Orange County Schools Board of Education: Sarah Smylie

Name: Sarah Smylie

Age: 48

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: www.sarahsmylie.org

Occupation and employer: Talent management consultant, Potential Energy Talent Solutions

1. What is your past or current involvement with Orange County Schools? What makes you qualified for this job?

I’ve been a parent in the district for the past 11 years, and a school board member for the past 8 years. On the board, I’ve chaired the Student Achievement Committee and the Finance and Capital Needs Committee for multiple years, and served as Vice Chair. I’ve been the representative to the Family Success Alliance Advisory Board, the Orange County Climate Council, and other liaison roles.

Before serving on the board, I served on the School Improvement Team at River Park. And professionally, I started my career teaching in a Title I public school in New York City. I haven’t been a classroom teacher in a long time, but that experience impacted my whole career, and I have spent the past ~20 years working with education non-profits to strengthen their talent management practices (things like how they recruit, hire, support and develop staff, etc), so they could become more effective organizations that were also great places to work.

2. What are the three main issues that you believe the board of education needs to address in the upcoming year?

1) Accelerating and Expanding Academic Progress: The district has experienced four straight years of positive academic growth through a series of intentional shifts in practice. More and more students are experiencing academic success, and that’s a great thing. That said, far too many students are not experiencing the success we know they can achieve, and disparities persist along lines of race, income, disability and English language learner status. The board must continue to pay close attention to district improvement efforts and ensure we’re making real change. One vehicle for doing this is the next 5-year strategic plan currently being developed. This year will be really important for its successful launch. 

2) Navigating Financial Challenges and Opportunities: Thankfully, OCS is in a better financial position than some other districts, due to careful budget planning and making ongoing adjustments given our available resources. However, like all districts we face significant financial uncertainty in the years ahead given the dismantling of the US Department of Education, cancellation of federal grants programs, lack of a state budget, declining enrollment, and competing priorities for state and local dollars. Will we lose funding? It’s possible. If funding levels decline, there is frankly no “fat” to cut. The board may find itself needing to make impossible choices about where to reduce spending, and will need to do so in a way that carefully weighs the costs and benefits of different resource allocations. And on the “opportunities” side, the board will need to carefully manage decisions on spending the 2022 facilities bond approved by voters, including replacing aging school buildings in a cost-effective way. This is a wonderful opportunity, and we need to make the most of those dollars as well. 

3) Deepening Collaboration and Support: Students, families, and staff have faced such a constant barrage of external challenges in the past couple of years. For example, the financial stress families are feeling is higher than ever, and the targeted demonization of immigrants and LGBTQ+ people has created an environment of fear. In stressful, uncertain times like these, OCS needs to come together to build a deep sense of community and belonging. This is how we can sustain hope and progress in the midst of such challenges. I believe we’ve got to be attentive to the community we’re building in each school. How are we collaborating across our staff, and with families to address challenges and be a circle of support for each student? How are we working with community partners to provide access to opportunities as well as wrap-around support for students and families? 

3. For incumbents, what has been your greatest accomplishment on the board? For newcomers, what change would you bring to the board?

I’m proud of the progress the district has made over these eight years in committing to becoming a more inclusive and equitable district – a place where all students belong and all students succeed. We have absolutely not “arrived” there, and our students urgently need us to get there, but we’ve come miles from where we were through the creation of policy, procedures, professional development, etc. I hesitate to call it an “accomplishment” yet, but I’m glad to have been a part of the progress so far. It is essential that this work continue and deliver real results in terms of how our students experience OCS and what they’re prepared to do in life.

As a board member, I’d say that my biggest impact is that I ask targeted questions that help clarify, push, and keep the discussion grounded in important outcomes. I also provide specific recommendations and offer perspectives that I believe help the district do its work better. I can’t tell you the number of times that someone who came to a board meeting has followed up to say thanks for the questions I ask. In my time on the board, I’ve seen discussions get bogged down in debates that don’t matter, or spend excessive amounts of time on topics that aren’t about the most important work of the district. I aim to keep us focused on what matters most.

4. Nearly every public school district in the state saw a decrease in enrollment this year. With kids leaving for charter and private schools, what can OCS do to convince parents that this is the best option for their students?

1) Most importantly: Focus on delivering an incredible educational experience for the students who are in our schools. If you build it, they will come. This includes the academic experience, extracurricular offerings, and support for whole child well-being. And when this is our main focus, guess what? This is what’s going to benefit the students and families who are ALREADY choosing our schools.

2) Make sure families with young children are hearing about the great things OCS offers. The data shows that very few families who start in OCS when their children enter kindergarten end up leaving for other options. We need to tell our own story more effectively at the point that families are making that first choice. (I’d also like to see our kindergarten outreach begin earlier, and more visible encouragement of school tours. We’ve got a great event coming up in February, but many families have already started exploring options earlier than that. charters and private schools are recruiting students earlier than ever. And our older facilities don’t make a great impression from the outside given their age, so I think it makes a difference to go inside and get to meet people and see the warmth and wonderful things happening.)

