To my knowledge, I am only one of two candidates that actually have children in our school system currently. I have a senior, a 7th grader and one in diapers, so I’m in this for the long haul. I get to see firsthand the struggles, stresses and drama (yes drama) that some of our children face. I would like to see parents more involved in the education of their children and not just relying on the teachers to provide the knowledge. I was a former Fire/EMS Instructor for NC, so I had a mix of students from all ages (18+) and backgrounds. I could see a difference in the way students learned because of the way they were brought up. The older generation seemed to have a better handle on things because back in the day, their parents were more involved in everyday learning. Now, parents are working 40+ hours a week to make ends meet, holding multiple jobs, using technology as a babysitter and are too exhausted to know what our children are doing for 7-10 hours a day at school. We as a society are treating our schools and educators like babysitters with no real interest in the everyday lives of our students. Lastly, a life experience that I would use is that I was bullied growing up. Even as a young adult, I found I got pushed around and that has made me a stronger adult. Now, I take a strong stand against those who prey on the weak.

Unfortunately, Watauga seems to always get lumped in with Wake, Mecklenburg or Orange Counties and folks think we all have the same issues. We are Watauga, we are different and we are a model system for NC. We are blessed to not be facing the national crises that so many NC counties are. We have to stay strong, stay vigilant and keep our guard up to prevent things from creeping in. As a firefighter, my job isn’t just putting out fires; it is preventing them from ever happening. That is the way I see our board, let’s keep the bad from ever happening. The one thing I would like to see, that I have a soft spot for, is retaining our school nurses and resource officers as part of our budget and not funded by grants. Grants can expire (can be renewed), but not always guaranteed. The fact that our nurses are critical to the wellbeing of our students and staff, but some have to constantly be worried about their funding, is wrong. If elected, I want to pursue options for permanent funding, not just grants. Call me crazy, but I feel like health and security should be high priority.

I do believe our board and commissioners work fairly well together and have the student’s best interest at heart. They have been able to build a wonderful new high school, provide upgrades and renovations where needed, and now we are patiently waiting on the new Valle Crucis School to open. In the near future, we will have to address a new Hardin Park, major renovations/additions to Parkway, as well as roof repairs for other schools and I’m sure other projects. With that said, the commissioners are already aware and beginning long range plans to support these matters. I do feel like we have a pretty good marriage between the commissioners and BOE and I’d like to keep it that way.

That is a loaded question! There are so many places I would like to see an increase that I couldn’t pick just one. Of course, I’d love to see educator salary increases, but I would also love to see free breakfast and lunches, school sponsored fieldtrips shouldn’t come out of individual school budgets, fully funded nurses and SRO’s (as mentioned in question 2), beefing up equipment in our trades classes at the high school, full time receptionists at every school, more funding for athletics so that students and parents do not have to raise support for every little thing they need. Honestly, the list is as long as my arm! When it comes to education, there will never be enough money for all the needs.

I do support SB 49 because it takes us back to the way educating our children should be. I particularly like 115C-76.35 because it lays out parental involvement and allows us as parents more say so. Most parents aren’t aware of this and I’d like to see this more publicized so they know they can get involved. I feel like this will help bring parents and teachers closer together too. There is a great divide currently between the two, with little communication between them. Growing up, if I done something wrong, my parents knew before I got home, and that was BEFORE email. It seems like the more options for communication we have, the less we use it. We need to get back to having open lines of communication between the adults and stop using the children as carrier pigeons.

I honestly had to look this one up because I’m not familiar with this organization. I do see what they stand for, but without diving extremely deep, I cannot say I support or oppose. I am very cautious about being affiliated with any group or organization, especially one that is less than three years old. I would have to say, looking at the date of formation; it was organized on the heels of Covid, so it was probably formed out of anger towards the government.

As a parent, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to attend BOE meetings to stay up to date. I would love to see WCS branch out a little and start holding meetings away from the central office and possibly hold a few in schools. Maybe on the west end we could combine schools and go to Cove Creek or the new Valle Crucis. I’d also like to see the BOE meetings live streamed and archived for the exact same reason. If a parent wants to attend, but time doesn’t allow, they could bring up the meeting online to watch. I would love to see more business support put towards our schools too. It seems like everyone “sponsors” or “supports” the college, but the focus needs to be on OUR kids and OUR community. Our students are neglected because the limelight is always on the college. Those students came here; our students are from here, so let’s lift up and encourage what’s ours.