to what your concerns are. You need to feel free to ask me questions, even hard ones. We may not agree on everything and that's okay, but we do need to be able to talk to each other and work together with courtesy and respect because that is the example our children need to see, and civil debate is what our children NEED us to do to make MCPS the best educational system possible.
If I am elected, I am committed to doing my very best for ALL of you, not a select few. I'm not in this for just some of our kids. I'm in this for ALL of our kids. Each member of this community has input and each voice should be heard. I am listening and if I don't know the answer to your question off the top of my head, I am committed to doing the research (it's what I do for a living).

Does every problem have an easy solution? Of course not. But I feel sure that the only way we can move MCPS forward and provide our students with the very best education possible is to work together to find solutions that we can all live with.

I'm here for the questions and for the hard conversations. I sincerely believe that every voice matters and every voice should be heard. We all have a seat at the table, so to speak. So I'll ask again, what matters most to you? How do we make MCPS the best that it can be?

The biggest challenge that Montgomery County Public Schools face is attracting and retaining teachers and staff.

Virginia ranks 25th in the nation for teacher pay, $6,500 below the national average. Additionally, our teachers in Montgomery County are paid $6,000 below the average teacher in the state of Virginia. They are also paid less than teachers in nearby communities such as Roanoke.

Our custodians are starting below $15.00/hour (at $13.00/hour for a day shift and $14.60/hour for a night shift). If you stop at Hardee’s, you’ll see that they are hiring with starting wages of $15.00 per hour. We don’t have to wonder why we have openings.

The state legislature generated a budget for the year with an additional 600 million dollars of funding for the schools. This is a great start, but we know from their own studies that Virginia’s schools are underfunded by approximately 1.6 billion dollars.

I greatly appreciate the state legislature addressing the shortfall in education funding that has built up over the past decade, but we still have work to do. I will do my part by continuing to fight for the state to fund their share of the public education system, calling upon State Senators, State Delegates, and the Governor of Virginia to increase funding to our schools.

See: Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission on Teacher Salaries.

A MCPS parent asked recently about security and safety regarding visibility into ground level classrooms in the Everything Blacksburg group.

As a dad of two MCPS students, husband to a preschool teacher, a VT student on April 16th, 2007 and a teacher of many MCPS students during Girl Scouts and religious education classes on Sundays; school safety and security is of utmost importance to me. I too have questions regarding visibility into our schools, and I am interested in having security experts provide guidance on this issue. I know of several education facilities moving towards privacy mirror window tinting on ground level windows. These allow people inside the classroom to have natural light in the classroom and see outside, but do not allow for viewing inward. As a school board member, I will work with the superintendent, school administrators, teachers, security experts, parents, and community members to identify areas to improve the security of our students, teachers, and staff. No matter the solution that security experts propose, the solution will require funding. I will work with the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors to fund the needs of MCPS. I encourage everyone to support those board of supervisor candidates that will fund our schools at an appropriate level for SAFETY, MAINTENANCE, and TEACHER AND STAFF RETENTION. These candidates are:

District B – Mr. Derek Kitts
District E – Mr. Anthony Grafsky
District F – Ms. Mary Biggs
District G – Ms. April DeMotts

Several folks have asked me about where I stand on parental rights. This is an easy one. I am a parent of two young elementary school children and I am 100% for parental rights.

Parents are the #1 authority on their own children. I do NOT forfeit my rights as their parent when they walk through the schoolhouse doors. I would never be okay with that. Not for my children, and not for yours either.

That said, I don’t assume that my rights concerning MY children mean that I also have rights over YOUR children. I also understand that my children have some rights over themselves. They are not property. They are people.

MCPS has a lot of systems in place to protect our rights and our kids’ rights. If we don't feel comfortable with our elementary school child learning about sensitive topics, we can opt our child out of those lessons. If our middle schooler doesn’t feel comfortable changing clothes near others in the locker room, they can ask for a private changing area. If our high school student isn’t comfortable in a public restroom, the board is investing in single-stall restroom facilities. As your school board member, I will fight to preserve and expand these protections because parent and student rights matter.

I also don’t assume that teachers are trying to indoctrinate my kids. I have been in the schools. My wife has spent many hours volunteering in our elementary school. We see what the teachers are doing. We see how much they care about their students and how hard they work. I can only speak directly from my own experiences in my children’s school, but I know that there are teachers who hold different views from me and my family. I trust those teachers to be professionals. This trust in our teachers isn’t just a blind faith. It’s from discussions with my kids. It’s from my own experiences and that of my wife’s inside our schools.

