HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — The following is a transcription of an interview conducted with Harrisonburg City School Board candidate Matt Snyder. To hear his full interview along with other candidates Kaylene Seigle, and Tim Howley, click here. Please note that Rocktown Now and WSVA attempted to contact Harrisonburg City School Board Candidate Hazzar Pastor Perdomo multiple times but received no response.

Question 1
Why do you believe you should be elected to the Harrisonburg City School Board?

Matt Snyder: Well, first off, thanks for having me. I’m excited for the opportunity to run for school board. I believe I’m the right man for the job. I’ve been involved in youth sports in the schools, working in the schools, in my career.
I’ve got two young boys in the City Schools. I volunteered as a PTO president for four years and have done numerous jobs of volunteer. I’ve seen first-hand what our teachers need, what our students need, and I feel very passionate about supporting the whole group, teachers and students, and keeping the city of Harrisonburg the way it is and strong.

Question 2
So what motivated you to run for school board? There’s one thing to be involved, but there’s something else to enter the political process.

SNYDER: I feel that I’m a motivated guy. I’ve been coaching sports, lacrosse specifically, for about 20 years, so I find myself motivated and it really was the need. Walking through the schools, specifically my son’s elementary schools, just seeing the need that the teachers have and the support. And I felt like I was someone that can come in and help support that and continue with great ideas.

Question 3
What specifically did you see?

SNYDER: What I saw was, I keep saying that the word support, but I felt like that they need more. I think that we have some amazing teachers here in the city and I feel that we want to keep them, and we will retain them, and we want our City Schools to be a place that teachers want to come to work. So, whether that’s assistance in the classroom, more education for them, more breaks just to help them throughout the day. I also see we have a great community, and I see how our teachers help those kids, and I think that’s huge. So, I want to help those teachers to help the students, and I think that we can do different programming and bring things to the classroom that help them. Just from seeing the care that they have and wanting to keep them. So, retention is huge for me.

Question 4
Do you think there’s a solution out there to eliminate the number of different threats that schools are now facing? Unfortunately, way too often.

SNYDER: Yeah, I agree, there are a lot of different threats. Safety is huge and I’m not going to come on here and say that I have the solution right away, but I do think with the people that are on the board, with some of the people that are running, I feel that we could come up with different solutions to help with the safety and help with solutions. I think that there’s, we talked about safety, but also just bridge the gap on testing too. I think that’s huge. I think we have a lot of smart kids, and we have a lot of great teachers that can help them get there. So, whatever we can implement when we’re on the board to help bridge the gap of testing as well as keep our schools safe. I think that’s huge.

Question 5
Are there specific areas that you’d like to see Harrisonburg City Schools invest more money in?

SNYDER: That’s a great question. I do think investing in our schools is huge. I think that technology is something that is that we could continue to invest in. They’re starting to do that now that I see, but just with how with the with the way the world is going, technology is huge. Computers, I know the kids have them, but different types of programming, different types of learning. I also want to see investment in our athletics. I think that we could bridge a gap between our middle schools and our high schools there, with facilities. As well as the arts, I think we have a lot of great art programs, music, band and you name it. I think that there’s an investment there that needs to be done too, for the cross cultural, for all the arts would be amazing because I know there’s a lot of different programming and especially just within the city with our music and our arts is huge.

Question 6

Final question, what’s your main goal and what would your main goal be if you are elected to the school board?

SNYDER: So, that’s a great question, but my main goal is teacher retention. I’m pro books, pro student and pro teacher, so I want the city to know that we’re here for the teachers and for the kids. I want to keep our education great. I want to keep getting our kids better. I want to keep getting our teachers better, so however we can support them and make them feel comfortable and confident is what I’m here to do.