Obie P. Hill

Concerning the Harrison City School Board’s decision in 2021 to mandate vaccinations for staff, Hill believed the mandate put a burden on staff members to be tested each week and may have been the cause of nine staff resignations at the beginning of the next school year [5, 10].

Hill believes that the modification of the school board handbook to increase the chair/vice chair terms to 2 years is inequitable, that the purpose of it was to maintain power/control, and that it took away board members’ opportunity to serve in said positions [1].

Hill supported Governor Northam’s proposal to add funding to allow school counselors to spend more time on students and less on administrative tasks [3].

In 2019, Hill’s top priority was the timely building of the new high school. Concerning the name of the new high school, Hill originally backed South Ridge, then switched to Valley View after viewing a survey of Harrisonburg high school students supporting that name. However, he said if the majority of his colleagues supported Rocktown, he would vote in favor of that name [3, 4].