Cooper set to challenge for school board; incunbents file for CCS

Dec. 12—Filings are continuing this week, and on Monday afternoon, Sampson local Patrick Cooper entered the pool of emerging candidates — aiming to fill one of the vacating spots on the Clinton City Schools Board of Education.

In the coming year, three seats will be up for grabs on the city school board, as the terms of Dr. Linda Strickland-Brunson, Dr. Oscar Rodriguez and Jeremy Edgerton all expire in June 2024. Of those three, as of filing Tuesday, Strickland-Brunson and Rodriguez have filed to seek reelection. Cooper is vying to claim one of three vacating seats as a challenger.

"Any one of those three is fine with me," he said.

As a lifelong Sampsonian and graduate of the Clinton City Schools system, Cooper put his hat in the ring for the Board of Education as a way to give back to the community he loves.

"One of the main reasons for me filing, being that I'm from Clinton, Sampson County and I graduated from Clinton High School back in 1989, I always loved our community, love our school system and I just always wanted to find a way to give back to our community," said Cooper.

"I've had two children that came up through the system already, a son and a daughter and I have grandchildren that are now in the system, in middle school and at Sunset," Copper continued. "So I'm just kind of, in my life right now, at a place when my wife and I are empty-nesters. I also just started pastoring a church here in Clinton and so really I'm looking for an opportunity to give back to the community and get plugged into the community."

Cooper highlighted that he admires the work that the CCS system has done and continues to achieve. In talking about what his goal will be should he be elected to the board, reaching more underserved students is a top priority.

"I definitely see there's always a need for improvement," he said. "Our school system does a great job and outstanding job with the resources they have available. I just want to be a contributor in trying to support that system and encourage it in whatever way I can to help make further advancements and improvements. Especially touching the underserved kids within our community."

"I think really because of the pandemic, because of various things, a lot of underserved kids, they're still trying to play catch-up," he said. "I had an opportunity to actually provide invocation at a school board meeting not too long ago and during that I was able to listen in. I got to really hear some of the teachers' great plans that they have, in order to try to help those who are right there on the edge of success with their testing and things like that."

It was while hearing those plans that Cooper's main goal, should he be elected, started to form. His focus, bridging the gap between parent and school.

"In listening to that meeting, the question came to mind, because they had some solutions for doing things after school, but I didn't really hear a conversation about plugging the parents in — I mean, really getting the parents involved in it," Cooper stated. "Of course, I understand some parents are busy, they're tired, unfortunately, some might not have an interest. But, there are parents that would love to know more on the idea of how can I help my child to succeed."

"I really want to encourage that school-parent relationship to be developed even more to help strengthen our community," Cooper added. "I think we just need to strengthen community and bridge as many gaps as we can. That way, our students can be as successful as they can in school and be able to go on and be contributors in our community and in our society as well."

Cooper is a 1995 graduate of Fayetteville State University where he received a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in management. In his professional career, he's employed by a data storage company called NetApp, where he's a support account manager. He's been with the company for nearly 13 years.

Cooper is the pastor at St. Jude United Holy Church in Clinton, where he's been for a year, and also pastors a church in Wilmington, which he's done the past 11 years. He's been married to the love of his life and high school sweetheart, Felesica Cooper, for 29 years. She is a nurse at the Duplin County Health Department.

"I have two sons, one daughter and I have two grandchildren — well actually it's three grandchildren now, because my son got married and he's got a daughter now," Cooper said with a chuckle, "and one on the way."

In his final remarks, Cooper reiterated his goals and reasoning for filing, letting the community know what he wants to accomplish should they choose to elect him.

"I know it's an old saying, but I just really believe in this, because I guess my upbringing taught me that it was necessary and that's, 'it takes a village,'" he said. "I just really believe that connecting the schools, with the community and the community with the schools, if we can get that to work effectively. It's going to close some gaps and I'm all about over-communicating which the school system does a great job of — communicating, but again, there's always room for improvement with that."

"I just really want to see our kids thrive; our teachers, I want them happy, to see them thrive and to challenge them to be at their best," Cooper added. "So just collaboration, communication and really just working together to make our school system one of the lead school systems in North Carolina — that's my aim."

Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.