NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Tim Merrick is one of six candidates vying for one of three seats on New Hanover County Schools Board of Education.
READ MORE: What to expect when voting in NC during the 2024 election season
A Democratic candidate, he faces Republican challengers Natosha Tew, Nikki Bascome and David Perry, as well as candidates from his own party, Jerry Jones and Judy Justice.
Merrick is a retired chiropractor and semi-retired consultant. This will be the first time he has sought public office in New Hanover County.
“My upbringing as the child of educators taught me the value of public education and to respect every child’s inherent worth and right to opportunity in this society,” he said. “When Proud Boys were attending board meetings to intimidate the public, I knew I had to become involved. And when the board started banning books, I committed to changing the culture of our schools. As a certified executive coach, with an extensive history of serving on nonprofit boards, I have the skills to work with others around contentious issues to get things done.”
| What Tim Merrick is… • Listening to: I enjoy the birdsong from my back deck and the sound of the waves when my wife can convince me to take a break from campaigning and walk down to the beach. • Watching: I don’t watch TV much, but my last “guilty TV” was “The Umbrella Academy.” • Reading: Fiction: John Irving, Richard Russo; non-fiction: Neuroscience of trauma | |
Absentee ballots are already being mailed and early voting opens mid-October. Locations include:
- Carolina Beach Town Hall, 1121 N. Lake Boulevard
- CFCC Downtown Campus, Health Sciences Building, 415 N. Second St.
- Future NHC Board of Elections, 226 Government Dr.
- Northeast Regional Library, David Poynter Room, 1241 Military Cutoff Rd.
- NHC Senior Resource Center, Multipurpose Room, 2222 S. College Rd.
Voters will be able to cast ballots at any of the above places and even register to vote beforehand on Oct. 17-18, Oct. 21-25, Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 8 a.m. – 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 19-20 and Oct. 26-27, noon – 5 p.m., and Nov. 2, 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Election Day is Nov. 5, with polls opening at 6:30 a.m. and closing at 7:30 p.m. All voters will have to go to their precinct to cast a ballot, as shown on their voter registry.
An ID must be presented to cast a ballot in the election. Acceptable forms of ID include NC drivers license or state ID, U.S. passport, college or student university ID, some state employee IDs and out-of-state drivers license or ID, as long as voter registration was done within 90 days of the election. IDs not in good standing can be expired by one year or less.
Port City Daily has compiled candidate questionnaires so voters can read up on contenders’ stances before heading to the polls this election season. All answers have been edited only for clarity; the candidates’ opinions and statements are not a reflection of Port City Daily.
The paywall is dropped on profiles to help voters make informed decisions ahead of the election.
Port City Daily: Name an issue you struggle to find a solution for that affects your district and how have/would you go about determining a path forward? If you have a personal anecdote to share that has helped guide you in deciding how to move forward, please, share.
Tim Merrick: Each NHC School, at one time, had far more balanced populations in terms of race and economic status. But with the advent of “neighborhood schools,” we now have tremendous imbalances. Busing has been the solution in the past, but there is little support for this across the racial and economic spectra. Creating magnet schools to promote voluntary integration has had limited success, despite overwhelming evidence that diversity in schools helps improve test scores as well as preparing students for life outside of their neighborhood.
If we are to keep neighborhood schools, we must provide far more teacher’s aides, and mental health professionals to offset the impact of adverse childhood experiences, or ACES (which include abuse, neglect, divorce, exposure to alcohol and drug abuse, or imprisoned family members, etc.) which are more prevalent in schools of lower income families. While Title I schools — those with a high percentage of low-income students — receive additional resources from the Federal government, test scores suggest we aren’t adequately responding to the needs of those students.
Community non-profit involvement, parental interactions, adult volunteers, and mental health practitioners all produce beneficial effects that can counteract ACES. The Turnaround Taskforce hatched by Stephanie Walker and others has produced excellent data and ideas for school improvement.
PCD: The district’s recent climate survey and town hall feedback show many teachers are requesting a separation of politics from the classroom. Can you talk about three issues you’re campaigning on and what evidence you’ve gathered to indicate this need for change?
Tim Merrick: The issues I’ve prioritized are support for our teachers, safe learning environments, and prioritizing spending on student-facing positions.
