School board races are increasingly in the national spotlight as hot button political issues surface in education policy debates.
In Transylvania County, the school board is the focus of many voters, as a long awaited and sprawling school repair project is set to begin in November.
In early September, the six candidates for Transylvania County School Board took the stage at a candidate’s forum hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce.
David Borman, Greg Cochran, Sara Green , Ruth Harris , Claudia Hawkins and Ricky Lambert are vying for three seats to govern the county’s school system which serves about 3,200 students.
BPR livestreamed the entire forum. Watch the school board portion here.
And check out some highlights from the event:
BOND FUNDING
In 2018, the majority of voters approved a $68 million school bond. The moderator asked candidates about their intentions for the facility needs and bond funding in the future.
Borman challenged the lack of collaboration between the county, who controls the funding for the district and the school board.
“I think we're stuck in a pattern where the school board and the County Commission don't really like one another and have no interest in talking with one another. They seem to spend most of their time talking at one another.”
Cochran attributed the slow rollout of the bonds on the expansion of the plans for school repairs.
“It's just that the money's been spread out to fix issues that's been coming up over the past decades at some of our schools- -nine schools when you divide that money up – that don't go as far as what you'd think it would.”
Green identified “broken relationships” between the school board and county commissioners.
“We have these unmet needs and I want to sit at that table with the County Commissioners and I want to figure this out together.”
Harris noted that the project was “overcome by events” like rising construction costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that revising the plan to go towards actual maintenance of more of the schools was a wise decision and it did take a while to get all of those tasks identified.”
Hawkins called some of the spending a “waste of taxpayer money” since some buildings that are scheduled to be repaired will soon be obsolete.
“The school board didn't start out by saying how do we offer the best education for our students in the future? We have to look forward 20 or 30 years.”
Lambert said capital projects should be used for new school buildings.
“I’d like to stop building so many other buildings in the county and start building some schools, too. The last school was built 30 years ago.”
HIGH SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION
Event organizers asked about the consolidation of the area’s two high schools, and while there is no proposal in front of board members, the declining enrollment at Rosman High has been a topic of conversation for years.
Borman said more information is needed to make a determination about consolidation.
“I don't think we really understand what we mean by consolidation. We don't even really understand what would start that conversation in the first place. So I think what we have to do is really come to a grounding about when we need to even start having this conversation.”
Cochran said the issue of consolidation does not address some of the core challenges of the system.
“About 800 kids could be in county schools and public schools, but instead they're in other schools either homeschooling or or different things. So what are we doing so wrong that we're losing so many of our students? We gotta figure that out and we gotta fix that.”
Green said consolidation shouldn’t be the first option for the school board, but wants to get more information from staff, parents and the community.
“School is the center of a community. It's the heart of a community. I don't want to see that culture swept out from under anyone. So I really think that it is possible for us to have meaningful conversations that do collect the evidence that we can decide what's best for everyone.”
Harris said the district should be focused on how to get students back to public schools from private and charter schools.
“We need to figure out. How to get the students back that have left. I know that there is a decrease, probably in people moving in with young kids because of affordable housing.”
Hawkins said more data is needed, even though she believes growth in student population is unlikely.
“We know that the teacher pipeline is shrinking. We have an impending group of teachers…that are retiring. How are we going to have enough teachers to teach those classes if we've spread our students so thin that we have small classes?”
Lambert said that he was initially in favor of consolidation, but he feared that consolidation could cause a loss of community.
“My biggest fear is if we do consolidate we're going to lose that sense of community.”
KEEPING TEACHERS IN THE COUNTY
On the state and national level, teacher turnover is at a critical level. However, according to a recent report on the 2021-2022 school year, Transylvania’s teacher mobility rates – which measure teachers leaving for another state – were among the lowest in North Carolina. Still, moderators asked the candidates about possible strategies to retain quality educators.
Borman drew a connection between school repairs and teacher retention.
“How do we make sure that we reduce teacher turnover? Well, let's fix the schools first. Let's make sure they don't work in unsafe environments so that they don't have concerns about their students.”
Cochran identified affordable housing and better pay as possible tools for recruitment and retention.
“I have heard a plan that I thought was really good is to take some of these old buildings around here and turn them into housing and make it toward teachers having the first choice to be able to go into these. Another thing of course is raising teacher pay.”
