Candidate: Chris Sutton
Party affiliation: Republican
Career: Maintenance technician
Q: What qualifies you to serve on the New Hanover County Schools Board of Education?
A: I have either attended or watched every agenda review, policy, and board meeting for more than seven years. During that time, I have successfully advocated for policy changes, the implementation of (including securing funding for) LifeVac airway clearance devices in all schools, and served as a parent and victim advocate in cases ranging from Title IX violations to assault. My strengths are my deep understanding of our district’s history, our policies, Robert’s Rules of Order, and laws pertaining to public school operations. I am a member of the NHCS Family Advisory Council and a member of my son’s elementary school PTA. As a lifelong local, I maintain trusted relationships with staff across the district, allowing me to stay closely attuned to its operations and challenges. This is my passion, not a political stepping stone. I will continue to push for more transparency and accountability inside our school district. Our community and staff deserves nothing less than leadership always looking to improve our district.
Q: Name one top priority policy change you want to see and how you will work to achieve it.
A: Our district’s public records policies need updating to ensure real transparency. In late 2025, some requests remained unresolved for over a year, and, currently, some have been pending more than two-thirds of a year. That’s not transparency — it’s a problem. We must provide clear guidance to district attorneys to complete records requests promptly and implement a system for answering community questions that fall outside standard PRRs. Right now, even simple questions can go unanswered due to a lack of policies mandating they be resolved. While staff may respond individually, there’s no mandate to do so. We need to standardize this level of transparency and make it required for our community.
Q: What is your view of the current board’s leadership? What are they succeeding at and what needs to be improved?
A: I appreciate that this board has spent less time fighting internally compared to the previous members, even though this board still has their moments that lack decorum. Letting go of Dr. Foust and allowing Dr. Barnes to take over as superintendent was a strong move. However, they should not have renewed Dr. Foust’s contract only to reverse it a few months later. This resulted in wasting over a quarter-of-a-million dollars of taxpayer money. Community and staff trust remains understandably fragile, given past cover-ups. Restoring faith will require transparency and accountability when lines are crossed.
From my conversations with staff, morale is higher under Dr. Barnes, though more can be done to show appreciation. I fully support creating a committee focused on staff incentives and enrichment, such as bereavement options and biannual surveys in off-years from the DPI survey. I don’t agree with any board member 100% of the time, but my priority is improving the experience for our students and staff instead of focusing on the shortcomings of other board members.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing the school district?
A: Creating a lean and fiscally responsible budget that keeps the highest amount of money possible in student facing positions.
Q: Even though the people will vote on the $320-million school bond, would you advocate for its support? Why or why not?
A: Many of these changes have been recommended in taxpayer-funded studies for over a decade. When I ran for school board in 2022, I brought up Laney consuming the Trask Middle school campus to help relieve traffic congestion and overcrowding. Investing in school safety projects is also essential. Our youth are our greatest treasure and deserve protection so I’m happy to see funding in the bond that is earmarked for physical safety upgrades.
There have been debates over the cost of restoring NHHS compared to building new, but this decision involves more than dollars. Factors like geology, realistic timelines for settling, and historical value all matter. At this point, the decision to restore has been made, and it’s encouraging to see action rather than letting the building further deteriorate while being occupied by students.
Q: What would you like to see the state legislature do regarding school funding?
A: We are ranked 50th (out of 50) for public school state funding efforts — and that pretty much speaks for itself. I understand there are many state leaders who want to explore more into the voucher system and parental choice, but that doesn’t mean we need to undercut the funding to our traditional public schools. A significant amount of our students fall into the EC or AIG categories and they will need specialized support to reach their full academic potential. Our students are the future of our nation, it’s time to invest in them as such. I would rather see us adequately fund to provide a quality education to our children as opposed to paying the extra costs associated with people going through our justice system (courts, jail, etc.)
We need to ready our students for life and give them opportunities to find a path that leads to success. Expanding on programs such as CTE, CIHS, etc. can be expensive but are showing significant levels of success. Let’s build on that.
Q: What is your view of the board’s role in overseeing curriculum and library book selections?
A: One of the board’s responsibilities is to provide oversight inside an otherwise closed system. I believe it is important for people to elect board members that align with their personal values and for those board members to carry out those wishes, including oversight of curriculum and library books. Elections matter. I believe we can provide teachers with a higher level of autonomy within set parameters that keeps our staff from feeling burned out or bored. We can achieve this while still reinforcing our desire to not have divisive subjects intentionally and unnecessarily injected into lesson plans.
I believe we need to expand our high school libraries to include a robust political section for our students. We could reach out to local political parties and have them sponsor their respective sections by filling them with books that fit their perspectives.
Q: What are specific actions you would support the board voting on to address its low-performing schools?
A: Funding based on school needs is the easiest answer. I personally do not believe we should have to bus students around for them to receive a quality education in New Hanover County. Creating a system of incentives that encourages experienced teachers to join the NHCS team and stay for the duration of their career can directly impact our low performing schools.
Our school district also needs to become more involved with community partners since a significant amount of the problems our students face do not start at the door of our schools. Just this weekend, Wilmington had a 17-year-old who was shot. In cases such as this, our school district should be notified of students who were present when the incident occurred so our SROs can be made aware and counseling can be made available on the following school day.
Q: What do you think The Endowment should fund for schools versus what should be funded by the government in the school budget?
A: In 1999 the federal government promised to cover 40% funding for special education, they have fallen way short of that goal while the overall costs continue to rise. We are underfunded at a state level as well, which leaves an increasingly complex and heavy burden on our local government. A lot of people don’t realize that every time a teacher raise is given at the state level, that means all of the staff members being paid by local funds are also going to be receiving that raise with our local government picking up the tab. That means, even if we make zero visible changes, our basic overhead increases by a significant amount.
While The Endowment is supposed to be a supplemental source of funding and not something our district is supposed to lean on for basic operations, there were a lot of verbal statements made when The Endowment was being formed alluding to a significant investment in the overall operations of the schools district. While I’m very appreciative of the funds that have been provided by The Endowment, I feel like it would be best for us to receive enough funding to become proactive with the maintaining of our infrastructure rather than reactive. In short, a heavier investment by The Endowment now can save our district from having to ask for considerably more later.
Q: How do you view your role in providing information to the public and the press?
A: We should never have our district dragging their feet on releasing documents to our local media or community members when the district is legally obligated to release those documents. It is the responsibility of the board to create policies that mandate transparency and ensure that our community receives answers in a timely manner.
The board’s job is also to manage the superintendent. If the board makes it a priority to provide the community with answers in an expedited manner then the superintendent will do so as well. Under Dr. Barnes’s leadership we’ve had some amazing growth in regards to transparency, however, there is still work to be done.
Restoring community trust in our district is something that takes time and transparency to achieve. If I am elected, I will push to make New Hanover County Schools more transparent and accountable than it has ever been before.