Meet the CMS school board candidates for District 6

There are three candidates running in District 6. Sean Strain is the incumbent.

Sean Strain (Republican): Strain is the incumbent in this race. He, sometimes accompanied by Rhonda Cheek, was often the lone dissenting vote on many CMS issues including masks, COVID-19 protocols and financial budgeting choices. His platform includes strengthening neighborhood schools, offering stronger magnet and option schools, budget accountability and diversity. Strain has gotten into online clashes with members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Teachers regarding his stances on student outcomes, COVID-19 and equity in schools. 

WATCH STRAIN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Michael Watson (Democrat): Watson is a CMS parent and the PTA Vice President of Events at Polo Ridge Elementary School. His platforms include school safety, administrators & teacher retention, diversity and restoring trust in CMS. Watson said it's his personal goal to develop solutions that are measurable and scalable. Here's what Watson said when he answered WCNC Charlotte's questionnaire.

WATCH WATSON'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Summer Nunn (Democrat): Nunn is a CMS parent who serves on the school parent leadership committee. Her platforms include closing the equity gap, student outcomes, the CMS budget and retaining teachers. Nunn, who has elementary-aged children, believes her direct involvement in CMS as a parent will help inform board decisions in real time. Nunn, an executive leader in the Charlotte area, also wants to utilize her experience in hiring to recruit the next superintendent of schools and teachers. Here's what Nunn said when she answered WCNC Charlotte's questionnaire.

WATCH NUNN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

You can stream WCNC Charlotte on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, just download the free app.

WCNC Charlotte Education Reporter Shamarria Morrison interviewed each candidate running for the school board about their positions on a number of critical topics facing education. Each candidate was given up to 16 minutes to respond to questions regarding the following topics: School safety, the CMS superintendent search, teacher and staff retention and CMS achievement scores.

WCNC Charlotte asked the following questions of each candidate:

School Safety

• In 2021, CMS had a record number of guns found in the first half of the school year. In response, the board directed the superintendent to make changes. The most front-facing included almost 10 million in weapons detectors, and more than $400,000 on clear backpacks. As of Sept 26, CMS reported no guns found on campuses this year. What other moves does CMS need to make to continue to make school safer? NOTE: After we concluded all but one of our interviews (Steven Rushing) we learned one gun was found at Julius Chambers High School
• An ATF report shows the number of bomb threats targeted at schools has increased more than two-fold from 2019-2021. In 2022, Every Town Search tracked at least 113 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 41 deaths and 82 injuries nationally. Who has the answers to stop school gun violence and how would you utilize their resources? 

CMS Superintendent Search

• CMS will start its superintendent search and interviews in earnest after the November elections. For the past decade, the district has had trouble keeping anyone in the top position for more than 3 years. What do you attribute to the superintendent turnover and how will you change this on the board?
• What is the one important question you’ll be asking the next superintendent of CMS schools and what is the answer you want from them to consider them for the job? 

Teacher and Staff Retention

• As of Sept 22, CMS is still searching for more than 350 teachers to fill classrooms. Although the district has current stop gaps to fill these positions like, guest teachers, funding will run out for them. What is in board control to increase teacher and staff retention? 
• In February 2022, WCNC reported at that time about 11% or just over 1,000 of CMS’s teaching staff had retired or resigned. Common reasons we heard for them leaving was pay, morale, school culture, and workload. What is a culture issue CMS is facing and how will you work to fix this? 

CMS Achievement Scores

• WCNC compared four area districts' performance grades to CMS. The schools we compared were Catawba, Union County, Gaston, Cabarrus and CMS. CMS’s grade level proficiency scores were towards the bottom of the batch, but the district growth scores are towards the top. What should parents take away from CMS’s performance scores? 
• On a statewide level, traditional public schools on average had higher grade-level proficiency scores than charter schools. WCNC analyzed area charter schools and CMS’s proficiency levels for Black and Hispanic students. The charter schools had higher proficiency levels for these students than CMS. The number of charter school enrolments for students in North Carolina has increased over the last five years according to the Department of education. How do you keep Black and Hispanic students in traditional public schools when some would argue for decades traditional public school has failed them?

