Why Johnathaun Lee Is Running for Cumberland County Board of Education

Johnathaun Lee is making another bid for the Cumberland County Board of Education, this time seeking one of three at-large seats after an unsuccessful run for the District 2 seat in 2024. 

Lee, an Army veteran and local home health care business owner originally from the Mississippi-Louisiana region, was defeated by incumbent Deanna Jones in the November 2024 general election.

He also serves as a family ambassador at Pauline Jones High School, a role he said he took on because he believes in giving back through education and helping young people develop their potential.

Now, Lee is returning to the ballot with a focus on chronic absenteeism and student growth, particularly the socioeconomic challenges that can interfere with students’ education.  He argues that circumstances such as hunger and housing instability can delay academic progress and that decisions made by the board today could have lasting consequences for younger students.

Lee also said board members must balance their responsibility to manage school facilities with the emotional and historical connections communities have to their schools. In evaluating academic performance, he favors examining individual student growth rather than focusing primarily on how many schools are designated as low-performing.

What are the top two issues the Board of Education should focus on over the next four years? How would you approach them?

The two issues I would focus on are absenteeism and student growth. Growth is connected to absenteeism because students have to be in school to receive an education and make academic progress. For me, absenteeism also raises concerns about social injustice and socioeconomic conditions. Some students can succeed regardless of their circumstances, but others face challenges that delay their ability to accomplish things academically.

If I’m hungry at 8 o’clock at night, I’m not thinking about an algebraic equation. I’m thinking about being hungry. If I leave school and have to figure out where I’m going to safely lay my head that night, I’m not thinking about the paper I have to write for English class. Those are life circumstances that can delay students from accomplishing what they need to during the school year. I believe those are areas where the board needs to concentrate its attention.

I also recognize that policy decisions take time to implement. Students who are already in the 11th or 12th grade, and perhaps even eighth or ninth grade, may graduate before they experience the benefits of decisions we make today. That’s why we have to think about younger students, particularly those in elementary school. They’re the ones who will grow up under the decisions we make now, whether those decisions ultimately help or hurt them.

Cumberland County Schools has faced difficult decisions involving school closures, facility maintenance, and consolidation. What principles would guide your decision-making when evaluating future facility needs?

Our community has very strong alumni ties. When it comes to school closures, communities become attached to their schools for different reasons. Some of those reasons are social, and others are psychological. A parent may have an emotional connection to a school because that’s where their child learned to read. Someone else may have played football there, won a championship, or watched their child accomplish something important. Those experiences create a cultural and emotional attachment to the school.

But from the school board’s perspective, it’s not just a school. It’s also a facility that we have to manage. The community sees that school in one light, and the school board sees it in another. When a management issue arises, the community wants the board to understand and be sensitive to its emotional connection to that facility. At the same time, board members cannot make decisions based solely on emotions. We have a responsibility to make sound decisions.

My perspective is one of compromise, understanding, appreciation, and respect for both sides. If managing a facility is going to affect a community, I believe the school board has a duty to go into that community and hear what people have to say about a potential closure. We need to appreciate their perspective. But the school board also has a responsibility to explain why a decision is being made.

You don’t have to like the decision, but somewhere along the way, there should be information, evidence, and data supporting it. In business, we call it risk analysis. Socially, it’s called an impact assessment. Even a sound decision can have unintended consequences for a group of people. If you don’t understand who those people are or how they’ll be affected, you haven’t looked deeply or broadly enough.

We have to be sensitive to those consequences, but we also have to do our jobs. If the data supports closing a school, and it’s good data, then the decision has to be made.

How can Cumberland County Schools best support students with disabilities and ensure families have confidence in the district’s special education services?

The school board has policies, statutes, and laws that govern its responsibilities. We have laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and requirements for a free appropriate public education. Those laws help provide the framework for delivering the education that students are entitled to receive.

The state promises students the opportunity to receive a sound basic education. That promise includes students with disabilities. Our responsibility doesn’t change because a student’s needs are different. The school board doesn’t have the authority to go into a classroom and tell a teacher or counselor exactly how to deliver instruction or services. That’s not our role.

Our responsibility is to establish goals, define checkpoints, and determine how progress will be measured. Individualized education programs are developed by teams of qualified individuals who determine the services and support a student needs. The board’s responsibility is to ensure that qualified people and the necessary resources are available to provide those services.

One important part of special education is providing services in the least restrictive environment. If a student’s educational team determines that the student can participate in a general education classroom for part of the school day, that student should have that opportunity. But we also have to recognize that students may need different measures of progress.

For example, if a student scores a 30 on a test, can we help that student improve to a 60? That may not be a passing grade, but look at the growth. If we can achieve that much growth, we can continue building on it. That’s what I call developing a student’s gifts. We all have gifts, and our responsibility is to help students develop theirs.

I believe parents begin to trust the system when they can see progress in their children. Maybe a child’s vocabulary improves, or the way they express themselves changes. Maybe their behavior improves because they’ve had opportunities to interact with other students and learn from those experiences.

