Four Republicans and five Democrats are vying for three open spots on the New Hanover County School Board. This week we profile three of the Democrats who will compete for votes during North Carolina’s March 15 primary election.
Chris Meek taught for 14 years within New Hanover County middle schools and four years within the county’s high school system. For the past two years he has taught at Northside High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina. His aim is to decrease the emphasis placed on standardized test taking and increase the level of critical thinking occurring in classrooms.
Sandra Leigh also brings a teacher’s perspective to her candidacy, with 42 years’ experience as a teacher and principal. Her top priority is to help the five county schools that received failing grades in the state’s new school grading system to recover.
The goal of James Jamison Jr., who is not a teacher but instead a community ambassador as a full-time reverend at a church on South 14th Street, across Greenfield Street from Houston Moore, is to represent and provide a voice for the needs of the lower socioeconomic class within New Hanover County.
Democratic candidates Kevin Spears and Emma Saunders did not return Lumina News’ calls as of press time. Saunders has more than 30 years’ experience as a teacher and administrator for New Hanover County Schools. Kevin Spears in the president of a local initiative to prevent youth gang involvement called Peace for the Port.
Chris Meek
As a 20-year public school teacher in New York and North Carolina, Meek has witnessed many students not fulfilling their potential because they were poor test takers.
One pupil, whom Meek described as a brilliant student, was even withdrawn from school because her test anxiety was so extreme.
“The psychological and emotional strain that these assessments have put on these kids all these years in the name of student achievement has done more harm to these kids than good,” he said.
Instead, he wants to help create a public school classroom environment that mimics that of charter schools like Cape Fear Center for Inquiry.
“They follow the inquiry model of learning,” Meek said, “where the students follow their interests in the classroom.”
Reducing schools’ overcrowding is another goal Meek would like to accomplish in office. But he would oppose the county’s proposed suspension center, he said, calling it a “dumping ground for students who cause trouble in the mainstream schools.”
While Meek acknowledged the state legislature is responsible for many of the education issues he’d like to change, he said if New Hanover County can lead by example, other counties could follow, affecting education statewide.
“I want people coming to us and saying, ‘What is New Hanover County doing that’s working? Let’s copy it.’”
Sandra Leigh
Leigh worked as a teacher and principal in San Francisco, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Hoke County, North Carolina, before retiring last year. This is the first time she has run for any public office.
Leigh’s primary goal is to help Rachel Freeman Elementary, Gregory School of Science, Math and Technology, Williston Middle School, Snipes Academy and D.C. Virgo raise the failing grades they received in North Carolina’s A-F school grading system.
She wants to create more socioeconomic diversity in neighborhood schools, but not simply by busing students from further away. She said the recent relocation of the Forest Hills language immersion program to the low-performing Gregory School was another method of creating more diversity, but the switch must be implemented properly.
During her teaching career she has seen similar special programs added to neighborhood schools to create integration and diversity, but if measures aren’t taken to place neighborhood students in the program, those students don’t actually benefit.
Leigh wants to require that one-fourth of the language immersion program’s kindergarten classes be students from Gregory’s district. Gregory parents should be educated about the benefits of their children speaking a language that those parents don’t speak themselves and options — like tutoring and homework clubs — should be established for students who won’t get homework help from their parents.
If such measures and careful monitoring aren’t taken, Leigh worried, “the program could be a failure. And that would be a shame.”
Rev. James Jamison Jr.
A more diverse school board is needed in order to represent a diverse school system, Jamison said. Jamison retired in 2015 from 11 years as a safety and security coordinator with the Wilmington Housing Authority.
Jamison said he could better represent the needs of the lower socioeconomic classes and different races because he can personally relate to their situations.
“I’m an African-American male, so I’m not thinking as an upper middle-class white guy. I’m thinking like a middle-class black guy who came from the projects,” he said.
The current members of the school board mean well, he said, but “they’ll say, ‘This might cost parents 15 cents or a quarter, and that’s not that much,’ whereas I come from a world where I knew $15 was a fortune, so when we make our decisions, I’ll bring that up.”
Jamison said he would also meet regularly with the community to listen to their needs and bring their requests back to the board.
Jamison’s other priority is making sure teachers don’t have to provide school supplies for their students.
“Teachers are supposed to teach,” he said, “not gather stuff to get ready for their class, it’s ridiculous.”
He already works to gather school supplies for teachers through his involvement with the Wilmington Ministerial Alliance, which this year compiled 1,000 book bags of supplies. Other organizations in the community do similar donation drives, so he wants to implement a system in which all the supplies are donated to a central location and teachers can come “one stop shop” for exactly what they need.
“It’s just a more efficient way to do what we’re already doing,” he said.
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