The NHC GOP is excited to announce that we have four amazing Candidates (Pat Bradford, Josie Barnhart, Pete Wildeboer and Melissa Mason) 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 professionally qualified candidates, Pat Bradford.

Trained Teacher, Child Advocate and Business Owner

Pat Bradford was trained to be a teacher of children at Appalachian State University and has taught children and adults in a variety of curriculums. In 2006 she was sworn in by the State of N.C. Courts as a Guardian ad Litem for New Hanover County.  In simple terms, this is a child advocate in the court system. The court determined Pat was an excellent choice to speak up for children.

Besides being a mom and grandmother, Pat is also a small business owner in New Hanover County. She is the senior editor, publisher, and co-founder of the highly acclaimed Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Pat also founded the award-winning weekly newspaper, Lumina News, and served as publisher and editor from 2002 to 2015. As such, she became a government watchdog and has a strong understanding of municipal government. She has literally attended hundreds, if not thousands, of local government board meetings, budget retreats, strategic planning sessions, and even excursions to Washington with local officials lobbying for the county.

As a business owner, Pat has gained common business sense and real word leadership from her successes honed over decades of hiring and firing, determining compensation and bonuses, strategic planning and budgets, vendor management, bids for proposal, comprehending contracts and engaging legal representation. Pat knows how to work as a team, provide real leadership and employ a commonsense approach to addressing issues. Pat possesses every skill set desired to serve as a highly qualified and impactful member of the Board of Education.

Pat will be sworn in as a Member of the Board of Education extremely well prepared to roll up her sleeves and get to work. She has already developed a comprehensive list of issues that need to be addressed and she developed the solutions to address them.

Parental Rights

Pat will take steps to protect parental rights in education and give them their voice back. Trust has been shattered. To facilitate the regrowth of trust, Pat will be a strong advocate for transparency and accountability in all communications between Board Members and parents or guardians. She will work with the Board to identify and eradicate policies that restrict transparency for parents and guardians. She will craft new policies that allow for more community engagement and involvement and generate faster lines of communication. She advocates that all curriculum, lesson plans and materials, and classroom and library book lists should be fully available for parents’ continuous inspection. Parents should also be allowed back into the schools.

A Return to the 4-Core Curriculum

Pat is for curriculum changes. As Pat has stated dozens of times, almost half of the state budget is allocated for education. Yet, students cannot read, write, or do math. The school’s curriculum will be thoroughly examined, and she will be a strong advocate and your voice to return to a learning environment where the 5-core subjects; reading, writing, math, science, and civics are given the highest priority.

School Safety

Pat, like all four of our Board of Education Candidates, recognizes that school safety is of prime concern and an issue that must be constantly examined, and improvements actualized. It is recognized that some very recent positive steps have been implemented. However, there remains potential threats from both inside and outside of the classroom. Children, Teachers, and Students must have a learning environment where all internal and external risks are minimized. Pat will lead a commonsense approach to clearly identifying the risks and proposing solutions.

Curriculum Change

Our public schools are not just pushing anti-family, anti-unity, and anti-American viewpoints. They are robbing children of their innocence. Pat will not support any NHC school employee or elected official who advocate for the implementation of CRT, sexualizing, sexual grooming, or a curriculum that identifies a student as an oppressor or the oppressed based on the color of their skin. She will work with our newly elected board members to eradicate CRT and all its derivatives from the NHC school district.

Teacher Support

• Pat proposes more support for educators in NHC schools. While there might not be one simple solution, Pat believes that one of the issues centers on fiscal compensation. Pat supported the increases recommended, but not adopted, by the recent salary study that was conducted at board direction and taxpayer’s expense. Pat has been an advocate of paying teachers well and additional pay increases for teacher’s assistant, bus drivers, custodians, and cafeteria workers.

Pat is a Proven Leader

Pat understands that the role of a New Hanover County Board of Education member is a very demanding and engaged position. She is resourceful and accustomed to demanding work. She accepts the challenge to step forward, push up her sleeves and shepherd a newly elected conservative charge on this board for the benefit of all children within the county.

Pat says, “The people who got us into this mess, can’t get us out.”

Five of the current school board members exhibit a strong dislike for each other and this causes very contentious, lengthy, and ineffective meetings. Board members frequently exhibit a lack of self-control in what they say and even do.  Serving on the school board appears to be all about them, not all about the children. There should be decorum and respect among board members. Pat has a track record working as a team member in the community for over thirty years and is known to maintain respectful and cooperative relationships even when there are differing viewpoints.  She has the leadership needed and desire to bring a culture of excellence to our county schools.

There are three things you can do help us Restore American First Values in New Hanover Public Schools

1. Be sure to REGISTER and then VOTE. Please note: Early Voting begins October 20, 2022, and Election Day is November 8, 2022.
2. If you can spare one or two hours, we are always in need of volunteers to help out.
3. If you do not have a few hours to volunteer, and most people do not, please consider taking just a few seconds to visit our website, newhanovergop.org, and click on 10 for 10. We are requesting that you consider contributing just 10 dollars for 10 months. The money collected will be used to support Candidates like Pat Bradford.