Meet the candidates: New Hanover County Board of Education
Eight candidates will vie for a spot on the New Hanover County Schools Board of Education this year.
The candidates – four Republicans and four Democrats – will face off for four open seats this November, currently held by Stefanie Adams, Nelson Beaulieu, Judy Justice and Pete Wildeboer.
Those candidates include three incumbents and five newcomers to the school board race.
The general election is scheduled for Nov. 8. Early voting begins Oct. 20 and lasts through Nov. 5.
Josie Barnhart
Age: 33
Occupation: former educator
Family: Married with three children
Education: Bachelor's degree in mathematics education with a minor in mathematics from the University of Central Florida
Political affiliation: Republican
Nelson Beaulieu
Age: 39
Occupation: Instructor of history and political science at Cape Fear Community College
Family: Married 18 years with two daughters attending New Hanover County Schools, ages 13 and 14
Education: Bachelor’s degree in organizational management, master’s degree in history, master’s degree in political science from American Military University
Political affiliation: Democrat
Pat Bradford
Age: 69
Occupation: Founder, owner, publisher and editor of Wrightsville Beach Magazine
Family: Bradford is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother
Education: Bachelor's degrees in teaching and communications from Appalachian State University
Political affiliation: Republican
Dorian Cromartie
Age: 31
Occupation: Longshoreman
Family: Did not provide
Education: Did not provide
Political affiliation: Democrat
Judy Justice
Age: 69
Occupation: Retired educator
Family: Two children, two grandchildren who attend New Hanover County Schools
Education: Bachelor's degrees in history and communications from UNCW, master's degree in school administration from UNCW
Political affiliation: Democrat
Melissa Mason
Age: 33
Occupation: Adjunct instructor at Cape Fear Community College
Family: Married
Education: Bachelor’s degree in speech-language pathology, master’s degree in deaf education
Political affiliation: Republican
Veronica McLaurin-Brown
Age: 72
Occupation: Retired educator
Family: Husband Carl, son Kenneth, stepdaughter Carla, stepson Ronald, and six grandchildren
Education: Bachelor’s degree in social studies from, master’s degree in education, supervision certificate from UNCW
Political affiliation: Democrat
Pete Wildeboer
Age: 60
Occupation: retired educator – principal, assistant principal, teacher, coach and athletic director
Family: No answer
Education: Bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in education from Springfield College, MSA from UNCW
Political affiliation: Republican
What are the top issues you want the board to focus on and why?
Barnhart: Parents and teachers should have access to quality curricula to support academic growth. We should provide pathways for career, college-bound, or military enlisted students after high school to improve student success. Consistency in discipline and expectations will create a safe learning environment, both at school and on the bus. We need to maintain school resource officers at every school, and have adult volunteers to help keep our schools safe. Lastly, I believe parents or guardians are allies in the school system and we should be encouraging parent involvement, giving access to curriculum to families, and allowing parents to make medical decisions for their child.
Beaulieu: The most important issues the board should focus on are addressing learning losses and helping our children heal from the toll the pandemic has taken. These kids have been through a lot of trauma resulting from the closures. They are still in the midst of the pandemic. They need a board that focuses on their mental and emotional well-being and on making sure they have the tools to graduate career and college ready. Pay is also a big issue and the board needs to build relationships with the people who can best address it: our county and state leaders.
Bradford: My top issues are parental rights, student physical and mental safety, and returning a focus to the four core subjects; reading, writing, mathematics and civics. Our school district is going in the wrong direction. The pendulum has swung too far away from what is most important and it must return. Each of these issues are essential to the education and advancement of NHCS students.
Cromartie: The issues I want the board to focus on are safe schools for all students; high expectations for excellence and achievement for all students; the encouragement and support of all learning styles; and opportunities for workforce preparation. I believe if these principles are followed, the students of New Hanover County will receive the quality, world-class education they deserve.
Justice: We need to provide resources to our schools such as good pay for our staff and good facilities for all students. Additionally, as a board we need to deal with the failed leadership at the top of NHCS. Our staff morale has hit rock bottom as a result of the ineffective leadership coming from the top of our district. Employees are leaving in record numbers. We need to correct the racial and economic segregation which is preventing equitable education opportunities, and we need to increase its support and protection of the many students who have been victims of sexual abuse and racial discrimination at the hands of NHCS staff.
Mason: Parent rights: parents have been disregarded through various policy changes. The policy manual must be revised to ensure parents have access to all information on their children. Safety: students have a right to be safe. Schools must be made safe. Kids living in fear don’t learn. We need more school resource officers and background checked volunteers. This will encourage positive behavior and strengthen community relationships. Restoring trust: parents have lost trust in district leadership. Thousands of students have left the district for schooling alternatives. The new administration must commit to transparency and responsiveness, and must be held accountable.
