Name as it appears on the ballot: Kathi Gibson
Party affiliation: Democrat. (Note: This is a nonpartisan race.)
Previous elected offices held:
Age as of Election Day: 66
Immediate family members: James Gibson
Occupation (employer, where you work, what you do): Retired school superintendent in two North Carolina school districts and international educational consultant
Website and campaign social media: electkathi@gmail.com, Elect Dr. Kathi Gibson for CCS, District 1 – BOE on FaceBook and @electkathi24 on Instagram
1. The “Parents’ Bill of Rights” legislation has incorporated changes regarding education on health, gender identity and sexuality into state law. This year’s state superintendent race features a candidate who has discussed implementing additional measures that some critics call extreme. What’s your assessment of the state of public education in North Carolina?
The public schools in North Carolina lack strong leadership. The North Carolina teachers are not being paid like professionals, and the state has allowed low performance on the part of our children to become the norm. We deserve a real educator at the helm who knows how to increase teacher pay and student performance. Moe Green may be the answer. It will take a strong state superintendent working in tandem with a strong local superintendent to get our state back on track educationally.
2. If you solely controlled the purse strings of Cumberland County and for the county’s school district, what changes would you implement to both help preserve your fund balance and best serve teachers and students?
Evaluate all district-level and school-level programs. Only programs with proven success would survive. I would recycle the money into teacher salaries and teacher training. This could be a major step in teacher retention. The only way to truly show teachers their value is to pay them what they are worth and continuously improve them.
3. This community has long discussed constructing a new campus for E.E. Smith High School. What’s your solution for E.E. Smith High School?
I think a new campus would be ideal; however, there are many prerequisite steps that would need to occur before construction. The district could start by moving one or more of the early colleges housed at Fayetteville State University back to E.E. Smith. I believe the campus atmosphere could be duplicated at E.E. Smith by having the professors move with the students. Either the students or the professors could move back and forth as needed. Other solutions might include building a school that has several stories upward, according to the needs of the curricula.
4. Declining enrollment and increasing absenteeism are both significant challenges for Cumberland County Schools. What’s your fix for both?
Build a better “mouse trap”. There are root causes for declining enrollment and absenteeism. There are reasons parents and students are opting for charter and private schools. The more we do NOTHING about the problems, the more pronounced they will become. It’s beyond time to do something.
5. Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright surprised officials this spring when he suddenly announced plans to pull school resource officers and traffic control officers from most public schools. What’s your take on his decision, and how would you approach a relationship with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office moving forward? And has the SRO issue been resolved to your satisfaction?
The decision by the county sheriff is a costly decision in more ways that one. Not only will the decision impact teachers and students, it will eventually impact the whole county as more and more crime will happen within the schools and in the community. No, the SRO issue has not been resolved. The entire county administration must come together and decide on priorities and goals. The solution must involve county commissioners, the school board, city council, and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.