A teacher herself, Green said teachers are spread too thin, and doing too many jobs at once when their focus should be on educating.
“A fully staffed school is not a fully resourced school. Our teachers are so spread thin they're being asked to do the jobs of two and three people.”
Harris said artificial intelligence could be leveraged to help teachers complete tasks.
“Having been a former engineer and working in the area of AI,. I can tell you that there are tools here today and coming down the pike that will give teachers personal time back. They will cut down on the amount of paperwork and the amount of time it takes to design lesson plans. There's all kinds of time savings that they can get if we provide them with the right tools.”
Hawkins said county-level work is important, but voters should also pay attention to state-level decision-making which heavily influences school systems.
“I would encourage all of you to elect people that will support public schools and will support our public school teachers because we can only do so much at the county level, and they are pushing all that responsibility down on the counties. We don't have the money to make up the difference.”
Lambert identified teacher compensation as a top issue for the county.
“You can't make what a starting teacher makes and live in Transylvania County.”
MENTAL HEALTH IN THE CLASSROOM
Mental health challenges can have a major impact on educational approaches. Moderators asked candidates how the school system might better support the mental health needs of Transylvania County students.
Along with counselors, schools should have an employee to connect students and families to mental health resources outside of schools, Berman said.
“One solution would be to have someone in our school system whose job it is to put people in those positions where they can find a resource whether it's in the schools or in the community.”
Addressing mental health issues requires a community approach, according to Cochran.
“We just need to be able to reach out again and help each other. The counselors certainly are important and they're there to try to fix things but it's almost like it's a Band-Aid approach. It's got to go so much deeper than just what the counselors in the schools have the resources and the time to do.”
Green said changes in disciplinary policies and actions could help address mental health needs.
“I believe that behaviors are just a red flag for some kind of unmet need that's happening, and if we're able to view behavior in that lens rather than through punitive discipline, that has been traditionally the way we manage behaviors in schools. I think that would help a lot with our mental health crisis that we're dealing with now.”
Harris cited the limitations of technological communication, such as cell phones, and the loss of face-to-face interactions as a negative factor in mental health.
“I believe that there's a lot of research showing that mental health does not improve when you give cell phones to especially kids that are under the age of 16. So we need to take a look at what needs to happen in terms of giving kids more time interacting with their peers.”
Hawkins said the county should fund counselors in every school.
“The County Commission did not support funding those and instead slapped the hands of the school board and said that was not inappropriate use of ESSER (Elementary School and Secondary Education) funds.”
Lambert stressed a community approach to mental health, including assistance from institutions outside of schools.
“Mental health is not just a student issue. It's a personal issue. It's a societal issue. And to me one of the first things we need to do, as someone that believes in God, we need to be back in our churches.”
PARENTS BILL OF RIGHTS
The controversial “Parents Bill of Rights” law was a measure by the Republican-led state legislature, over the veto of Gov. Roy Cooper, requiring notification of parents about students’ pronoun changes. The law also prohibits discussion of gender identity, sexual activity, or sexuality in grades K-4. Opponents likened it to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” measure, and school boards have struggled with implementation of the law at the county level.
Borman said he opposes the measure.
“I think that the bill serves to just give permission for people to harass educators. I don't think that's really what we need in our community. I honestly don't think we need more division.”
Cochran said he supports the effort.
“The districts are by law forced to create policies to help parents to get more involved and what is wrong with that. Shouldn't parents already be involved without being told that they have to be involved?”
Green said parents should be involved in their child’s schooling but that the legislation is unnecessary.
“I feel like there is a dissatisfaction across our culture with public school, and I think that this may have been the origin or the rising up of why the Parents Bill of Rights came to fruition.”
Harris encouraged parents to be involved in their child’s education, telling them to be “partners” in the classroom.
“I believe that especially the provision that requires schools to have a plan for how they're going to engage parents. Engaging parents is the single most important thing in achievement for kids.”
Hawkins called the bill a “solution in search of a problem.”
“I find it interesting when we talk about parents' rights. We never talked about parents responsibilities. With rights come responsibilities. We've had all kinds of things to try to get parents into the schools with their children and build that sense of community and comfort.”
Lambert said he supports the measure, noting that his support does not imply a criticism of teachers.
“I think we have a great group of teachers that really work hard and do things the right way and I don't think the Parents Bill of Rights is directed in any way, shape or form toward our teachers.”
