At least eight educators spoke to the board, a majority of them were from Williston Middle School. They spoke to both funding and facility concerns.
Infrastructure concerns at Williston
Clancy Gray, an eighth-grade English teacher at Williston Middle School, came to say that she enjoys being an educator at the school, but that its infrastructure is crumbling. She held up a poster that had six pictures showing the damage.
“In my short time at Williston, I've had the air conditioning and the power go out many times. I've seen a counselor have to move offices because of a mold infestation. I've had my ceiling tiles leak and fall through because of heavy rain and leaks. I've seen a river of water flowing through the school from toilets because of a plumbing issue,” she said. Gray also alleged there was a rat infestation at the school.
In a statement, the district said they were aware of the comments made about Williston on Tuesday, but was "not previously aware of the specific concerns" that were raised.
"We are currently reviewing the information and will work to assess any issues that may require attention. As part of that process, we will continue to gather information and engage with the appropriate school and district personnel," a spokesperson wrote in an e-mail.
Currently, the only improvement slated for Williston on the November school bond initiative is replacing some of the school’s HVAC system for $750,000. Other needs for the Williston campus were not on the primary list of the bond’s capital projects, or its secondary one.
According to the district’s most recent master capital planning list, Williston was set to receive $120,900 for masonry repairs at the staircases facing the interior courtyard, identified in an engineering report. It found that the walls around the stairs are leaking through “voids in the brickwork causing severe flooding during heavy downpours and storms.”
During the 2025-2026 school year, the following projects were identified for the school: replacing the gymnasium’s bleachers for $190,000, installing surge protection for HVAC units (the allocation was for $130,000, which included two other schools), and repairing sections of the roof for $920,000.
In April, school board members heard a presentation from a facilities consulting firm, Turner & Townsend Heery, which cost $300,000 to complete. It identified close to $2.5 billion in needs across all district buildings. However, consultant Jessica Killian said most of the critical needs are included in the bond funding.
As for the consultant's report on the facilities, the district says the results will be incorporated into a dashboard where all the identified needs are marked. NHCS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said staff are still being trained on how to use it. A public-facing link is not yet available.
Funding woes
Daniel Webb, a custodian and member of the New Hanover County Association of Educators, gave the board an example of a special education student who doesn’t understand why staff support is being taken from him due to a lack of funding.
“He couldn't understand that North Carolina ranks 50th out of 50 states in funding public schools. [...]They do not understand why we are losing good people out of the teaching profession. If he were here today, he would urge you to do what you can to increase the funding for our educators,” Webb said.
Another Williston employee who spoke was William Oksen. He’s a seventh-grade science teacher who said he’s seen about eight administrators come and go during his tenure. He added that typically about 50% of his classroom has students with individualized needs like speaking English as a second language or having an individualized education plan (IEP), adding that they don’t have enough teaching assistants (TAs) to support those students.
Oksen said there aren’t enough resources, like simply having enough chairs, and that, when it comes to larger needs, education funding should be more equitable, as a majority of Williston students come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Educators like Lindsay Noble from Hoggard High and Ebony Savage from Forest Hills decried the salaries of educators. Noble has to work a second job to make ends meet and feels for beginning teachers who aren’t grandfathered into Master’s-degree pay bumps and access to health insurance in retirement.
Savage said even though she has 18 years of experience, she still makes under $30,000 a year as a teaching assistant and doesn’t even qualify for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing.
Jacqueline Dalessio is an educator at D.C. Virgo and the outgoing president of New Hanover County Association of Educators (NHCAE), the local chapter of the state teachers association. While she praised the improvements to the Teacher Working Conditions survey administered by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, she encouraged the district to also survey its classified staff, which includes bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and teaching assistants, because it only captures responses from full-time teachers.
Current NHCAE Vice President and counselor at Murrayville Elementary Lisa Espy said she hopes the school board, the district, and North Carolina Association of Educators can work together on issues like funding. She said the profession is in crisis and they need their support to enhance working conditions.
Lifewise
While educators represented a large portion of the public speakers, supporters and opponents of the controversial during school hours Biblical program, LifeWise Academy constituted just over a third of the speakers.
A majority of the nine people who spoke were against it, saying it would interrupt important non-core classes like art, music, and physical education, and decrying the undue burden it would place on staff who might have to help accommodate logistics for the program. Those who were in support said that religious education should be an option for students, saying it will have positive impacts on student well-being.
Before the district comes to an official agreement with LifeWise Academy, the school board will hold a public hearing solely dedicated to the program. They haven’t yet set the date — but it has to be before their August meeting when they vote on whether to approve the superintendent to draw up a Memorandum of Understanding with the group.
Also speaking during the public comment section were members of Love Our Children, a group that wants the board to ban suspension for students in 3rd grade except for extreme circumstances, like those involving violence, or drugs and alcohol. Currently, that’s the policy for students in kindergarten through second grade. They also advocated for updates to the student code of conduct to make it less punitive.
Policy changes, votes
The board voted 4-3, with members Melissa Mason, Judy Justice, and David Perry dissenting, to require board members to go through the same Level II vetting process that school volunteers go through, which would include a background check. These volunteers don’t always need staff supervision when they’re in schools.
Republican member Pat Bradford wanted to add fingerprinting for board members, but that wasn’t taken up by the board.
Bradford wrote to WHQR that she thought it was a good idea to start this practice with board members and NHCS employees.
“For now, employees, [fingerprinting checks] are just required for new hires. It has been that way since 2023, after I was elected. And once the money settles out in this next month or so, I will be bringing a proposal to fingerprint all staff going back retroactively, doing it perhaps in stages by position (those working directly with children first), because it's not cheap, but I think it's necessary. [...] I think with our history, it's a darn good idea to do it, if nothing else for the deterrent,” she wrote.
The board voted unanimously to send a policy about the use of wireless communication devices on school campuses. The members agreed that they want a ‘whistleblower’ provision that would allow students to film incidents of wrongdoing.
The proposed language for this policy reads: “Students may not use wireless communication devices inside school buildings, at school-sponsored events, or on school buses to capture audio, video, or still pictures of other students and/or employees in which such individuals can be personally identified, nor share such recordings or pictures in any way, without the consent of the other students and/or employees”.
As written, it includes some exceptions, including, “recordings at events that are open to the public, such as athletic competitions, band and choral concerts, assemblies, presentations, and award ceremonies. If recording at a public event is restricted for any reason, including due to copyright issues (e.g., a school play), the students and all other members of the audience will be notified of the recording restrictions before the event begins.”
