By Debbie Hall
Brandon Simmons wants to parlay his experience and knowledge on the school board to serve his district in a new post.
Simmons, 37, said he will seek the Dan River District seat on the Patrick County Board of Supervisors in the November election.
Incumbent Jane Fulk has said she does not plan to seek reelection.
“I feel like I’ve been successful on this (school board) side, and I’ll still be around to help if they need me, but I think I can do a lot of good” as a supervisor, Simmons said.
For example, Simmons said that, if elected, he could provide firsthand insight on the innerworkings of the school board and budget information to supervisor colleagues. He also noted that strained relations between the two boards will be a thing of the past.
His election to the supervisors “would be the best thing ever to help that relationship” between the two boards, he said, and “it will be good to have someone there with firsthand knowledge of the school budget.”
Simmons served one term on the school board. He was elected vice-chairman during his initial year on the board and has served as chairman for the last three years.
Along with other board members, administrators, and staff, “we accomplished a lot before COVID-19 killed our momentum,” Simmons said.
For instance, “we cut spending in several areas, including travel expenses and retreats, and we cut a lot of unnecessary positions in the Central Office,” Simmons said.
He recalled that when he first took office, many people in the community and the school system were “upset about pay raises that were actually due to promotions, but we re-aligned staff and cut positions” as part of a cost-savings measure.
Additionally, pay raises were handled differently.
“We worked diligently to make sure employees across the board got pay raises,” Simmons said. “We were not able to do that last year because the state didn’t provide for it,” but school officials are including raises in the preliminary budget proposal.
“That is always our goal. We always want to give everybody a raise, and we have requested a small increase in local funds so we can do that” in the upcoming fiscal year, he added.
He praised school staff, who “are all working more than normal now with the pandemic.
“Our people have really stepped up, and I know everybody is overworked, but hopefully things will get back to normal soon,” Simmons said, and noted that building morale and creating better working environments are ongoing priorities for both the school board and school administrators.
Additionally, “we’ve partnered with Patrick Henry Community College and worked to create new learning opportunities” for students, Simmons said, and added those efforts included new vocational offerings.
During his tenure, the board also undertook a several month search for a new superintendent.
“We worked with everybody in the community on that,” Simmons said, and recalled various forms of public input were sought, including conducting surveys and collecting data from interviews to find a good fit.
“I think there are a lot of ways to work with the citizens like we have on the school board to increase revenues in the county, so we don’t need to make so many cuts, especially to our public safety services like fire and rescue,” Simmons said.
“I’ve learned a lot and I’ve got a lot of experience from serving on the school board. I’m not saying I know everything, because I know I’ll have more to learn as a supervisor, but I want the opportunity to do that,” Simmons said.