I am profoundly grateful for the expertise and background that our teachers bring to the table. They help us help our kids. YES, we pay attention to what they are learning and what they are reading. We pay attention to how our children are developing socially and emotionally and academically. That is the job of every parent. It’s good to be involved. It’s because we care deeply for our children that we work with our kids' teachers to promote their education in every way possible.

I am absolutely for parental rights. I believe in working collaboratively with professionals to help our children reach their highest potential.

My opponent, Lindsay Rich posted claiming that I am “focused on raising your real estate taxes.” That is untrue propaganda.

My top priorities include school safety and increasing the level of excellence in our schools, from teaching to facilities. I’ve written statements on school security, mental health, teacher retention, and more.

However, I’m not naive. I know that to make our schools better, we need to find the money to pay for solutions that will work.

That’s why I’ve also promised to advocate for school funding. I’m looking at all possible sources of funding, including the state and federal governments. I’m already speaking with state and federal legislators to ask them to increase funds for our schools.

I’m also looking to save money using smart solutions to the problems in our buildings. As a school board member, I will focus on cost effective use of every taxpayer dollar in our system. Unfortunately, cost-saving measures and help from the state and federal governments may not be enough.

Lindsay Rich’s latest posts seems to indicate that she is happy with the level of funding the Board of Supervisors provided to the schools this year- a shortfall that Superintendent Bragen stated “will cause decreases in staffing, supplies, and some programs.” Ms. Rich’s post seems to indicate that she is against any tax increase, no matter how small, even if it’s the last chance to meet the needs of our children. This is an odd position for a School Board member to take, and it’s one of the differences between us.

I promise that I will not stand by and let our schools, and our children, struggle to thrive. They are worth far more than that.

I will do everything in my power to make sure that MCPS provides the highest quality education to your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and the kid down the street. I'm in this for ALL of our students.

Testing is a huge issue for teachers, parents and students. Here in Montgomery County, we have three major tests being administered to our K-5 students. These include the PALS testing for grades K-3rd, MAP Growth testing for grades 1st-5th, and SOL Growth testing for grades 3rd-5th. This is on top of the regular unit tests and Benchmark tests in reading and math.

PALS testing is used to measure literacy and to identify reading and language arts issues early so that interventions can be implemented. PALS tests are administered 3 times per year for grades K-3rd.

For more info on PALS testing

MAP tests provide feedback on how students are doing and how their growth is proceeding with significant detail to subjects and sub topics that a child is struggling with. MAP tests are administered 3 times per year for grades 1st-5th.

More info on MAP testing

Talking to teachers, parents, and as a parent myself, MAP Growth tests are greatly appreciated. The level of detail provides parents and educators with information to help students address deficiencies over the coming three months. While MAP Growth tests are very useful, they are not what is used to judge success of a school or school system. This job is given to the appropriately named (and I don’t mean Standards of Learning) SOL test.

The SOL Growth tests are required by the state. These tests are administered 2 times per year for grades 3rd - 5th. While MAPS testing may arguably be more useful for families, SOL tests are aligned with Virginia state standards and give a guide on how our schools are doing on our state standards. MAP is nationally normalized but does not necessarily cover all of the state standards.
For more information on SOL testing: see the state assessment guidelines
or
TeacherMade’s guide

To summarize, here is the breakdown for our K-5 students:

Kindergarten - 3 rounds of PALS testing (Fall, Winter, Spring) and 2 rounds of VKRP (Math & Social Emotional Screener) = 6 total standardized tests per year
1st grade - 3 rounds of PALS testing (Fall, Winter, Spring) and 3 rounds of MAP (Reading & Math) = 9 total standardized tests per year
2nd grade - 3 rounds of PALS testing and 3 rounds of MAP (Reading, Math, and Language test) = 12 total standardized tests per year
3rd grade - 3 rounds of PALS (but only for ID students), 3 rounds of MAP (Reading, Math, and Language), 2 rounds of SOL Growth testing (Reading, Math), and SOL test (Reading and Math) = 15 total standardized tests per year (without the PALS ID students)
4th grade - 3 rounds of MAP (Reading, Math, and Language), 2 rounds of SOL Growth testing (Reading, Math), and SOL test (Reading, Math, Virginia Studies) = 16 total standardized tests per year
5th grade - 3 rounds of MAP (Reading, Math, and Language), 2 rounds of SOL Growth testing (Reading, Math), SOL test ( Reading, Math, Science, and Integrated Reading & Writing) = 17 total standardized tests per year

That’s a LOT of testing. Each of these tests draws from important instructional time.

