Five Republicans have put their names in as candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Education.
The race consists of one incumbent and 4 newcomers. The 5 might be up for election within the main, seeking to win a spot as one of 4 Republicans on the poll for the November normal election.
There are 4 seats on the college board open this fall, presently held by board member Stefanie Adams, Nelson Beaulieu, Judy Justice and Pete Wildeboer.
Primary elections are scheduled for May 17. One-Stop early voting will start Thursday, April 28.
Josie Barnhart
- Age: 33
- Occupation: Homemaker and former educator
- Family: Married with three youngsters
- Education: Bachelor’s diploma in arithmetic training with a minor in arithmetic from the University of Central Florida
- Political affiliation: Republican
Pat Bradford
- Age: 69
- Occupation: Current proprietor, writer and author for Wrightsville Beach Magazine
- Family: One son, one daughter-in-law, two grandchildren
- Education: Bachelor’s levels in educating and communication from Appalachian State University
- Political affiliation: Republican
Melissa Mason
- Age: Did not present
- Occupation: ASL Instructor at Cape Fear Community College
- Family: Married with two school-aged youngsters
- Education: Bachelor’s diploma in speech-language pathology, deaf research certificates, grasp’s diploma in deaf training
- Political affiliation: Republican
Chris Sutton
- Age: 33
- Occupation: Owns a industrial upkeep firm, manages rental properties
- Family: Married with two sons
- Education: Laney High School graduate; attended North Carolina State University to wrestle
- Political affiliation: Republican
Pete Wildeboer
- Age: 60
- Occupation: Retired educator – principal, assistant principal, trainer, coach and athletic director
- Family: No reply
- Education: Bachelor’s diploma and grasp’s of training from Springfield College, MSA from UNCW
- Political affiliation: Republican
What are the highest points you wish to deal with and why?
Barnhart: Our board is presently in a state of dysfunction. As board members, we have to restore scholar and employees accountability together with redirecting funding in our faculty system. Student accountability must be restored by altering again the grading system and sustaining self-discipline attendance. Teachers ought to be accountable to lecturers and high quality, unbiased educational educating. Currently, there’s a disconnect between the educating employees and choices made. We want to revive communication and respect whereas making an effort to shut the educational hole between college students and protecting educational efficiency a precedence. We want to revive accountability with our group to high quality, unbiased educating.
Bradford: One prime concern that I’ll deal with instantly is the nice loss of the lecturers, trainer’s assistants and the opposite employees from the college district. They have been denied a dwelling wage. The morale is horrible. Teachers are overworked, not revered, not heard. Parents haven’t any voice; they’ve been lower out of decisions for his or her youngsters. They should be given their voice again. Next, the difficulty of the loss of 1000’s of college students from the college district, that are being misplaced to dwelling, constitution & personal faculties and dropping out. Less college students means much less per-student funding.
Mason: We have to cease the grooming and abusing our youngsters and refocus on the fundamentals: studying, writing, and math. I’ll get rid of social-emotional studying (SEL), which sexualizes youngsters as younger as kindergarten age; fairness, variety and inclusion (EDI), which discriminates and segregates; and significant race idea (CRT), which teaches a false historical past and institutionalizes racial discord. Superintendent Foust must go, as do the EDI committee and EDI groups, for a begin. Showing youngsters pornography is unacceptable. Having summer time STEM applications which can be basically “no whites allowed” is unacceptable. A superintendent who recruits Sophic Solutions with discretionary funds and extends their contract behind closed doorways is unacceptable.
Sutton: Our proficiency price is simply too low. I wish to see removing of loopholes in coverage. I wish to work to increase blue collar work applications and function mannequin applications, to offer all employees a livable wage and lift morale, set up true constitutional priority within the district, and scale back the coed to trainer ratio. I additionally wish to work on redistricting because the final change was a failure, set up a system that identifies at-risk youngsters at a youthful age, and assist steer the district in direction of being proactive as a substitute of reactive.
Wildeboer: I might say my prime concern is giving the scholars of New Hanover County the perfect training attainable. We have to get again to the fundamentals of training. It is so vitally essential to contain our dad and mom, college students and educators all collectively to make this occur. A second concern can be security: protecting our college students protected from threats each internally and externally to allow them to deal with studying. My ultimate concern can be transparency and communication. Parents wish to know what’s going on on the faculties, and the way they will higher assist their little one to be the perfect they are often.
Why would you be a great candidate to signify the various constituents throughout the district?
Barnhart: Decisions made by management are solely nearly as good because the implementation. The imprecise route and lack of accountability on follow-through has been the most important disconnect with employees and our group. As a candidate and board member, I might be very clear in making certain a course of with tangible aims laid, so accountability might be met. We additionally have to obtain suggestions from our employees and households since it should fall on their shoulders to implement it. Everyone desires to assist our college students, however I don’t assist reducing requirements which solely provides the looks of serving to and finally works towards the purpose of high quality training.