3) Shift the timing of when we engage with OCS families who are transitioning from elementary to middle, and middle to high school. I suggested this shift in a student achievement committee meeting this week, actually. While we don’t lose a lot of families at the MS and HS transitions, we do lose some. It seems like families appreciate the district’s opportunities to learn about middle and high schools and what to expect at the next grade level/at the next school. However, they might appreciate getting this information even earlier in the fall, before they’re considering other school options. 

4) Get curious about why families are not choosing OCS, and then figure out which of those root causes we should aim to address. Not everyone is going to choose OCS, for a variety of reasons. That’s OK. But there may be some barriers that are worth tackling. Perhaps we could survey local families who’ve chosen charter or private schools to learn more. 

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

The most important thing the board has done this year: Deciding with district leadership to report on the same metrics the same way every time, on a specific cadence. In the past, each time the board received a report on key outcomes (attendance, student discipline, etc.), different metrics were reported. This made it impossible to understand long-term trends over the course of the year or multiple years. By using a consistent set of metrics, we will be able to make sense of our progress, or lack thereof, over time. 

A decision to handle differently: I believe the board/district should have done more to proactively and broadly communicate support and provide clarity to families and to support staff during the immigration surge in the Triangle this fall. Many students, families, and staff were clearly experiencing a lot of fear, and while staff members such as family liaisons and social workers and teachers were reaching out to families individually and working hard to be supportive, I think there’s more we should have done.

6. With state and federal funding declining, the Orange County Board of Commissioners fell short in 2025 of funding the district’s continuation request. OCS is committed to equity in education, but the “achievement gap” between white students and students of color persists. How can the district better fulfill its most basic mission of educating every child?

Like other districts, OCS has long-standing gaps in things like academic outcomes, disciplinary outcomes, graduation outcomes, and other measures. These gaps exist along lines of race, family income, disability status, and English language learner status. I consider this — the fact that we’re not preparing all OCS graduates for a life of success and choice — a persistent, urgent moral failing, and something to tackle with everything we’ve got. Now, the funding challenges are real, and they have concrete impact, but change is absolutely possible. We see examples of that in our district and other districts.

I do believe that OCS is putting strategies in place to move the needle, and we’re starting to see the first small fruits of that: On state academic testing, all student groups have improved significantly over the past four years, and the composite proficiency rate for Black and Hispanic students has improved a bit faster, so the gap is now a little smaller than it was. Improvements for students with disabilities and English language learners are more mixed. On one hand, these student groups have had major growth to celebrate: Two and three times as many students in these groups are now proficient on state tests compared to four years ago. On the other hand, their gaps with peers have actually grown, because there was more growth for students without disability and those who were not English language learners.

So what can we do? Too often, districts pursue one initiative, and then shift direction entirely and introduce a whole new fad. It’s exhausting for staff, and deeply ineffective. Real change comes from clarity about what we’re trying to do, and consistency in follow-through. Specifically, the district is focused on a set of strategies that includes: using high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum; improving instruction quality, particularly a growing emphasis on explicit instruction where it’s appropriate; creating transparent academic goals for each student; using a consistent system to monitor progress towards those goals and to adjust teaching strategies in response; building the effectiveness of professional learning communities (PLCs); and developing principals and other administrators as instructional leaders of their buildings. From there, it’s all about “getting better at getting better” – continuously reflecting, seeing what’s working and what isn’t, and making changes to keep improving. As part of this process, we’ve also got to look for patterns and understand them. For example, if we’re seeing that our strategies aren’t as effective for students with disabilities, why, and what should we change or add? I believe that if we can maintain focus, and get really good at these reflection cycles, we can get much better at meeting the diverse needs of all students and we’re going to see that gap-closing happening faster. 

7. North Carolina recently received an “F” grade from the Education Law Center, which reported that the state is second to last in average funding per student. As of January 2025, the state legislature hasn’t passed a budget, leaving educators without a cost-of-living adjustment. What can the OCS board do to help student outcomes with a state government that seems uninterested in supporting public schools?

State and federal funding for public education is absolutely inadequate, and while Orange County BOCC has tried to step up via its local funding, overall we just do not have the funding our students deserve. Furthermore, our teachers and staff deserve to be compensated well for the work they do! Because we’re the only state in the nation without a budget this year, teachers have seen their health insurance costs go up this year, while not receiving a cost-of-living increase. That’s basically a pay cut. It’s not acceptable.

Looking ahead, we very well may experience even greater cuts in the future, with the dismantling of the US Department of Education. I am proud of how our district has managed these difficult financial straits so far, and avoided some of the financial crises we’ve seen in other districts recently. Moving forward, we’ve got to continue to manage our budget extremely carefully, aiming to get the most value out of every dollar. And we’ve got to advocate for what we need. I’m proud of the progress that OCS has made despite the headwinds we’ve faced. 

8. Across the Triangle, thousands of students have stayed home from school during federal immigration enforcement sweeps. What can the board realistically do to make OCS a welcoming and safe environment for all students, regardless of immigration status?

