Charlottesville School Board will see a new member and two returning members in the new term. Incumbents Emily Dooley and Lisa Larson-Torres will be back for four more years, while newcoming Zyahna Bryant will be the new face on the Board.
Bryant spoke to Charlottesville Tomorrow and said she wants to keep “the focus of inclusivity for everyone” in her new role.
Securing her seat with nearly 27% of the votes, the highest of the four candidates seeking the three open seats, Bryant thanked the dozens of volunteers and donors that helped her run a “people powered campaign,” and believes Charlottesville is ready for a change.
“I believe that the community is ready for something new, and so that just makes me so excited to be on the cusp of that and to see a new wave of leadership,” Bryant told Charlottesville Tomorrow.
First in Bryant’s agenda is rebuilding trust and empowering student voices.
“My first initiative, or I would say my first priority, is rebuilding trust,” she said. “That’s foundational, but in addition to that, amplifying and empowering student voices is also key. I got to this point from being a student leader, starting in elementary school, middle school, upper elementary school, high school. So this journey has been a long journey of student leadership, and I do feel like student leaders deserve to have the ear of those who are making the decisions.”
Bryant, an alumna of Charlottesville City Schools, has been an advocate from a young age. When she was 12, she organized a rally for Justice for Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black teen who was fatally shot by a then 28-year-old Hispanic-American George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer on patrol, on Feb. 26, 2012. Martin was walking back to his father’s fiancé’s house from a nearby convenience store in Sanford Florida when the incident occurred.
The rally also honored the lives of unarmed Black people who had lost their lives to police violence.
In 2015 Bryant formed the Black Student Union in CCS, and in 2016 wrote a petition to the City Council requesting the removal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue and renaming of the park where it stood for nearly a century. In February 2017 the City Council voted 3-2 to remove the statute. After some pushback and a failed lawsuit, the statute was finally removed in 2021.
“I’ve reminded people throughout this entire campaign, and even before, whenever I’m speaking to an audience or I’m speaking in the community, I remind people that for every single historical social change movement that we can remember in our nation’s history, young people have been at the forefront of that movement,” Bryant said. “Young people have always been the pioneers of social change, and have always yielded results in doing so, and so that’s what I hope to do.”
When asked how she is going to face the challenges that might come with her new role, Bryant said she’s not going to sit and wait, she’s already readying herself to do her best.
“We are in an unprecedented time, and so the challenges are already present, we’re not waiting for them to come,” she said. “The only thing that I can do as a board member is to continue to keep students first, to continue to stick to the core values of the Charlottesville City Schools division and keep the focus of inclusivity at the forefront. We need schools that work for everyone, and so I’m going to do the best that I can to represent all students, all perspectives, and to make decisions that I think will be the best for our community and the future of our community.”
As Bryant readies herself for the new role in January, returning board members Dooley and Larson-Torres are looking forward to working with her.
“I’m excited to have her work with us and join the board,” Larson-Torres said. “I think her perspective, her voice, her advocacy, are all just really strengths. And so I look forward to seeing how that can continue to elevate the work that we do as a board for Charlottesville City Schools.”
Sentiments echoed by Dooley.
“Having a new voice and a fresh perspective is always welcome,” she said. “And in this case, Ms. Bryant brings her tenure as a student in the city schools, and a great wealth of community resources. So I think she’s going to be a really great asset coming onto the board.”
School Board Chair Dooley re-gained her seat with more than 26% of votes, and said the work never stops.
“We’ve got still two months of this year to finish out and then look forward to our new board coming together in January,” she said.
In her next term Dooley said she has much work to do, including the reconfiguration of grades as the newly renovated Charlottesville Middle School opens.
Next year, sixth graders will be moved to the middle school, as fifth graders return to their elementary schools. While all preschool grades will come together.
“The reconfiguration of our grades is going to be really critical next year as we open fully the middle school,” she said. “It’s not only a lot of movement of students in the division, but also staff and teachers, and so that is going to be a big lift through the spring and summer.”
Dooley is looking forward to continuing to work with Larson-Torres, who is also returning after winning just over 25% of votes.
Larson-Torres said her work during the next term will focus on several things, including Prekindergarden.
“What I hope to do in the next four years, as I’ve kind of been setting the groundwork, is really to dig in and continue to prioritize what our early learning, what our pre-K center might look like, and trying to maximize what that might offer to our pre-K students and families,” she said.
Larson-Torres also said she’ll also continue working on trying to get legislation passed for an increase in sales tax that would directly fund future school infrastructure projects, something Charlottesville has requested of state legislators multiple times, but has so far been denied.
Dooley added that she would want the community to remain engaged with the school board.
“I’ve appreciated the interest in public education throughout this election cycle, but would just encourage people that like this work: We need people to be engaged in our schools all of the time, and not just when there is an election,” Dooley said. “And so finding ways to get involved in our schools or with community partners that support our schools and our families would be my call to action for our community as we are past Nov. 4.”
