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During the 2016 election season, WHQR will bring you profiles of the candidates running in New Hanover County for: New Hanover County Board of CommissionersNew Hanover County Board of Education The primary elections will be held on Tuesday, March 15th. As a reminder, voters will need to bring photo identification to the polls. You can read more about voting in North Carolina here, and you can check your voter status and voter precinct here.This fall, look for WHQR's coverage of the general election. We will bring you the 2016 Candidate Forums.

Candidate Profile 2016: Frank Christopher Meares (R) for NHC Board of Education

Frank Christopher Meares
Frank Christopher Meares (R) is seeking a seat on the New Hanover County Board of Education in the March 2016 primary.

In the New Hanover County Republican Primary, Frank Christopher Meares is hoping to win a spot on the November ballot for the Board of Education. The current County Soil and Water Conservation Board Member says, if elected, he’d give up his unexpired term but would hope to retain a non-voting position.

frank_christopher_mearesweb.mp3
Listen to the long interview here.

Meares, who works as a courier for LabCorp in Wilmington, says he has a message for teachers: 

"They are working for an excellent school system that has a fantastic graduation rate right now."

But there are stressors on teachers that, he says, need to be addressed. 

"I want to bring more interactiveness into the classroom.  I want to be able to see kids that – they don’t necessarily learn when you throw a worksheet in front of them or when the teachers [happen] to be stressed out to the point where they don’t feel like they’re really being heard… I really want us to kind of move back down to cutting down those classroom sizes, getting more teachers in, making sure the schools are built to last and that they actually have room to grow."

Meares also says security is a new issue for schools but an important one.  He’d like to see retired law enforcement officers take up an increased presence in the schools to function as overseers and even mentors.   And smaller classroom sizes, says Meares, would also help with prevention for at-risk kids.

Rachel hosts and produces CoastLine, an award-winning hourlong conversation featuring artists, humanitarians, scholars, and innovators in North Carolina. The show airs Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 4 pm on 91.3 FM WHQR Public Media. It's also available as a podcast; just search CoastLine WHQR. You can reach her at rachellh@whqr.org.