The NHC GOP is excited to announce that we have four amazing Candidates (Melissa Mason, Josie Barnhart, Pete Wildeboer and Pat Bradford) who will restore conservative values to the New Hanover County Board of Education. In today’s Spotlight we want to introduce you to one of our exceptional and extremely professionally qualified candidates, Melissa Mason.
Melissa Mason is an educator with 17 years of experience, a mom with two kids enrolled in NHCS, and a military wife. She currently teaches American Sign Language at Cape Fear Community College. She spent 13 years as a speech therapist at Rochester School for the Deaf. As a speech therapist, she worked in small groups and individually with Deaf students. She successfully collaborated with classroom teachers to develop and implement Individualized Education Plans (IEP) for students 5 to 21 years of age.
Integrity & Honesty
Parents have lost trust in those who hold positions on the current Board of Education. The social justice indoctrination of children is being conducted without parents being informed. One example that highlights the lack of integrity in leadership is the secretive Equity summit that occurred November 19, 2022. Students were selected to take part based on undisclosed criteria. Under the guise of a “safe space,” the students were told to keep the meeting private. Impromptu meetings where children are asked to keep secrets from parents is clearly dishonest and lacks integrity. When Melissa is sworn in as a member of the Board of Education, she will ensure parents are always informed and be one-hundred percent transparent and honest in response to parents’ concerns.
Spending within the schools also lacks integrity and honesty. The current board of education has all but given up oversight by handing over too much control to the superintendent. Our superintendent has abused funding by creating even more central office positions for selected allies, all done without board approval. The New Hanover County School District has more money with worse performance compared with neighboring Pender County. NHC spends $11,202 per pupil vs. Pender at $10,005 per pupil, while NHC scores worse than Pender County for 5 out of the 7 on state tests. Melissa will increase transparency so the community will know their tax dollars are being spent wisely.
Parent Rights
Parent rights are under attack in New Hanover County. The COVID lockdown created an opportunity for the board to usher in policies and curriculum changes that most parents did not want or approve. Parents should have active consent (Opt-In), instead of implied consent (Opt-Out) for any deviation from the core curriculum. Any topic remotely associated with social indoctrination or gender self-identification must be approved by the parent or guardian. Clandestine methods which erode parents’ right by using vague curriculums, cryptic language contained in surveys, and cunningly phrased consent forms will no longer be tolerated. Consent forms should not look like Big Tech user agreements. Parents should be able to easily understand what they are signing. Melissa will fight to repeal policies that keep student information from parents, and will approach parents as partners, not adversaries.
“As a parent, I have never — nor will I ever — co-parent with any government entity.” – Melissa Mason
Parents Know What is Best for Their Children
Teachers and administrators are not trained medical experts, therapists, or counselors. Parents know their kids best and need to be the decision-makers for medical needs, from mask wearing to mental health. Your child’s emotions should not be diagnosed or treated by anyone but the parents’ chosen health providers. Teachers should not be put in a position of acting as therapists Social Emotional Learning (SEL) because they, simply, are not qualified to do so. Teachers are educators and should only be responsible for teaching. Melissa has a straightforward objective: schools need to limit interaction with students and get back to healthy boundaries, so parents can focus on parenting and teachers can focus on teaching.
A Return to Curriculum That Prepares Children for the Future
NHC schools are failing our kids! Kids are graduating unprepared for adulthood, with little to no hope of fulfilling the American Dream. Our children are being robbed of learning the basics in favor of wasting time on less important programs like SEL and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Melissa Mason will focus on a return to the core curriculum that will prepare New Hanover’s children for the future and eliminate the hours currently dedicated on social justice programs and indoctrination.
Safety
Learning is done best in a place where kids feel safe. The school shooting at New Hanover Highschool and the nationwide mass shootings at schools are sad reminders that we must all take school safety seriously. Melissa Mason understands the importance of safety. Melissa has a goal of providing a consistent presence of two or more School Resource Officers (SROs) in every school. Melissa will collaborate with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s office, Wilmington Police Department, and reach out to the vast amount of retired police, military members, and fire fighters to fill in the gap for our children to have enough SROs. She advocates for increased parent and community involvement at the schools.
There are three things you can do help us Restore America First Values in New Hanover Public Schools
- Be sure to REGISTER and then VOTE. Please note: Early Voting begins October 20, 2022, and Election Day is November 8, 2022.
- If you can spare one or two hours, we are always in need of volunteers to help out.
- We are requesting that you consider contributing just $10 for 10 months. The money collected will be used to support Candidates like Melissa Mason.
