CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Albemarle School Board conducted public interviews with the 13 candidates vying for the open at-large seat during its business meeting on Thursday.

The meeting came just under a month after at-large representative and Vice Chair Allison Spillman stepped down from the board, citing personal reasons. In the weeks since, 23 total applicants applied for the open seat, with White Hall representative and Chair Rebecca Berlin saying prior to the interviews that eight had withdrawn their names. Two of the remaining 15, Justin Shifflette and Kurt Burkhart, were not in attendance on Thursday.

While Thursday’s meeting featured no public comment, the school board will be holding a public hearing next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. to hear public input on the candidates. The board will then make its selection the following Thursday, Sept. 24, with a work session scheduled for that evening.

Before conducting the interviews, the school board began the meeting by unanimously electing Scottsville representative Ellen Osbourne as the new Vice-Chair in a brief election that featured no discussion.

Each candidate was given 12 minutes to give an opening statement and answer three preselected questions provided to the candidates beforehand. All candidates answered the same three questions.

The 13 candidates represented a variety of backgrounds, professional experiences, prior involvement in ACPS and relationships in ACPS.

Once selected, the new school board member will join the board at a tumultuous time for the division. The board is still working to regain trust following a number of public scandals brought on in the aftermath of the arrest of former Hollymead Elementary staffer Michael Swiney on sex crimes in June.

In addition, the new member will be on the board during the selection process of a new superintendent. Dr. Matthew Haas was asked to resign as superintendent by the board in June, just one week after Swiney’s arrest. Dr. Chandra Hayes has been serving as acting superintendent since July, and will continue in that role through the 2026-27 school year.

Most of the candidates addressed the upcoming superintendent search, with many calling it their top priority if they were to be appointed.

The board itself has faced backlash even in recent weeks. Jack Jouett representative Kate Acuff, who was not in attendance at Thursday’s meeting due to a family emergency according to Berlin, is currently facing a petition to remove her from the board, an effort that launched in late August.

Jimmy Belew, who is one of the 15 applicants for the open board seat, attended and spoke in support of the petition at the event announcing its launch, and he is also engaged in an active lawsuit against ACPS, according to online court records.

Belew did not address either his outspoken criticism toward the board or his active lawsuit with the division during his interview, but said he believed he represented a group of people “who we don’t hear from enough,” which he referred to as the “silent majority.”

“Those are the parents and community members who may never attend a school board meeting. They may never speak on a mic. They may never send a long email, but who care deeply about our schools and expect leadership to using caringness, and compassion, and most of all, common sense,” Belew said. “Those are the qualities I would bring to this board.”

He later said he was prepared to work with people who may disagree with to “find solutions that should never be about personalities or politics. They should be about children.”

Also among the candidates interviewed were two former school board members — Leslie Pryor and Steve Kolezar.

Pryor was the last member of the board to be appointed to fill a vacancy, serving 11 months as the Rio representative following the death of Chuck Pace in Dec. 2024 before being defeated by current Rio representative Jim Dillenbeck in last November’s election.

Pryor said she is seeking to return to the board because she feels she has “unfinished business,” and said she is a strong candidate due to her prior experience.

“I feel that my professional and personal experiences bring a multitude of diversity to the board,” she said.

Kolezar represented the Scottsville District from 1996-2019, when he chose not to seek reelection following his seventh term. He argued his experience is needed as the board looks to regain trust.

“I think my 24 years of experience on this board has well prepared me to serve another year as this board faces a number of very serious challenges,” he said.

The crop of candidates also includes Heidi Gilman Bennett, former chair and officer with the ACPS Family Council. Bennett served on the Family Council 2022-26, and has a degree from Stanford in linguistics and education and a master’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.

“I am seeking this appointment because right now is our opportunity to not only stabilize, to remain strong, but to also shift, to reform an outdated and broken system in our public school division, so that every student truly can thrive,” she said.

She most recently made waves in the division when she publicly accused Assistant Superintendent Dr. Patrick McLaughlin of sexual harassment during a public hearing in July, leading to him being placed on administrative leave the next day. She addressed those allegations, as well as her other work as a community organizer, but asked the board to remember that her efforts “have always been closely aligned to the ACPS mission and goals.”

“Right now, I believe our community needs me to turn my professional efforts towards building a better school system,” she said.

The crop also featured a number of other candidates with a variety of qualifications, including David Gilbert Tateman, a U.S. Army veteran and former member of the educational leadership team of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC), Daisy Rojas, an alumna of the Curry School of Education at UVA who has published research on education and other topics, and David Storm, a former senior administrator at American University.

Before entering a closed session to discuss the candidates at the end of the meeting, Berlin expressed her gratitude to all of those who applied.

“Board work is hard work,” she said. “And the mission and vision of the school system is so important to each and every one of us, and I so appreciate each of your time and effort.”