Candidates hoping to earn a place on the St. Mary’s County Board of Education were able to voice their concerns during a District 4 public forum last week at the Lexington Park library.
The April 25 debate was originally scheduled to be held April 11 along with those for at-large, District 2 and the judge races, but the District 4 event was pushed ahead after just Charles L.V. Carrington was in attendance. Incumbent Mary Washington, who said she had an illness and death in family, and David Drys, who said he was on a trip abroad, were unable to make the original event.
Washington, who has served 27 years on the school board, was at the school meeting April 24, but was not present at the 54-minute debate the following night.
The two candidates in attendance had three minutes to make opening remarks, answered submitted questions from the audience and had two minutes for closing remarks.
“I am a product of the St. Mary’s County school system, and many of the same problems I saw when I was in school still exist or have worsened,” said Carrington, who is an IT manager with the federal government and a small business owner. “I have spoken with parents and other concerned members of the community who see the same issues and it frustrates me. It takes a village to raise a child so we certainly need to bridge the gap between the schoolhouse and the household.”
“The reason I’m running for the school board is that more or less our children were born and raised here,” said Drys, who moved to St. Mary’s from Detroit 20 years ago and whose two children have now graduated from St. Mary’s schools. “They went through the school system and had an excellent education that they were given in that school system. What I want o ensure is that education, that level, that commitment of those teachers, the facilities, the programs, all of those things remain intact, while not bankrupting the rest of the county.”
In a submitted statement read by St. Mary’s County League of Women Voters President Kathleen Werner, Washington said she had the “time, dedication and commitment to do an excellent job. The board of education is my calling, passion and purpose in life.”
Werner asked the candidates how they would improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the public schools.
Drys said they are “an important factor in education. The school system should reflect the community around it. We need to ensure we’re teaching a whole student, not just the good things or the bad things, but the entire environment around them.”
Carrington said the classroom needs to “look a lot like what the community represents, so if you have 40% of people of color in the community then the types of teachers you have should be about 40% of people of color as well,” and added the county should “focus on hiring teachers that look like the community. We all know that we learn best when we see something that we recognize.”
When asked his thoughts on having term limits, Carrington said, “That’s a good thing because you need to have fresh ideas, but also do it in a way that makes sense. If someone does an excellent job, the community probably wants them there … While we should not block someone’s public service, I do think it’s important for those who have excellent public service to … raise up the next generation so we can keep this thing going.”
Drys said he was an “advocate for term limits to the point of making it fit the situation, ensuring that you don’t have that knowledge base drained. But at the end of the day there’s a reason for term limits. We need that turnover and we need that fresh blood and ideas and faces in those places of leadership.”
Primary Election Day will be held May 14 after a week of early voting from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 2 to 9 at the Bay District, Mechanicsville and Hollywood firehouses.
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