Editor's Note: All candidates were sent two questionnaires by the News + Record. The first asked general questions about candidates and their goals; the second asked office-specific policy questions.
Moore only submitted the second questionnaire.
Questions are indicated in bold, any question left blank was unanswered by the candidate.
One of the primary roles of the Board of Education is allocating district funding. Has the district properly utilized its funds, including federal emergency COVID-19 (ESSER) funds, in recent years?
To my understanding, some of the funds has been used for teacher and admin bonuses, with some plans for future budget expenditures through the next two years.
What new projects or initiatives would you like to see funded in the coming term?
Some initiatives such as $5 to 11 million on new office headquarters and warehousing make little sense since that expenditure does nothing for primary needed improvements in our education system which is drastic improvement in student proficiency. I propose that money be used for attracting new teachers and hiring professional tutors that will focus on the education gaps in Reading Comprehension, Writing and Math.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the education system today? What would you do as a member of the Board of Education to help address those problems?
The biggest challenge is the lack of focus on Academic Excellence. Despite the current administrations recent glorious self-pat on the back of the of the miniscule overall improvements they just announced, the current proficiency of the county Hispanic students was 42% and among Black students of 35%. These dismal results were not discussed in the latest Board meeting and have not changed much over the years. This is the most egregious racial gap in our education system.
How much supervision should parents have when it comes to a teacher’s curriculum?
According to the Board’s Published 10 Guidelines, Number 2 behind Student success, which as aforementioned has not been met, Parental Involvement describes Excellence in Education needs Parental involvement which this board does not encourage nor is it responsive to parents concerns nor does it involve parents in designing improvement plans or providing transparency.
What role should social issues like race, sexuality and gender play in the classroom?
The focus on these topics are supposed to be merely a discussion according to the current board. If it is just a discussion, then we don’t need to re-design our current education system. If the focus is to deal with biases that are currently in place, then the focus again, needs to be dealing with the very glaring disparity with the educational results as mentioned above with Hispanic and Black student educational results.
Do you believe the current Board of Education is inclusive of school community stakeholders? Why or why not?
As mentioned above, the lack of Parental involvement is not meeting the Guidelines. I recommend that all class curriculum and class material descriptions be sent to all parents for signoff. In addition, I recommend as Parents Board be started with a group of 3-5 parents from each school, NOT ASSIGNED BY THE ADMINISTRATION. These boards should be selected by parents, and divided by school age groups, Elementary, Middle, High Schools. These Parental Boards should advise on educational material and provide guidance on getting parental involvement and focused on how we collectively improve Educational Excellence.
Academic and operational challenges remain in the wake of COVID-19 both in CCS and across the state. What do you believe needs to be done to improve upon issues like learning loss and teacher vacancies in Chatham County?
As mentioned above, we need to reallocate resources to focus on professional tutors and additional teachers to deal with all educational gaps, but also the COVID gaps. No new moneys for offices, sport complexes or non-educational critical line items until these gaps are closed.
More information about Tim Moore can be found at https://www.timmooreforboardofeducation.com.