Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board: Melinda Manning 

Full name: Melinda Manning 

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: https://manningforchccs.com

1) In 300 words or less, please give our readers your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What prior experience will make you an effective member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board of education?

I am an educator, an advocate, a public servant, and most importantly, a parent. I’m a proud triple Tarheel (married to another triple Heel) and the mother of a recent CHCCS graduate My commitment to the CHCCS schools is unwavering and personal.
My professional journey began in the classroom as a social studies teacher in Mississippi with Teach for America, giving me firsthand insight into both the joys and challenges our educators experience daily. I changed gears after law school and spent over a decade in the Office of the Dean of Students at UNC. I currently am the director of the UNC Health Beacon Program, I lead a team dedicated to supporting children and adults impacted by family violence, work that reinforces my commitment to protecting some of the most vulnerable in our communities.

I’m a proven advocate for change. I helped lead a landmark Title IX case that resulted in sweeping national reforms to protect survivors of sexual violence on college campuses. As the parent chair of the Carrboro High School Improvement team, I helped teachers voice their concerns to the board of education and central administration. I’m not afraid to ask the hard questions and to champion the unpopular causes.

I am honored to have the support of NC Asian Americans Together in Action, Equality North Carolina Action Fund, former Wake County School Board chair (current NC House-33) Monika Johnson-Hostler, Orange County Clerk of Court Mark Kleinschmidt, former Carrboro Town Council Member Jacquelyn Gist, and Carrboro Town Council member Randee Haven-O’Donnell.

2) What would your priorities be as a member of the CHCCS board? Please identify three of the most pressing issues the district currently faces and how you believe the board should address them. 

I’ve been asking different forms of this question whenever I get the chance to talk with families and teachers about what they believe are the most pressing issues. My answer is based very much on discussions that I’ve been having over the last two months. 
1. The budget: Many in our community are worried about the district budget and were surprised last year when the district had to take the step of laying off a number of staff and reassigning others to reduce the budget shortfall. The budget situation is not likely to get better with probable federal funding cuts and uncertainly with the state budget. In addition, we have a shrinking student population and rising costs, so we are going to have to some hard conversations about what priorities to continue to fund and what are things that we might have to cut or reduce.
2. Retaining our excellent teachers: While we are limited in what we can do in terms of teacher/staff pay and benefits, we can do other things to ensure that CHCCS are a great place to work. This includes ensuring that teachers/staff get breaks during the day, supportive administration, make sure that their voices are heard and represented in our decision-making, and reducing their workloads whenever possible.
3. Math scores and instruction: While test scores certainly don’t always tell the full story, we should be concerned that our Math 1 scores are actually slightly below the state average (number of students that are “not proficient”). We are a district known for its academic excellence, so this seems problematic. We know that math proficiency is key to many jobs in our modern economy. I’ve had so many families share with me their concerns about math instruction and curriculum at all levels. This is an area that I think we need to pay attention to, and we really need to look at how we’re training teachers in math instruction.

3) What’s the best or most important thing the CHCCS board has done in the past year? Additionally, name a decision you believe the board should have handled differently. Please explain your answers.

Best: I love the new “office hours” that board members are holding at various sites in our district. I know that lots of folks in our community have attended these and had really positive feedback. I hope this is an initiative that is continued as it can help connect the community to the board members. Lots of families may not be able to attend evening board meetings but they may be able to attend office hours held on a Saturday. The smaller format also may make it more comfortable for some folks to attend and discuss their concerns.

Handled differently: One issue that keeps getting raised in my discussions with families, staff and students is the decision to switch to 4 x 4 block scheduling in the high schools. Many of those who spoke publicly at board meetings or contacted board members in other avenues were left feeling unheard. I was personally concerned by some public statements made by board members around the issue. 

It is too early to tell if this was the best decision for our high schools, but I think there clearly are many issues that need to be worked out to regain and strengthen trust between the board, high school teachers and families around this issue. For example, some of our teachers have pointed out the fact that the 4×4 schedule requires them to teach an extra class per year and effectively reduces their planning time and by requiring them to take on these extra duties, they essentially get a reduction in pay. We need to have a very public evaluation of the new schedule at the end of this school year and this needs to explicitly include teacher input. 