McLaurin-Brown: Children come first. We must ensure that every child at every school receives an excellent education. No “low performing” schools should exist in our resource rich county. We must attract and retain a highly qualified certified and classified staff by increasing pay, providing professional support, and creating a positive school culture and climate. The infrastructure of our school dist4rict, which includes our practices, policies and physical resources, must be improved to end disparities in student progress and achievement.
Wildeboer: The first is providing the very best education for our students every day. Thirteen schools with a D or F rating from the state is horrible and did not meet expected growth. We need to get back to basic education. Secondly, we need to keep our students safe. A year ago, we had a student shot on our school campus. We need to formulate a plan and goal to keep students safe. Thirdly, we have got to get the school board back to a functioning body whose primary purpose is to do what is best for educating our students. Our job is to educate our children, not to argue with each other.
What will you do to bring more cooperation between board members, as well as with the community?
Barnhart: Our board needs to work together to create intentional opportunities for success for all kids, regardless if a vote does not go their way. The board needs to collaborate more with the county commissioners to alleviate this ‘us versus them’ mentality. We have many families leaving for other educational options and high rates of state report card scores of D or F. Our focus needs to be adequately addressing learning loss with intentionality to the following categories: remediation, English as a second language, special education and academically gifted. Closing learning gaps and creating opportunities for our kids will help re-center and reunite our board’s goals.
Beaulieu: I think we need to begin and end with respect and start dialogue with the understanding that everyone on the board wants what is best for students. I’m comfortable with the fact that I am not an expert in everything and I value and listen to the expertise of other board members and staff. I will continue to do so. The problems that our students and staff face don’t care about the D or the R next to someone’s name and neither do I. I’m proud of having been able to build relationships across the political spectrum in this environment.
Bradford: We need monthly town hall meetings where students, parents, and taxpayers can freely express their views, and an interactive portal for students and parents to report issues. We need total transparency. We need decorum and respect. Some school board members exhibit dislike for each other, creating very contentious, lengthy and ineffective meetings. They lack self-control. Serving on the school board appears to be all about them, not all about the children. I know how to successfully maintain respectful relationships even when there are differing viewpoints. I will bring responsible leadership, coupled with a culture of excellence, to this board.
Cromartie: The board should follow Robert’s Rules of Order protocol during all meetings and require our attorney to ensure we are abiding by them. Board members should pledge to acknowledge that while we may have different views and opinions, each person’s input is important and is available for consideration.
Justice: We desperately need new leadership since our current leadership has become dysfunctional. We need new members who believe in accountability and transparency. I will happily work with people who support our public schools and who are willing to work with all other board members. There are currently some fine people on the board who I would like to continue working with to improve our district. I believe that the community overall is at this point aware of why this dysfunction is occurring and will have an opportunity to vote so that they can place knowledgeable and caring people on the board who want to work together for the betterment of all our students.
Mason: I will propose common sense solutions. There are many issues where the community has common ground: student safety, academic achievement, ending the use of seclusion rooms, etc. Although heated discussions may arise on certain topics, the board must always prioritize the interests of our children first. I will encourage members to put past resentments and political animosity aside. It is imperative that our school board maintain a level of decorum that is civil and respectful.
McLaurin-Brown: As a board member, I will listen, demonstrate civility, be transparent, follow through with my commitments, and work to build trust. Feedback is the engine of improvement and requires that all voices, especially those of students, are heard. I believe that if we continually ask ourselves if our actions are what is best for students and the district’s mission, we can successfully support our children and schools.
Wildeboer: I have tried to be the voice of reason on the board. Recently, I made a motion that passed to have a refresher on Robert’s Rules of Order. I don’t believe that this alone will improve the interactions of the board, but I do believe it is an important first step. I will continue to model respectful behavior for my colleagues and for the school system. I was instrumental in getting the town halls to better open communication between the board, parents and members of the community. I also try to visit every school each year to open lines of communication with another group of stakeholders, our teachers and staff.
How should the district address learning losses caused by COVID-19?
Barnhart: Parents and guardians should have access to the curriculum. When we empower families to be engaged with content then we are helping to eliminate barriers to supported learning at home. I believe the curriculum website is a positive addition. Staff should be empowered to collaborate with one another. The district should incentive highly effective teachers to record videos of lessons to add to the curriculum website for families to access at home. When we collaborate with one another we are providing all the opportunities that are needed for success. Staff who may need extra support could utilize these video clips in their classroom while being able to provide individualized intervention to specific students.
Beaulieu: It will take a collaborative effort. We need to work with our state funding partners to make sure they are aware of the growing needs. We need to make sure that our county continues its robust support of the school system as the pandemic fades to the background. We need to continue and strengthen our relationships with our community partners who provide essential wrap-around services to our students. Finally, we must maximize the time students get in front of their teachers. The challenges are enormous and it will take the entire community to ensure success.
