Juandiego Wade:

So Christa, I’m so excited that you’re running for school board. I consider us similar in many ways because before I ran for school board, 16 years ago, I was really involved in the community doing different aspects with the schools, with the students, just like you. And I know that you and your family have been here for about 10 years now, and you have two wonderful girls who are currently in the system, and you’re busy with volunteering in the schools and everything. And so, I’m excited that you’re taking this next journey to be a school board member. And I just recall when we first met, we were involved with dealing with the school and making sure that the students had ample amount of time to play outside. And we got to start working through that. Also, the big issue that just happened was the playground, I’m so excited about that. I think that what the public wants to know, with everything that’s going on, with COVID, the reconfiguration, why are you running for school board?

Christa Bennett:

Well thanks so much, Juan. I’m running for school board to make it easier for all parents to advocate for their children. Like you said, I’ve done a lot of advocating over the past few years we’ve been in Charlottesville. You’ve seen me at a lot of school board meetings. And it can be hard when you’re a parent to know if something isn’t going well for my child at school, “How do I solve that? Who do I talk to?” And because I spent that time myself working on these things, I want to take the lessons that I have learned and help other parents. I’ve also been able to observe where communication sometimes gets stuck, especially between the school district and our families. And I want to be a part of helping keep that communication open.

Juan:

Something that I have been very passionate about is education equity. And that is something that the community has said that they see as a priority. What’s your position, and where do you stand with education equity?

Christa:

Equity is so important that any decision I make as a school board member, I would be viewing through the lens of racial justice and social justice. It’s really important. How I try to live that out in my day-to-day is, at first, listening to Black activists and advocates in our community, Latinx families, other folks who are most affected by systemic racism. Then second, following their lead. We have a lot of activists and advocates already on the ground doing really important work. Our schools are already working with these organizations, to some extent. I think that we can do so even more. There’s room to grow in working more with these organizations, to serve our students and to serve our community. And as I’ve been thinking over the past few months where I would want to prioritize, as a school board member, I have been trying to talk with as many organizations as possible, led by Black leaders and Latinx leaders. I’ll tell you a couple of the things, concrete things, because we always want to say, “Those are nice words, but what are you going to actually do?”

So I’ll mention a couple of the things that I’m looking at. The first is preschool, and the second is using our school’s past community centers. So let’s talk about the first one first, preschool. It’s such an important time in our kids’ lives, in all of our lives really. From the time we’re born until we’re about six years old, our brain is growing so quickly and it’s really important that all of our children have social and emotional support during that time. I believe it takes a village; it’s not enough just for us parents [to be involved]. My kids were in preschool. It was important to them and to me, and I think it’s also important that they have that age-appropriate instruction, learning their letters and their numbers. So that’s something that I want to really prioritize, is making sure that our preschool program has as much support as it needs.

One of the things that I’ve observed is that the director for the preschool program, at different times, has been a part-time position. I’d like to look at the possibility of making that a full-time position, so really prioritizing and funding that position. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that our preschool enrollment has actually decreased over the last few years. I’d like to look into why that is and what can we do to encourage families to enroll their students in preschool. It might be that parents need a full-time, a program that lasts the entire day, because they’re at work. So looking at different options and how we might be even able to work with the city to offer more time for preschool, that’s something that I’d like to look at.

The second thing that I’ve heard from a lot of leaders in our community was using schools as community resources and community centers. I think that we’re already doing that, to some degree, in our schools. At Jackson-Via we have a soul feast every year. It’s one of my favorite days of the year.

Juan:

Mine, too!

Christa:

We have churches and other community organizations that come in, bring in some good food and there’s dancing. Now Juan, I know that everyone thinks their grandma made the best collard greens, but my Grandma Lena really did make the best collards. But those church ladies, it’s pretty close, it’s a pretty good feast there. I enjoy that night so much, I think it means a lot to a lot of families in our community. And I want to support more initiatives like that, where our schools feel like home to our students and to their families.

Juan:

Right. So, I know your day job, you’re busy, but you actually have a job. You’re COO of Strive for College. And so, you know the importance of getting involvement, community involvement. Now, can you tell us a little bit about what you will be able to bring to the table from your day job?

