THE INDEPENDENT NEWS
Ed. — The following are responses to questions posed by The Independent News to candidates for the District 5 seat on the Virginia Beach School Board. Answers to our questions in this series generally are not edited, aside from obvious punctuation issues, spacing and formatting, or for clarity. The Sunday, Sept. 22, voter guide edition is still available on some of our secondary racks until Election Day.
Only voters who live within District 5 vote in this election.
MELINDA ROGERS
Residence: Princess Anne Woods
Age: 50
Occupation: Educator
Education: Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education (summa cum laude)
Endorsements: Virginia Beach Education Association-PACE and Virginia Beach Democratic Committee
Website: melindarogersforschoolboard.com
Phone: (757) 405-7477
Email: melinda@melindarogersforschoolboard.com
Social Media: Melinda Rogers for School Board – Virginia Beach on Facebook
What are your specific qualifications for this office? I am a parent to two Virginia Beach City Public School students and one graduate. I am a former paralegal with years of experience in the legal field. I am also an educator with over a decade of experience, including five years with Virginia Beach City Public Schools. I’ve had the opportunity to demonstrate my commitment to diverse student populations, from gifted learners to those in special education and Title 1 classrooms. I am not a politician, but rather a uniquely qualified and passionate advocate for my community.
What is the most important issue facing the city schools, and how will you address it in office?
The top challenge facing Virginia Beach City Public Schools is achieving a budget which prioritizes staff and student needs. This year, the division has a budget of nearly $1.2 billion, yet we still face shortfalls regarding salaries, benefits, and capital improvement projects. These are in part a result of fiscally irresponsible budgetary practices. When elected, I will review the budget and vote for priorities which reflect the values of VBCPS, which is putting students first. Students need safe buildings, and a sufficient amount of faculty and staff. We cannot give students necessary resources without the budget to do so.
What are your three main policy priorities for Virginia Beach schools?
- I will advocate for policies that meet the needs of every student, ensuring equal access to the high-quality public education they deserve. I aim to address current shortcomings to meet the specific needs of Virginia Beach students. By keeping the focus on our community, we can ensure that the concerns of our students, staff, and families take precedence over politics.
- To guarantee the highest quality of education for students, emphasis in the school budget should be on staff retention and commitment to being responsible stewards of the funds entrusted to us. Recognizing the nationwide staffing crisis in education, my goal is to motivate Virginia Beach City Public Schools employees to remain dedicated to our institution.
- In this school year, the division has a budget of nearly $1.2 billion, yet we still face shortfalls within classrooms, leaving teachers to purchase critical supplies. We fail to provide sufficient resources and staffing for our students, leading to increased class sizes and an inability to maintain our infrastructure. These circumstances are a result of fiscally irresponsible budgetary practices. When elected, I will critically review the budget and vote for budgetary priorities which reflect the core values of VBCPS, which begin with putting students first.
How can the city schools address concerns about equality and inclusion? The school division’s focus should shift from equality to equity and inclusion. Recognizing that each student has unique needs, it is essential to move away from providing the same resources to every student and instead concentrate on delivering tailored support. This approach ensures that each student receives the specific tools and opportunities they need to thrive academically. Prioritizing equity means fostering inclusive environments for students of color, expanding opportunities for those pursuing alternative post-secondary paths, providing targeted resources for students in special education and gifted programs, and creating learning environments that cater to all ability levels.
Is the district doing enough to address school security and discipline? Discipline traditionally refers to training students to follow rules and comply with authority. However, I believe that our focus should be on fostering critical thinking rather than mere obedience. That said, it is essential for the division to enhance both security and behavior management within our schools. These improvements include securing safe entry points for both staff and students, particularly during recess, increasing the availability of mental health professionals to address emotional dysregulation effectively, supporting staff in managing students with needs that exceed typical classroom resources, and ensuring that students are placed in environments where they can achieve their fullest potential.
How will you help the School Board prioritize the significant challenge of teacher retention and recruitment? The school board can enhance staff retention and recruitment by prioritizing a budget that supports competitive pay and benefits. Employees want to feel valued by the division and to have their voices heard when making requests, such as improvements to the academic calendar or access to essential resources. Our staff seek positive working conditions, including well-maintained buildings and buses with air conditioning, as well as the ability to perform their duties within their contracted hours. Additionally, they should be compensated for mandatory trainings. By placing a strong emphasis on staff needs, VBCPS can become a desirable place to work, ultimately benefiting our community’s children through smaller class sizes and the support they deserve.
Do you support collective bargaining? I fully support giving staff a voice in matters related to their contracts, working conditions, pay, and benefits. To retain high-quality personnel, VBCPS must make a more concerted effort to listen to their concerns and prioritize addressing them.