Bradford: This is a huge issue; we must make sure it never happens again. To begin with, we should talk about these losses and take responsibility for the decisions made. We should implement free, easily accessible, high dosage tutoring that is tied back to what is being taught in the classroom. To accelerate recovery, we must reestablish a highly supportive school environment and stronger teacher-student relationships. We should examine what happened to the approximately $98 million in federal funds New Hanover County Schools received as COVID-related relief.
Cromartie: Summer school and after school programs need to be made accessible for all students. The board should attempt to minimize closings because of bad weather conditions. There may be an opportunity to have a longer workday for students if agreed upon by their parents. Holiday schedules should be adequate, but available for discussion if exceptional time is being lost for other reasons. Churches and nonprofits should be encouraged to offer programs for students who appear to need additional assistance in order to keep up with the pace of their lessons.
Justice: This is a worldwide, complex problem. All students were affected by the pandemic in a variety of ways, not just through learning loss but also because of the fear and isolation created by the pandemic. We need to keep supplying a supportive and nurturing environment for our students and most importantly meet them where they are, not where they would have been if not for the pandemic. We should support them academically, socially and emotionally and have patience. There are some things in life a lot more important than test scores.
Mason: This is an emergency. Students are two years behind academically and schools continue to push students forward when they’re not at satisfactory academic levels. Additionally, the district used a 50-100 grading scale that exacerbated learning loss. This grading policy set up kids and teachers for failure. Non-academic programs that excessively deplete our resources, such as SEL, need to be dropped. We need to go back to the basics. Children should not be guinea pics in an unproven educational experiment. If students fall behind in reading and math, they should receive tutoring, attend summer school, or be held back a year.
McLaurin-Brown: I believe we should remember that our children are resilient and adaptable and not broken. The “learning loss” that has been reported in the media refers to a decline in test scores, but we can’t forget other losses – family members, connections to friends and teachers, and for many, financial stability at home. It’s important that we focus on building trusting student-teacher relationships, continue teaching life skills that are important for mental wellness, and adapt teaching approaches and resources in the same manner we should be doing to ensure equity within our schools.
Wildeboer: As I previously mentioned, we need to have our teachers teach. That is what they do well. We need to have our counselors work with students who may need more emotional support. I have witnessed classrooms that spend many instructional hours teaching other topics besides the basics of education. We need that time to catch up.
What should be done to ensure students receive an equitable education regardless of what school they attend, race, disabilities, etc.?
Barnhart: The district should be looking at individual school improvement plans to make district-level decisions to support schools. The most frustrating thing to see is the financials do not add up. The least funded Elementary school is Ogden Elementary, which is about $10,000 per student, versus Rachel Freeman, which is about $17,000 per student. The money we are currently spending on students is not producing academic growth results. Ogden dropped to a “B” school, and Freeman is an “F”. I believe we should be re-evaluating our investments to ensure growth is happening for all students. Education opportunities transcend beyond any outward attribute. Let's work with our staff and parents to invest in quality programs that help learning.
Beaulieu: We made some gains with regards to socioeconomic diversity during the last redistricting. More needs to be done and there will be opportunities after we build two new elementary schools. We already give additional funding to certain schools based on need. However, equity is not something that can be achieved with more money or mere paper equality. That is why we have the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. I don’t have all the answers to issues surrounding equity, but I believe the first step is identifying a problem and enlisting the help of experts to fix it.
Bradford: All children should receive an equal education regardless of their race, address, or challenges they face. I want to investigate why some schools receive more funding per student than others. From the data I have seen provided by NHCS, the schools with low socioeconomic students receive far more funding per student. I want to understand that imbalance. We must also consider our district’s racial makeup statistics: greater New Hanover County’s three largest ethnic groups are white (77.1%), black (12.8%), and about 8% Hispanic/Latino. One race holds a significant majority. The school population is primarily 59.1% white, 17.5% black, 16.7% Hispanic/Latino.
Cromartie: The EDI Department should be fully funded, and policies and practices should be implemented to reflect what is best for each individual school to ensure all students, staff and families can be successful. There should be accommodations for those who learn differently and/or have physical issues. In each school, care should be taken that staff is aware that some students may come from differing situations and there may be a different approach to the methods of providing guidance to the educational process. Some schools may have more students who have English as a second language and may need special assistance.
Justice: We need to develop and implement effective methods to solve this ongoing problem across our district. The methodology is out there but it will be up to our leadership, including the school board, to research and implement solutions. For example, there have been many studies on the topic and the most effective method for reversing the current situation is to ensure a balanced socio-economic population in our schools. This is where targeted re-districting would be useful. Also, an increase in resources and high-quality experienced teachers would go a long way to assisting in improving the educational outcomes of students attending those schools.
