
{"id":6708,"date":"2009-08-14T06:48:20","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T14:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2009-08-14T18:34:18","modified_gmt":"2009-08-15T02:34:18","slug":"school-board-election-a-crowded-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/08\/14\/school-board-election-a-crowded-field\/","title":{"rendered":"School board election a crowded field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Beth Mechum<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Seven candidates are running for three seats in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education election. Issues affecting the board of education this year include a tight budget, overseeing the expansion of the Carrboro High School arts wing, the construction of a new elementary school in the Northside neighborhood and the redistricting that will accompany the new school.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>The candidates<\/strong><br \/>\n(In order of filing)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Michelle (Shell) Brownstein<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michelle Brownstein, 43, has been on a number of boards, councils and committees related to the schools and she now wants to become more involved by running for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education.<\/p>\n<p>Brownstein formerly had a private practice in general surgery and is now a health care columnist for Chapel Hill Magazine and a freelance writer.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The inspiration to volunteer comes originally from my own kids, but all the work that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done is on a much broader scale, not specific to mine,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brownstein said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really want to advocate for the kids who are different.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Brownstein most particularly wants to advocate for children who have special needs, both those who are academically gifted and those with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Her affiliations include the N.C. Association for the Gifted and Talented and the N.C. Learning Disability Association.<br \/>\nIn her campaign, Brownstein wants to be as assessable to as many people as possible; she believes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to hear from parents and staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to let everybody know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested through the Internet, my website, a Facebook group, a politician page, and be available for forums,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brownstein said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I definitely want people to know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested in hearing from them; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s critical to get the vantage point of everyone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gary Wallach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gary Wallach, 66, ran for school board two years ago and was defeated by two incumbents. He said the same issues he felt were important in 2007 are still pressing in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the main things is that the district is good at listing and writing reports, but they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as strong at executing the plans they come up with,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wallach, a retired teacher. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to help the board focus on executing the things we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He said there are numerous areas in which the school could be doing better for its students, such as meeting the needs of children with disabilities and teacher training.<\/p>\n<p>The achievement gap should also be narrowed, Wallach said, especially in respect to African-American and Spanish-speaking students.<\/p>\n<p>Educational equity and teacher training are the primary points Wallach emphasizes on his blogspot campaign page from 2007. He intends to update his website and continue using it as a campaign tool in addition to finding different media platforms to express his views.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to use the Internet to keep in contact with various groups with similar interests I have,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MaryAnne Gucciardi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>MaryAnne Gucciardi, 46, has lived in Chapel Hill for three years after spending most of her adult life in Hong Kong and Italy. Her time abroad was a big factor in inspiring her to run for the Chapel-Hill Carrboro School Board, because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen, in different parts of the world, what works in education and what doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping children interested in learning will be one of her biggest priorities if elected.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested in all the new things that are out there \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 to engage our children that will keep them curious or get them curious about learning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gucciardi said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is just so much out there, and there are a lot of things there that we can bring here, and I bring that diverse global perspective.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Gucciardi is looking forward to campaigning. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s received campaign training at the N.C. Center for Women in Public Service, and is now putting that training to work.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Campaigning is a lot of fun because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a system of getting out and meeting people and hearing their concerns and issues and being able to synthesize those, and then represent the people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She plans to use all the traditional methods when it comes to campaigning, with a goal of meeting as many people as possible.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nJ.M. (Joe) Green<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Joe Green, 40, says his background in education as an assistant professor at UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s School of Education makes him want to lend his voice and experience to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education.<\/p>\n<p>Green is also the director of Upward Bound at the School of Education and is a member of the Sewell Elementary School PTA.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought it would be great to get involved,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Green said.  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really important to me that all students have access to education.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>One of Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s primary concerns is helping students transition from elementary school to middle school, then from middle school to high school.<\/p>\n<p>He said he plans to campaign in traditional ways, but also wants to utilize technology, and is in the process of working on a website.<\/p>\n<p> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to meet as many people as I can in the area, and dialogue with folks about what they think about the school board now and where they would like to see it go,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Green said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Greg McElveen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Greg McElveen, 52, joined the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education in December of 2008, replacing Pam Hemminger, who was elected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners. McElveen was selected unanimously by the board, which had to choose between seven applicants in November of last year.<\/p>\n<p>McElveen, a former manager at IBM, said his experience in the past year forming working relationships with members of the board and community will help him if he is elected to serve another term.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been valuable to be on the board during a time where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had these unprecedented budget challenges,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been such a difficult time in determining what our priorities are.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>When first selected to the board, McElveen wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t certain he would run for re-election, but said he still has an interest in helping students in Chapel Hill and Carrboro succeed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was fellow community members who really told me that I should apply in the first place,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McElveen said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153With my business background, I know how to make things happen, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m always attuned to what parents are thinking and what concerns they have, and people recognize that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Closing the achievement gap is one of McElveen major priorities. He said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen some important polices passed and sees it as his role to help move their implementation along.<\/p>\n<p>He plans to challenge those students who are doing well and those who are struggling by using innovative and creative tools, such as integrating music and art into regular curricula.<\/p>\n<p>McElveen will campaign primarily by meeting with members of the community and by getting the word out through email and mail to friends and community members.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Christine Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Christine Lee, 47, said her experience in the various facets of school improvement contributed to her decision to run for the board.<\/p>\n<p>Lee, an ophthalmologist, said that as a member of a number of school-improvement teams she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been impressed with how the board of education has handled budget restrictions, and she wants to make sure that level of success is maintained.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our board members have to be careful not to cut some of the programs that are important,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lee said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They need to be open and fair minded, creative and innovative in finding funding for programs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Bridging the gap between home and school is also a main priority, because she believes parental involvement is directly related to a student\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success at school. Her primary goal is for the school system to produce high-achieving students.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we need to empower all students with the necessary knowledge and skills to become active and contributing members in our global community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lee said.<\/p>\n<p>She plans to campaign mostly through her website and an email account set up especially for the election in order to get feedback from the public, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just getting started with the process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Susana Dancy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Susana Dancy, 40, said her desire to run for the board of education is an outcome of the time she spent trying to get the current board to place the Carrboro High School arts wing higher on its list of construction items.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I started attending school board meetings at that time to both become a voice for the arts wing and to become more aware of the process and how decisions are made and how things get done,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dancy said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the process of sitting through dozens of meetings, I became more aware of the issues that affect not just Carrboro High School but other schools in the district, in particular related to equity. So when three positions were available for the school board this year, I felt like I had something to contribute in terms of an awareness of what was going on and decisions being made at the school board level.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Dancy said there is an enormous degree of difference between the older school buildings and the newer ones in the district, and one of the issues she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most concerned about is getting the older buildings in comparable condition to the newer ones.<\/p>\n<p>Dancy plans to use a person-to-person campaign strategy to get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the word out about what I want to achieve.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Beth Mechum Staff Writer Seven candidates are running for three seats in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education election. Issues affecting the board of education this year include a tight budget, overseeing the expansion of the Carrboro High School arts wing, the construction of a new elementary school in the Northside neighborhood and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6715,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions\/6715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}