The Rockbridge County School Board held a public hearing May 12 to gather community input ahead of its search for a new superintendent, drawing residents, parents, teachers and neighboring school officials who outlined their priorities for the district’s next chief executive.
The hearing came as the Board prepares to replace Superintendent Phillip Thompson, who has led Rockbridge County Public Schools since July 2017 and now prepares to retire. The board is targeting a Jan. 1, 2027, start date for Thompson’s successor, with a final announcement sometime in September.
Several speakers emphasized that the next superintendent must have meaningful time in the classroom before taking the role, a theme that also emerged prominently in a community survey conducted in advance of the hearing.
Of the 177 survey respondents, 28 percent identified as parents, 26 percent as teachers, and 23 percent as school employees.
“Everyone feels that this person we hire has to have had some significant experience in the classroom,” said School Board member Lenna Ojure. “A lot of the employees and teachers in particular felt that it was extremely important … Because if they’re the captain of the ships, so to speak, you want to feel that they really know what people in classrooms are up against and what’s going on for them and what their issues are.”
Katie Shester, vice chair of the Lexington School Board and a parent of a Rockbridge County High School student, laid out a detailed set of attributes she said she hoped to see in the next superintendent.
“I think it’s important that they have a collaborative style, that they prioritize teacher and staff morale, that they are very communicative, and that they have a really long-term perspective and are invested in the community,” she said.
On collaboration specifically, she said the ideal candidate would “listen before drawing conclusions, have no fixed agenda coming in, and really seek out all perspectives, even from folks who may not voluntarily offer them up.”
Shester also addressed the complexity of leading a district that draws students from two separate localities.
“You don’t need to take resources away from one to give to something else,” she said. “You can really think creatively about how to make everyone better off.”
She added that she hoped the new superintendent would keep both the Rockbridge County and Lexington school boards informed on matters of shared concern, “not just after decisions have been made.”
Lexington City Council member David Sigler, identifying himself as primarily a resident and taxpayer, urged the Board to prioritize early education and investment in school facilities, singling out the planned future renovation of Rockbridge County High School as a project that should not be deferred, even as the Innovation Center and planned recreation center seem to have taken priority.
“Investing in a school that serves 900 to 1,000 students is a far better use of our community funds than spending millions of dollars to incarcerate them as adults,” Sigler said.
He also stressed that the next superintendent must recognize the contributions of students who come through both the Maury River and Lylburn Downing middle schools.
Sigler closed with a broader vision for the role: “I hope they connect especially with students from families who may feel overlooked or marginalized. I hope the next superintendent recognizes the value of the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization, just like Dr. Thompson, and I hope they explore the use of technology and AI in our classrooms.”
Following the public comments, Board members shared their own takeaways from the survey responses.
“One thing that I was encouraged by was that actually there was a lot of agreement among the different groups who filled out the survey,” Ojure said.
Student achievement emerged as perhaps the single most consistently cited priority. “There was a lot about student achievement for all students,” Ojure said. “Top, bottom, good students, not so good students, academic students, athletes, non-athletes, arts, whatever, there should be attention on all these things.”
Board member Neil Whitmore pointed out the important role the superintendent plays when working with the county’s board of supervisors. “The superintendent is the avenue to them for funding,” he said.
Board chair Kathy Burant said that learning about that particular role “has been a defining moment in my learning, to watch the interaction between our board of supervisors and [Dr. Thompson.]” Wide-ranging skills are “crucial” to the superintendent role, said Burant. “You have to be a great communicator, be willing to give when things need beginning, be willing to share, have that open and honest and strong relationship.”
The Board outlined the following timeline for the search, which is being conducted with assistance from the Virginia School Boards Association.
The application window will open June 1 and close June 30. Board members will review candidates during July, with interviews scheduled for the first week of September. An announcement is expected sometime that month.
The VSBA’s involvement effectively makes the search national in scope, Whitmore noted, which satisfied requests by multiple survey respondents and hearing participants. “Their expertise in that, the fact that they do this all the time, is a very comforting feeling for us to know that we are essentially checking all the boxes,” he said.