Mason: Equity driven education models lack efficacy, as we saw when the superintendent and board changed the grading scale to 50-100 and then were compelled to change it back. The way to ensure that every child receives a world-class education is to adhere to sound academic instruction. We now know the teaching practices during the COVID shutdown left deep scars in our children’s development. Now is the time to discontinue experimental schooling rooted in equity, SEL and CRT. We need to return to the high standard education our parents and grandparents received.
McLaurin-Brown: Creating an environment in which all students – regardless of background, language, race, gender, learning capability, disability or family history – can receive a high-quality education should be our highest goal. While this requires teachers to adapt their instruction approach, it also means the district needs to manage how people, equipment, and funds are provided among classrooms. We should hold all students to high expectations – but we need to support them through data-driven planning and a respect for their diverse needs.
Wildeboer: As a former teacher, coach, athletic director, assistant principal and principal, the reason I first joined the Board of Education was simple – I saw the students and parents swarming out of New Hanover County Schools and coming to my school in Topsail. I wondered why, with all the advantages that NHC schools have, economically especially, and how I could help to fix this problem. I have been fighting an uphill battle to improve the education here in NHCS at every school but with the right support in the coming election, I can guarantee we can raise the bar and improve the education of our students.
Why should parents believe you are the best candidate to represent their families?
Barnhart: I am a candidate who started as an active, vocal, respectful, and questioning parent. I can take each situation that comes up as its own unique problem, and instead of yelling about it, I offer up a better solution. I am not running to serve on the board to jumpstart a political career but rather to help create the opportunities and pathways I want to see for my kids and figure out ways to incentivize, encourage, and support staff along the way. I am grateful for the people coming together to find better solutions and I intend to collaborate and implement better solutions if elected as a board member.
Beaulieu: As a board member, the prism through which I have viewed every problem is “what is best for our students.” I was the first and lone vote to get our kids back in school. I saw the damage caused by the closure and stood strong. I worked with the commissioners to raise pay from 27th to first in the state in a single year because good pay recruits and retains high quality teachers. I promise that that prism will continue as my guide in a second term. That is how I can best represent you and your family.
Bradford: I was trained as a teacher of children and have instructed many children and adults in a variety of curriculums. I am a mom and grandmother. My journey serving children began in 2006 when I was sworn in by the North Carolina courts as a child advocate. The court determined I was a good choice to speak for children. I’m a political outsider and small business owner bringing common sense and much-needed leadership to the school board. I have decades of real-world experience with the leadership needed to bring a culture of excellence to our county schools.
Cromartie: I believe I am the best candidate because I was educated in the New Hanover County Schools system when it was one of the best systems in the state and I know firsthand what a great school system should look like. I am energetic, disciplined and have lived around the world in the military and have seen what exceptional teaching and learning is. As a candidate, I believe families expect that their elected school board should use taxpayer dollars to implement a topnotch system. I am the person who wants to help make this happen.
Justice: I am a knowledgeable education professional who has worked at all levels of education, from a teacher to central office in several North Carolina districts. I also currently have children – my grandchildren who I have custody of – attending school in the district. My two oldest children attended NHCS from kindergarten to graduation. I taught in the district all during the 90s. This is my home and I will always fight for what is best for the education of all children. I believe my record over the last four years on the school board has proven that is what I will do, just as I have since first elected in 2018.
Mason: I have 17 successful years of experience as an educator, and I’m invested in this community. I’m a mother of two children that are enrolled in New Hanover County Schools. I volunteer in the school system and teach children at my church. My research over the past year has revealed many policies that continue to fail our kids and parents. All New Hanover students deserve a world-class education and are entitled to being physically safe while on school property. Parents have the right to make all medical and educational decisions for their children.
McLaurin-Brown: I’m both a parent and an educator with over 30 years of teaching and administration experience in this district. I believe that the school board should be accessible and responsive to teachers, parents, students and the community. For each policy and decision we make, we must ask, “Is this good for all of our children?” I am running to help provide a quality education that prepares all students to become life-long learners and engaged citizens.
Wildeboer: First, I am an experienced school board member, so there will be no learning curve. I am a parent of three New Hanover County students that all did well in schools throughout the district. I spent almost 20 years as a teacher and coached at Trask, Laney and Williston during my time with the district. I have seen the good and bad in three local counties – New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender. My wife is also a long-time educator who spent her entire career serving the students of New Hanover County. I have educated students from pre-k to early college and have always put the best education as my primary focus in all my decisions. It is all about educating our students.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Meet the candidates: New Hanover County Board of Education