WATCH ALL THE CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS HERE

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Sean Strain: Yeah, so bringing the evolved body scanners in as both a preventative and a deterrent was very significant. And that doesn't solve the issue of the culture of the schools, because it doesn't change the behavior and conduct of students, in terms of it being a safe school in every possible respect. So it's easy and tragic when we're measuring guns identified on campus. Safety does not end at whether there's a gun on the campus or not. Safety comes in so many different forms. And it's critical that we address all of those, by way of addressing our educational environment in the schoolhouse. Again, I think addressing this, the educational environment, is where we have to be. And that's about setting expectations, you'll hear a theme through these answers, because I think it is so core to what we do and who we are in terms of setting high expectations for conduct and behavior for respect for individuals and self. And so from that perspective, the way that you address the core issues around the educational environment, and the safety associated with it, is by setting those expectations of each of our students and holding them to account. The issue is broad. And once again, it is down to the culture of our communities. So how do we engage the community leaders, we use to talk about communities being led by elders, where are the elders speaking out against this and really driving the cultural change that's necessary to respect life in every form, every facet, all the time. And, and that is an issue that we're facing as a society globally. And so we're not going to solve it by just looking at schools, we have to engage locally, with each of our community partners, both governmental and non governmental, to drive a narrative that says we expect more of our youth. And we're going to enable and empower them to be all that they can be in every way, shape and form. And that's going to start once again, with respect for your peers and yourself.

WATCH STRAIN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Michael Watson: Yeah. So I think that the moves that were made with the exception of the backpacks, there wasn't something I would support. But I think the moves that were made with the with the NoVo scanners are great. I think what we should do is really looked to our community for support. You know, CMS is a school district, but we have business partners that handle large security, and are much more effective in deploying security systems. I think the scanner idea came from the Panthers. So I think if we look to our partners and say, Hey, how can we improve here, you know, zero guns, you know, that's, that's, that's cause for celebration. But I think there's still other issues, drugs on school grounds and things of that nature that we can address. But I was I would suggest we look to our business partners and not try to, you know, micromanage too many issues. Just look to our community for support. Yeah, we've got to have accountability in our communities. So if you think about the the triangulation of perfect school system, it's the school system, it's the parents, the community, and then it's our business partners. So you know, this issue leads to community and accountability. No, the gun violence and violence in general, usually permeates outside of the walls of the school, but we have to have the right lines of communication. So that, you know, as a school system as a school board, we understand what's going on the community know how to address it before it becomes a problem at the school level. And, you know, again, businesses should also be involved in this in some way, shape or form, right, because they are also the beneficiary of what happens in the school and what happens in our communities. I would say, you know, accountability at the community level would be my primary target for that.

