Wake County Schools school board, representing District 7
Chris Heagarty
Are you an incumbent?
Yes
1. Do you support the City of Raleigh’s $275 million parks bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
2. Do you support the $353.2 million Wake Tech bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
3. Do you support the $530.7 million Wake County schools bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
4. If elected, what are your plans for working with the Wake County Board of Commissioners to achieve our schools’ needs?
I am the Vice Chair of the Board of Education and I have worked collaboratively with our county commissioners to include supplemental school funding in the county budget that was crucial in our efforts to recruit and retain important school staff. Additionally, I have worked to bring county commissioners into our facilities to better understand our capital construction and renovation needs to ensure that our school infrastructure can keep pace with Wake County's rapid growth. Finally, I am working with county commissioners on a series of local agreements for shared use of school and county facilities that will allow us get more value from our construction dollars without duplicating similar projects.
5. How do you plan to engage and build trust with parents, employers, and other stakeholders of your school district?
I am active and engaged with the community through our PTA meetings, board advisory council meetings, public forums, and other school-based functions. I am also a member of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce, and a frequent participant in events with the Cary Chamber of Commerce. One on one engagement and networking is the most effective way to build personal relationships and trust and to have meaningful conversations about community concerns and helps to clarify and provide context for communications that can be one-sided or incomplete when presented only on-line or through social media.
6. What will you do to improve school safety in Wake County?
We need to maintain our current school resource officer program and work with local law enforcement to encourage community police presence in the neighborhoods around our schools. Most lock-down
situations affecting our elementary schools are not from any direct threat to the school but due to gun violence in the surrounding neighborhoods. Additional security improvements need to be made to restrict access and improve security in our school buildings. A new visitor management system is being installed in every school to improve screening and identification of potential threats.
7. What are the growing trends in student needs, and how should the Wake County Public School System address them?
In order to accelerate academic recovery from time lost during the pandemic, we must focus efforts on
those most deeply impacted by time out of school, our K-5 students who were still in the process of
developing literacy skills during the temporary shift to virtual learning. We have mobilized and are training hundreds of volunteers to offer "high dosage" tutoring in our schools for these students through our Wake Together program. This program is made possible by incredible community support and involvement of organizations like the YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other private partners. More information about the Wake Together program is available at: http://waketogether.ymcatriangle.org/
8. How do you propose the Wake County Public School System overcome its current labor shortage? Please give specific steps you wish to see taken.
Compensation is the most important issue for addressing our current labor shortage, for both teachers and for non-certified staff such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers. NC teachers don't receive adequate salaries from the legislature, with NC's current average teacher salary ranking about 40th in the nation this school year. However, the larger issue is comparing teacher salaries to other professions with similar educational requirements, where NC teachers make on average 25.3% less than other occupations with similar education and longevity. Fewer college students are seeking Education degrees because of low pay. Even where Wake County is able to supplement local teacher salaries with funds from the county budget, this is off-set by the much higher cost of living in Wake County than other NC counties, and still lags below what teachers are paid in similar metro areas in other states. These compensation issues mean that local teachers often leave their current position for better teaching positions in other states or leave the professional for better paying jobs. Similarly our other school staff can make much better money in similar professions in the private sector and even in other areas of government where city and county bus drivers earn much more than school bus drivers. There must be additional funding for these positions in order to staff our schools and failure to do so leaves vacancies that contribute to higher workloads for existing staff, creating more stress and fueling even more departures. Alternatives such as "cut waste" or "pay management less" fail to acknowledge the lean administrative budgets of the schools and the comparative salary studies that show our school administrators and management are underpaid compared to their peers in similar markets.
9. What should the school system focus on to ensure children are ready for the jobs of tomorrow?
Some candidates advocate a "return to the basics" backward looking approach. However, our schools produce creative, collaborative critical thinking students that are in high demand by colleges and employers, as evidenced by the aggressive recruiting of our students by out of state colleges, universities, and military academies, the millions of dollars received in merit-based scholarships and financial assistance to recruit them, and by employers hiring directly from high school. Similarly, our region continues to attract high skill high wage jobs by employers who cite our great public schools as the reason they move their companies here. This is no accident, but is the results of years of intentional work by the school district, with input from the community and business leaders, to prepare students for real-world success. Our new strategic plan for our schools takes these critical executive skills and will add a new emphasis on financial and digital literacy for our students. In terms of specific career preparation, our district has an amazing career and technical education program that is limited only by the ability to recruit professionals into these teaching positions at salaries notably below typical salaries for those careers. Our partnerships with Wake Technical Community College and our Early College programs allow thousands of high school students to graduate with a diploma, an associates degree, plus transferrable college credit in fields like health care and life sciences, information sciences and biotechnology, and many STEM fields.