Bradford: I’ve a long-term status in New Hanover County as an advocate for and useful resource to youngsters and their dad and mom/guardian. In 2006, after coaching and fingerprinting, I used to be sworn as a Guardian advert Litem for the New Hanover County’s Fifth District Court. The court docket decided that I used to be certified to face up for the rights of youngsters and to shepherd them by troubling instances. This started my 17-year journey serving youngsters, the unsheltered, the poor and all these with out a voice on this county, regardless of tradition or socioeconomic standing. I’ve seen first-hand what occurs when youngsters should not put first.
Mason: My profession is devoted to service. I’ve spent 17 years educating youngsters from kindergarten to school age. For 13 of these, I used to be a speech therapist, working primarily with English as a second language college students and college students with studying disabilities, and, I helped many lecturers and directors craft Individualized Education Plans. Now, I educate American Sign Language at Cape Fear Community College and Sunday faculty at LifePoint Church, and have witnessed the developmental injury lockdowns have finished. Additionally, I’m personally invested. Both my boys are NHCS college students. I’ll battle for the very best normal for all our college students, so all youngsters might obtain their highest potential.
Sutton: Wilmington is a melting pot not simply in ethnicity but in addition socioeconomic standing and I’m blessed to have supporters from all walks of life. From Landfall to Creekwood you can see individuals who wish to see me succeed and it comes all the way down to folks wanting their youngsters protected and their parental rights defended. I’m no politician, I’m only a lifetime native and father of two who desires to do proper by our group, and I really feel that’s what the folks need.
Wildeboer: I’m presently on the Board of Education and have spent my complete life educating, teaching and dealing as an administrator. I’m the dad or mum of three youngsters that have been all scholar athletes in NHCS, so I do know what issues dad and mom have as a result of I’m one. I’ve urged methods we are able to hear extra from our dad and mom, grandparents and different involved adults. We additionally wish to hear from our college students, our most essential stakeholders. As a trainer coach and athletic director in addition to administrator, I attempted to show each scholar, coach each athlete, and work with all dad and mom to assist the scholars, the lecturers, the groups, and the entire faculty system achieve success.
What has your involvement been with the college district and why did you determine to run for varsity board?
Barnhart: I vocally received concerned with our board when the conversations about having an in-person studying alternative have been going down. COVID protocols and inconsistencies precipitated quite a bit of stress on households and created an astronomical quantity of studying loss in educational progress. Not listening to conversations about educational progress precipitated me to turn out to be extra concerned in district choices. The extra I received concerned, the extra I discovered inconsistencies and gaps in insurance policies and resolution making for our college students. Students and employees ought to be supported and each ought to be accountable to educational progress whereas on the similar time respecting households.
Bradford: I’m not a politician, I’m a mother and a grandmother, plus a pal and mentor to youngsters not biologically my very own. I started attending faculty board conferences a 12 months in the past and was instantly alarmed by what I witnessed. Our present board management is failing our college students; they’re dysfunction and divisive. Students should not being ready for his or her futures. Proficiency in studying and math are low and dropping. Schools ought to be a protected place to be taught to learn, write and do math, to develop, to be glorious, to not be indoctrinated or groomed. Curriculum should be overhauled.
Mason: I usually have interaction with the college board at their conferences. I helped to disclose how the district promotes race-based segregation of college students at their Sophic Solutions Equity Summit and Summer STEM workshops. Recently, I make clear the Gender Support Plan not requiring parental consent. I watched as youngsters struggled to make progress by digital studying. I heard many tales of youngsters who have been afraid to take their masks off. As a mom, I knew it was time for me to step up and battle for all college students and oldsters throughout the district.
Sutton: Our faculty district has been plagued with pedophiles and coverups. Several years in the past, I started pushing to carry our leaders accountable that helped conceal the reality. I spotted a harsh actuality: there have been elected officers nonetheless making an attempt to comb every part beneath the rug for the “better good.” While lobbying for change, I received to see folks have their constitutional rights violated, lecturers get accosted, public information requests get deliberately manipulated to skew information, and so forth. I see an issue that’s solely getting worse and I really feel it’s my civic responsibility to try to assist be half of the answer.
Wildeboer: I used to be a trainer, coach and athletic director in New Hanover County Schools for nearly 20 years, then I went on to be an administrator in Brunswick County and in Pender County, the place I used to be the principal of the 12 months in 2013-14. When I retired in 2019, I nonetheless needed to assist and educate college students. I used to be approached by a bunch that urged I run for the Board of Education. I joined the Board of Education in 2020 and am working for re-election in 2022.
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