When families can see that their children are growing and developing, even if that progress looks different from another student’s, they gain greater confidence in the education their children are receiving.

Student enrollment has declined in recent years. What role, if any, do you believe the Board of Education should play in attracting and retaining students and families in Cumberland County Schools?

My answer may not be appreciated, but the school system is not a recruiting agency. We don’t recruit students. We deliver a service on behalf of the state, and that service is education. Our responsibility is to provide students with the tools they need to receive an education. We have to concentrate on delivering that service and making sure the people responsible for teaching have the resources they need.

There are people who teach because they want to teach, and there are others who enter the profession because they need employment or because their original career plans didn’t work out. Those are different circumstances, and they can affect how people approach the classroom. 

Teaching is not just about communicating information. It involves classroom management, counseling, understanding the curriculum, and knowing how to deliver instruction. Those are skills that take time to develop. 

If we concentrate on giving educators the right tools and support, then those who want to teach will appreciate that investment. We also have to recognize the limitations of what a school board can provide. There are things the state controls, things the county controls, and things the school board can influence. 

We have to be clear about what we can offer and then deliver on those responsibilities. We’re not a recruiting agency. We’re providing a service through the state, and that service is education. Our job is to make sure we’re delivering it properly.

What steps can the Board of Education take to recruit, support, and retain high-quality teachers and staff?

Recruiting teachers is not the school board’s job. The school board has one employee, and that’s the superintendent. Our responsibility is to establish policy and provide oversight. When we talk about retaining teachers, we have to understand why they’re leaving.

One issue is compensation. Teachers need more than an occasional bonus. They need increases in their base salaries. But those decisions also involve the state, and there are limitations on what a local school board can do. We also have to look at where teachers are going when they leave. Some move to another school district. In those cases, we haven’t lost them from the teaching profession; we’ve lost them from our district’s employee count.

Others leave the classroom for administrative positions. They’re still working in education, but they’re no longer teaching students directly. Then there are those who leave education altogether for jobs in corporate America. We need to understand why those decisions are being made. 

Safety is a legitimate concern. There are incidents involving student behavior, fights, and weapons. Those issues matter, but we also have to ask how often individual teachers are experiencing them and whether those are the primary reasons they’re leaving. Classroom management and student behavior can make it difficult for teachers to do their jobs. If a teacher spends so much time managing disruptions that they can’t teach, that’s a problem.

But compensation and the cost of living also matter. Teachers have families to support, groceries to buy, and bills to pay. Some need two or three jobs to make ends meet. We have to keep the main thing the main thing. Teachers went to school to teach, not to struggle financially. We need to understand the challenges they’re facing and work within our responsibilities to address them.

What are your views on year-round schools? What factors would you consider when making decisions about expanding or maintaining year-round calendars?

Personally, I would vote for year-round schools. I love education, and I love learning. But I can’t speak for every child, especially today. When making a decision, I have to consider the unintended consequences. What may be a good decision for one student may not be the best decision for another.

For example, some students are athletes who spend a significant amount of time training during the summer. Athletics may provide opportunities for their futures, and we have to consider how a year-round calendar could affect those opportunities. Some students also need time away from school. They need opportunities to release their energy, pursue other interests, and have downtime.

If we expand year-round education, we also have to look at the curriculum and whether adjustments would be necessary. My responsibility as a board member is to consider what’s best for students and whether we’re giving everyone equal access to an education. 

I believe year-round schools should be available as an option, but they shouldn’t be forced on everyone. What works for one student or family may not work for another. We should provide the opportunity and allow families to make that choice.

Cumberland County Schools currently has several schools identified by the state as low-performing. What role should the Board of Education play in improving student outcomes at those schools? What strategies would you prioritize?

You’re always going to have low-performing schools. The question is whether we’re measuring what really matters. When I began looking into how schools are identified as low-performing, I studied the formulas and evaluation reports used to determine school performance. The more I learned about the process, the more I began to believe that the designation itself could become a distraction.

It takes the focus away from education and puts it on a number. We have to ask ourselves what we’re actually trying to accomplish. Are we producing students who are prepared to take care of themselves, continue their education, compete for jobs, and contribute to their communities?

That’s what matters to me. There is a difference between proficiency and growth. Proficiency tells us where a student is performing at a particular moment. Growth tells us where that student started and how much progress they’ve made.

For me, growth is a better measurement of what we’re accomplishing with students than simply assigning a letter grade to a school. I don’t believe the board should become so focused on how many schools are on the low-performing list that we lose sight of individual students.

A school identified as low-performing doesn’t have only students making Ds and Fs. And a school that isn’t on the list doesn’t have only students making As and Bs. There are students at different academic levels in every school.

We also have to recognize that school performance measures can change as students move in and out of schools. That raises questions about why a school may appear on the low-performing list one year and not the next. People will always debate resources, funding, technology, access, and educational opportunities. Those are important issues, but we can’t allow the debate over school ratings to distract us from our responsibility. The state promises students the opportunity to receive a sound basic education. Our job is to deliver that education.