These immigration enforcement surges in communities across the country have instilled fear and wreaked chaos, and the government’s actions have grown increasingly unconstitutional. While there are aspects of this that are outside of our control, we’ve got to do all we can to make our schools welcoming, safe places for students, so they can focus on learning and experience a stable place of refuge from the stressors outside of school. In January 2025, I co-wrote a board resolution with my colleague Wendy Padilla that described these harms and directed the district in certain ways. I would like the things named in that resolution to be expanded upon. For example:

• Policy 5120: I’d like to see stronger language that aligns to the following part of the resolution, in which the Board “recognizes a responsibility to minimize disruptions to the learning environment, and therefore reserves the right to deny entry to school system property unless there is a legal right of entry or exigent circumstances indicating a threat to public safety. To ensure that any such requests by immigration officials are handled appropriately and lawfully, such requests should be directed to the principal, who will follow district procedures including validating the individual’s authorization, consulting with the superintendent or designee, who may consult with legal counsel to ensure compliance with applicable laws, and taking reasonable steps to notify a parent or legal guardian if the request involves a student.” 
• Staff Support: While principals and staff have been instructed on how to handle the arrival of DHS on campus, the resolution didn’t include specifics on how to prepare staff for potential scenarios they might encounter. Given the increasingly violent and unconstitutional approach the federal government is now taking in Minnesota, including attempting to board a school bus and deploying pepper spray at students and teachers on a school campus and waiting at bus stops, I believe more should be done to prepare staff for potential scenarios they might encounter, either in terms of law enforcement activity or how students might be manifesting their challenges and how to respond to that. 
• Family Support: While we have staff members like social workers, counselors, and family liaisons who are available if a family has concerns, I believe we should do more to make information proactively available without a family needing to initiate outreach (ex: FAQs, links to resources, information about relevant district policies, etc.). 

9. Many districts are struggling with teacher recruitment. What are your ideas for recruiting and retaining educators?

I want OCS to be the best place for teachers to work in North Carolina. The biggest progress in education happens when a dedicated team of educators work together in their schools to make continuous improvements for a sustained period of time. There is also a lot of competition in our area for teachers. To keep and attract great teachers, we need to make sure that OCS is a great place to work – a place where teachers work together towards inspiring goals in a positive and supportive climate. We need to respect and compensate our staff and give them space to collaborate and learn from each other. 

My general philosophy is that the best way to solve our biggest challenges as a district is to involve the people experiencing those challenges in the problem-solving. The question about how to strengthen our recruitment, retention and overall appreciation and morale is no different! The district should directly engage teachers and other staff members to figure out where the pain points are, and what to do next. In recent years, the Teachers of the Year roundtable has zeroed in on particular pain points in the Teacher Working Conditions survey, generated new ideas for tackling those challenges, and brought those things back to their schools in a refinement process. This has gone well, and I’d like to see this approach expanded. Because that survey is only every other year, the district is also going to conduct a similar survey in the “off years,” to see how we’re progressing. 

Some additional thoughts:
1) Compensation matters for recruitment and retention, and I want to see supplements increased. We’re not keeping pace with neighboring districts. We also should fully fund the step increases recommended by a compensation study that was conducted a couple of years ago. So far, the county has not provided this funding despite our requests for several years in a row. Adequate compensation is a major priority for any additional funding we might receive, or anywhere we’re able to identify savings.
2) We’ve got to continue intentional outreach and teacher recruitment with HBCUs and HSIs, so that our teacher diversity more closely aligns to our student diversity.
3) I’m excited about a new grant OCS recently received from NC Teaching Fellows to build a pipeline for developing our own students into our future teachers. 
4) School culture matters, and school principals “make the weather” in terms of the culture of the school and what they’re modeling and cultivating. We need to continue developing the capacity of principals (and APs and other building leaders) to cultivate strong, positive school cultures. When a school team has a shared vision of where they’re going and how to get there, plus mutual trust and respect, plus a humble desire to collaborate to get where they’re going, incredible things can happen, and that’s a place teachers want to be. This is what will draw people to the district via word-of-mouth, and what will keep them here.

10. 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 OCS board best support teachers who are trying to make sure that students are still learning the basics and thinking critically?

This is an important question! When the board received an AI update in November, I brought up this recent MIT study, which showed concerning differences in brain activity and memory/recall when students wrote papers using LLMs vs. independently. In the age of AI, it’s more urgent than ever that we cultivate strong critical thinking skills in our students. OCS is the process of developing our next strategic plan, and I’d like to see recognition of the importance of developing critical thinking and analytical skills in our students, as part of readying them for the future. 

While I am personally conflicted about the rise of AI on multiple levels (social, environmental, etc.), some types of artificial intelligence do offer value. Some AI tools for teachers could save them some time. Some tools for students can provide assistive support for those with learning disabilities. The district needs to proceed with careful deliberation about where and how to integrate AI into our practices, and also must prepare students to be critical consumers of these tools. I appreciate that OCS is doing that, for example by carefully vetting AI tools before approving them, and developing guidelines for how students at different grade levels should/should not be engaging with AI. 

Moving forward, additional professional development for teachers will be essential. I also hope that teaching students explicitly about the weaknesses of current LLMs (biases, hallucinations, impact on their own cognition) can build their ability to think critically about these tools and be less inclined to over-rely on them.

11. If there is anything else you would like to address, please do so here.