I do have some personal feelings when it comes to standardized testing, as it often isn't a true representation of student ability (what is a standard student anyway?) This article on the NEA (National Education Association) site illustrates some of my frustrations with testing.

As a school board member, I would like to consult with families, teachers, and students to help reduce some of this testing. I recognize that some testing is mandated by the state, but we must find a way to reduce the loss of instruction time and stress on our teachers and students. I believe it's worth more discussion.

Our public schools should provide many career paths and options to suit individual student needs. MCPS has been doing an excellent job of providing a diverse selection of career paths to high school students. As a member of the MCPS School Board, I would commit to expanding this selection to include even more options in the trades.

Personally, I have experience in a wide range of jobs - from miner to physics researcher. I have experience in electrical work, building, and component fabrication. I have had the great fortune to have worked with skilled tradespeople from many backgrounds. I know that it is important to provide students with career options that suit their personal gifts, passions, and talents.

Currently in MCPS, students can pursue many career options, such as: Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Information Technology, Health and Medical Sciences, Public Safety and Corrections, Manufacturing. Within these clusters, students have available to them a wide range of courses that provide practical job-focused skills.

They can learn basic nursing, machining (lathes, drills, CNC), welding, automotive technology, small engine repair, agricultural mechanics, manufacturing technology, construction, carpentry, cabinetmaking, HVAC repair, electricity, cosmetology, graphic imaging, cybersecurity, culinary arts, early childhood education, pharmacy technician, engineering technology. And that is just a partial list. We are very fortunate to have

such a range of options for MCPS students.

I would work to expand some of these options to include additional required courses and apprenticeship opportunities to allow students to graduate on a path toward licensure in trades such as electrician, plumber, or HVAC technician.

I would also love to hear from the community: how would you expand career path opportunities for our students?

While it's true that I'm a transplant from Louisiana, my children are being raised as the 5th generation of Montgomery County residents. I moved here in 2003 for graduate school. I met my wife back in 2007. Her family has been in SWVA for generations. Her parents live in district E. Her grandparents and great grandparents also lived in district E. Now we are raising our children in district E. My children have these mountains and valleys in their blood.

When I moved here 20 years ago, I didn't know that it would be forever, but when I met my wife and we decided to build a family, we knew we wanted to be in Montgomery County. It did take us until 2021 to buy our house in Blacksburg (have you seen housing prices in Blacksburg?!) But we made it.

My wife attended elementary school at Harding Avenue, middle school at the old BMS on Main Street, and graduated from BHS in 1998 (prior to the roof collapse.) We have a deep appreciation for MCPS and an understanding of how it's grown over the years. BHS is currently ranked as the 17th top High School in Virginia. That's 17th out of 336.

We are committed to this community. Even my parents, who are Louisiana natives, moved to Montgomery county to be close to their grandchildren. Our roots are here and our children are the latest branch on the Montgomery County family tree.

When you love a community so completely, you do what you can to serve it. That is my objective.

I'm all in.

The days are busy and time with my family is precious. The greatest honor of my life is being a father to these two amazing girls and a husband to my wife. Of all of my jobs and responsibilities, these take the lead.

I believe in being present in my kids' lives. That means showing up. It means asking them questions and investing my time in them. Taking them to soccer practice and dance lessons. Showing up to their games and recitals. Teaching them what I know. BEING PRESENT.

Discipline starts with compassion. My wife and I do our best to show our children how to treat others and how to stand up for their rights as well as the rights of others.

We play an active role in their academics by helping them with homework and communicating with their teachers. We are committed to being present by putting down the devices and playing board games with them that create bonds and promote interactions. We try to live our lives by modeling good behavior, civic action, compassion, perseverance, and integrity.

I am running for school board because promoting the education and social development of our kids is of paramount importance. Our homes and family bonds are a fertile ground for these kids to grow. We need to tend it well.