WATCH WATSON'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Summer Nunn: Living in today's world, as a parent, it's a little terrifying. Partially because safety isn't just a school safety issue. Like there's a gun epidemic in this country. And I say this, as someone who grew up in the South and we own guns, it's kind of scary how many guns are out there in America. And it is actually a community issue. I think that we need to make our schools safer. And I think unfortunately, a lot of the pressure has been put on the schools as it does with everything to fix community problems. That being said, I think the body scanners were actually the right call. And I think it has also, you know, put a warning in place, which is why we're seeing a lot less, I think the clear backpacks were obviously a mistake and knee jerk reaction, especially when you look at the investment made there. But I think the other things that we can do to go further with school safety is really invest in staff to support our students, right. So the past few years have been overwhelming as parents and it's been projected on our kids, regardless of what you say it's been projected, because they can't really comprehend especially on an elementary level, what has gone on in the world. So we all need additional support, especially socially and emotionally. And I think our kids do as well. And so when you have more staff that's able to address all of our students needs, it becomes a safer environment for all. So while I think they've made some of the right safety protocols with body scanners and making sure you know, there's less entrances for outside visitors, and I think all that needs to continue to be improved and optimized and evaluated. I think we also have to invest in more staff, outside of teachers who are doing instructional to make sure that we're fully supporting our students. Yeah, I think this is where the school board is going to have to partner with city council as well as county commission, right. So if you think about, you know, there's definitely law enforcement, but that's not going to solve everything, right. It's the investment, and you know, mental health and different programs throughout the county to support the community's needs. So this is where it's not just a school board issue. This is where the school board's really going to need to reach out to the leadership amongst the community. So that being the City Council, and the county commission, but also I think, one of the things we have to do is get the community more engaged. And I don't mean just set up a few forums, I think we have to get in the community and figure out what's happening and see how we can work together and what programs we can build throughout the county throughout different organizations throughout the school board. So I think this is where this is a community issue. If we truly want to solve it, one of us isn't going to figure it out ourselves. This is where we're all gonna have to get together and for the sake of all of our kids, and honestly, all of the residents of Mecklenburg County work to figure out how to make it safer. 

WATCH NUNN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

**NOTE: All of these quotes are transcriptions of their on-camera interviews with Morrison**

Sean Strain: Yeah, it's, it's the most important hire we make. Right. So we've talked about how the board sets the culture and direction for the district in terms of our goals or objectives. We need to hire somebody who is is, is able to be supported by the board and the community to focus on delivering on our mission. And the goals that we set, this board has lowered and narrowed the goals. And that's an issue. It creates additional focus. But But the issue is that we create additional focus at the expense of and so the next leader that we hire the CEO for a $2.2 billion enterprise is going to have to come in and be able to lead the organization in a way and in a direction, that we start and end every conversation with what's in the best interest of kids. Because that's what we must do as a board. That's what our CEO or superintendent needs to do. To ensure that we are focused in the area we need to focus which is educating and preparing kids for their future. So that's a great question. And I haven't considered what those questions are, generally, as a board, we put together that question set, I'll reflect on the last hire that we made at this level. Not as asking you to come back as interim. But when we hired our Chief Compliance Officer, the question that was posed was can you define a culture of compliance and its linkage to a culture of accountability? Now, our Chief Compliance Officer owns the creation of a culture of compliance, that can't be done without a culture of accountability, the culture of accountability has to be set by the CEO. And again, that is not just rapping, you know, people in the hand and the wrist when they step out of line, that is a culture of high performance, that incense and rewards performance, but also holds people to account when they are not performing, or they're not compliant. And so I'm very interested in how our next leader, our next CEO, is going to establish a culture, because it's absolutely critical for the success of this district and every student within it.

WATCH STRAIN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Michael Watson: Yeah, absolutely, I think so the superintendent's a sticky subject. I think primarily, this is a board responsibility. I think the board as a whole has failed to level set expectations and measure against those expectations. I think that, you know, we have to have a great selection process, we have to involve our community in that process. And again, we have to set clear and measurable expectations for a superintendent and make sure that we as a board are reinforcing what we expect out of that superintendent and I think we failed to do that over the past decade or so. Yeah. So because it's a leadership role, I think the most important question is, what their style of leadership is, and the question and the answer I'm looking for is a point leader, someone who is able to surround themselves with the right people, the right the most competent people in their, in their fields in their areas to support his vision and his support what he's trying to enforce. 