4) President Trump is working to ramp up deportations and curtail visas. At the same time, the state legislature has passed laws requiring agencies to cooperate with ICE. How can CHCCS support families who may be at risk? And what can the school board do to make sure CHCCS schools are safe for kids in light of these policies?

The current ICE raids are unprecedented in their brazenness and scope. Both our undocumented and documented immigrant students are potentially at risk and I fear that some families may decide that it is too dangerous to allow their students to come to school. I’ve been reading about what Los Angeles schools have been doing to protect their students, they repurposed protocols designed to protect students from active shooters to now protect them from ICE agents. As a result, attendance has actually gone up 2% over last year in the LA district because students and their families feel safer going to school.

To start, we need to train all school staff on protocols in case ICE agents show up to school. We need to consider whether to place schools on lockdown if ICE comes on campus, particularly if they come without judicial warrants. We also need to consider offering virtual instruction if some families feel that it is truly risky to send their children to school.

5) The school board has, over several years, spent down its fund balance, introduced a reduction in force, and declined to renew some teacher contracts. With an expected decrease in enrollment—and uncertainty in federal funding—how would you address the district’s financial issues?

As someone not yet on the board, I realize that I have a lot to learn about the district budgeting process. I agree with Board Member Riza Jenkins that we need to use longer range planning when it comes to the budget. We know that it is unlikely that we will be getting more money, we’re going to have to work with what we have. I’m in favor of going through the budget with a fine-tooth comb, asking tough questions about expenditures and determining if there are areas that we may be able to recoup some savings. We are going to have to make some sacrifices and we need to be honest with our community about our new financial reality. 

6) Should the board move to close an elementary school due to falling enrollment? What other ideas do you have to help CHCCS maintain excellence while receiving less money?

At this point, I think everything needs to be on the table. Yes, we should absolutely consider closing a school if it will help us to fund other programs and make the district financially healthier. I support Chairman Griffin’s plan to complete audits of all major programs to determine if we are getting the full academic return on investment. I know that we will likely make some families and community members extremely unhappy if we decide to close a school or end or reduce popular programs so we must be extremely transparent as to why we are making these tough calls and allow for as much community input as possible.

The reality is that we are likely entering lean times with anticipated federal cuts, rising costs as well as a shrinking student population. We are going to have to make cuts somewhere, but we should still strive to be the best school system in the state and maintain academic excellence. I think we should ask our teachers and staff about their ideas. I’ve had the opportunity to speak with teachers who work in schools all over the district and I am blown away by both their dedication and their brilliance. We need to consult with them, because they likely have ideas that the Board and the Superintendent’s office have never even considered. We have a highly educated population in our district as well as a world class university. It seems to me that we should be tapping into all the potential expertise that may be available to us.

7) The Orange County Board of Commissioners did not meet the CHCCS board’s continuation budget request, even after an increase in the CHCCS special district tax. How can the board best work with the county commission to ensure that CHCCS gets enough money in the future? 

As a newcomer, I certainly have not been privy of all the conversations between the BOE and the Board of Commissioners (BOC) over budgetary issues, I’m only aware of what has been reported in the press. It seems to me that going forward, we should be proactive on building strong, collaborative relationships between the Boards so that we can foster trust and have those tough conversations around funding and priorities. As I said in an earlier question, we need to really analyze our budgets and work to reduce spending where we can and present this to the BOC. We must be able to show both the BOC and the Chapel Hill/Carrboro community that we are good stewards of all the funding that is granted to us.

8) It takes about two minutes to get a free AI chatbot to write a book report, respond to an essay question, or generate a slide deck for a presentation. Regardless of classroom or district policies, students are using AI to complete assignments. How can the CHCCS board best support teachers who are trying to make sure that students are still learning the basics and thinking critically? 

First, we need to recognize that AI is here to stay and that it is imperative that we both train students how to use it responsibly and help teachers and staff use it in ways that potentially reduce their workloads. But teachers desperately need quality professional development to be able to manage its usage.

We need to think about challenges with AI such as data privacy and algorithmic bias. We should consider setting district-wide guidelines for responsible AI usage. And we should engage with families and our greater Chapel Hill/Carrboro community to address concerns about AI usage.

I’ve been looking at other states’ K-12 AI guidance. Maine’s Department of Education has this amazing resource with so many recommendations on how to use AI in classrooms, including an excellent section on AI and academic integrity.

9)If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.

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