Drys files for St. Mary's school board seat

There are three seats on the St. Mary’s County’s school board that are up for election in 2024. David C. Drys of Hollywood filed Feb. 7 for the District 4 seat.

The 45-year-old is a program manager for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency in Washington, D.C.

“Seeing that my background is in program management, budgets, complex problems, various stakeholders, I thought that with my background and with our integration into the public school system and my value of it … brings a unique aspect that may not be on the board and could be used in the situations that we see ourselves in as a county and on the school board,” he said.

Drys and his wife Wendy moved to St. Mary’s County from Richmond, Va., in 2004 where he was active duty U.S. Navy. The couple has two children, Kaydence and Trevor, both of whom are STEM Academy graduates.

“My goals would be to ensure that students are given every opportunity to succeed at whatever level they need to succeed at,” said Drys, who said he has dyslexia and whose mother was a special education teacher. “I grew up in a household understanding what it was like to be ‘less behind’ by the school system and not be prepared to go on to college and do those things everyone expects you to do. That’s kind of the mindset I bring that not everyone needs to go to college. There are plenty of jobs, trades, all of those things that don’t require a college degree. We as a society look at college as kind of that Grade 13, so being able to bring all the resources to bear and meet kids where they are rather than where we as a school system or as a county think they should be based on age and socio-economics and all of those things.”

Drys is running against Charles L. V. Carrington and incumbent Mary Washington. The top two vote getters in the nonpartisan May 14 primary election will face off in November’s general election.