Bethni Lee, candidate for Orange County Board of Education

Seven people are running in the May 17 primary to fill four seats on the nonpartisan Orange County Board of Education.

Homemaker and registered nurse Bethni Lee is running against incumbent board members Will Atherton and Sarah Smylie, and four other challengers, Penny Carter King, 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 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: Bethni Lee

Age: 44

Occupation: Homemaker, registered nurse

Education: Associate Of Science, Richard Bland College of William and Mary; Nursing Diploma, Southside Regional Medical Center School of Nursing

Political or civic experience: Prayers and Squares group, Walnut Grove United Methodist Church

Campaign website: bethniforocsboard.com

Who are your top three campaign contributors? Moms for Liberty

Why do you want to serve on the Orange County school board?

I feel parents have been ignored, especially special needs parents, as I have a daughter with Down syndrome. I want to be a voice for ALL parents, and assist our schools in returning to academic excellence.

What would be your three top priorities if elected? Choose one, and explain how you would address it.

▪ Returning trust

All of our issues as a county come down to trust. Parents no longer trust the schools, board, or administration. Teachers don’t trust the board to do the right thing by them. They do not feel appreciated.

I talk about trust because that’s the core problem within our schools. Teacher retention is a huge issue, and exit interviews show that they feel unappreciated, want to be heard, want master’s (degree) pay back, and even feel bullied by fellow teachers and punished by administrators for their own personal health decisions.

We also have tons of other issues such as student retention, budget concerns, overreaching policies, and violence within the schools. Parents no longer trust the board to listen to their concerns. Certain policies over the past several years are allowing the schools to hide certain information from parents, which again, goes straight back to lack of trust with our schools. The only way to fix this is to give everyone a voice and stop allowing our schools to make decisions about students without the parents.

The school system needs to remember that the taxpayers (parents) are their customers, and they are not being paid to sway children to accept a teacher’s views, ideology, sexuality, politics, etc. Schools are to learn facts. Parents are to teach subjective views.

What are the Orange County Schools doing right? What are they doing wrong or missing?

They are concentrating on everything else but what they should be concentrating on, which are the students and their education. I feel they have not understood that we, as taxpayers funding these schools, are their customers, so to speak. They have tuned us out. They have ignored the parents, the teachers, and have only been concerned with their opinions, not fact.

How should the board address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion among staff and students?

This is very simple. Stop separating people by color, and teach kids that every human being is different in many ways, but that we all have the same feelings, and to respect one another.

The continual narrative that people are treated differently based on color only makes people believe it’s true. People are literally segregating themselves in the name of racism based on the color of skin, not realizing that this is racist in itself. I have a Korean sister, adopted when she was 8 months old. I have a Filipino nephew, adopted by my sister several years ago. A cousin lost her son at 5 years old and began fostering kids. She’s since adopted two girls, one white and one Black. They all have the same opportunities.

Every single person needs to understand you have the opportunity to get ahead if you work hard. No one should get ahead solely based on skin color. The United States is a country full of opportunity if you work hard. All you have to do is look at the numerous millionaires of every single color and nationality in this country. No one color has it harder than any other. With the diversity in my family, I can tell you this as a fact.

This story was originally published April 24, 2022 at 2:12 PM.

Tammy Grubb

The News & Observer

919-829-8926

Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.