Want to know where the candidates stand? We sent questionnaires to 500-plus local candidates across Southwest and Southside, as well as the candidates for Senate and U.S. House. We’ve posted their responses in our Voter Guide.
Danville Public Schools saw greater overall increases in Standards of Learning test scores, capital improvement projects and the number of accredited schools than the city has had in a decade during the 2023-2024 academic year.
But school board candidates say there is still room for improvement in the school system, which had to enter into a corrective action plan with the Virginia Department of Education in 2020 in an effort to address low student achievement and lack of accreditation.
Candidates for the school board race this year shared their ideas about how to continue the district’s slow but steady gains in these areas and best serve the more than 5,600 students who attend Danville Public Schools.
Who’s who?
Five candidates are on the school board ballot in Danville this year, battling for four open seats. Members are elected to staggered four-year terms.
Three of the candidates — Charles McWilliams, Tyrell Payne and Keisha Walker — are incumbents running for reelection to the seven-member board. The other two candidates, Kacey Cunningham and Corey Williams, are campaigning for the first time.
Payne, who is the vice chair of the school board, and McWilliams were both elected in 2020 and are finishing their first terms. Walker was first elected in 2022 in a special election to finish the term of Renee Hughes, who resigned in 2021.
“We’ve done good work in Danville for the public schools here,” McWilliams said. “We were doing horribly when I came on the school board, and now we’re progressing at a very good rate. I just want to finish the good work.”
Walker said she was motivated to run again because of her passion for working with youth and her belief in the power of education, which she has witnessed firsthand by being a first-generation college graduate.
“Having an education is not only valuable, but it’s necessary,” she said. “I’ve always been a mentor in the lives of young people, and I want them to understand that dreams do come true.”
Payne has two children in Danville Public Schools, which he said is part of his desire to continue serving on the school board. He’s also a Danville native and a graduate of George Washington High School.
“That’s one of the big reasons I can continue to help improve things,” he said. “I can actually see what’s going on on the inside because I’m a parent as well.”
Walker and Cunningham are also alumni of the Danville school system.
McWilliams is originally from California, and Williams grew up in Halifax County, both have experience as classroom teachers.
Cunningham is also a parent of a fourth grader who attends Danville Public Schools’ Activ8 STEM Academy, a program for students in grades three through five that introduces STEM concepts and careers.
“I’ve seen things as well with being a parent, the poor communication and the effects that has, the test-taking and the levels of anxiety that can push on children,” she said.
Cunningham is a board member for CIC Head Start, a preschool in Danville, and has served with the school system’s parent and family engagement committee and renaming committee.
She also worked for Danville Public Schools for a year as an administrative assistant. “Then I realized that I could be more of a benefit to students as well as parents” in a school board role, she said.
Williams, who currently works at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, said he launched his first school board campaign because he is passionate about education, literacy and community and wants to make a difference in the lives of Danville’s youth.
“Being an educator and working in our school system as a teacher, I’ve seen everything right there on the front line,” Williams said. “I’ve seen all the bright spots, and I’ve seen the areas where we could use a little bit of improvement.”
Improving student achievement
SOL test scores have been one of the biggest conversations around the school system in recent years because, despite gradual improvements, Danville’s scores are still far below state averages.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the district-wide SOL pass rate for reading was 53%, up from 50% the previous year. For math, the rate was 49%, jumping 10 percentage points from 39% the year before.
These rates have improved every year since the 2020-2021 school year, when reading and math pass rates were 43% and 30%, respectively.
Despite the improvements, Danville’s scores do not come close to the 2023-2024 state average pass rates of 73% for reading and 71% for math.
The city’s scores were also below Pittsylvania County pass rates, which exceeded the state average in every subject.
Candidates touted the recent gains in test scores and said Danville needs to continue its focus on numeracy and literacy.
“We’ve come a mighty long way from where we were four years ago,” Payne said. “We have things that are in place that we need to continue.”
Programs like additional tutoring and Saturday school, which was implemented last academic year to combat chronic absenteeism, will continue to make a positive impact on student performance, he said.
“We may have to look at it and tweak it and change it,” Payne said. “Everyone is working together and is on the same page, so I think we’re going to continue to grow and continue to improve.”
Cunningham said that she thinks these programs are beneficial but wishes the school system “had the foresight to implement them a little sooner, and then maybe our test scores would not be below state averages.”
She also said that it’s not uncommon for students to have good grades but perform poorly on standardized tests.
“I would love to look more towards bridging that gap of having the grades but not the scores,” Cunningham said.
Williams said that if elected, he’d like to “clear the narrative” around test scores.
“I live on the VDOE website, and I really nerd out over education data,” he said. “Oftentimes we hear that we are so behind compared to other schools, but especially post-COVID, we’re not too far off from other districts within the state. … Our student achievement has really, really improved, especially in the last three years.”
He said he thinks increasing the number of accredited schools will help improve scores even further.
Today, Danville has five fully accredited schools. This is the first time in a decade that this many schools have been accredited at the same time, according to a September news release from the school district.
The other eight schools in the district have been accredited with conditions, the release said.
Both Walker and Cunningham emphasized the importance of family engagement and involvement in improving test scores.
“Kids engage more when you have family support,” Walker said. “That component, even though it’s just one piece of the pie, is very vital.”
Cunningham agreed and said she would like to see improved communication between schools and families.
“I’m pushing for more parental and community involvement,” Cunningham said. “If our children are not grasping the information when they get home, as parents, it’s our job to help them. … But I also think it’s the school system’s job to give us the necessary tools to do that at home, and I personally don’t feel that they do.”
Plus, there are so many elements that factor into student achievement on standardized tests, Walker said.
“There are mental health barriers, there are economic barriers,” she said. “There are different underlying things that play a major part in the development of children.”
McWilliams had a similar sentiment, emphasizing the importance of all-around support for student well-being.
“I’ve told people for many, many years that we don’t teach curriculum, we teach kids,” he said.
VSBA membership
Several school boards in Virginia have withdrawn their membership from the Virginia School Board Association this year over concerns that the group is too liberal. VSBA provides legal and policy guidance to Virginia school boards and their members.
All of the candidates in the Danville school board race said that they support continuing membership in VSBA.
Walker said that she has benefited from the classes and resources offered by VSBA.
“In the last year, I have probably driven over 2,000 miles to different classes and symposiums,” she said. “They provided me with a lot of insight.”
She said she’s attended fiscal management workshops and policy and procedure roundtable discussions through VSBA that have been “a great asset in my knowledge of learning about different aspects of the school board.”
McWilliams said he doesn’t understand other school boards’ decisions to withdraw from VSBA.
“I don’t think we have any desire to leave VSBA,” he said. “They teach us things that we need to know so that we can make better decisions.”
Election Day is Nov. 5, and early voting has begun.
