Seven candidates seeking county and/or state offices outlined their priorities and took questions Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce’s candidate forum at Patrick & Henry Community College.
The forum, moderated by Phil Gardner, drew candidates for both the Board of Supervisors and the School Board, along with an incumbent member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Candidates introduced themselves, explained their reasons for running, and fielded questions on issues ranging from school funding to community investment.
Those participating in the event included incumbent Jim Adams and challenger Ray Reynolds for the Board of Supervisors’ Blackberry District; incumbent Joe Bryant and challenger Chris Lawless for the Board of Supervisors’ Collinsville District; Sherry Vestal and Jonathan Martin for the School Board’s Blackberry District; and Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, who represents the 47th District in the House of Delegates.
Board of Supervisors
Supervisor candidates were asked to respond/defend assertions that the county provides the lowest amount of local funding above the minimum of any locality in Virginia, aside from Highland County, and a question about lump sum versus categorical funding for the school division.
Blackberry District
Adams said he doesn’t believe that it’s ever acceptable to strive for the bottom, “but in some circumstances, the ability to pay is again the hard question. What can the area afford? What burden is it putting on the taxpayer,” he asked.
The school division’s budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 is $222,815,000, or an increase of $15,073,000 from the previous year, he said.
“To make the budget without even having a tax increase, we had to take $1,778,000 from our fund balance just to make the books balance.” Adams said the board is cognizant that the county has taxpayers living paycheck to paycheck due to job losses announced this year, an aging population, and a looming property reassessment.
“Not knowing where that will fall as far as the reassessments, the board chose to fund out of fund balance versus a double hit on tax structure. In other words, not raising taxes this year, not knowing what we would have to do next year,” he said, noting fiscal management is important for the livelihood of the community.
Reynolds said it’s unacceptable for the county to be at the bottom when it comes to investing in education. “Strong schools are tied to strong communities. When we invest in our schools, we also invest in economic growth, our workforce development, and overall quality of life,” he said.
If elected, Reynolds said he’ll advocate for a strong commitment in education funding and work collaboratively with the Henry County School Board to understand the real needs and ensure taxpayer dollars are used responsibly. “And being transparent with the public about how those investments benefit the entire community,” he added.
Reynolds believes the county’s students should not have to settle for less because of where they live. If elected, he would push for more than the minimum funding to be allocated to education.
“Our children do deserve more, and the future of our community depends on it,” Reynolds said.
Collinsville District
Bryant said taxes would have to be raised before the county could contribute more to the school division.
“There’s no way we could do it without raising taxes. I can say since I’ve been on the board, going on 16 years, in that period of time, we’ve only raised taxes one time,” he said, adding the board commissioned a comprehensive study on pay grades of county employees about two years ago.
As a result, “we made some improvements on the county, to the school system, and the sheriff’s department, and others in the EMS system. Our school system’s pay is ranked better than a lot of counties that are bigger than ours,” he said, and added the county’s done an excellent job at trying to improve the salary steps paid to teachers and the sheriff’s office.
“Our school system is about $122 million or so a year, and we’re down to about 5,800-6,000 students now compared to what it was about 10 years ago … Our budget has almost doubled, or tripled, since that time frame, with less students,” he said.
During his tenure, Bryant said none of the funding requests from the school were rejected. “Everything that they wanted we give them,” he said.
Lawless said he believes there’s a way to create a culture amongst people besides giving money.
“Sometimes it can be a monetary value of some way in making it so those people feel appreciated, and just letting them know, ‘Hey, you do matter.’ A lot of these people have the future of our youth, and that’s what drives our area,” he said.
To better the community without it costing money, Lawless said he’s trying to work with high schools to create a trade program for welding. “We actually got our first student in so we’re real excited about that, very happy about that and that costs zero money,” he said.
Lawless said he has many things to learn and “until I get in there, I’m not going to” say just “whatever I feel like saying, but I can tell you that I’m willing to sit down and listen and figure out what I can do better and bring us up,” he said.
As costs increase, Lawless said new ideas are needed to ensure the locality and school system don’t lag behind in the region.
“I don’t want to make up excuses anymore, I want to find out solutions to the problems. That’s what I do in my life every day and that’s what I want to do for this community,” he said.
Reynolds said school boards in Virginia are tasked with setting operational priorities and supervisors control the purse strings. Locally, supervisors have “consistently refused to allow the school board the discretion to determine the categories of spending within their own budget. This creates tension, and in my view, undermines the ability of our educators and administrators to make the best decisions for the students,” he said.
While supervisors must ensure fiscal responsibility and stewardship of taxpayer dollars, “within that framework, we should respect the expertise of the school board and give them reasonable flexibility to manage their own budget categories. They are closest to the needs of the students, the classrooms, and the teachers,” Reynolds said, and that would create “a partnership built on trust, transparency, and accountability.
“As a supervisor, I would advocate for a funding process that sets clear expectations, but also empowers the school board to allocate dollars in ways that best serves the students.” If concerns arise, Reynolds said they should be addressed through open communication and collaboration – not by restricting flexibility from the start.
Adams said trust isn’t the issue. Rather it is the expectation of every taxpayer.
“It’s not the Board of Supervisors’ money, it’s the taxpayer’s money. Out of the $222 million budget, $67.2 percent of it goes to the school system. We vote on it, we appropriate it, that’s $121 million going to them,” he said.