Are you an incumbent?
Yes
1. Do you support the City of Raleigh’s $275 million parks bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
2. Do you support the $353.2 million Wake Tech bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
3. Do you support the $530.7 million Wake County schools bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
4. If elected, what are your plans for working with the Wake County Board of Commissioners to achieve our schools’ needs?
I am the Vice Chair of the Board of Education and I have worked collaboratively with our county commissioners to include supplemental school funding in the county budget that was crucial in our efforts to recruit and retain important school staff. Additionally, I have worked to bring county commissioners into our facilities to better understand our capital construction and renovation needs to ensure that our school infrastructure can keep pace with Wake County's rapid growth. Finally, I am working with county commissioners on a series of local agreements for shared use of school and county facilities that will allow us get more value from our construction dollars without duplicating similar projects.
5. How do you plan to engage and build trust with parents, employers, and other stakeholders of your school district?
I am active and engaged with the community through our PTA meetings, board advisory council meetings, public forums, and other school-based functions. I am also a member of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce, and a frequent participant in events with the Cary Chamber of Commerce. One on one engagement and networking is the most effective way to build personal relationships and trust and to have meaningful conversations about community concerns and helps to clarify and provide context for communications that can be one-sided or incomplete when presented only on-line or through social media.
6. What will you do to improve school safety in Wake County?
We need to maintain our current school resource officer program and work with local law enforcement to encourage community police presence in the neighborhoods around our schools. Most lock-down
situations affecting our elementary schools are not from any direct threat to the school but due to gun violence in the surrounding neighborhoods. Additional security improvements need to be made to restrict access and improve security in our school buildings. A new visitor management system is being installed in every school to improve screening and identification of potential threats.
7. What are the growing trends in student needs, and how should the Wake County Public School System address them?
In order to accelerate academic recovery from time lost during the pandemic, we must focus efforts on
those most deeply impacted by time out of school, our K-5 students who were still in the process of
developing literacy skills during the temporary shift to virtual learning. We have mobilized and are training hundreds of volunteers to offer "high dosage" tutoring in our schools for these students through our Wake Together program. This program is made possible by incredible community support and involvement of organizations like the YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other private partners. More information about the Wake Together program is available at: http://waketogether.ymcatriangle.org/
8. How do you propose the Wake County Public School System overcome its current labor shortage? Please give specific steps you wish to see taken.
Compensation is the most important issue for addressing our current labor shortage, for both teachers and for non-certified staff such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers. NC teachers don't receive adequate salaries from the legislature, with NC's current average teacher salary ranking about 40th in the nation this school year. However, the larger issue is comparing teacher salaries to other professions with similar educational requirements, where NC teachers make on average 25.3% less than other occupations with similar education and longevity. Fewer college students are seeking Education degrees because of low pay. Even where Wake County is able to supplement local teacher salaries with funds from the county budget, this is off-set by the much higher cost of living in Wake County than other NC counties, and still lags below what teachers are paid in similar metro areas in other states. These compensation issues mean that local teachers often leave their current position for better teaching positions in other states or leave the professional for better paying jobs. Similarly our other school staff can make much better money in similar professions in the private sector and even in other areas of government where city and county bus drivers earn much more than school bus drivers. There must be additional funding for these positions in order to staff our schools and failure to do so leaves vacancies that contribute to higher workloads for existing staff, creating more stress and fueling even more departures. Alternatives such as "cut waste" or "pay management less" fail to acknowledge the lean administrative budgets of the schools and the comparative salary studies that show our school administrators and management are underpaid compared to their peers in similar markets.
9. What should the school system focus on to ensure children are ready for the jobs of tomorrow?
Some candidates advocate a "return to the basics" backward looking approach. However, our schools produce creative, collaborative critical thinking students that are in high demand by colleges and employers, as evidenced by the aggressive recruiting of our students by out of state colleges, universities, and military academies, the millions of dollars received in merit-based scholarships and financial assistance to recruit them, and by employers hiring directly from high school. Similarly, our region continues to attract high skill high wage jobs by employers who cite our great public schools as the reason they move their companies here. This is no accident, but is the results of years of intentional work by the school district, with input from the community and business leaders, to prepare students for real-world success. Our new strategic plan for our schools takes these critical executive skills and will add a new emphasis on financial and digital literacy for our students. In terms of specific career preparation, our district has an amazing career and technical education program that is limited only by the ability to recruit professionals into these teaching positions at salaries notably below typical salaries for those careers. Our partnerships with Wake Technical Community College and our Early College programs allow thousands of high school students to graduate with a diploma, an associates degree, plus transferrable college credit in fields like health care and life sciences, information sciences and biotechnology, and many STEM fields.
