NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A retired teacher, Decmocrat Judy Justice is campaigning for one of three seats open in the 2024 race for the New Hanover County Schools Board of Education.
READ MORE: What to expect when voting in NC during the 2024 election season
Justice served from 2017 to 2021 on NHCS board and takes pride in helping lead the board during what she calls “a tough time.”
“When the multiple sexual assault scandals came out in 2018, I was the only one of the seven board members who demanded an investigation,” Justice said. “Also, when Covid hit, I helped keep three of our board members and our superintendent from bringing kids back to school during the height of the pandemic before the vaccines were available to our staff. It wasn’t easy because those three members and our superintendent had arranged, behind closed doors with a couple of our county commissioners, to do so by springing a vote on brand new board members the night they were sworn in. It took a lot of work and information from health officials, but we were able to keep the schools closed till the vaccines were available to all our staff. I know our actions saved the lives of staff, students and their family members. Those are just a few of my past actions as a previous board member that were not popular with some other members of the board or even public but were necessary to protect our students and staff. That is what leadership involves. Doing the right thing even when powerful people are pressuring you to do otherwise.”
The candidate faces off against fellow Democratic candidates Tim Merrick and Jerry Jones, as well as Republicans Natosha Tew, David Perry and Nikki Bascome.
| What Judy Justice is… • Listening to: Different audio books, podcasts or NPR • Watching: I watch Saturday Night Life, limited series like House of the Dragon, series like Abbot Elementary, but I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV although I do record and watch the Sunday Morning main networks political programs. • Reading: I recently finished “First they Came for the Schools” (non-fictions) and I am currently reading “All the Colors of the Dark” (fiction). • Name something about yourself that readers would be surprised to learn: Both my oldest children were born at home with the aid of midwives. I had my oldest son on a 460-acre ranch in Topanga, California, called the Summerhill Ranch, once the largest cattle ranch in LA County. My daughter was born on top of a mountain in Idyllwild, California with the midwives dressed in Halloween costumes (she was born one hour after midnight on Nov. 1). | |
Absentee ballots are already being mailed and early voting opens mid-October. Locations include:
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: What makes you right for the job?
Judy Justice: New Hanover County Schools is in a crisis state and needs the best possible people on the school board to lead this district back to “health.” I know I am one of the most qualified, if not the most qualified, for this office due to my professional and personal experience, including previously serving for four years on the school board. I have worked in education for over 30 years in a variety of programs and positions. I started my education career here in NHC as a social studies teacher at both Trask and Laney from 1989 till 1999. During that time, I was a parent to two kids who attended school in NHC from kindergarten through 12th grade. I also have had custody of my two grandchildren for the four years and they also are attending NHC schools or CFCC, so I know how NHCS operates from a parents perspective.
During the 1990’s I earned my MA in school administration and then worked for other school districts and nonprofits as a vice principal, principal, education director and a central office administrator. I returned to Wilmington in 2016, since I am originally from this area, to retire. Then I was elected to the school board in 2017 and helped lead our schools through some very tough times.
PCD: 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.
JJ: The main struggle of the NHCS district is providing the needed resources to hire the staff, repair and build our schools and transportation system and provide the training, equipment and programs needed to provide the quality education our students deserve. Since 2012, when the Republican party took over the NC state legislature, the legislature has been intentionally undermining our public schools so that the public believes they are failing. They are not. They lack the resources needed to provide the quality education all our studentsdeserve.
NC ranked 27 in the nation in 2012 for per-pupil expenditure in the U.S. when the Republicans took control of that body. We are now 49 in the nation. On top of that, the legislature has $7.2 billion in reserve funds that has been set aside over the last 12 years, a major part of which could have gone to our public schools. Because the Republican-controlled legislature has denied the school districts the proper funding.
Approximately 58% of a district’s budget comes from the state. The local school district’s counties must make up the difference, with 31% of a district’s budget coming from the local government and the remaining 11% coming from the federal government. NHC is the eighth wealthiest county in the state, yet according to a recent study by the Public School Forum of North Carolina, NHC ranks 83 in the state for its funding effort. Which means the county can and should do much better when contributing to our public schools’ cost.
On top of that, the county has access to $1.2 billion dollars through the hospital endowment fund created by the sale of the NHC hospital to Novant in 2021 and another $333 million, allotted to be used for immediate county needs. On the sales contract itself, signed by both the county commissioners and Novant hospital, the number one use of that money was for our public schools. And yet our county commissioners and the endowment itself, have ignored the very real needs of the NHCS district when it comes to using that money as it was promised. So my solution is that the voters will hopefully elect different people to our legislative body so some of the reserve funding that the state is “setting on” can be released while also appropriating the needed money to our public schools on an annual basis. Meanwhile the school board needs to work with and convince the county commissioners to increase the yearly per pupil allotment while also using the money from the hospital sale in the Asset Purchase Agreement, as had been promised to us at the time of sale, to also increase the funding for our local public schools.
As a professional educator and as a parent, before my retirement, I often wished that there were people on the local school boards who understood what is needed in our public schools and then would work for those “needs “so that our public schools would be successful. Instead, it was obvious that many school board members in most districts I lived or worked in were there to either advance themselves politically or to carry out their own, personal agendas.