WATCH WATSON'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Summer Nunn: So yes, so I think as someone who hires and builds teams, you have to be very transparent about what the person is stepping into when it comes from the role. At the same time, the board is overseeing the superintendent, right? So the makeup of that board and their professional experience, and their direction matters as well. So I don't necessarily think it's been the wrong superintendent every time. I think there's a combination of it's the wrong board members too who are also overseeing and advising them. With that being said, I think some of the past ones, especially, they pick someone who wasn't quite ready for the role, again, CMS is a very large organization. It is not like turning one or two schools around, it's moving to cruise ship, right, you can turn to speed but much faster than you can turn a cruise ship. So you need someone who has had that type of experience, because it's not the same thing as fixing one or two where you can get in their schools individually, and actually figure out what's going on, you got to know how to build your team, you've got to have a respectable team. So the superintendent has to be really good at building the right infrastructure and team that functions in a large organization. And I honestly think we've picked people who've been tremendous educators, especially on a lower level, but when they jump to that large organization, they get lost. So how do you actually impact the entire system? They know how to do it on a small scale, but doing that on a large scale is a very different skill set. then you will see. And it's a difference between working at a startup as a CEO, and working in one that has, you know, 1000 locations. Yeah, I don't think there's a silver bullet, by the way, in any interview, and I say this is someone who interviews people constantly. So I don't, I would never say, yep, that's the person who's going to do this for one single question. And I will probably have, you know, 10 to 20, myself individually. But I think the thing that matters the most to me is there's a lot of public information on CMS out there, right school board meetings, all of that, my biggest thing for for them is to give me the assessment on what they can do, and the short term, the medium term, and the long term and what's their plan is to go about doing that. Also, the second biggest thing is I would want to understand the type of culture that they want to build for our teachers, as well as our kids, because that's what matters, the school system exists to improve student outcomes. And you cannot do that without tremendous teachers. So if they are not focused on both of those, they're not the right candidate for me. 

WATCH NUNN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

**NOTE: All of these quotes are transcriptions of their on-camera interviews with Morrison**

Sean Strain: So there is not very much that is actually in the board's control, with the exception that what we need to do as a board is set the expectations, and then be open to ideas from staff to say, this is what we need. If you look at our shortages, I was at Palisades High School yesterday for the ribbon cutting, and we were having just this conversation. I mean, there was a math three teacher that was just starting just now. Right? Again, we've got 300 odd openings, still. And that's those are teacher openings, nevermind the fact that half of our positions are not actually in the schools. And so from that perspective, when you get into a question of how do we solve for this, the labor participation rate is is low, and so is the unemployment rate. Every industry is being impacted by this. And as such, what we need to do is figure out what sort of incentives need to be in place in order to recruit the best and brightest for our kids. And to your point, those incentives have to be broader than just a conversation about pay. When you look at our exit interview information, the exit interview information does not say everybody's leaving because of pay. In fact, just the opposite. You know, the anecdotal evidence that you shared, said, Look, yeah, sure. It'd be great to be paid more. But that's not why I'm leaving. People aren't leaving our schools to go to adjacent counties because they get paid more, because they don't. And so if they're taking a position in this state at an adjacent county, it's not because they want to get paid more, because they don't. And so we've got to solve for those contributing factors, much of which is that back to that educational environment. Once again, you have to set the culture at the board level, you have to have the conversation that says, Look, this just is not good enough. You're never going to have a high performing organization. Unless you set high expectations. You drive transparency, and you deliver accountability and incentives and rewards. And so from that perspective, that's true for the students and their conduct that we talked about. It's true for the teaching staff and every other staff member that that that we are so honored to serve all these students in Mecklenburg County. And so the board has to set that direction and that culture, we own it. We've been fortunate to have an interim superintendent that's come in, that's helped to start to drive some of that. Two things. Number one, it shouldn't be the sole responsibility of the CEO. We own it as a board. And number two, he's an interim superintendent. So is it going to snap back the day he leaves, I mean, we have to set the direction and the culture of this organization. And that in any high performing organization, has characteristics like high expectations, transparency, accountability, incentives, rewards. And we have to set that. And that doesn't mean that we set all the policies, we set the expectations with our staff, to set that up working with our superintendent, with our general counsel with our Chief Compliance Officer, and with the superintendents HR office.

