Daniel Angell is a Fincastle School Board candidate
It is with great pleasure that I introduce myself as a candidate for the Botetourt County School Board in the Fincastle District. I am a life-long resident of the Roanoke Valley, growing up in the Hollins area and graduating from Northside High School. I moved to Botetourt County in 2013 and currently live in Fincastle with my wife Lindsey, who is a math teacher at Lord Botetourt High School, and our daughter Laken, who was born in December of last year.
I hold a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Radford University and began my career working in the accounting department at Norfolk Southern. When Norfolk Southern announced the closure of its Roanoke headquarters in January of 2015, I was adamant that I would not leave our home in Botetourt for a relocation to Atlanta. I was fortunate to continue my career as a Human Resources and Employee Benefits Manager for Roanoke based American HealthCare. It is my desire to work with parents, citizens, and county leaders of Botetourt to make our school system a model for the Commonwealth. If we can create a school system that can provide our students with unmatched educational and technical training, it will lead to more career opportunities in the county and our students can stay in our community, instead of many making the tough decision to move to larger cities to begin or advance their careers.
I believe my experience in business finance and human resources would prove to be an invaluable asset to the School Board. Of the over $58 million annual budget of the Botetourt County School system, over 60% goes to employee salaries and benefits. I believe it is imperative that the board has members that are experienced in human resources and employee benefits to attract and retain premier employees, especially teachers, who are the most important aspect of providing our students with a great education. In the past, the Board has made public statements about the constant struggle to find quality teachers for our classrooms, however, the school system currently has a standard practice in place to not re-hire any former employees. With the school system being the largest employer in all of Botetourt County, this practice dramatically reduces the size of qualified potential employees.
Lastly, I would like to pledge that as a member of the school board, I would be fully committed to fiscal responsibility, transparency, and open communication with the parents and residents of Botetourt County. With declining enrollment numbers making state and federal funding very challenging, fiscal responsibility is as important as ever. From my interaction with the community and several school teachers, I’ve learned that the schools have an annual budget of nearly $2 million for textbooks, many of which are purchased despite teachers not using them and requesting the funds instead be used on classroom technology. The result is many of our schools have closets packed full of expensive textbooks that are never used and classrooms that are lacking the technology necessary to make sure our students are equipped with skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.
I would be honored to serve the citizens of the Fincastle District on the Botetourt County School Board. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at danieljangell42@gmail.com
Submitted by Angell for School Board
