Working Toward Ensuring Youth Equity in Bedford County

Cody Jones
Nov 5, 2025
3 min read

October–November 2025 Update

In late October, we reached a key step in the Bedford County Transparency Project, moving from research into action.

Over the past month, Dogwood & Deathcap has been conducting a review of Bedford County’s youth-related spending across education and recreation, focusing on how resources are distributed among the county’s three school districts: Staunton River, Liberty, and Forest.

The goal is simple: to understand whether every child in Bedford County is receiving fair access to opportunities, safe facilities, and local investment, regardless of where they live.

Conversation with Parks & Recreation

In late October, we spoke directly with Stuart Saunders, the County’s Director of Parks & Recreation.Stuart is relatively new to the role, and to his credit, he was open, transparent, and realistic about where things currently stand.

He confirmed that at this time, Bedford County Parks & Recreation does not have a centralized system to track:

Field maintenance frequency,
Expenditures by school district, or
Youth participation data divided by region.

Stuart shared that this lack of centralized tracking isn’t due to unwillingness, it’s simply a structure that hasn’t yet been built. He expressed a genuine commitment to moving toward greater transparency and accountability, and we fully believe he means it.

That conversation was encouraging. It showed that even inside county departments, there’s recognition that better systems would help everyone, staff, families, and leadership alike, understand how resources are being used.

Why We Wrote a Resolution

This is why Dogwood & Deathcap drafted the Resolution for Ensuring the Equitable and Transparent Distribution of Youth Resources in Bedford County.

The resolution establishes a straightforward framework that would:

Require Bedford County Parks & Recreation and Bedford County Public Schools to produce annual, district-based reports.
Divide all youth-related data, spending, maintenance, and participation, by the county’s three school districts: Staunton River, Liberty, and Forest.
Make these reports public each year before the county’s fiscal close (June 30).

The goal is to ensure that every taxpayer, parent, and player can see where funding goes, how it’s being used, and whether resources are being shared fairly across the county, ensuring youth equity.

If the data already exists, the resolution will help make it visible.If it doesn’t exist, it will create a process to ensure it’s collected in the future.

Next Step: Seeking Sponsorship

The next step in this process is bringing the resolution before the Bedford County Board of Supervisors for formal consideration.

To do that, we have submitted the resolution to our District 1 Supervisor for review and potential sponsorship.Sponsorship means the Supervisor agrees to bring it forward as an agenda item so that the Board, and the public, can discuss it openly.

This resolution represents an opportunity to make Bedford County a leader in transparency and fairness.It’s not a partisan issue. It’s a community issue, one that directly affects our children, our families, and the integrity of how local government serves them.

Where We Go from Here

As we await feedback from our District 1 Supervisor, we’ll continue:

Reviewing data received from Bedford County Public Schools and the County Finance Office
Publishing summaries and visuals that make that data easier to understand
Inviting residents, parents, and local organizations to stay informed and involved

We’ll also keep the community updated on the status of the resolution, any Board developments, and opportunities for residents to voice support.

Why It Matters

Transparency shouldn’t be a privilege, it’s a foundation of good governance. When people can clearly see how their community invests in its children, it strengthens trust, reduces division, and helps everyone work toward a common goal.

This project isn’t about politics or pressure. It’s about progress.We’re working to make sure that every student and every player, has access to the same level of investment, opportunity, and care