A native of West Virginia, Bill Campbell is the president of the Jefferson-Houston Parent-Teacher Association. During a public hearing at the school division last year, he announced his attention to run for the School Board in 2008.
<b>The School Board recently decided to stand by its controversial vote to get rid of Superintendent Rebecca Perry next year. What did you think about that vote?</b>
I would have preferred that the current board rescind it previous vote and had conducted a more deliberate public and private review of the superintendent's record. Even if after such a review the vote to not renew had remained the same, I think the value to the community and the existing board would have been tremendous. It would have been a message from the board to the board and to the public that they continue to want community involvement, diverging points of view and that they want to heal any rifts that this has caused.
<b>What should happen now?</b>
Given the acrimony that is clearly apparent, I'm convinced that there is very little alternative but to move on. Even if there were a recall or legal fight, the most that could be gained would be the board being directed to redo the process. Folks need to keep in mind that this was not a termination but rather a decision not to renew. I think a protracted legal fight would simply continue to increase the divide that is now evident amongst the current board members. We now need to get about pulling together a diverse selection committee and have them get about selecting the best candidate that they can find to lead us forward.
<b>What was your initial impression of Jefferson-Houston?</b>
When I first moved into the city, folks were warning me away from Jefferson-Houston. Real-estate agents were raving about the great policy that the city has with regards to parents not having to enroll their children in a neighborhood school if that school was not meeting certain standards. I was told that our two neighborhood schools, Jefferson-Houston and Maury were the worst in the city and that I should look at John Adams and George Mason and Lyles Crouch. I've long held the view that a school is simply the vehicle for a child's education and that the parents are the drivers. I think there are examples of exceptional kids coming out of some of the worst schools and I'm convinced that the common denominator to these exceptions is the level of involvement in the education process by parents, family and community. So armed with this philosophy, I decided to stay at Jefferson-Houston and fight the fight.
<b>Why are you running for the School Board?</b>
My vision is to campaign on a crusade that minority parents, business owners and neighbors need to step up and get involved. I support more rigor in the classroom, and I think it will raise the expectations and the results for all children. However, without increased involvement by the minority community, while increase rigor will raise the over achievements, I think it would increase the identified minority achievement gap.
<b>What challenges do Alexandria schools face?</b>
There is still a racial divide in our great country and that divide extends to Alexandria. Just as important is the financial divide that is also prevalent. These two givens make the governing and execution of education in Alexandria a tremendous challenge. The percentage of at risk children in our school system is extremely high. At the same time, studies show that the more affluent one is the higher the likelihood is of that person being old. Hence as Alexandria's median household income continues to rise, the number of public school children continues to fall. The clear impact of this is that currently only approximately 19 percent of Alexandria homes have school-age children. So when school budgets continue to grow, the pool of folks who fully support that growth grows smaller and smaller. Convincing 81 percent of households in Alexandria that we want to take more and more of their money to support other folks’ kids is a tremendous challenge.