The Roanoke City Council will interview four candidates Monday for two open seats on the city school board.
The four candidates are seeking the seats currently held by Christopher Link, who was appointed to serve an unexpired remainder of a three-year term from February 2025 through June 30, 2026, and Eli Jamison, whose term also ends June 30.
Link is seeking to be reappointed to the seat. The other candidates are Darlene Burcham, Derek Kaknes and Donna Littlepage.
The school board has seven members who are appointed by the city council for a three-year term. Roanoke is one of only a dozen localities in the state with an appointed school board.
A few of the candidates noted financial backgrounds as their reason for applying for the seat. The school division recently cut 170 positions as it attempts to close a $14 million funding gap, and further cuts to programs and services are expected in the division’s final budget for the next fiscal year.
Link moved to Roanoke in 2013 and is a project manager for a fall protection design-build contractor. He has a daughter enrolled in a Roanoke elementary school.
Link was previously the president of the Raleigh Court Neighborhood Association’s board and served on boards for various other local groups.
He did not respond to an email seeking more details about his candidacy.
Burcham has worked in multiple city and county governments in Virginia. She was the deputy city manager in Norfolk before becoming the city manager in Roanoke in 2000. She held that role for 10 years. In an email Friday, Burcham declined to comment until after the city council has completed its process.
She was then the town manager in Clifton Forge until 2021, and was later Pulaski’s interim town manager.
Kaknes is the principal of operations and finance at Foundry Realty, which is currently redeveloping the Walker Foundry site in Roanoke.
According to Foundry Realty’s website, Kaknes specializes in operational and financial strategy and aligning project and community objectives with available funding.
Kaknes said in an email that he has submitted an application for the position based on his experience attending council and school board meetings over the last year and a half.
“From a professional perspective, I want to offer City Council my experience in financial services, especially strategic budgeting and addressing rising healthcare costs, as a potential asset to the board at this juncture,” he wrote. “Personally, as the son of a public school teacher, a product of public education, and the father of a five-year-old entering the public school system this fall, I strongly believe in engaging with and preserving the quality of our public schools.”
Littlepage, who is now retired, was the founding chief financial officer for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and was a business and finance professional with Carilion Clinic for 35 years. She has served on multiple boards, including Family Services of Roanoke Valley and DePaul Community Resources.
She unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for the House of Delegates 40th District seat last year against incumbent Joe McNamara, a Republican.
In an email, Littlepage said she put her name in the ring for the school board seat for the same reason she ran for the House of Delegates: “My reason for submitting my name for the Roanoke City School Board relates to my financial experience and the belief that sometimes a new set of eyes looking at things and asking probing questions can actually lead to new ideas that may be helpful.”
She noted that she doesn’t have experience with K-12, but that she helped create the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine “from a concept through to accreditation and the matriculation of the very first class.”
The interviews Monday will go from 10 a.m. to noon. They will be held in the City Council Chamber at 215 Church Ave. in Roanoke. For those who cannot attend in person, the interviews will be livestreamed via YouTube.
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Correction 9:20 a.m. April 20: The Roanoke City Council is interviewing candidates for two open seats on the city school board. That information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.
