|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New Trustees : Bolster morale, security, money
By MARY EVA CASSADA
Special to The News & Record
They may have had less-watched, sleepier races than their fellow
Trustees-in-waiting, but Devin Snead and Walter Potts will have status
equal to their colleagues once they take office in January.
Both men say they come on board with no preconceived notions or
agendas, but do have lists of concerns, many of which overlap with
their new boardmates: paying attention to staff morale, school security
and vocational education
Snead works for the Altavista Police Department and is the father of
one preschooler and stepfather of another. Potts is works for the
Virginia Department of Correction's Camp 23 in Halifax. He is the
father of two grown daughters.
Devin Snead
Newcomer Snead isn't waiting until January to get up to speed on School
Board business; he's already taking school tours and chatting with
teachers, janitors and bus drivers.
"Employees are the county's No. 1 asset," he said. "Basically, they
want a voice, some sort of avenue to channel their concerns. I want to
physically get out there and talk to them and try not to neglect them."
Toward that end, Snead plans to create a website for school employees
and his constituents.
"I am a mouthpiece for them," he said.
Another item: safety.
"You don't want your school system to become a police state," admitted
Snead, and "You can't guarantee 100 percent protection" but "there's
always room for improvement," he said.
Snead is also keen to make sure teacher salaries are competitive and he
has questions about why two schools — one in Cluster Springs and
Washington-Coleman — were folded on the grounds that they were
inadequate for elementary students but re-opened as Preschool
Academies.
Interestingly perhaps for a School Trustee, Snead holds a GED, not a
traditional high school diploma. Years ago, his parents' separation, a
move to Richmond and a stint at a private school there left him, to his
surprise, a credit shy of graduation.
He was eager to get out into the world, he said, and opted for his GED.
Recently, when Snead's younger brother, Shawn, graduated from high
school, Snead was emotional, proud of Shawn but finding it poignant
that "He did something I didn't do."
Nevertheless, Snead sees himself as "living proof" of the success a GED
can bring. Not having a diploma "hasn't stopped me from getting where I
am."
At 27, he noted, he was chief of police in the Town of Halifax, and he
is pursuing an associate's degree. He is also captain of the Liberty
Volunteer Fire Department.
Despite being unopposed on the ballot, Snead encountered last-minute
write-in support for Jason Parker, who had held the District 1 Trustee
seat before being ousted by Douglas Fisher, whom Snead is replacing.
Parker garnered 116 write-in votes compared to Snead's 453. (Eight
other write-in votes were cast among five other people.)
"The more people concerned about education, the better off we are,"
said Snead in response, adding that he was "somewhat expecting" the
challenge.
Walter Potts
Potts, of District 8, has sat on the Halifax County School Board
before, back in the early 1990's, but he said changes in the
intervening years have been huge, particularly with the state Standards
of Learning (SOLs) and the federally No Child Left Behind Act, which
work together to tightly measure student progress.
The Average Yearly Progress (AYP) component of NCLB, which forces a
school and all of its demographic subgroups to perpetually boost scores
"is wrecking havoc," Potts said. He wishes local school authorities
would "raise cain" with legislators.
"A lot of parents feel like we're teaching to the SOLs and missing out
on life skills," he said.
He worries that basic vocational training has been sidelined in favor
of the Academies, which he believes cater to the college-bound — kids
who leave the county and are unlikely to return to use their skills
here.
Potts, with his career in corrections, joins current or retired police
officers Snead, Stuart Comer and Board Chairman Mac McDowell to form a
bloc of Trustees who see all too plainly the tribulations of a lousy
education.
"I make them take the responsibility" for their plight, Potts said of
his prisoners, but added, "I see the products of the educational system
from across the state."
Translation: young men with no high school diploma, no GED, no skills.
He knows that with Halifax County's low literacy rate and poverty, "We
know every kid doesn't have a computer in the home."
He'd like to see schools bridge the inequality gap.
"It's cheaper to fix them in school than fix them out here" in prison,
Potts said, citing a cost of about $27,000 per year to house a prisoner
at Camp 23 versus the several thousand dollars per year it costs to
educate a child in public school.
"I got real gang members, not wannabees," he quipped.
Also a concern to Potts: bringing citizens into the decision-making
loop.
"People say they're left out of the process," he said. "We need to give
them all the information we can."
He is also eager to seek out different sources of information on issues.
Potts is hoping to throw a spotlight on the high school stadium, which
he said "should be embarrassing" when compared to football facilities
at other schools.
"We spent all this money on the middle school [and two new
elementaries] and did nothing for the field," he said.
Last but hardly least, Potts is hoping to balance the budget in light
of huge state funding losses (coming in 2010), shake loose more money
from the Board of Supervisors and stanch the flow of high school
dropouts.
Potts replaces Trustee Kelly Hill, a Duke University Medical Center
pediatric nurse and mother of a preschooler who chose not to run again.
With Potts, who is African-American, the Board will maintain its racial
equilibrium despite the loss of District 4's Joe Bailey Jr. (Arthur
Reynolds of District 3 is also African-American.) However, the Board
will have no women for the first time in many years.
Snead and Potts take office in January, along with three other new
Trustees: Comer of District 7, Joe Gasperini of District 4 and Roger
Long of District 5.