Dr. Lavar Marlow manages grants for UNCW’s College of Health and Human Services.
He said his number one concern is student mental health. Marlow said he realized the importance of this through mentoring high school students taking courses at Southeastern Community College where he used to work.
“And I found myself unofficially kind of being a big brother, or a dad figure or something; [...] I saw a need and a necessity to want to run for school board so that we can push for some extracurricular and medical, mental health programs to assist our young people while they're in school,” Marlow said.
Vickie Smith has spent over thirty years working in public schools. She recently retired in August 2022 as the principal of Union Elementary in Brunswick County.
While Smith said that for some families with special circumstances, charter or private schools might be the best fit; however, public schools deliver on making well-rounded people.
“You can't determine who works beside you in the next cubicle; you can't determine who's standing in front or behind you in Walmart, and so part of our job, and I’ve said this for years, I am not about just making smart kids, although we do a very good job of that, but also the total package is making a great human being in the process,” Smith said.
Marlow said one of his other top issues is tackling overcrowding through school facility upgrades.
“One of my goals is to do [a] feasibility study, and hopefully [that will] be supported by our county commissioners, and our superintendent, staff, and even DPI with the state level, to make sure that we can get some adequate funding with our house and state representatives,” he said.
Officials with Brunswick County Schools say they do have demography studies that would show where possible new school buildings are needed.
Marlow added that, as a future school board member, he would lobby to get more state funding, but said he didn’t necessarily want to raise local taxes to support these efforts.
For Smith, overcrowding is a big issue. She saw it firsthand working in the district.
“They brought in trailers for the entire fifth grade at Belville Elementary. And that's after they moved some of the kids from Belville to Town Creek Elementary two years ago. But from what I'm hearing at board meetings, they will be looking at ways to help that,” she said.
When asked about the potential for a school bond she said it was “inevitable to build at least one school,” but followed by saying that would ultimately be up to the county commissioners.
Marlow said he wanted to increase the local supplement for Brunswick County teachers and wanted to find ways to stop teachers leaving to work in other larger cities and even South Carolina.
For Smith, she said the state isn’t doing enough to support teacher salaries.
“It is very important that we retain those teachers and make them feel valued. Once they get to 25 years on the same salary, they're not going to make much more than that, if any more than that,” she said.
But praised the local officials for providing things like a $5,000 signing bonus for hard-to-fill positions like exceptional children instructors.
Marlow said in addition to using the student resources through Communities in Schools, he wanted to use more retirees in the area to support the district’s educators. He called this idea using the “buddy system”.
“On the campaign trail, we've had numerous folks come to us and they say, ‘Well, I'm a retired teacher, I would love to volunteer, but I don't know what to do.’ So that would strengthen our school systems,” he said.
For Smith, it’s about giving educators extra time to do their jobs.
“The biggest thing we can do to show our teachers we appreciate them is to give them the time that they need to prepare lessons. And not making them take all of their time at home when they should be with their families, working on school stuff,” she said.
Marlow is also concerned about student safety, and, if elected, he’d like the district to have a forum on this topic.
“I'm hearing some other things from parents when it comes to drugs, smuggling, of all kinds of strange things like alcohol and vaping and other things like that. Even as the government, I know it's kind of overarching, but I would love to work with our local principals and associate principals and all of our staff, even the janitors [on this],” he said.
Smith said she’s also concerned about providing enough staff when comes to classroom sizes.
“When I started in 2007, I think I had 17 or 19 teacher assistants at Union; we had assistants for kindergarten, first, second, and third grade. That's not that long ago, but it feels like forever ago because now, even with using Title I money, we still probably only have 10. I feel strongly that kindergarten has to have an assistant; it's a safety concern,” she said.
Smith followed by saying the state has done a good job in lowering the class size for kindergarten through third grade, but for fourth and fifth grade, that’s another story. She said there are anywhere from 25 to 30 kids in those classes at any time because there's no class size cap.
And equity of resources is important to both candidates.
For Marlow, it’s about ensuring diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. “I am a huge proponent of equity in our schools. And I as a person who has worked as an adult high school instructor, I saw where I think, in my opinion, our schools have failed some of our students.”
Smith said that students in Brunswick County need to have “equitable experiences and opportunities” in comparison to New Hanover and Wake counties.
Both candidates mentioned the importance of transparency.
Lavar said, “I will be accessible; my cell phone will be accessible; my email will be accessible.”
In tackling problems that face the district, Smith wants to be open about them.
“The thing is, people know when there's a problem, and when you're not transparent, then they don't trust you with that problem,” she said.
Early voting continues until March 2. Election Day is March 5. You will need a photo ID.
Click here for voting information.
