CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Albemarle County School Board member Leslie Pryor is running to retain her seat in the Rio District, which she has held since January. She joined the board after applying for the open seat following the passing of member Chuck Pace in December.

Pryor, who grew up in Charlottesville and has lived in Albemarle for roughly 40 years, was not an educator but previously served as a Juvenile Probation Officer. It was in this role when the school board became a focus for her, she told Cville Right Now, as she had concerns about both the school system and the agencies that serve the schools.

When the vacancy on the board was announced following Pace’s death, Pryor decided to apply simply to get her name out there in case she decided to run for the seat four or eight years down the line. But instead, the Board selected her to fill the seat.

Now, she said she is running for a full term and hopes to “defend, support and protect public education,” especially amidst the increased instability around public education in the last few years.

“I think it’s just critical that all individuals are afforded a fair, quality education,” Pryor said.

In the race this year, she is facing challenger Jim Dillenbeck, who ran against Pace last year and also applied for the open vacancy at the end of last year, marking the second time he had applied for the open seat on the board.

Reflecting on the past year, Pryor said her experience on the board has been a positive one, and, despite the steep learning curve, she has welcomed the opportunity. 

If reelected, she hopes to continue to improve the quality of education for students and quality of life for teachers and staff. She believes that starts with increased community engagement and support, especially from parents or teachers who may not be able to regularly give their input because of outside factors like working multiple jobs. She added that she’d like to encourage collaboration with businesses in the county as well and would like to foster further collaboration outside of the county, like with Charlottesville City, to see what’s working elsewhere.

She added that she “can only build on these months that [she’s] had” on the board, and thus her focus in her next term would be toward continuing to work on the issues she and the board have faced in the past year.

Pyror also hopes to see increased funding so the county can have the resources to increase teacher and staff pay and look into further construction and renovation projects. She says she’s already attending Board of Supervisors meetings to understand the full scope of the situation.

“It’s challenging as we look at funding and resources, it’s a huge thing,” she said, “not just for education but across the board, and I need not get into all the challenges that we’re dealing with now in the current federal administration.”

Ultimately, Pryor believes in her time she’s been a good fit for the board and hopes to see her time continue. She said the hardest part of her time on the board has been campaigning, as she has been “met with a lot of resistance and negativity,” even receiving some comments about her race and gender as an African American woman, but it hasn’t slowed her. She says at this point, she’s putting the negativity behind her and pressing forward.

“I think with the culture right now, we just need to be civil,” she said, “and though there are going to be those negative remarks, it doesn’t do any good to rehash that, and so I’m moving forward.”