CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — In this year’s Charlottesville City School elections, four candidates are running for three open seats on the Board, with incumbents Emily Dooley and Lisa Larson-Torres running against newcomers Zyahna Bryant and Dashad Cooper.

Dooley, the board’s current chair, is running for her second term, and brings the perspective of a former teacher and administrator to the board, having taught at Monticello High School in Albemarle County for six years before serving as a middle school assistant principal and elementary school principal.

“It’s interesting to run for the job while you’re doing the job,” Dooley told WINA about rerunning. “That’s definitely a difference, and just all the things I didn’t know I didn’t know when I ran four years ago. So bringing not only my experience as an educator but my experience on the board, trying to bring that forward into another term.”

Larson-Torres’ interest in the school board began as a single parent of child with special education needs. The experience of advocating for her child’s needs, which she told Cville Right Now was “a painful story,” was what drew her to start attending school board meetings and eventually running for the open seat in 2017.

“That was kind of the main focus of my initial platform was just being a parent advocate, being a voice, having lived through that,” she said, “but … this was kind of my first taste of what equity work looked like, and asking for something for her knowing it would benefit her, but that it would benefit all kids.”

In contrast to Dooley and Larson-Torres, Bryant hope to bring a completely new perspective to the board as a former CCS student who graduated from Charlottesville High School in 2019. Bryant had previously made a name for herself as an activist, having wrote the petition to the Charlottesville City Council to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee in what was then called Lee Park in 2016.

Now, she is running for the school board at only 24 years old, telling WINA that she believes “Age is not always a proxy for experience,” and that she believes she can provide a unique experience as someone who recently went through CCS.

Cooper also brings the perspective of a former CCS student, having graduated from CHS in 2013. He now works for Charlottesville Social Services and serves as Vice-chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Committee. He told Cville Right Now his campaign has “definitely been a journey,” and that in talking to people around the city, he’s found the biggest thing people are looking for from the school board is transparency.

“They want leaders that are going to reach out to them and hear them and listen to them,” he said, “and not just be up there on the board and just making decisions without interacting with the community.”

All four candidates’ platforms align with each other on a variety of issues. Dooley has often emphasized the importance of Tier 1 instruction, quoting Dr. Elizabeth Korab, Principal of its upcoming preschool center, on WINA, saying,  “We don’t just want kids to be kindergarten ready, we want them to be kindergarten strong.”

Larson-Torres has similarly emphasized the importance of literacy, saying that she’s been lucky enough to be apart of the Hunt Institute, a nonpartisan institute aimed at informing policymakers of key issues in education. Larson-Torres has served as an Early Learning National Policy Fellow for the Institute.

Bryant and Cooper have also discussed the importance of early learning and literacy in bridging the achievement gap, as well as the importance of equity in the school system, which both Larson-Torres and Dooley also have emphasized. Bryant said she would like CCS to not only emphasize equity, but “decode it,” and talk about what it means. Cooper echoed a similar sentiment.

“I want to make sure that every kid, no matter what type of background they’re coming from, has a chance to go out here and have an advantage to make something of their lives,” Cooper said.

All-in-all, with the three open seats guaranteeing at least one newcomer to the board this year, Larson-Torres, the most senior member of the board running, says she believes all four candidates bring passion and a unique experience to the table, and that no matter the results she believes the board will be good to go next year.

“No matter what the results, it’s a great board,” she said.