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Moyers seeks 1st term
BY ANNE ADAMS • STAFF WRITER
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MONTEREY - John Moyers Jr. sought election to the Highland County School Board four years ago, and seeks election again this year because all three current members have chosen to step down, and he has a strong interest in improving vocational opportunities for students here.
"If you go back and considered I've always been interested in education all along, and I've always been interested in the kids," he said, that's why he's trying again. "I've always tried to do things (for children), even when they were over there at the fairgrounds ... anything that involved the kids, that was a priority ... I've had kids in (this system), and I've had grandkids who went to school here.
"I try to be fair, try to find different ways of getting the job accomplished, and seeing what's available on both sides of it," he added.
The current school board's term, he said, had serious problems. "Based on what I read and saw, they didn't quite gel. There were some disagreements among them, and it seemed like it was more personal than business ... There's differences there and I guess they got them worked out. They seemed to smooth over."
He said he's heard residents feel positive about superintendent Gary Blair, though he's only met him once. "I haven't had a lot of conversations with him, but I hear good things about him in the community. But then I've heard there's bad things, but that goes back to policies over there," he said.
" (The) main thing is fairness and then enforcement of the rules as written," he said about his motives. "It seems like sometimes they kind of back up and don't really enforce them. There seem to be privileges to certain people; that's how it's been put over to me. In other words, I guess ... it seems like the information is getting over. One thing I notice, it seems like they harp a lot on SOLs. It seems like you're teaching that, and they're letting the actual things that kids use in everyday life kind of slide by.
Moyers would like to see vocational offerings expanded. "Based on our workforce, and seeing the young people coming in, they need to have more stress on the knowledge and cooperation and being able to get along with people ... social skills. Along with today, there is an academic need and a vocational need. From the standpoint of, even if they're a mechanic, computer systems come in. They're going to have to have the academics know-how of using the computers but they're also going to have to have vocational skills, how they go in and work on that motor ... It looks like your pushing almost all academic over here and letting the vocational side of the school system fall back ... But in this day and time it's just as important as the academics. If you get into looking at the workforce, there's more jobs vocational-related than academic related," he explained. "It's really needed. When you look back, the county is agriculture. And what students are able to stay will have a better preparations for the skills needed to sustain life here in the county - working on their own home farm or finding what few jobs are available in the county."
Moyers said students in Highland are hard to compare with others statewide or nationwide. "Looking from the outside in, I guess (students) are doing the best they can, from out of the county, but when you get to other localities, you've got to consider the numbers," he said. "Our few high excellent students, the top of our crop, when they get out (of) here they may only be average or above average to other systems because you've got so many more people that are getting more of an education in their surroundings, and they comprehend it. (Other places) have the availability of different resources. As they say, it's kind of like comparing apples to oranges. You take our setting and then match it with Augusta or Rockingham County, and it's a completely different thing ... they've got a lot more resources there. The thing that probably hurts us is, they've got a lot more job opportunities where kids are able to get a job and work during school and get this experience."
Moyers said he's not sure how the programs can be expanded under current budget constraints, but he'd like to try. "It's hard to go and say until you get inside. You're a person from the outside looking in, and until you get in there and see what's going on, what can be done, then you've got to see how, in what ways, you may be able to improve it, or (whether) you're allowed to. It's a lot of state and federal standings that I may think something but it's not allowed because of certain guidelines," he said.
Much will depend on working with Highland's representatives at the state level, he added. "That's about the only way we're going to get any help is to work with them ... When you've got less than 300 kids in the school system, if you go and figure that out, you've only got about 150 parent groups that have kids in the school system. Then take 2,000 people population in the county, then look at the math, and look at the percentage ... you've got to try to make everybody happy. The school board doesn't have anything to do with setting taxes but ... the board of supervisors, they can fund you or not," he said. "So you're going to have to sit down and figure out ways you can really use the money levels and get the best bang for the buck."
Moyers said he has not yet reviewed the school budget except for the one the schools published in The Recorder, but "that don't really give you a good idea. It's all the main categories," he said.
Board duties and policies
Moyers said he doesn't know of anything in his personal or professional life that would create a conflict of interest if he were elected, he said. He hasn't yet had the opportunity to talk with many residents about school issues due to his work schedule. Moyers works the third shift at night and has found it hard to campaign on weekdays. "I've talked to a few people but that's hard to do. If I want to take Saturdays off to do that ... right now I'm contacting them but (often) we're not talking about the school board," he said.