Adams said things change, just as with a household budget. “You may plan to buy or purchase something, and it changes, but you do normally look at your finances and you at least open to discuss what do we need to do.”
He believes the current categorical funding system serves as a form of transparency to county residents.
“It’s important, not so much to allocate by category as requested on these special needs, but to at least be part of the conversation, ‘what changed from the time that we allocated $121 million to now you’re asking us to do something different,’” he said.
Adams added that throughout his entire tenure on the board no request to change something from one category to another was ever denied.
While he believes checks and balances are needed, Lawless said the school board is elected just as the board of supervisors.
Supervisors “shouldn’t micromanage” the school board. “That team was put there, and they’re doing the best that they think for the school system. That’s something that we need to look at,” Lawless said, adding he believes there are issues between the two boards.
“We need to have a sit down with our school board and figure out what can we do better or what we can change,” Lawless said.
Bryant said he’s not in favor of lump sum funding. As an elected official, his biggest and most important duty is being a good steward of money and looking at where it’s going.
“I don’t know of anything that we have not given the school board, period” or “any kind of funding that they have requested that we have turned down since I’ve been in office,” he said.
Bryant said the school board gets about $122 million a year, makes its own budget, and is able to put funding into categories it determines.
“They come sometimes to ask for additional appropriations and stuff like that. Sometimes we can help, sometimes we can’t. You got to remember the school board gets 64 percent of the total budget of Henry County, and that leaves the rest of the budget split amongst” everything else, he said.
School Board
Henry County School Board, were the first candidates to field questions at the forum.
Candidates for the Blackberry District seat on the Henry County School Board were asked about bullying and bathroom/sports accommodations for students who declare an alternative gender.
Despite anyone’s religious or moral beliefs, Vestal said all students are assured of a free and appropriate education regardless of disabilities, beliefs, or gender. When she worked as the nurse coordinator, Vestal said students who identified as a gender in which they weren’t born had a restroom.
“Sometimes it was in my nurse’s office,” she said. “If another restroom isn’t available, then it should be emptied before the gender different child uses it.”
The Virginia High School League announced a ban in February “on student athletes assigned male at birth from participating in girls’ sports.” The league “oversees 318 schools throughout Virginia, and … we’re mandated to follow the rules,” she said.
A Christian, Martin said “I believe schools should support all students with kindness and understanding, but accommodations must also reflect biological realities, safety, and fairness. Because of this, I do not support allowing students to use restrooms or participate in sports according to a declared gender that differs from their biological sex.”
Martin said it is not about being unkind, but about protecting the safety and fairness of all students.
“In athletics, students with biological advantages can create situations that are unsafe or unfair for others. In restrooms and locker rooms, privacy and comfort are essential for every student,” he said.
He also believes schools can provide resources to help students navigate their feelings and identity, provide mentoring and other supportive programs to ensure students feel seen and valued while maintaining safety, fairness, and respect for everyone.
Bullying, Martin said, is a big reason why he’s running for school board.
“To me bullying isn’t just kids not getting along. It’s when one child repeatedly picks on another to hurt them, make them feel small, or leave them out. It can be physical like hitting or pushing or it can be words, teasing, rumors, or even something posted online,” he said.
Martin said bullying is that one child has the power while another feels that they can’t stand up for themselves. He noted his daughter began experiencing it in the first grade.
“For that reason, children should always be taken seriously when they talk about being bullied because if they feel ignored, it may stop them from speaking up in the first place. Bullying can have serious effects on children – it can make them feel anxious, depressed, or unsafe at school. Some children lose confidence, struggle with learning, or even start believing the hurtful things they’re told,” he said.
In addition to taking place in school, Vestal said bullying takes place at after school activities and on the school bus.
“I’ve always been a firm believer that it’s a privilege to ride a school bus. If you can’t behave on a school bus, it is a liability, not only to the other children who are on the bus, but also to that bus driver, because it’s an accident waiting to happen if kids are acting up and it’s just a foreseeable problem,” she said.
Teachers need to feel like what they are saying is being heard and that the administrators in the building are supporting them, and “that if they take a child down to the principal’s office, the child doesn’t almost beat them back to the classroom,” she said.
Vestal also believes the school division needs to take bullying more seriously with a zero tolerance bullying policy.
47th House District
Incumbent Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, opened his remarks by asking for a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk, a political activist who was recently assassinated while holding an event in Utah.
“I grew up with a deep appreciation for our small town communities where neighbors still look out for one another and take pride in doing an honest day’s work,” Williams said, noting that he initially campaigned to bring a fresh voice to Richmond that represents rural Virginia and its values.
“Too often, decisions are made in Richmond by those who don’t understand what life is like in our part of the state. As your delegate I’ve worked to change that by keeping my focus on the people back at home,” he said.
“That means standing up for commonsense conservative policy, even when it’s difficult. It means ensuring parents, not bureaucrats, have the final say in their children’s education. It means cutting unnecessary regulations and taxes so that our small businesses can grow and provide good-paying jobs right here at home. It means protecting the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens from the Second Amendment to religious freedom because no government should ever interfere with the right of people to live out their faith and values,” Williams said.
His opponent, Yvonne Rorrer, was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.
