Alexa Roberts reflects on the importance of local office before our consequential November election.
By Alexa Roberts
Beacon Media
The first time I walked into my daughter’s kindergarten classroom at Sandhills Farm Life Elementary as a volunteer, only a few weeks into the school year, was the day after Hurricane Matthew. On the lower level of the building, the classrooms had flooded.
The bright, clean, well-organized, eye-catching decorations from the first days of school were now sodden, silty, damaged, and chaotically strewn about the rooms. The hallway was lined with trash bags, cleaning supplies, and boxes of plastic gloves. School staff, parents, students, neighbors, friends, strangers —some with chainsaws clearing fallen trees and limbs — all joined together to help.
We experienced what it means to be a true “community” and gratitude swelled in my heart.
The rest of that year, I volunteered as often as possible and saw the dedication and hard work of everyone working inside a school building. When teachers requested supplies, flexible seating options, snacks, and other items to help their students, I helped get the word out and facilitated collections.
Getting involved in this way, I began to notice things: overcrowded classrooms, broken playground equipment, non-accessible areas of the school, long bus routes, cafeteria debts, students coming to school hungry and in the same clothes for a week, teachers regularly working from before 7 a.m. until well after 5 p.m. I saw the good people were trying to do, and knew things could be better.
I started going to Board of Education meetings and learned about how teaching positions are funded, the calculations used to determine how many teaching positions get funded by the state, and the number of positions being paid out of our local county budget. I went to County Commissioner meetings and learned more about the county budget process. I scheduled meetings with my representatives in the General Assembly and read general statutes and bill proposals.
The meeting rooms were nearly empty besides the elected officials and the local government employees. I wondered how our elected officials were getting feedback from those of us they represent.
This became my full-time (unpaid) job. I was fortunate to have the time to spend attending meetings, researching, asking questions, and volunteering. I wasn’t working, didn’t have multiple kids in multiple activities after school, and my husband supported and encouraged my advocacy.
I shared what I learned with everyone I knew. While my friends were at work on a Tuesday at 10 a.m., I was sitting in these meetings of our local government. When there were proposals to build new housing subdivisions or to put restrictions on what people can have or do on their property, I made sure people knew about public hearings and opportunities to speak.
I’m not surprised when people don’t know that NC ranks 48th out of 50 states in terms of state funding per student. I’m not surprised most people don’t know that In North Carolina, our system sets up a system for each county to decide how much they’re willing to “supplement” teacher salaries — which has a direct impact on teacher recruitment and retention and pits wealthy districts against poorer ones.
If I had been working and busy with family and household obligations, I would not have been able to attend those meetings and do that research and get informed either.
Aside from the “big” races with TV and radio spots, the candidates for local offices like County Commissioner, Board of Education, city/town councils, and register of deeds, are nothing more than names on a paper for many of us.
Yet these are the positions with the greatest impact on our day-to-day lives, deciding our tax rates, what services we receive, how our neighborhoods look, and how our schools run.
And the people elected to these local offices have the power to make positive change. These are the candidates and positions we need to know.
It is election season and, yes, it’s time to vote. People can both register and vote early until November 2. And we all should take the time to do that. But I have another ask for folks, too: Reach out to your candidates in the next couple weeks and decide who you believe you can trust to represent you and your neighbors.