He said he hasn't read current school policies since his youngest daughter graduated. "(I'm not up on) the current laws; not any updates from what (I saw) last year in the student handbook policy. I know they've had different changes, and talked about certain changes in there but it's only what I've read in the paper about it."
As for what he'd do differently if elected, Moyers said, "(That) goes back again to being on the outside looking in, and not knowing really what's gone on. I feel they've done what they've felt is best for the system in their opinion. I may not have agreed with it, but they have more facts and information, so the school board members would be the ones that have the current updated information, and the research that goes along with it for policy that everybody should be willing to accept," he said.
Moyers said he's satisfied, in general, with the education his own children got at Highland County schools. "The main thing we couldn't get along with is Spanish class. They told her (his youngest) she had to have it and I told her she didn't need it, and pulled her out of it. It wasn't that important because it was only ... a foreign language, (and it) only gives you one click above on your diploma, which didn't mean a hill of beans," he said. "She had pretty well figured out what she wanted to do. She wasn't going to college. And I figured in this day and time, it doesn't mean a whole lot. She was looking at Blue Ridge (and due to health concerns) we had problems with her stamina and we worked around that." Eventually, his daughter became a CNA.
"Something just clicked, so we helped her do what she wanted. She likes it, that's the main thing. I've noticed a lot of kids over here, they get their diplomas, go to college and things, and then the next thing you know, they're not in the field they went (there for). They're out here at the Hardee's or something else like that working instead ... Our kids are the top but you take the whole United States and there's going to be several above (them) and they think they're outstanding but there's someone always going to be a little bit better, and the companies look for that. They're going to take the best of the crop."
Moyers said his biggest weakness now is doing research on computers. "The biggest thing is trying to get on the computer system and find all this information the easy way. I don't call myself computer literate, but I'm learning ... I got the bad taste on the computer system when the Radio Shack (computer) systems came out at the schools and we had to write our own programs ... I was lost ... I know how to do certain things where I'm working now on computer (at my job)," he said.
Moyers said he has not been to any school board meetings in the last 12 months, but has attended some in the past. He said he understands how the state's Freedom of Information Act applies to elected officials though he'd want to review the law. "In general, I'd have to read up on it, go back in and see how the stipulations are. I know they can go into the closed meetings to discuss items but then come out to take action on it. Now the whole legal readings of it, I don't know about that, but I understand the process and what it's used for," he said.
Improvements
Aside from expanded curricula in vocational studies, Moyers said he'd also want to focus on policies related to student discipline, "fairness on students when they do wrong or violate school standards.
"When I was in school they used the paddle; that didn't hurt us. I had one teacher, he had a class ring ... he'd sneak up behind you and tap you on the head with that ring. I don't think that hurt me any. He got your respect." These days, he said, "You've got a group of students and kids that are very respectful; then others are not. I've seen that different times ... you've got your good and your bad. The rotten apple always ruins the bushel ... That's where the fairness comes in, I'd say. Fairness and strictness."
He is also concerned about the effects of the state's Standards of Learning. "That's the SOLs ... They're teaching to it but it seems like ... they teach specific things that they'll probably find on the test and the other things are kind of let by the wayside ... Then the kids get out here in everyday life; those are the things they need more than what the state says they should have. ... Those requirements come up always from the big city but rural, it's like night and day. Our standards required are completely different from what Harrisonburg and Richmond may need ... I can't say it's right and I can't say it's wrong until you see the situation. I ain't putting any disavows on the people but their story's one way and the school's story is another way. Now you're going to have to go and find the median and see what the actual situation or the truth is. Each has their own opinion.
So I'd be a third party coming in and keeping a completely different entire opinion on what it should be, look at the facts. Every situation is kind of a little different and you've got to look at that," he said.
About the candidate
¦ John Moyers Jr., 55 ¦ Married 33 years; two daughters, ages 30 and 18; three grandchildren in Augusta County ages 14, 9, and 6 ¦ Graduated Highland High School in 1971; earned his BS in agricultural education ¦ Taught vocational classes 12 years at HHS, from 1975 to 1987 ¦ Currently employed at a packaging and distribution firm in Harrisonburg, and has his own side business in Highland spreading poultry litter ¦ Former member of Stonewall Ruritan Club and Monterey Lions Club; current member Doe Hill United Methodist Church
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