Walter Scott is seeking reelection to the Smith River District seat on Patrick County School Board in November.
By Staff Reports
In seeking a second term on the Patrick County School Board, Walter Scott said he’s worked to meet and exceed his first term goals.
But “there’s work still left to do,” said Scott, who represents the Smith River District and currently serves as vice chairman.
Scott, who was elected as a write-in candidate during tumultuous times with a previous administration, said his accomplishments include addressing many of the issues of public concern.
For instance, capping reimbursements for per diem, meal costs, and associated travel expenses at $35 per day, and stopping school retreats entirely, are among his successes.
“The school (board) was going on retreats and the board members and employees were doing retreats on a regular basis. We pretty much put a stop to those,” he said.
Instead, Scott worked to shift learning back to the center, he said and added the “the number one priority is taking care of our students. Making sure that they get the best education they can for the money we have to put in for it.
“And secondly, of course, are employees because happy employees make a happy school. If you have a happy school, you get a lot better education. Nobody wants to go in an unhappy place” or a place with low morale to try and learn, Scott said.
“My passion is to ensure the best education for the students as well as keeping it at the lowest cost possible,” he said.
A welding program created at Patrick County High School through a partnership between the school system and Patrick Henry Community College “has prepared a lot of students to enter the workforce,” Scott said.
But Scott said his greatest accomplishment was helping to ensure the passage of a referendum on the sales and use tax. Revenues generated by the tax are earmarked for school projects.
“Back when we did all the remodeling of all the schools 10 or 15 years ago, the school had to borrow all the money to do that, and it was around $25 million. The sales and use tax will keep that from happening,” Scott said.
With revenues from the new tax, the school division can “rebuild things as you need to,” Scott said and explained it also will allow the board some autonomy from the county because “we don’t need to go to the Board of Supervisors and beg for money every time we need to rebuild something. We’ll have the money to do it.”
If history repeats itself, Scott estimated the tax will generate $1.5 million per year “or real close to that for the school system to do those major remodels and breakdowns.”
He also plans to ensure the revenue is spent the way it was intended and the way the county promised it would be used.
Overall, the school system does a good job at educating the students, Scott said, but he noted that “you can always improve.”
He estimated 25 Patrick County High School graduates this year had a 4.0 GPA, “and it shows that we’re doing a good job. If you look at the graduation rate and look at their scores when they leave for college or the workforce, we have a really good group of seniors year after year. As far as our test scores and overall academic ranking, we’re really well for the money we spend.
“If you look at the dollar amount that Patrick County spends per student, and you look at the dollar amount other counties spend per student, and then you take that and look at those numbers to see how well our students perform, we outperform a lot of schools on a lot less money,” Scott said, adding that is a credit to school staff, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which put a lot of stress on the school division.
Scott said the school division did a good job of maneuvering through the pandemic – which also is a credit to the school staff — and he said he worked to ensure students were in classrooms as much as possible.
“I was an opponent of locking schools down. I thought we should be in school every day. I thought, and I said many times, there’s worse things that COVID on our students. I’m really proud of the fact that I stood up for the students on that, as well as employees,” and kept them in schools as much as possible, Scott said.
He also noted that he was among those who were determined to reopen the sports program and get “students back to playing sports.”
As the division prepares for a new school year, Scott added that he does not support mandatory vaccines, which to him is a commonsense approach.
And that commonsense approach is what Scott said he brings to the board.
“In any situation that’s handed to me, I approach it from a common-sense stance. I think that’s a real helpful thing to have on the board,” he said.
In his spare time, Scott volunteers as Troop Leader with the Boy Scouts of America. His role with that organization spans 18-years, during which time he also has served as a Scout Master and a Cub Master.
During his tenure with the organization, Scott has been awarded Scout Master of the Year and Cub Master of the Year.
He also has served on the board of the Woolwine Volunteer Fire Department for the past 15 years.
He and his wife, Derina, have two sons, Hylton and Robert.
Scott is being challenged in the November contest by Caroline Jones.
