HAMLET — The Richmond County Board of Education has three open seats, which means two candidates won’t make it past Tuesday’s primary election.
The incumbents in the race are Jerry Ethridge, Chairman Wiley L. Mabe, and Ronald Tillman. The challengers are David L. McGuire and Connie Poole. The Board of Education is nonpartisan. See polling locations here.
Meet your candidates for Richmond County Board of Education:
Jerry Ethridge
• Education: Graduate of Southeastern University
• Profession: Taught school in the Richmond County School District from 1976 until retiring in 2012.
• Past elected office: Seeking his third term on the Board of Education
• Platform: Ethridge believes every student in Richmond County Schools should graduate from high school prepared for work, further education and citizenship, that every student should have a personalized education and that every student should have excellent educators. He also wants to work to ensure that Richmond County Schools has up-to-date financial, business and technological systems to serve its students, parents and educators.
Wiley L. Mabe
• Education: Ellerbe High School, B.S. in agricultural education, Master’s Degree in Education
• Profession: Taught vocational agriculture, now retired from a career in banking
• Past elected office: Running for his fourth term on the Board of Education, has been chairman of the board for eight years
• Platform: Mabe said he wants to continue progress made on improving graduation rates and attendance, and touted the dual-enrollment program with Richmond Community College that has allowed high school students to get a head start on their college education.
“We strive to improve the educational journal of our students, parents and staff each and every day,” Mabe said. “We’re always looking for ways to improve opportunities (for students and parents) to participate in the learning cycle.”
David McGuire
• Education: Earned a law degree
• Profession: Lawyer with McGuire Law Firm, previously an English teacher and has coached football, wrestling and baseball
• Past elected office: None
• Platform: McGuire said that if elected he would work to fix poor test scores at some of Richmond County’s schools by solving the core problem: the reading rate. He said that, “Our kids in this county are getting passed from grade to grade, and many of them can’t read at grade level. They get passed on and overlooked until they get to the high school, and then don’t perform very well on a bunch of tests in which they are required to read.”
McGuire believes children should be prepared to pursue their dreams when they leave school. He also wants to improve teacher working conditions to improve retention and stop penalizing students for pursuing college credit by not allowing those who do to participate in certain extracurricular activities.
Connie Poole
• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in sociology from UNC Pembroke, has nearly completed at degree in special education
• Profession: Has worked as a private tutor, substitute teacher, and mentor, as well as worked as a caregiver at Elmcroft in Southern Pines and at Monarch
• Past elected office: None
• Platform: Poole said she wants to work to provide more educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth and those with special needs. She said that bullying is also not being paid attention to enough, and correcting this will address the mental health issues in the school system. “We’re not doing a good job with that and children are falling through the cracks,” she said.
Poole also wants to see more home economics class bought back. “My only promise is that I care and I’ll sit down and listen,” she said.
Ronald Tillman
• Education: Richmond Senior High School, B.S. in human services from Wingate University
• Profession: Previously an in-school suspension counselor and athletic coach for Richmond County Schools, Behavioral Specialist at Samarkand Manor Juvenile Training School, now area consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Corrections and Juvenile Justice
• Past elected office: Running for second term on Board of Education
• Platform: Tillman wants to see smaller class sizes so students can get more individualized attention and supports investing in technology to give students a 21st century education. He said that the school system needs to improve teacher recruitment and retention, as well as hire more diverse staff to be more representative of the students they teach, which studies show contributes to student success. He also wants to provide support for students’ social, emotional and mental health needs with more specialized staff.