Locally, the most recent school board’s decisions have been a disaster for our staff and students due to most members focusing on carrying out their narrow political agenda, instead of dealing with the real challenges facing our schools. I am running so that I can be that member that is there, first and foremost, to improve the quality of our school system for all students, not just the select few that most of the current board focuses on.
PCD: The district’s recent climate survey and town hall feedback shows 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?
JJ: My number one issue, which I have already gone into in detail, is to work with the other school board members, our new superintendent, our state legislators and our county commissioners to secure the needed resources through the various funding sources available, that our district needs, in order to turn it into the quality district our students deserve.
My second issue is a relative new one, due to our need to hire a new superintendent. We need an experienced, knowledgeable and successful superintendent if we want our district to thrive
I am also campaigning on the fact that our school board needs members like me that have the experience, in my case as an educator and community member, to make good decisions when it comes to policies and practices that will ensure that our students are successful. All board members also need experience in leadership positions and in working with others as a team. This is something I have decades of successfully doing in a variety of settings and which is necessary if the school board is to fulfill their mission of ensuring a quality education to all students in our public schools.
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?
JJ: My number-one priority is to ensure that we have proper staffing at all levels for all our schools. Without the “bodies” in the building students can’t learn properly and safety also becomes a problem. That is why we need more money from the county and state to hire those “resources.”
The next priority is the improvement of our current facilities and to work to build more, much needed facilities. The best way to ensure an effective budget-making process is to hire an experienced superintendent who has a proven track record of creating and managing budgets.
The second thing that is needed is budget information sessions that go into detail about how the budget is created and applied to our district. Something that Dr. Markley was surprisingly good at, while Dr. Foust was not. Also we as a board need to understand that we need to cultivate a strong relationship with the county commissioners in order to work together to supplement our district properly. We also need to actively lobby our elected officials at the legislative level in order to attain the needed state funding for all public schools.
Also there are some legal options both at the state and local level that have been ignored by our school board in the past that need to be used in order to provide all our children with the sound, basic education guaranteed to all students in the NC Constitution.
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?
JJ: There are several reasons our staff are leaving in record numbers. To put it simply, they are overworked, underpaid and disrespected by both the school board, our past superintendent and some members of our community. I plan to help hire a competent superintendent with a track record of working well with staff, work with other board members to help them all realize the importance of supporting our staff instead of constantly blaming them falsely of a variety of behaviors, and I plan to heavily lobby our state legislators and county commissioners for the funding needed to properly support our staff through increased pay and working conditions. But most of all, I will listen to all our staffs concerns and always work to resolve any issues they may be encountering.
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?
JJ: The district is not doing enough to support our employee’s honest feedback. In fact, the staff have good reason to fear retaliation. This has been a problem in NHCS since I started working here in the late 1980s. Even as a board member, I tried to protect staff who spoke out but the district leadership at the time, both members on the board and the superintendent, were retaliating against our staff because that was part of the culture of the district.
In fact, I, myself, was retaliated against by at least three board members and the superintendent for fighting for our staff, students and for providing proper oversight of Dr. Foust. They took a minor, usually overlooked simple mistake I made, that many people do on a regular basis, and publicly “censured me” to shut me up like they do to the staff. This type of negative behavior, this culture of intimidation and revenge, needs to stop. Our current board has only increased the practice and caused even more of our hard-working and sacrificing staff to leave the district.
The best way to change this culture is to hire a superintendent who is known for their positive relation with all staff members, the school board and the community. We also need to elect people like me to the board who respect our staff and who will work with the current members to stop the practice of retaliation.
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?
JJ: Of all the people running for a seat, and of all the people currently on the board, I am the only one who has been through the process of selecting a superintendent. I am also the only one who has worked extensively with a variety of superintendents, both as a teacher, school administrator and central office administrator, in ours and other districts. Both good and bad. Because of my years of professional experience, I know what it takes to be a good if not excellent superintendent.
This is probably the most important decision that any school board can make when it comes to the success of a school district. We will be working with the NC School Board Association who do an excellent job of pre-screening and sending us a very extensive list of qualified candidates. Our job then will be to work together in a very systematic process to find the best candidate to be our next superintendent according to their educational background, job performance and leadership abilities. Politics should have no part in the process. In fact, over the decades of working with many superintendents, I recognize that the best superintendents are the ones that focus on their professional role as district education leader. They do not insert politics at all into a district’s operation.
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?
JJ: Our current facilities department has an extensive list of what our district needs, and they are prioritized, according to cost and overall importance. We need a lot! Including at least one new middle school and a possible ninth grade center. A couple of our elementary schools are also in desperate need of remodeling, especially due to safety concerns. The best way to get the funding is to request a bond from the public but to first petition the county commissioners for funding from the hospital sale monies.
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.
JJ: We need more staff! For wrap around services like student behavior supports and guidance counselors. Social workers to work with families and students. Of course, we also need more teachers and TA’s for smaller class sizes. That staff needs more training when it comes to student discipline techniques using proven methods such as conscience discipline. All of this takes resource money and again we need to petition the county commissioners for more funding and constantly put pressure on our legislative members to increase state funding to realistic levels.
Read more about where Judy Justice stands on issues from Port City Daily’s primary Q&A here.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