WATCH STRAIN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Michael Watson: Yes. So again, this is a major major, a major, major topic, I think it's critical to the success of CMS. So as a board, I think we are responsible for supporting our teachers, not not just financially, but other support mechanisms. And I think that's why we have an issue with retention right now. Also, we have schools in our in CMS as a whole that have waiting lists for teachers. So you have some environments where teachers want to be, and then you have other environments where teachers are not really wanting to be there. So I think we need to model we need to understand what's going on and say some of our high performance schools where teachers are lining up to get in, and how can we replicate that? How can we understand what they need at you know, a school that's not such a high performer? What happened? We support them better? Again, you know, prior to my excuse me, like my previous answer, I think that there's a support a lack of support at the, at the teacher level, I'm sorry, at the at the local school level. So we're not listening to what their needs are. In addition, we have oversight over excuse me overfilled classrooms, classrooms, where there's 30 students to a teacher, you know, you have teachers that are expected to work outside of the boundaries of what they're intended to work. And then you have this this other issue where we have the stop gaps that you mentioned, where there are people in the classroom that aren't even teachers, right, they're not there to actually support the mission of the public school. So, you know, there's a couple of different things. But I think there's a solution there somewhere, and how we listen to our teachers is number one. 

WATCH WATSON'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Summer Nunn: Yeah, I think CMS is in a little bit of a crisis with the teacher situation. If you look, North Carolina lost, I think 8% of teachers last year, and we were almost double that here in Charlotte Mecklenburg County. My mother is one of those subs who gets called daily to fill in the gaps right now. So one of the things they can't do immediately is adjust teacher pay, which I know they tried to get more. So that's got to be a longer term play with the county, and the state, maybe shorter term with the county for sure. things they could do now is actually figure out what is causing the dissatisfaction amongst teachers. And one of the things I don't think our past superintendents and their leadership has done, is really listen to their staff well enough. And what I mean by that is actually hold sessions surveys and do things to understand why they're dissatisfied. There's actually a survey done every two year called the North Carolina teachers working conditions survey, I think, almost 70% of CMS teachers fill it out. And so you could go on there, it's a public survey right now. And it'll show you how, over the past few years, there's some glaring trends, and what's happening and why teachers are dissatisfied. And there's some major things around not enough, you know, non instructional time to plan and additional duties and paperworks. There are things like they don't feel like they're getting the professional development, they feel like they're getting micromanage through curriculum. So these are all areas that are within the board's control to go in and say, How are we allocating investments in technology to potentially relieve some of these overworking and extra hours teachers are having to put in how do we secure professional development and one of our processes with HR to make sure they're giving feedback and also getting reviews. So I think they're things that if they just dig in and actually speak to the teachers and get data on it, they could start to improve the satisfaction scores amongst some pays, not everything. It does matter to have a livable wage here in Charlotte, by the way for teachers, so I will totally fight for better wages. But there's a lot of other things they can be doing right now. Yeah, I think the challenge right now is there is not a good culture set from the top down everything is. And this goes back to having a leadership issue, right. And leadership sets the tone for everything. And I say this, as I am an Executive leader in a business, we set the tone for everything. And the strategy and the culture, we work to create culture doesn't just exist, you create it and you live it, it hasn't happened. There's been seven superintendents in the past 10 years. So there's been a menagerie of like, what culture is going to be and what the strategy is going to be. And so what ends up happening is culture is honestly created, I think, on the individual school level right now. Right, but also, they're not getting the support they need from above. So when I talk to teachers, because I sit on the student improvement plan team, within our schools, it feels like they're on an island, they're not hearing from the leadership, they're not being developed. They're not cross collaborating across schools. And I say this as my kids school is a tremendously successful school, but they don't feel like they're getting the attention. They're not being heard. They're not being developed. So it's one of these things, I think their principles that create strong cultures, you see them retain teachers better than the ones where they don't, and sometimes that has to do with the parental involvement as well. 

