I believe in the public schools!  For us, opting out of the public schools was never an option we were comfortable with.  But, I have seen countless friends choose to send their kids to private schools, move to other districts within Darlington County or outside the county, move out of state, and homeschool their children because of the perceived and real concerns about the quality of education or safety of their children in our public schools.  I will never once question the decisions my friends have made for their families but I ask myself what do we need to do differently so fewer families make these choices.  What can we do to encourage full participation in our public schools so we can leverage the true diversity of our community to make us stronger?  I don't have all the answers but I know I will never be able to improve this without participating!  

I hope to encourage greater partnership between parents, teachers and administrators so teachers feel supported and parents feel welcome in our schools.  When we support each other, our children witness the power of a stronger community to encourage their success!  

​

I hope to support young teachers so we can encourage them to stay in this important profession for the long haul.  And, I hope to encourage our experienced teachers to stay with us through challenging times.  

​

I hope to grow myself and understand the challenges of our public schools with greater depth so I can effectively advocate for our county schools at the state level.

I am a parent of two children that have been through the Darlington County public schools - Washington Street Elementary, West Hartsville Elementary, Hartsville Middle School, the DCSD Virtual Academy and Mayo High School. We've witnessed challenges along the way for my children, their teachers, the school administrators.  Through these challenges, I've grown more and more compassion for everyone involved.  I've also grown more determined to find a way to support and improve our public schools.  I don't have all the answers but I'm willing to ask the hard questions that will allow us to better prepare our students for the future.  

First, we must immediately address teacher retention and recruitment.  We need to give teachers back instructional time, give them more freedom in their classroom, and respect them as the trained professionals that they are.  We need to evaluate each thing we ask teachers to do that is not directly instructional to our students and determine if we can do without it or can do it in a simpler way.  I'll start by listening to teachers to find out what time sinks they have that are keeping them from having more quality time with their students.  This will serve both our teachers and our students!

​

Second, we need to relieve our students and teachers of the burden of testing!  Our teachers and students spend far too much time testing and preparing for tests!  With limited time and the strong emphasis on test results, teachers will often resort to "teaching to the test".  Not only does this not serve to prepare our students with the critical thinking skills they need to be successful adults, it also frustrates and burns out our students and teachers alike. 

​

Next, we need to direct resources to our early foundational skills by adding teachers aids and additional resources to the elementary schools.  If students do not leave elementary school with a strong foundation in math, reading, and writing, they will become frustrated and lose their desire to learn during the more challenging years ahead.  This leads to bad behavior and burn out in both students and teachers!  In addition, we need to circle back and make sure the students that are behind on these skills due to covid get the additional resources they need to catch up. 

​

I realize that some of these challenges cannot be fully addressed by local school boards so I will advocate at the state level.  I will demand that the state properly fund our rural county, that they put in place policies that relieve the burden of red tape on our teachers, and they re-evaluate the way we use test scores to rank our schools.  I will ensure that our state officials are well educated themselves in the importance of our public schools and have visibility on the challenges and successes of our county's public school students and teachers!

Election day is November 8, 2022.  Early Voting will take place Monday through Saturday October 24, 2022 through November 5, 2022.  Find out more details on where to vote early at the Darlington County Elections website.