Calvin M. Andrews

• Age: 43
• Occupation: Teacher at Pulaski County High
• Community roots: Lived in Radford all life; third generation in Radford schools
• Affiliations: member Calvary Baptist; Pulaski County Education Association, VEA, NEA, represents Radford on the New River Community College board; Radford recreation board
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in education from Virginia Tech; attended New River Community College

Election index

• Other candidates in the NRV answer your questions

Why should voters vote for you?

Calvin Andrews: I feel like, being a product of Radford city schools and growing up in the area all my life, I feel like I have a good handle on the community. And also, with me being a teacher, I get to see day by day operations — not in Radford but in Pulaski County, which is very similar — I get to see what some of the challenges that Radford city school teachers are challenged with on a daily basis. I think that’s one of my strong points. I do get to see what’s going on in the school system. Also, my wife is a school teacher. So I get to see the dynamics, I guess of the inside, of some of what is implemented at the federal, state and even local levels — of how it affects the bottom line of the students. I feel like sometimes we make decisions, with not necessarily the students’ best interests involved. Or maybe what is good at a state and federal level. A good example is No Child Left Behind. That has really affected teachers’ jobs in the school system. They don’t know what is going on locally, demographically, and they’re having to teach to that test. Sometimes they cannot vary from that. I understand that part, being a teacher. Also, with my wife being a school teacher, I had an uncle that was a school teacher, an aunt that was a school teacher and my sister in law’s a school teacher, I sort of have that background of knowing maybe what works for children and what doesn’t. Also, I’m very much community-oriented. I’d like to see our schools get more involved in civic affairs in the city. I think that is a good learning tool that they could carry on after they finish school. I would like to get more community involvement even in the school board meetings. Sometimes maybe we might have to change a time — if something is very important on the agenda, maybe changing the time or the date to better suit the citizens of the city of Radford. Instead of having it on a Monday or Tuesday night, we might need to look at having something on the weekend so it will be available to the mass of people, when they’re not working, the working class people. I think I bring a different dialogue to the Radford city school board.

What are your plans for nutrition, healthy snacks and exercise in schools, asks Nicci Cramer, a 21-year-old nursing student.

CA: My degree from Virginia Tech is in family and consumer science, and part of that is foods and nutrition. I have been very concerned, really the last 15 years that the school lunch program is very high in starches. I would love to see us get back to offering good healthy snacks, fruits and vegetables and get a ways from the starchy food products. One of my pushes I see at the high school level that a lot of kids come into the school of a morning, they do not eat breakfast and they do not get breakfast at school. I would look see a proposal of a mid-morning snack. I go back to the old theory of Dr. Pepper. They’re slogan used to be “10, 2 and 4.” Well, that 10, 2 and 4 were times of the day people would get a craving food. And I would like see that implemented in the schools, to give the kids a snack before they have lunch — a good healthy snack. Now, that could be very costly, but I think in the long run it helps our kids by teaching them to eat healthy in the school and that will also transcend over to when they’re at home, too. We’ve already banded soft drinks and a lot of things in the school, but there are a lot of other things such as the Powerades that are available, the teas. I think we should really be pushing a lot of water. The newest thing out now is vitamin water, which it still has calories. And some kids will drink three or four of those. That’s 400 and some calories a day. A lot of the school systems, their hands are tied in some things through the national school lunch program but at a local level I think we can off that break time snack of fruits and vegetables and teaching our kids in that way.

Meg Weddle, a 48-year-old business owner, wants to know: How do you see the city’s demographics changing? How do you plan to deal with those changes?

CA: The demographics is changing in one aspect from when I went to school. There was a lot of people who actually worked in the city. A lot of parents now are having to leave the city for their occupation. We have a few more people who are on the free and reduced lunch program and that’s where I also I’d like to tie in eating healthy. It has to do with some of the demographics — kids in the socioeconomic positions, they don’t necessarily eat healthy. We need to train them in that aspect. Demographics are changing so far as we do have a higher population now of African Americans in the community we also have some of the Hispanic community moving in. And we need to tailor some of our programs toward their culture because that’s what they have grown up with.