‘Competition breeds excellence’ as school board candidates vie for open seats in Campbell County

Three seats on Campbell County’s school board are up for grabs this fall, and familiar and new faces are hoping to fill them. 

Two incumbents — David Phillips of the Rustburg District and Ann Parker of the Timberlake District — are seeking reelection but face one challenger each. The third open position comes from the Brookneal District, where current school board member Scott Miller is not seeking reelection and is leaving room for two candidates to fight for a fresh start. 

In the end, this BWXT project manager, retired nurse, law enforcement officer, real estate agent and financial service executive have more in common than meets the eye: a commitment to strengthening Campbell County schools and excitement to see so many community leaders who care about local children’s futures. Learn more about their campaigns below. 

Rustburg District: David Phillips vs. Bev Jones

Phillips, 54, has served on the school board for two terms and is seeking reelection again this fall. A lifetime Campbell County resident, he has experienced the local school system as a student, a parent to schoolchildren, a husband to a schoolteacher, and a leader of school policy in trying times including the pandemic.

In his tenure so far, he said he’s prioritized giving students top-level facilities to learn in, including building a new Rustburg Middle School and renovating Brookville High School. 

Now, Phillips hopes to turn his attention to the day-to-day resources that could use some extra attention, such as addressing school bus driver shortages. 

If reelected, Phillips said he would be most excited to continue to strengthen Campbell County’s connection with the Career and Technical Education Center. Phillips remembers taking technical drawing and drafting classes in high school and credits them for laying a foundation for his current role as a project manager at BWXT. He wants today’s students to have even better opportunities to prepare for careers in tech and hit the ground running after graduation. 

Phillips’ challenger, Bev Jones, is stepping into the arena of politics and policy for the first time now that she’s retired from her 45-year nursing career. As a nurse, she learned how to evaluate patients to determine what areas they’re thriving in and what areas they need help with — and she plans to triage Campbell County’s schools in the same way. 

Jones, 76, is most concerned about the “decline of American youth and their ability to learn and retain enough knowledge to think critically.” In her experience watching her five grandchildren navigate a combination of public and private schools, she said she’s found that public schools often fail to hold students accountable for mastering content, let alone challenge students to work to their highest potential. 

If elected, Jones said she would encourage the school board to create policies that place a premium on students’ mastery of foundational reading, writing and math skills. She would also advocate for civic education classes and outreach programs so students can learn about American history, virtues and political engagement from an early age. 

In the meantime, Jones said she is reading as much as she can about the ins and outs of local government and education policy. 

Phillips said that’s why competition in local races is so important — it keeps candidates and voters alike hungry to learn about how they can make their schools better. 

“Competition gets communication going and keeps everybody informed of what the issues and concerns are,” he said. “If nobody’s running against you, you may not be as pressed to get your ideas out and think seriously about them.” 

Timberlake District: Ann Parker vs. Ryan Hartman

Ann Parker, a 59-year-old real estate agent, is wrapping up her first term on the Campbell County School Board and said she’s looking forward to running for reelection so she can continue projects she’s laid the groundwork for. 

One central focus, she said, is securing funding for a JROTC program that prepares high school students for movement into ROTC — the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps that trains college students to become officers in the U.S. military. She said she’s already started conversations with Rep. John McGuire to get more support and instructors for the program. 

Another goal of Parker’s is to continue to increase communication and awareness about what the school board does and how community members can get involved. 

“I do my best to let the teachers know, let the parents know, let everyone know that you can reach out to me if you have any concerns,” she said. “I didn’t know what the school board did until I ran in my 50s, so I’m trying to help others figure that out long before I did.”

It’s not surprising, then, that Parker’s biggest moment of pride in the past four years was establishing a student advisory council to the school board. The students, selected from each high school in the district, bring ideas to the school board about what resources they need to succeed.

“No one has the student perspective but a student,” she said. “And I’m just so excited about this because I think if I had had more opportunities to see how I could participate at local leadership levels at a young age, I would have done it a long time ago.”

Parker’s challenger is Ryan Hartman, a 36-year-old with nearly two decades of experience in law enforcement, public safety and emergency medical services. As a parent to four children and friend to many teachers in Campbell County, Hartman said he’s heard and experienced a laundry list of concerns about school facilities and resources. 

“I decided I can either sit and complain, or I can do something about it,” he said. 

Parker said that’s what local government is all about.

“I think competition breeds excellence,” Parker said. “I am pleased to see that we have so many folks interested in serving our community.”

If elected, Hartman said one of his first priorities would be to improve transportation safety and communication. 

He said he’s heard too many horror stories of bus routes getting canceled with little warning, parents worrying about where their child’s bus is when it’s running late, and students missing afternoon buses and getting left at school. Hartman plans to advocate for incorporating more technology into school transportation so buses can be easily tracked and notifications can be efficiently delivered, giving families more peace of mind when it comes to drop-off and pick-up.

Hartman also wants to ensure that students have opportunities to build positive relationships with law enforcement officers. Hartman said he learned how important those relationships are when he served as a Bedford County school resource officer in the 2019-2020 school year. 

“Children need to know someone is looking out for them,” he said. “They may not have that at home, so they have to have that at school. And they have to see law enforcement as humans who are here to protect.”

As an advocate for parents’ rights, Hartman said his last main goal is to make sure all parents feel like they have a voice in shaping school board policy — especially those in homes where English is a second language. 

“Some families have a hard time getting involved just because there’s a language barrier,” he said. “But everyone deserves to feel heard.”

Brookneal District: Maurice Peerman vs. Jamie Adams

The current Brookneal representative, Scott Miller, is not running for reelection. That leaves candidates Maurice Peerman and Jamie Adams to start from scratch.

Peerman said he learned about the importance of community outreach from Miller and hopes to carry on that legacy. When county officials discussed closing William Campbell High School in 2015 and again in 2018, Peerman asked Miller if the community could organize a town hall to evaluate how important it was to keep the high school open. 

“After that town hall meeting, Dr. Miller was able to go back to the school board and say, ‘Look, this is not what the community wants, and this is not what we need to do,’” Peerman said. Having seen the power of community engagement work once, he said he’s determined to foster it in his district again. 

Peerman, 49, was himself a graduate of William Campbell High School and has watched his seven children move through Campbell County schools, too. Having served on the parks and recreation board for the past seven years, he said he feels well acquainted with local government policies and procedures. 

Peerman’s goals center around strengthening students’ transition to post-graduation life, whether their path leads them to secondary education, the workforce, or the military. By engaging with community partners, he hopes to show students that they can have successful careers in Central Virginia — like Peerman, who supervises eight offices in the region as the assistant vice president for Landmark Financial Services.

“I just want to make sure that our students know they have options to succeed here,” he said. “They can stay in Campbell County and raise their families and become productive citizens.”

Workforce development is especially important in Brookneal, where many students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, Peerman said. 

“When you’re having a hard time putting food on your table, you’re not thinking about college,” he said. “We’ve got to cater to those students, to get them to walk out of high school with training and connections so they can sustain themselves right when they graduate.”

Jamie Adams is also running for the Brookneal District seat but did not respond to three emails and three phone calls requesting participation in this story.

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Correction 10:20 a.m. Sept. 6: Maurice Peerman asked Scott Miller about organizing a school-related town hall in 2015. The details of this request were incorrect in an earlier version of this story.