Arguably, the School Board has been more effected by district voting than the City Council, which has faced challenges in court this year. Do you support the 10-district voting system? Why? I fully support the 10-district voting system, as it ensures dedicated representation for District 5 on the school board, with a sole focus on advocating for our students, staff, and families. I believe that equitable representation is vital to ensure all stakeholders have a voice in decision-making. As both a teacher and parent who has worked and volunteered in multiple District 5 schools, I understand firsthand the importance of having someone who champions our district’s unique needs. This system will greatly benefit our entire community.
VINCENT SMITH
Residence: District 5
Age: 54
Occupation: Engineer
Education: Bachelor of Science from ODU in Civil Engineering and Associate of Science from NVCC in Civil Engineering and Land Surveying
Endorsements: Republican Party of Virginia Beach and Sens. Bill DeSteph and Christie New Craig
Website: vincentsmithvb.com
Email: vincentsmithvb@gmail.com
Social Media: VincentSmithVB on Facebook
What are your specific qualifications for this office? My 25+ year engineering career managing policy, budgets, quality, and capital improvement execution gives me the detail-focused skill set and experience needed to hit the ground running in many positive and productive ways when I’m elected to represent District 5 on the Virginia Beach School Board.
My wife is a lifelong teacher and I know our teachers need more support from VBCPS and the community. For over a decade I earned my living as a welder and blacksmith. That trades experience gives me insight into the importance of vocational opportunities. Following an injury I went back to school and became an engineer. These well-rounded qualifications and experiences make me uniquely qualified for this role and the best choice to represent you on the School Board.
What is the most important issue facing the city schools, and how will you address it in office? We need to get our classrooms back to an environment of support, learning, security, and order for the benefit of our students and the well-being of our faculty. My wife and I volunteer in public primary schools in Central America. They do very well with minimum funding. I will work hard to get VBCPS to take a broader look and assess whether our education system can be simplified to achieve the same results. The 3 R’s are still the 3 R’s but I also know we aren’t living in the 1970’s anymore.
What are your three main policy priorities for Virginia Beach schools?
- First, 30% of our 3rd graders cannot read at 3rd grade level. We can do better and I will work to shift funding to reading recovery. Written communication is a cornerstone of civilization. It all starts there. Students who struggle to read will become frustrated. Frustrated students act out, which interrupts the classroom environment.
- Second, let’s further level out the access/focus/opportunity between collegiate, vocational, and military prep pathways. I would like to see programs graduating apprentice tradesmen right into rewarding careers.
- Third, create an achievable plan to get our school infrastructure program back on track. We have school buildings aging faster than our ability to replace or modernize the ones that we should not be using any longer. Part of this will be to standardize school designs with a focus on affordability and longevity instead of architectural masterpieces.
How can the city schools address concerns about equality and inclusion? I fully support more help for those who need more help. And we must ensure equality of opportunity, which also ensures equality of inclusion, for all our students. I do not support equality of outcome. Nothing will make a bigger difference to a child’s future more than teaching them the feelings of success and achievement at the end of dedicating hard work to achieving a goal. Our students need to be challenged to prepare them for a successful life.
Is the district doing enough to address school security and discipline? As to security, we can always do better. We are doing an adequate job of teaming with the sheriff’s office and the police department, and I know we can bolster those partnerships to achieve a goal of full time school resource officers (SROs). Let’s take a fresh look at where we are and what our SRO goals are. We are falling behind on improving discipline. This is one area where teachers may not feel supported. From a school board perspective we need to equalize the division’s behavior and discipline standards and include requirements of administration to perform to those requirements.
How will you help the School Board prioritize the significant challenge of teacher retention and recruitment? Many teachers have left, or consider leaving VBCPS. Not over compensation issues but due to lack of support. If we can re-focus the classroom on teaching and orderliness and move away from structured testing and constant teacher training and become highly competitive with the whole compensation package we won’t have issues with retention and recruitment. Let’s face it, giving a teacher a raise and increasing their health coverage the same year by the same amount is not a raise.
Do you support collective bargaining? No, I will not. What I will do is make sure that VBCPS shifts to support our faculty and staff in ways that eliminate the need for collective bargaining and avoid the tremendous lost costs associated with unionization. I am a big believer in supporting our teachers, faculty and staff but I also believe that a free enterprise system is more effective than unions at serving the needs of our employees. VBCPS must be more than competitive to retain and attract the best.
Arguably, the School Board has been more effected by district voting than the City Council, which has faced challenges in court this year. Do you support the 10-district voting system? Why? I support it. The 10-1 system gives candidates the ability to interact more directly with their constituents. I’m certain Virginia Beach would have landed here even without judicial intervention. I have already met many voters in District 5 and have enjoyed all the valuable conversations, insight, and support! Keep an eye on my social media for information on where I will be available to chat.
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