WATCH NUNN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

**NOTE: All of these quotes are transcriptions of their on-camera interviews with Morrison**

Sean Strain: Yeah, so I've been a big proponent of looking at each of those, right? And so at the end of the day, I'm a father, and I've got to make the best decisions for my kids. And the same thing is true for every parent or guardian in Mecklenburg County. And when people make educational decisions, who is going to be their education services partner and provider, then we need to be in a position where they're choosing CMS, and proficiency measures the great deal about the student that walks into a school and, and to an extent what the school is able to do with that student in terms of having them fulfill their full potential growth really measures that ability for a student to grow academically, as supported and enabled by the school in the home. And so from that perspective, I think growth is very important. It effectively measures when you're looking at disaggregated growth, let's be clear when you're looking at disaggregated growth, whether that student would be better off in that school with that teacher or in another school with another teacher, whether that's in the county or out of the county. And so because they're measured against their academic cohort, growth is really important. And when you have high-growth schools, particularly looking at the disaggregated data, then that is very good and information for parents to make their educational choices by offering the best product. I mean, that is very clear that you know, as a father, and every parent and guardian has to make the educational choices or choices with regards to educational partners. And so from that perspective, when we put the best product out, then parents and guardians are confident that their best choice would be with CMS, as opposed to a charter or homeschooling or a private school. And so we can't get away from the fact that those are options that every parent and guardian in this county has. And as such, I want to make sure that we are absolutely providing the best product and the best measure of that we've completely abandoned, which is market share. And so market share back in 2018 when we set our goals was actually on the radar. So you're talking about how the enrollment is growing? Obviously, the enrollment has fallen in CMS. So the enrollment is growing and other educational choices because parents and guardians are making those choices. How do we reverse that trend? We reverse that trend by putting the best product out there. We have the best educational environment in our schools. We have the best teachers in our classrooms, we have the best-demonstrated performance through both proficiency and growth. And when we do that, then parents and guardians will choose CMS. If we don't do it, they will continue to flee CMS for other educational options. 

WATCH STRAIN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Michael Watson: Yeah, I think the data itself is a bit confusing. It's a bit. It's a bit of a paradox, where you see growth at the highest levels that they have been in years, and then you see, but our proficiency is really low. I think, and this is a board issue, I think we aren't communicating effectively what those metrics mean, and how parents should ingest them. Again, the growth scores are great, you know, it's good to grow. But we have to look at the proficiency scores, not as a large district. I know, one of my ideas is that I actually believe CMS is too big of a district. And it's too big of a district to apply this one size fits all standard, that we've tried to apply the grades, the proficiency scores, I think we need to micromanage that a little bit. We need to look at local level growth, local level proficiency, you know, there's inequities across the district, and we're not going to be able to boil the ocean, so to speak and solving for that. I think we need to, you know, look for micro growth at each of those schools in each of those districts within CMS. Yeah, I think, you know, that's a great point, I think, you know, one of one of my main goals is to return CMS to the district of choice school of choice versus the charter school. I think, the exodus to charter schools, a lot of it has to do with parent rights. They want to determine what their child learns and doesn't learn. And that's a fair argument. I think what we have to do as a district is, you know, again, listen to our community, understand what our communities wants, and needs are, I think, when you think about the charter schools for black and brown students, what you tend to have are instructors and leaders in those schools who take a unique interest in the growth of black and brown students. And that's admirable, you know, there's nothing I can say that's bad about that. I think, you know if a parent wants that for their child, and that's the decision they make, that's great. But we as a public school system, have to try to match that we have to sell ourselves just as good and provide instruction just as good as those schools. Another thing that I've learned personally, is that you know, we in the district, I live in District Six, we have, you know, really good schools in general, but you still see parents leaving to go to say, Weddington or a Waxhaw because our schools are just too large. So when your schools are too large, you can't read As the student as effectively as you would like to. So I think we need to look at that.

