Sarah Smylie, candidate for Orange County Board of Education
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Candidates for Orange County Board of Education
Who are the candidates running for the Orange County Board of Education? At least two new members will be elected to replace retiring board members Hillary MacKenzie and Brenda Stephens. Get to know your candidates with our Voter Guide.
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Seven people are running in the May 17 primary to fill four seats on the nonpartisan Orange County Board of Education.
Incumbent school board member Sarah Smylie is running against incumbent board member Will Atherton and five challengers, Penny Carter King, Bethni Lee, Anne Purcell, André Richmond and Ashley Wheeler.
An eighth candidate, Garfield “Garen” McClure, will appear on the ballot, but told The News & Observer that he was dropping out of the race on March 14.
Board member Hillary MacKenzie and board Vice Chair Brenda Stephens, whose terms end this year, are not seeking reelection.
Early voting in the primary begins April 28 and runs through May 14.
To find polling places and full details on early voting, visit co.orange.nc.us/1720/Elections or contact the Board of Elections at 919-245-2350 or vote@orangecountync.gov.
Name: Sarah Smylie
Age: 45
Occupation: Talent strategy advisor
Education: Bachelor’s degree in public policy and American institutions, Brown University; master’s degree in public administration, Syracuse University; certificate in education finance, Georgetown University
Political or civic experience: School board member since 2018; chair, Finance and Student Achievement committees; board representative, Orange County Climate Council and Family Success Alliance Advisory Council; helped create Orange County’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading; active member, St. Matthew’s Episcopal; former school volunteer and School Improvement Team member.
Campaign website: www.sarahsmylie.org
Who are your top three campaign contributors? Mia Rosenthal, Sarah Zink, Deanna Jones
Why do you want to serve on the Orange County school board?
I am running to ensure that the school board maintains its focused commitment to creating excellent, equitable, inclusive schools. We’ve laid a foundation for substantial progress, and now we need consistent leadership to build momentum for success together. This district has had too many pivots in direction over the past 10 years. Big academic growth takes sustained teams working together over time. OCS is committed to excellence AND equity, and if we keep at it, we can really see progress on both fronts. We need a board that’s deeply committed to both.
What would be your three top priorities if elected? Choose one, and explain how you would address it.
As a board member, my focus is on ensuring OCS becomes a place where:
1) Every student gets what they need to excel academically and thrive personally
2) Every teacher and staff member experiences a positive, supportive, collaborative workplace
3) Every family is embraced as a real partner in their children’s education
As we tackle each of these areas, it is absolutely essential that we consistently aim for equity (getting each student/staff/family member what they need to succeed — addressing gaps) and inclusion (ensuring everyone is valued and belongs).
To share how I would address one of these above, I’ll pick #2: Given shortages, educators have many options, and I want OCS to be the best place to work in the state of North Carolina! Our staff have been through so much, and we’ve got to take care of them so they can be their best for kids.
▪ What teachers are asking for most is a supportive school and district culture, more voice and involvement in decision-making, and more time to collaborate and plan. Every one of these things are really important — not just for staff culture and retention, but also for our collective success for kids. I’m committed to making them happen through partnership and problem-solving with district staff and involving teachers themselves in problem-solving.
▪ Our students should see themselves reflected in our educators. Increasing the racial diversity of our teachers is essential. We’ve made some progress in the past couple of years through a host of efforts, including most successfully a “grow your own” TA-to-Teacher program, but we need to see much more progress. As a talent professional in my day job, I can tell you that OCS is already doing most of the best practices in recruiting diverse talent. Next, I’d like us to focus on getting even more effective at each of those strategies, and to explore innovative ideas similar to Durham’s DREAM partnership with UNC. We’ve also got to build an inclusive, supportive climate so our colleagues of color choose to stay in OCS year after year.
▪ We also need to be competitive on salary. Our current budget request to the county commissioners starts on this, with: 1) Fixing the teacher salary supplement so that a veteran teacher coming from another district gets paid for their total years of experience, rather than paid at the level of a starting teacher. 2) A request to restore master’s pay. 3) A comprehensive funding plan to make salaries for hourly staff (TAs, custodians, etc) competitive and allow them to progress over time. Currently, some staff in these roles are paid the same amount in their first or 15th year in a role, and that’s not acceptable. We also need to increase our teacher salary supplement to be more competitive with neighboring districts, and that’s something I’d like us to aggressively pursue next year.
