New Hanover County commissioner, school board candidates address key issues during UNCW forums

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners and Board of Education gathered at the University of North Carolina Wilmington on Wednesday night for two separate forums ahead of the November election.

The candidates answered questions about some of the biggest issues facing the county and school district, including development, education funding, school safety and the proposed replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

Both boards could see significant changes following the election, with two county commission seats up for grabs and potentially as many as five new school board members.

County commissioner candidates discuss tolling, development and education

Five candidates are competing for two seats on the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners: Republican candidate Richard Collier, Republican and current Commissioner LeAnn Pierce, Democrat candidate LaShonda Wallace, Democrat and current Commissioner Rob Zapple and Libertarian candidate Bob Drach.

During the forum, candidates addressed several issues.

Zapple spoke about oversight of the sheriff’s office: “Hold them accountable, hold the sheriff accountable for the materials they’re buying and what they use their money for is important.”

Pierce addressed overdevelopment: “That’s something that’s a priority to me is our parks and our open space and I think that goes right back to infrastructure and how we can do the right things by our citizens.”

And Collier discussed how the homeless problem could be worked on: “I think we should continue in some ways to support our partners that are out there, the nonprofits. That’s what their business is, they have the people, they have the professionals, they have the mental health folks.”

One of the topics discussed was whether tolls should be used to help fund a replacement for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

When asked whether they supported tolling, Collier, Pierce, Wallace, and Zapple all said they opposed it.

Drach was the only candidate who expressed support for tolls. He did not elaborate on his position.

Drach was also the only candidate who said he opposed placing future restrictions on data centers.

“Any of you who don’t want data centers, put your phones down, lock them up, don’t use them. That’s, that’s where we are now. The question is with both surveillance and with data centers is how do we do it responsibly?” Drach said.

Education was another major focus of the discussion.

All five candidates expressed support for education and the proposed school bond, while Wallace emphasized the need for additional resources for school nurses.

“I believe that we should have a school nurse in every school so of course school resources could be used for that,” Wallace said.

School board candidates address funding, teacher retention and book challenges

Following the county commissioner forum, eight candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Education participated in a separate discussion about issues facing the school district.

Those eight candidates are Republican and current board member Josie Barnhart, Republican and current board member Pat Bradford, Democratic candidate Wendy Dale, Republican candidate Amy Dunning, Democratic candidate Margie Gewirtzman, Democratic candidate Jerry Jones, Democratic candidate Brittnei LaRue and Republican candidate Chris Sutton.

One of the most significant items on this year’s ballot is a proposed $320 million school bond, which would help fund new schools and improvements to existing facilities throughout the district.

All eight school board candidates expressed support for the bond.

However, candidates offered differing perspectives on several other issues, including teacher retention, compensation, and how school funding should be allocated.

Despite a teacher pay increase included in the state’s new budget, several candidates emphasized the importance of providing competitive salaries and additional resources to retain experienced educators.

“With those years of experience comes so much knowledge and years of going through professional development to keep up their license and these teachers should be paid for that,” Dunning said.

Another candidate highlighted the importance of funding programs beyond traditional classroom instruction.

“Funding is so important. In order to run our schools, we need money. In order for us to keep mental health in our schools, we need money, we need money for our orchestra, for our arts,” Gewirtzman said.

“I’d like to have eyes on what we are already doing so as far as where dollars are coming from from different organizations and how is that contributing to any initiatives that we are already doing for different strategic goals that we have in our plan,” LaRue said.

“If we’ve gone through the process, we’ve looked at how to make something culturally relevant to the school and place and we’ve come to the decision or conclusion, that we need to look for additional funding resources in order to make that happen, then we make that happen,” Jones said.

Other candidates discussed the need to review existing spending and explore additional funding sources to support district initiatives.

The discussion also turned to challenges involving books in classrooms and school libraries.

One candidate addressed criticism surrounding the school board’s handling of book challenges.

“In four years, our board has dealt with one book challenge. We have this label that’s thrown around and I hate labels that it’s a book banning board,” Bradford said.

Another candidate expressed concern about political disagreements affecting the district’s educational priorities.

“I believe that the community as a whole wants us to focus on giving a quality education and improving success pathways and not dealing with creating a political war inside of our school district,” Sutton said.

The discussion also included concerns about how parents’ complaints are handled.

“So I absolutely think that there should be a process in place when parents have a concern about their kids to be fairly don. That was not given to me or my family,” Barnhart said.

Student food insecurity also addressed

School board candidate Wendy Dale brought attention to food insecurity among students, emphasizing the importance of ensuring children have access to meals without facing stigma.

“That we reduce the stigma associated with having to identify kids who receive public assistance and its just a good thing to make sure that all of our kids are feed. It’s just a very basic thing,” Dale said.

Dale was also asked about her not being endorsed by the New Hanover County Democratic Party after past misdemeanor charges caused issues.

“My views are not significantly different from the other Democrats that are running. I was fully transparent with the party from day one,” she said in response.

Despite differing opinions on several issues, all 13 candidates who participated in Wednesday’s forums expressed support for the proposed $320 million school bond.

School board member Tim Merrick faces County Commissioner Dane Scalise for NC Senate. If Merrick wins, 5 school board seats would be open, while if Scalise wins, 3 commission seats would need to be filled.

UNCW will host another candidate forum Monday, Oct. 12, at the Burney Center. That event will feature candidates for the North Carolina General Assembly representing New Hanover County and the state’s 7th Congressional District.