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“My main thing is just trying to take the knowledge that I do have — because I’ve been in the schools, I’ve been in the county a long time, because I have a background in education — to really try to be of service, and help do something that is needed,” said Lena Ojure of her reasons for running for the Buffalo seat on the Rockbridge County School Board.
Ojure, who has lived in Rockbridge for over 50 years, earned her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Tech before coming back to work at area universities.
She taught at Mountain Gateway Community College and the Virginia Military Institute, and directed Washington and Lee University’s teacher education program for 11 years. It was after retiring from that role that Ojure decided to run for School Board.
If elected, Ojure hopes to strengthen volunteer connections with Rockbridge schools. “I’d like to see if we can figure out how to maximize and get back some of the volunteer things that we did have before the pandemic, and I’d like to help with that because I feel like a have a lot of experience in that area,” said Ojure, citing her years of volunteer work with Rockbridge schools.
She also believes recruiting and retaining teachers is crucial, as it will likely become more challenging in coming years. “I know this from teacher [education], numbers in teacher ed are way down,” she said. “There really is a shortage of teachers. I think it’s going to be really important that we work to do whatever we can to retain the good teachers we have and also recruit others.”
To do this, she would focus on mentorship and making sure working conditions in Rockbridge County schools are positive. “I think we want to be aware of how we’re creating ways for teachers to come into our system. And we want to be aware of, salary obviously, but also other things like benefits, and working conditions, and load, all those things that make teachers feel like, ‘Wow, this is really a system I want to stay in’,” she said.
From Ojure’s perspective, a significant challenge for Rockbridge will be funding, particularly maintaining funding for ongoing projects, such as the Rockbridge Innovation Center. “I think the biggest things are going to be getting the funding for the things that they want. You’ve started the Innovation Center, but there are going to be funding requirements that are going to continue,” she said.
“You want more math support, well that has a dollar price on it. You want more advanced courses for some of your high school students, that has a price tag to it. So balancing all that I think is tricky.”
Another challenge for Rockbridge is student mental health, which Ojure feels should be addressed both by bringing more resources into schools through community connections, and by making sure that students are cognizant of and comfortable with the resources that are available.
“What you have to do is figure out a way to make it so that students are aware of the services, comfortable asking for them, and that their parents are comfortable, too,” she said. “I think the challenge is going to be having enough services, but also arranging them in such a way that students will feel comfortable taking advantage of them.”
About her overall philosophy if she were to win election, she said, “I’m going in just to listen and learn at the beginning, but I do feel like I know some of the things that they’re trying to do and I really would just like to support those that seem to be going well and are important.”
