By Caitlin Sullivan

Washington County News

There wasn’t that much contention at last week’s candidate forum for District C School Board and Board of Supervisors candidates considering only incumbant Bucky Boone for School Board and incumbant Kenneth Reynolds for Board of Supervisors showed up. Their opponents Belinda Cole for School Board and William Gibson for Board of Supervisors were absent. 

The forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters and held at the Washington County main library last week, was one in a series of candidate forums leading up to the Nov. 6 election. 

Reynolds, the Board of Supervisor candidate and current board chairman, said working towards making the county a better place to live would not only benefit county residents but could encourage potential industry to move here.

“We need to do our best to attract new business and industry in Washington County,” Reynolds said. “If we have the opportunity for people to work with us in the county it’s a plus for us.”

He said the good school system is very important to attracting industry and the workers’ families. 

Boone, candidate for the School Board and current board member, said as a School Board member his first priority is do no harm, to make sure the children are safe and healthy.

“The board member should be very careful that they don’t interject their own agendas and egos,” he said.

It’s important that the School Board listens to teachers and parents and “focus on what’s best for each individual child,” he said. 

Reynolds said the board needs to make improvements to planning and zoning regulations in the county. 

“We’re in the process of rewriting (planning and zoning) policies and regulations in Washington County. We need to make sure land owner rights and ordinances don’t prohibit landowners. On the other hand, we have to regulate and protect the rights of their neighbors. We have to have rules and regulations to operate under. This is a very difficult area, but we’re working on it.”

Boone said he regrets delaying school improvements.

“We were too slow in advancing our facilities plan,” he said. “We delayed bringing it forward for years and years. We should have brought it to the Board of Supervisors 3-4 years ago.”

He said some schools in the county are in dire need of building improvements. There are classes being held in former closets, he said. 

Reynolds sited the recent sewer agreement with Bristol, Va. and expanded sewer services in the county as a main accomplishment for the board. A new sewer treatment plant in the county “will be a reality in the next years,” he said. 

Boone said Washington County schools are fairing well under the guidelines of state and federal standardized testing but he said he said it was a poor way of assessing schools and teachers.

“Test scores aren’t the only thing that matters,” he said. 

In his closing statement, Boone said it’s important to lower the class size, teach children to read in the first few years of school and art, music and physical activity classes are always needed.

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