Christa:

Yes. I’m the Chief Operating Officer of Strive for College. I love working with the organization. Our goal is to help students with financial need find the best career fit for them. Most often, that involves going to college, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes there are students who graduate from high school and they might pursue other training paths to lead them to a living wage career. And we want to support them, and we connect them with mentors to help them do that. So I’m really passionate about making sure that Charlottesville City Schools is graduating students prepared for colleges and jobs.

Christa:

And I’ll tell you, Juan, as you know, we have some strengths in our district. The first that really pops out to me is the number of academic counselors we have at Charlottesville High School. Our student to counselor ratio is far better than the national average, and even the state average. So we’re doing a good job there. And I think that we can further support that by bringing in mentoring, which is important to both of us. We have strengthened our relationship when we were both working with C4K mentoring. I know mentoring is very important to you.

Juan:

Yes. I think mentoring is one of the most powerful and cost efficient things that we can do as a community to have impacts on our youth. Go ahead.

Christa:

Absolutely. And the good thing is, maybe this is a secret, but it doesn’t just help the children, right, it helps us.

Juan:

Yes. I get so much out of it.

Christa:

We learn from them too. And I’d like to expand the mentoring that we’re doing as a community. I think that we can bring in more businesses, professionals, who can be doing more mentoring. And it’s actually related, as well to, CAYIP, the Community Attention Youth Internship Program. Which is a great program that the city helps lead, where students in our district are able to intern with organizations. And I’d like to strengthen that program. There are a lot of partners, a good number of them are nonprofits. Which is great, I work for a nonprofit. I’d like to see more businesses enrolled in that program, as well, so our students have a real variety of internship possibilities.

Juan:

I participate in that program, it is wonderful. It’s a great program. So, I just have a couple more questions for you. So, I know you, but can you tell our friends, what will be the greatest strengths that you will bring to the school board, if elected?

Christa:

I have a lot of experience leveraging a community’s resources to help everyone in the community. So I did this with the Walker playgrounds back in 2018, when all of the sixth graders at Walker participated in design thinking sessions, and they said, “We really want a playground.” And I heard that and thought, “You should have a playground”! Because you want one, because it’s fun. And because I know that playtime isn’t only fun, but it also supports students’ wellbeing, and it actually improves academic outcomes. So I thought it was really important for them to have that. I worked with the community. We raised over $180,000. We just opened the playground. Juan, you were an early supporter of that. You and Dr. Hastings gave me the support at the beginning. And that’s what I love doing, is working with all the different stakeholders in the community to make something happen.

It’s also what I do during my day job with Strive for College. I close deals with Fortune 500 companies who pay for our programming, so that our programming is free for any student who needs it. Charlottesville has a lot of resources. And I think that we can tap into those for our community, and to support our students.

I will tell you though, Juan, I think that my greatest strength that I will bring to the school board is that I really care about children. And I care about justice for our kids. I think that we don’t talk about justice a lot in terms of kids. I think that justice for children is them having what they need, and an education is a fundamental need and a right for our children. I started my career early on working in post-conflict communities. I did that because I care about the kids, because I wanted to help build education centers and libraries and make sure they had access to healthcare.

What I learned during that time was that community needs are pretty much the same wherever you go. We all want to take care of our kids. We want them to be fed and healthy, and have an education, and have a good life. The most important thing that I’ll ever do is taking care of my own children, and I believe that in a community, all children are our children, and we have a responsibility to take care of all of them. So that fierce commitment to children is really my greatest strength, I think.

Juan:

So, Christa, as I said at the beginning, I’m so excited that you are running for school board. I feel like I’m leaving the school board in very capable hands, because we need people that are passionate, that are energetic, that can bring new ideas to the table. And I know that that’s what you will do, because you’ve done it already before with the school system. I know that we share the same passion for all children in the community, whether you’re low wealth or high wealth, whether you’re black or white, all of these children in the community are ours. And we have to care and nurture each and every one of them. I’m supporting you because of all of these aspects, but most importantly, because we’re friends.

Christa:

Thanks so much, Juan.