WATCH WATSON'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Summer Nunn: Yeah, it's funny, you said this, because I literally was having this conversation with moms of elementary school kids last night. And it's one of those things that partially goes back to me talking about the need for communication and transparency. So a lot of people don't understand when they hear those things, that proficiency means like a final score, right. And that there's also the secondary score, where your kids benchmarked and then there's, there's where they went to. So I firmly believe I know today that schools are judged heavily on what that end score is, I think it's 80% of the equation and only 20% is the growth you make. And I say this, as someone who manages people for a living, I will take someone who can move someone on a bigger growth trajectory than I will have, if someone just constantly has people scoring at the top, the reality is, you get a different set of kids that walk in on day one, every year for a teacher, right, and to judge them based on the outcome at the very end and the top score, I don't think it's fair. That's not to say that we don't have a lot of room to improve. But for me, the the focus of success is how well you took them from the beginning to the end on that growth trajectory. And I will say, when you look at the scores, our schools actually far, much better when you look at it that way. So we have a lot of room to go. And I say that as my kid just finished third grade last year, and was part of those scores that everyone is, you know, screaming about. And I will say there's a lot of room for growth there. But the reality is, I think the public as well as parents need to understand what the difference in proficiency and growth is, too. And I think as a parent, you get that, right, because you're talking to the teacher. So when they're all like, We're freaking out, because the test score is this, it's like, well, your kid actually started here. So we made a 50 point jump, that's a, that's a big deal. So that's where I think working with the teachers and trusting them and giving them and holding them accountable there is more important than what that overall test score is, in the end, we've got to work towards it. But that's a systematic thing that we have to work towards. You can't individually judge a teacher based on what walks in on day one. And if they would just scored very, very high, because they may not have been given a class that was ever going to do that. Yes, no. And I think as a parent, all you want for your kid is to best right so and I have friends whose kids are in private school and charter school, I actually get asked most time what private school my kids go to, because I'm a corporate executive, and I have to crack them that my kids are in public school. And the reality is public school, you don't get to pick and choose charter schools, you do. So I would want to look at the data to understand even with the black and brown students, they tend to cherry pick the better performing ones, because a lot of them actually have screenings they do before you can actually get into the school. So I don't think it's a fair assessment without truly looking at the data. When you can cherry pick the group that's coming into your school, you can score better. I can do that in the corporate world, too, by the way. So that's how you, you manipulate data. The reality with public school is they're they're also to pick up things when the charter schools fail. And we know overall, the charter schools actually scored under CMS. And I think a lot of people want to justify their decisions of why they move their kids to private and charter schools and it's for the better, but the reality is they can get a tremendous education and CMS too, right? So they're not apples and oranges. Sometimes, it's just how you cut the data to be perfectly frank. So the one thing I do have concern over is when we look at how North Carolina has continued to under fund public education in North Carolina, and charter schools and private schools are pulling funds away, it makes it even harder for CMS to be successful. And they have strict guidelines that the state and then the school board actually helps dictate right within CMS, where the others don't. And that's very concerning, because you get tremendous charter schools, and you're gonna get schools that completely fail, kids. And so that's the difference is, you know, you're rolling the dice, they're here, while there's tremendous room to improve in CMS, the reality is, it's governed, it should be successful for kids, right? Where the charter schools you don't know, because there's the your oversight. And I will say, as we've continued to pull funds away, it's always going to be harder to do better with less not to say that we can't, but they tend to siphon away investments that we need to make, and all the kids here in the county while they go and actually cherry pick who's in their schools. 

WATCH NUNN'S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

**NOTE: All of these quotes are transcriptions of their on-camera interviews with Morrison**

As a reminder, early voting in North Carolina starts Oct. 20 and lasts through Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, at 3 p.m. After Nov. 5, you may register to vote during the one-stop early voting period. This process is called “Same-Day Registration.” Complete details on registering to vote in North Carolina and the qualifications you need to meet can be found on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.  

North Carolina voters are not required to show a photo ID.  If you are a DMV customer with an N.C. driver’s license or DMV-issued ID, you may now register to vote or change certain parts of your registration online.

Register to vote in North Carolina here.

Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.