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Locke Seeks Roberts Seat on WJCC School BoardBy Amber Lester Kennedy Saturday, June 04, 2011 Richard Locke will run for the Roberts District seat on the Williamsburg-James City County School Board this November. The seat is currently held by Denise Koch, who joined the board in 2004 and began a second term in 2008. She has not announced whether she plans to run for reelection. Locke, a systems engineer and Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD), has been a fixture at school board meetings and work sessions for the past four years. He has also attended community discussions on education hosted by the Citizens for Education in the past year and a half. He first started watching the board meetings on the local government channel and before the 2007 board elections, decided to attend one of the meetings. “I saw how few people actually attend the meetings, and thought, ‘Someone has to do this,’” he said Friday. Now that he’s watched the meetings closely for four years, he believes he has something to offer. “I am solutions oriented. I am able to look at both sides of an issue,” he said. “I ask ‘What if?’ I can change my mind based on facts.” He also feels he has a point of view as a local businessperson that is under-represented on the board. In his announcement, Locke said he aims to “significantly improve communications between the board and administration and the citizens of the county.” He also hopes to develop and implement a strategic plan for the school system (a process recently initiated by Superintendent Steven Constantino), and “ensure that the citizen taxpayers are receiving the maximum return on their tax dollar investment.” Locke has experience in school construction and renovation projects, instructional technology and project management. His company's projects have included installing classroom technology, alarm systems, sound systems and more at J. Blaine Blayton Elementary School and Lois Hornsby Middle School, along with similar projects for schools in Richmond, North Carolina, Maryland and Pennsylvania. He graduated from high school in McKeesport, Pa. and attended John Carroll University until his junior year, when he joined the Navy and served for eight years. With military training in electronics and computer programming, he attended night school on the GI bill until he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and mathematics from George Mason University in 1983. He and his wife, Mary Lou, have lived in the county for 25 years. Their two adult children both attended WJCC schools from kindergarten to graduation. |
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B. The provisions of this section shall not apply to:
1. A member's personal interest in a contract of employment provided the employment first began prior to the member becoming a member of the school board;
2. Contracts for the sale by a governmental agency of services or goods at uniform prices available to the public; or
3. A contract awarded to a member of a school board as a result of competitive sealed bidding where the school board has established a need for the same or substantially similar goods through purchases prior to the election or appointment of the member to serve on the school board. However, the member shall have no involvement in the preparation of the specifications for such contract, and the remaining members of the school board, by written resolution, shall state that it is in the public interest for the member to bid on such contract.
From the Code of Virginia
§ 2.2-3108. Prohibited contracts by members of school boards.
A. No person elected or appointed as a member of a local school board shall have a personal interest in (i) any contract with his school board or (ii) any contract with any governmental agency that is subject to the ultimate control of the school board of which he is a member.