CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — In the Samuel Miller District of Albemarle County, Bob Beard is running unopposed for its school board seat this year, set to replace current member Graham Paige, who has served on the board since being elected in 2015.

Beard has lived in Ivy for over 20 years, working as a news anchor for CBS19, then as a spokesperson and science writer for the UVA Health System. His two twin sons, Ryan and Wes, went through the school system, graduating from Western Albemarle in 2018.

“I just want to make sure we keep a strong public school system,” he told Cville Right Now of his decision to run for the board. “This is a place, one county in Virginia that really values public education over everything else.”

Since his sons first entered ACPS as Kindergarteners, Beard has been active in the school system, serving as Co-President of the PTO at Ivy Elementary where his sons attended, serving on various committees including search committees which recommended new principals at WAHS and Ivy and has been a substitute teacher at local middle and high schools. He said he’s always believed in public service, a belief that was instilled in him by his father, a former fighter pilot who served in World War II.

Barring the unexpected, Beard will continue his life of public service when he joins the school board in January. He promises to ask “tough, journalistic-type questions of the administration” upon his arrival, particularly during discussions on issues like the budget, SOL scores, mental health challenges and safety problems among other topics.

“I plan to hold the administration’s feet to the fire and get some answers for the community,” he said.

As Election Day looms closer, Beard’s campaign is focused on listening to the community, as well as ensuring students are both safe and successful, teachers are valued, paid well and retained, and overcrowding is combatted with funding for additions to current high schools and potentially the construction of a fourth high school north of the Rivanna River.

He hopes to find these solutions by working with the Board of Supervisors to ensure that the 54% of the County’s budget currently allocated to the schools is untouched, especially in the face of potential cuts in federal funding and other “budget challenges” Beard is worried about the County facing in the next few years.

Along the campaign trail, Beard has picked up endorsements from, among others, the outgoing Paige, the Albemarle County Democratic Party along with notable state Democratic leaders like Delegate and former board member Katrina Callsen and even one Republican in former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman. School board elections in Virginia are always nonpartisan, but on top of that, Beard described himself as a “proud independent,” who believes partisan politics should be kept out of public schools as much as possible.

Ultimately, as a member of the board, he said he will be willing to work with anyone who has good ideas, and hopes to be “thoughtful, reasonable, practical, transparent and listen” as a board member.

“I think for far too long, the Board in the past has not listened to teachers and students and the broader community,” he said, ” and that’s what I want to do.”