A recent gathering of the Tar River Republican Women club at a downtown Nashville restaurant gave three candidates a chance to speak to voters about the values they would champion if elected.
Two Nash County Board of Education members and a third candidate seeking election to the school board in the Nov. 5 general election told the crowd at the gathering, held the evening of July 11, that they were politically conservative in their viewpoints.
The election for seats on the school board are supposed to be nonpartisan, but school board members Chris Bissette and Dean Edwards and candidate Linwood Weeks said their views align with Republican views.
Bissette is currently the fire marshal in Zebulon.
Due to a recently finalized demerger and legislation approved by the N.C. General Assembly, the Nash County school board is shrinking from an 11-member panel to a seven-member panel.
Bissette was first elected in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022. He is running for the District 4 seat in November.
Bissette told the Tar River Republican Women club gathering that he is running again because he wants to make sure the politically conservative viewpoint is kept in District 4. He drew applause for that remark.
Bissette also said that he considers himself a huge spokesperson and voice for the school district’s staff and that many times he gets phone calls and hears things about teachers.
Specifically, Bissette said that he hears remarks along the lines of, “They’re teaching their own this” and “They’re teaching their own that” from concerned constituents.
“And when I hear it, I run to it. I nip it in the bud,” he said. “I don’t win every fight, but you know what? They know I’m watching,” he said.
Because of the lower number of seats on the school board and the redrawing of school district boundaries, there are instances in which current school board members will compete against each other in November for a seat on the reconfigured board.
Bissette is facing school board member Bill Sharpe in the District 4 race.
Edwards had not officially entered the Nov. 5 general election contest but said over the phone Monday that he is going to file to run for the District 3 seat.
It is not yet clear if Edwards will face a challenger in District 3. The filing deadline is at noon Friday.
Edwards, like Bissette, was first elected in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022. Edwards is retired from the N.C. Highway Patrol and is currently assistant chief of police at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Edwards, who makes clear his belief in the need for transparency, told the gathering’s attendees that he never forgets one of the first days as a school board member when he walked into what was the Nash-Rocky Mount Public School’s central office.
Edwards said that he said, “Hey, help me out. Let me see your budget.”
Edwards said that the response he received was, “Excuse me?” and that he again said, “Let me see your budget.”
He said that he received repeated responses of, “Um,” which drew laughter from the gathering.
He said that he eventually got hold of a copy of the budget, grabbed hold of a few other items he wanted to review and also started listening to the people in his district who were making phone calls.
Edwards said that on the positive side, last year was the first year that Nash County Public Schools was not rated as low performing by the state, which prompted applause from the attendees. Edwards said that he is hoping for a good report this year as well.
Weeks is running for the District 5 seat.
Weeks was an administrator with Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools and he sought election to the school board a decade ago.
“The demerger was the greatest thing that ever happened,” Weeks told the gathering.
Prior to the demerger, students living on the Edgecombe County side of Rocky Mount attended public schools in what was then the Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools system.
Weeks made clear that he believes students living in Edgecombe County should be attending Edgecombe County Public Schools.
Weeks also said he believes the demerger will effectively increase test scores in the Nash County Public Schools system.
“The more we raise the level of education for our kids, the better it’s going to be for everybody,” Weeks said.
He also told the gathering that although he politically is independent, he has been voting Republican.
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