Meet your Ward 7 school board candidates: Adrian Dance and Ronnie Watson

PETERSBURG—Though the school board races tend to be less noticed than the city council races, it plays a vital role in determining the direction that the school district goes in.

The school board approves of where the funding goes, what policies are made in schools, and what programs/ curriculums are brought into the classrooms. This year, there are two contestants for Ward 7: incumbent Adrian Dance and Dr. Ronnie Watson.

Born and raised in Petersburg, Adrian Dance, 67, has served on the school board for eight years and he is hoping to have another run. Dance graduated with a bachelor’s in health, physical education and recreation at Norfolk State University. For most of his career, he worked as a shift manager at a tobacco company. In 2014, he beat out two other candidates for the school board position and in 2018, he ran uncontested. Now he will be up against a formidable opponent.

Dance’s vision is to have all the schools fully accredited and to make Petersburg schools “a great place to educate children and a great place to work.”

"I love Petersburg and I love the students of Petersburg," said Dance. "And I want to be able to do my part to make sure that we provide the best education for all of our students... to be successful in life."

Dance sees the board’s role in helping schools get accredited as providing the right programs for teachers and through partnerships with VSU and VCU.

Dance hopes that the things he’s accomplished during his years on the school board will speak for itself. Since serving on the board, they have raised teacher salaries to make it competitive with surrounding areas. Teacher salaries currently start at $50K and have a 5% increase every year. Dance says he has also advocated for paraprofessionals like the janitorial staff and bus drivers to receive raises.

“Everybody should be able to come to Petersburg and make a good living wage,” said Dance.

Dance says his priority for where the funding should go is towards instruction—teacher salaries and classroom supplies. During his eight years on the school board, Dance says that schools have made improvements.

Dance points to the fact that Petersburg High School is now fully accredited, a feat that was achieved last year, and that three of five elementary schools have increased their SOL scores.

In addition, they’ve allocated funds to fix the leaking roofs in Blandford Academy, Westview Early Childhood Education Center and Pittman Alternative School. They are currently raising money to build a locker room at Petersburg High School for students to shower and change their clothes.

Dance points to the new diploma plus program that was implemented in PHS which allows students to not only get a degree but also graduate with a certificate in a trade or skill like carpentry, cosmetology, auto mechanics, and more through partnerships they’ve created with colleges in the area.

The the only issues that Dance sees in the school system are the fact that students don’t show up to their classes or come late.

“We cant educate them if they are not here,” he said. “If they’re not in school, we need them here every day on time. That's the main gap I see.”

Dance is pleased with the school board’s choice of the new superintendent, Dr. Tamara Sterling, who worked as a superintendent in Franklin and turned their schools around from being under a Memorandum of Understanding. In terms of why this selection did not include public comments in the way that previous superintendent Dr. Maria Pitre-Martin was chosen, Dance said, “A personnel issue is confidential. So hiring the superintendent would be a personnel issue."

Dance also stated that once the superintendent is hired, the public can voice their opinions at school board meetings and conduct a background check.

“My term has been very rewarding. I think we’ve made a lot of progress. I'm confident that Petersburg city public school is heading in the right direction," Dance said. “We’re doing great things now and we’re going to do more great things in the future."

Running up against Dance is Dr. Ronnie Watson. Watson, 60, holds a doctorate in education from Virginia State University, with an emphasis on Educational Leadership and Education Administration and Supervision.

After serving in the military as an airborne ranger, Watson came back to Virginia and started off as a substitute teacher in Vernon Johns. Watson continued to move up the ladder, becoming a lead teacher, then an assistant principal at Peabody Middle School, and a principal at multiple schools including Vernon Johns Middle School.

The reason why he is running for school board?

“I love Petersburg. I love kids and just to see them be successful is pretty much the only reason I'm doing this because I'm retired now,” said Watson.

Watson wants to bring his extensive experience wearing multiple hats in the school system to help steer the school board in the right direction. His vision is to see every school in Petersburg become accredited.

“For 22 years, I've been watching the school board. And the first thing that you need to understand about the present school board is, how many people have actual teaching administrative experience?” said Watson. “I don't think there's anybody on there that’s been a principal. I know there's no one on it has been the division director of testing or the coordinator for discipline.”

With the challenges that students in the city face, like teenage pregnancy, high dropout rates, absenteeism, whatever is implemented in schools must be catered to the population of students here in Petersburg, said Watson.

“In order to understand the programs that are coming to Petersburg that the school board approves, you have to have understanding of how they work and what the teachers want. Being able to communicate with the teachers that actually have to use these programs is critical.”

Vendors can present their curriculum to the school board and tout a new math program they’ve created that can cost thousands of dollars. Whether it is actually effective is a different matter.

“When you're a school that's not performing, they bring in a thousand programs. Can you imagine being a teacher, you got four English programs that you have to do in one period? That's took a lot of money for those four programs.”

Watson is skeptical of when the state tries to throw money at a problem and offer programs that are not proven to work for Petersburg students.

“Not all monies are good. Because one of the traps that Petersburg has fallen into is, let's just get more, let's get more,” said Watson. “So if the more stuff that we get, then we run into where the teacher has three English programs to do in one block, which is impossible to do any of them with diligence. So you need one, not three, even if they offer you all of this extra money. We got to stop having too many programs.”

Watson’s priorities in funding if he were to become a school board member would be ensuring the students’ safety, implementing effective curriculum, and mentorship for the students.

“Curriculum is the way we get accredited,” said Watson. “We cannot get accredited without the correct tailored curriculum in mind.”

Watson believes that spending money on the right curriculum is critical. He wants to create a panel of teachers and administrators to vet different vendors and the programs they offer. That way, they can ensure that they are choosing the best teaching curriculum for the students. Then the panel would present their findings to the board.

Watson wants to ensure that every school has a school resource officer, every door is numbered, and that schools have functioning intercom systems.

In addition, he's served as the Division Director of Testing for Franklin schools and a teacher evaluator at a university in Ethiopia, experience he hopes to bring to the board when creating policies.

"How we evaluate them [teachers], what we ask for, is what they strive to get to. So we ask for the wrong things, they strike the wrong way."

Watson says that his biggest accomplishment both as a teacher and an administrator is seeing his kids grow up to become successful. His joy is multiplied when they come back and thank him for the impact he’s had on their lives.

“That’s the most rewarding thing you could ever have,” he said.

Joyce Chu, an award-winning investigative journalist, is the Social Justice Watchdog Reporter for The Progress Index. Contact her with comments, concerns, or story-tips at Jchu1@gannett.com or on Twitter @joyce_speaks.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg Ward 7 school board member faces formidable opponent