▪ Finally, teachers can focus on teaching when there are robust resources and supports in a school (from social workers and counselors to TAs and math and literacy coaches). While traditionally OCS is thought of as a better-resourced district on several of these fronts, we should do a deep accounting to understand how these investments stack up in OCS vs. other districts, and what else is needed. There is no doubt that more investments here would help, especially after the state cuts several years ago! As a board, we should also continue to advocate for the state to fund the Leandro Plan, through which OCS stands to gain millions of dollars of support in areas like these. Last year I brought a resolution to the board to urge the state to fully fund Leandro, which was passed unanimously. Adding our voice to other districts across the state is another advocacy role a school board can play.
What are the Orange County Schools doing right? What are they doing wrong or missing?
What’s going well?
▪ Academics: This year’s midyear academic results in reading and math have some impressive bright spots that show our students are regaining ground! Almost half of the kindergartners who came in below grade level were caught up by midyear. Almost every grade, K-8, saw students moving up in math at a faster rate than national averages. The hard work of our teachers, and investments like adding math coaches, are really paying off.
▪ Equity: While so much remains to be done, the district has come a long way in the last four years in terms of acknowledging the persistent inequities that exist — particularly for Black and Latinx students, low-income students, and students with disabilities — and has deepened its commitment to do something about it in concrete ways, by: passing an equity policy; hiring a chief equity officer to lead the work and a superintendent with deep commitment and a track record of improving academic outcomes for marginalized students; developing an equity plan, and equity teams in the schools; and more.
▪ Belonging: We’ve begun taking steps to make OCS more inclusive — a place where everyone belongs. We’ve improved language in the dress code, and introduced gender support guidelines. We’ve expanded the number of schools that have bilingual staff in their front office. We’ve got family liaisons reaching out and helping schools build relationships with families across language and culture barriers. We created a policy to support lactating employees and guarantee the space they need. We’re starting to measure students’ sense of belonging and safety in school, so schools can take action when they see opportunities to improve.
▪ Continuous Improvement: We’re building a focus on continuous improvement. In the past couple of years, we’ve taken a hard, honest look at some of our biggest challenges, to better understand where we need to improve and how — for example, deep looks at our academic results, our approach to literacy, our staff climate and culture, and longstanding compensation stagnation for classified staff. Holding up a mirror for ourselves is crucial to getting better together.
What needs to be improved?
In each of the areas above, we’re only at the start of the improvement journey! There is still so much progress to see. Right now, I am especially concerned about making improvements in these areas:
▪ Academics: Our teachers are working so hard to grow their students, and we’re seeing exciting progress in some areas, as I mentioned, but there’s so far to go — not only to recover to previous levels, but for OCS students to excel at greater heights. This is the ultimate area for improvement and focus.
▪ Equity and Belonging: While we’ve laid strong foundations, mentioned above, and the current board has a strong commitment, we haven’t yet seen the outcomes we need to see. The impacts of the pandemic made some of these disparities even greater. We have got to stay focused, continue building, and through that continuous work see real change for our students who are experiencing the disparities. Those changed experiences for kids are what matter.
▪ Student Well-Being: I’m very concerned about student well-being. You’ve got to be OK in order to learn. Our students are experiencing increased emotional and mental health challenges, and this shows up at school. They need more supports, and stronger ties to their school community.
▪ Staff Member Well-Being/Supports/Culture: I spoke about this quite a bit in a previous answer, but we have got to take care of our staff, and give them what they need to thrive and be successful. I see opportunities for us to increase staff partnership in decision-making, and to strengthen our culture and community as a district. There is absolutely a need to strengthen our supportive, collaborative culture and improve the staff experience.
▪ Family Partnership: We need to improve how we communicate with families — more simply, fewer messages — and we need to get better at meaningful partnership with families so they can help their students to grow and succeed academically.
How should the board address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion among staff and students?
These are very important commitments to me — we cannot truly be a successful school district unless everybody is successful (equity), and everybody is represented (diversity) and included (inclusion).
The most important thing is for every board member to demonstrate a clear commitment to making OCS more equitable and inclusive — as well as to value the diversity of our families’ experiences and support action to increase the diversity of our staff through recruitment and retention. The district relies on the board for overarching direction — administrators, teachers, and staff follow our lead — so it is crucial for board members to be vocal about their fundamental, deep commitment to more equitable and inclusive schools. And then it’s important to support district actions and investments that prioritize these areas.
Our Policy 1030 — Equity in Education — lays out much of what the board is committed to doing already. The board should make sure that we are taking each of these actions consistently.
We should also: set clear goals related to equitable outcomes, staff diversity, etc.; look for advice from groups like the equity task force and the schools’ equity teams; talk to students to understand their experiences (and families, and staff — whoever is most impacted); disaggregate data every time so we can discuss differences in outcomes/experiences; invest where investments are needed; and be humbly honest about where we need to improve and then focused in how we make continual improvements.
This story was originally published April 24, 2022 at 3:14 PM.