Board politics has had a chilling effect on teachers as they’ve been handcuffed in what they can teach in policy 7205. This policy closely mirrors a proposed policy from the Republican US House of Representatives and a Republican Florida education law that was shot down in court. Its vague wording leaves teachers self-censoring the topics they teach for fear of district reprisal.
The politics behind changes in policies 3200 and 7300 that limit what can be displayed in classrooms likewise have no benefit for our children’s education and are unnecessarily restrictive to teachers as there is an inherent threat of reprisal.
The physical safety of our students and our teachers requires more adults in the schools. The Republican-led state legislature affords less funding per student than nearly every state in the country. This leads to larger class sizes and more safety issues. Our Republican-led county commissioners just voted to pass a budget that left our schools far short of even last year’s funding levels.
The board’s focus needs to shift to securing resources that put more adults in our school buildings, and treating educators as professionals. I’d like to see a more robust district-wide volunteer recruitment and training program to place volunteers where they are most needed. This could be facilitated through a universal PTA program that also shares resources across the district.
Understaffing schools not only impacts physical safety, but also leads to higher incidences of bullying, stress, and students falling farther behind academically. There is a serious mental health crisis in schools across the country, yet instead of adequate counselors in our schools, our legislators prioritize vouchers for the ultra-wealthy.
PCD: What are your priorities when it comes to the school board’s oversight of the budget and how would you improve upon the budget-making process?
Tim Merrick: The board fails to utilize the strategic plan to drive both policy and budgeting decisions. For example, the board commissioned an impact study yet did not ensure that the study’s data was integrated into a clear, specific plan with estimated costs to present to county commissioners. On top of that, they don’t engage in the process until late in the game.
They do not liaise adequately with county commissioners or even the superintendent. I watched as the superintendent sometimes brought vague information and at other times overwhelmed them with data that left them reacting rather than driving the process. Instead of getting on top of the budget early, the board forced through a political agenda while neglecting real, tangible problems that impact the day-to-day operations of our schools and the education of our students.
PCD: NHCS’ attrition rate has increased in recent years; the most recent data shows an increase by 3 percentage points to 12%, which is higher than the state average. What do you think has caused attrition to rise and what is your plan for retaining staff within NHCS?
Tim Merrick: Last year, 15.4% of our teachers quit. Some positions were back-filled to end up with that 12% figure. The morale in our schools is quite low. The board’s politics mentioned above are a part of it. The recent school climate survey showed that only 14% of teachers felt free to express opinions without fear of retaliation from district leadership or the board. This fear was validated during the recent town hall, created purportedly to allow teachers to express concerns. Following the town hall, multiple teachers were called in to HR for expressing those opinions, underscoring that teachers’ fears of reprisal are justified.
Educators want to be treated as professionals, paid like professionals, and be provided the resources necessary to teach. They do not want restrictive board policies, constant pressure to improve test scores, scripted curricula, or fear of reprisal if they speak out. Part of treating teachers as professions is prioritizing and valuing their experiential knowledge and feedback of what is happening in our schools.
We must create bottom-up communication channels, not just top-down regulation from people who are not in our schools daily. The climate survey also showed that the vast majority of staff believe the board is out of touch and doesn’t know what happens in our schools. I’d like to see an educators’ advisory panel that attends board meetings to offer immediate feedback on the impact and practical implementation of decisions that affect our classrooms. Our board members also need to spend real time in classrooms to understand what our teachers are dealing with, and not just to check a box. While the board has what they call “teacher voice” at their meetings, it is curated more from optics than to truly learn what teachers need.
PCD: The district held a town hall meeting with employees in August where staff were asked to give their honest feedback on superintendent qualities, student behavior and district climate. WHQR recently reported an employee was referred to HR for their comments made at the town hall and this employee sees the referral as proof of district retaliation — something addressed in the climate survey this year as to why people don’t speak out. Do you think the board and NHCS is doing enough to support employees’ honest feedback? What would you do to mend this relationship?
Tim Merrick: Clearly our teachers’ fears are justified. The district and the board seem to prioritize optics over improvement; they spend more time talking than listening. If they did listen to our educators more, they might pass policies that would help our students and our classrooms.
The board’s job is to hire a superintendent and hold them accountable. In the case of the recent town hall, the district and the board both failed our educators. The board wanted to check a box on “listening” to educators. It was disingenuous.
