The two candidates vying for the At-Large seat on the Henry County School Board participated in a forum held by the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce earlier this month.
The candidates, interim At-Large representative Jonathan Martin and Joseph Schenk Jr., fielded questions relating to teacher recruitment and retention, school division finances, and school board governance, and any other concerns they have regarding Henry County Schools.
The school board appointed Martin as interim At-Large member in December 2025.
Most important issue facing Henry County Public Schools
Martin said he’s concerned with parent interaction and involvement.
“Schools cannot do this alone, teachers can’t do it alone, administrators can’t do it alone, and certainly, the school board can’t do it alone. Parents have a responsibility, too. We need to be involved in our children’s education,” he said.
Martin said parents need to know what their children are learning and be able to help them with their homework, encourage them when they’re struggling, and teach them respect.
“Our teachers should be able to teach without constantly fighting discipline problems in the classroom,” he said.
Noting he believes children need both support and accountability at home, Martin said parents should love, encourage, and stand up for their children while also correcting them when they’re wrong. but we have to correct our children when they’re wrong.
Schenk said that he wants to listen to concerns and target learning issues.
“In science, our students are performing at 54 percent. We are failing our students. There are improvements that can and should be made,” he said.
Schenk said the school board should get together with people involved in other school boards and ask them what they’re doing to get the results they’re getting.
“‘What curriculums are you using? How are you achieving the metrics that you’re achieving, and what can we do better,’” Schenk said.
Teacher recruitment and retention
Martin said the division’s issue isn’t recruitment, but giving teachers a reason to stay and not go back to where they originally came from.
“As a branch manager, I have employees that I’m responsible for. I’ve learned that if you want good employees to stay, you can’t just hand them a paycheck and expect everything else to take care of itself. People want to feel valued; they want to feel respected, and they want to know that their work matters, and they want to know that when they have a problem, somebody’s going to listen to them. I think the same thing applies to our teachers,” he said.
Martin said the division needs to first look at compensation and the working environment to ensure that teachers are able to teach, and not be spending their day dealing with constant discipline problems, excessive paperwork, or unnecessary administrative burdens.
“This goes back to what I said earlier about parents being involved. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children respect and appropriate behavior. When a student consistently disrupts the classroom, that doesn’t just affect that student, it affects every other child in the classroom and makes the teacher’s job harder. We need to support our teachers when they have legitimate concerns about discipline and classroom behavior,” Martin said.
Schenk said he also sees recruitment as the easier part.
“When you talk about recruitment versus retention, oftentimes you have people fresh out of college looking for their first teaching job, looking for the start of their career,” he said.
Schenk believes there’s no amount of money one can offer an employee to stay in an environment where they don’t feel supported or have an opportunity to grow.
“More often than not, you’re going to find that people would choose to stay in an environment where they feel happy, and supported rather than marginalized,” Schenk said.
Measurable outcome
Martin said he wants to help students grow.
“I would want voters to be able to point to and say the school board made a difference. For me, that starts with the basics – reading and mathematics. At our most recent school board meeting, we heard in the superintendent’s report that Henry County was one of only a small number of school divisions in Virginia that saw improvement in both reading and mathematics scores,” Martin said.
Schenk also wants to see growth in studies.
“I’d like to be able to reach out to partners and other counties, neighboring counties, and ask simple questions, like ‘what are you doing with your curriculum? What could we maybe consider doing with ours,’” he said.
Schenk said the numbers on test scores are not lying.
“Mr. Martin indicated we shouldn’t be teaching people to pass tests, and I agree with that. But when you look at our current curriculum, what exactly is happening that you look at the science scores, and you have to wonder, why are the children performing at a 54 percent level with science,” Schenk said.
Finances
Martin said he believes responsible financial stewardship starts with understanding that the school board is not spending its own money, but taxpayer dollars.
“Every dollar matters. In my role as a branch manager, I’m responsible for managing the resources entrusted to my branch and being mindful of our expenses. I see expense reports and I’m expected to understand what’s being spent and why,” Martin said.
When he was running the Danville Public Defender’s Office, Schenk said he had a budget of almost $2 million that he was responsible for.
“That budget encompassed not only salaries but training, equipment, and any other needs that the office may need. Those were taxpayer dollars, and I went out of my way as the head of that office to ensure that taxpayer money was spent in an appropriate fashion, making sure that bills were paid, salaries were paid, that training needs were met, that every piece of equipment that we had was maintained in accordance with the standards,” he said.
When it comes to the school board budget, Schenk said it’s the same thing as one needs to be able to understand the budget, forecast the expenses, and be able to look at the monthly budget reports.
“Every month, I had a budget report that I was able to look at in very good detail about what the expenditures were, how much money had been spent, how much money was left over, and I was able to anticipate the future needs,” Schenk said.
He added that unfortunately with budgets there are always going to be things and line items that are going to be variables that don’t always have a precise monetary amount.
School Board Governance and Public Pressure
Martin believes that parents and residents can disagree respectfully and that as a school board member he should always listen.
“I think one of the most important responsibilities of a school board member is knowing the difference between listening to people and simply doing whatever a person asks you to do. I believe every parent, teacher, student, and community member deserves to be heard. When someone comes to you with a concern, you shouldn’t automatically dismiss it just because you don’t agree with them. You should listen, you should ask questions, and you should try to understand what they’re experiencing. But listening to someone doesn’t always mean you can give them the answer that they want,” Martin said.
Schenk said he believes in listening and holding firm where he needs to.
“Listening to people is probably one of the most important things a school board member can do, especially in an At-Large position. Hearing people, listening to everything they have to say, trying to be mindful of their concerns and then looking for ways to address them. But also being wise enough to know that you can’t please everyone, and sometimes the answer is going to be no,” Schenk said.