If they really honored the perspective of our educators, they would pass a policy that holds them harmless when their perspectives are conveyed internally. The opposite of what is written in policy 7205.
PCD: As the district searches for a superintendent, what will you evaluate candidates on to ensure the best hire for the district? Many are concerned about politics also playing into this hire; how will you maintain a bi-partisan approach in finding the best candidate?
Tim Merrick: I want to understand a how the next superintendent will create budgets and how they will collaborate with staff. But I also want to know what their methodological approach to teaching is. While we have made strides this year in EOG scores, these do not fully reflect quality of education. How will he or she grant latitude for teachers’ methods or will the new superintendent insist on scripted and paced curricula? How will they address the literacy gaps created when we moved to having neighborhood schools? What experience do they have in turning around performance at Title I schools? Additionally, how will the next superintendent deal with safety issues? Handle the nuances of cellphone usage?
As to bi-partisan collaboration, I’m hopeful that the board will be interested in thoroughly vetting our next superintendent, and prioritize their experience and qualifications over their political motivations. We witnessed the difficulty of hiring a legal firm based on politics. The firm’s inexperience and poor performance led to its eventual dismissal. I’m hopeful the board learned a valuable lesson there.
I’m also hopeful that the community will speak up at the ballot box this election and the board will work to reflect voters’ choices.
PCD: NHCS has a list of much-needed capital projects, especially for the aging New Hanover High School. Capital funding from county commissioners is tight, which has implications on student safety, overcrowding and academic success. As a board member, how would you prioritize capital funding among types of projects and among schools with limited funds? Do you support a bond to pay for some of these bigger capital needs?
Tim Merrick: Generally speaking, it’s the state’s job to pay for teachers and operating expenses while the county is responsible for our school buildings. Because the state legislature’s allotments for teachers is so terribly low, the county has helped to augment salaries as well as hiring nurses. But they have done so by trading against their role in providing adequate buildings.
It’s important to note that the county’s per pupil expenditure is about half the national average for local funding. We do need to help the commissioners expand their role in our schools’ success. While the county enjoys a $350-million fund from the hospital sale, it is impractical to think we can address the capital needs of our schools without a bond.
We need to look at how much deferred maintenance has cost our county. We need to look at the priority of safety in our schools. And we need the county commission to share the burden of our concerns.
PCD: Educators have reported more behavioral issues since the Covid-19 pandemic and cellphone use as concerning issues cited by middle- and high-school teachers. Can you outline steps you would take to address student discipline needs in the district and any ideas or plans you think are worth exploring to reduce student discipline complaints?
Tim Merrick: The loss of teachers and aides has created overcrowded classrooms. Teachers lack time and assistance to deal with behavior problems as teachable moments. Students become trapped in a punitive model of management. While school suspensions can certainly be warranted, turning kids into the streets isn’t the answer to correcting behavior. We need more adults in our schools as well as more parental and community involvement.
Communities in Schools “CLASS” program is great for students that have been suspended, but we also need to intercede sooner. We have an urgent need for more mental health professionals. We need intermediate steps before suspensions that can only happen with adequate staffing.
There is promise in new programs like “Leader in Me” that is starting at Snipes. Collaborating with non-profits is key to improving parental and community involvement as well as sharing the burden of funding such programs.
We have real, structural issues to be addressed by our School Board. We have schools like NHHS in terrible disrepair. We have behavior and safety issues to address. We have underfunded and overcrowded classrooms. We have a teacher exodus due to low morale and pay. We have staggering literacy gaps between different schools and too many students overall who cannot read at grade level. These are the issues we need to address. We have wasted far too much time banning books, flags, symbols, artwork, and photographs. We have wasted time arguing about the word “equity.” It’s time to put politics aside and get back to ensuring a quality education for our kids.
PCD: Name something about yourself that readers would be surprised to learn.
Tim Merrick: While I have a post graduate degree, and have enjoyed a highly successful professional life, I am also autistic. Many people don’t understand autism, and the gifts and the challenges it presents. I’ve learned a lot about the need of school children to feel they “belong,” through my study of neurology, my personal experiences, and from parenting two “differently abled” sons.
[Ed. note: The article has been updated to reflect it’s the first time Merrick has run for office in the county — not overall. He has run for public office elsewhere, as noted during his primary Q&A.]
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