Endorsements: School board reform possible, one seat at a time
The Beaufort County Board of Education has done nothing to restore credibility lost to the superintendent’s nepotism scandal last year, but voters can begin that process at the polls Tuesday.
In Sun City, voters should select Patricia Felton-Montgomery over incumbent Paul Roth.
And in Bluffton, school teacher Bridgette Frazier is our recommendation in a four-person field to replace the retiring Laura Bush.
Neither of them see any sense in the board’s tolerance of the nepotism, which earned a reprimand from the state Ethics Commission but nothing from the school board. The board needs new blood, and these two contested races offer that opportunity.
Felton-Montgomery is a fourth-generation educator who brings more than 40 years of experience in teaching and public school administration to the job. She has been a superintendent, principal and guidance counselor, and is now a consultant with experience in addressing the achievement gap in districts nationwide.
Furthermore, she vows not to tolerate nepotism as part of the school district’s culture. She recognizes the board’s role as “keepers of the faith of a community,” and she will do her part to repair that broken faith. She has the skills, experience and personality to be an excellent board member.
Frazier would bring to the school board its rarest perspective: that of a classroom teacher. That viewpoint is sorely missing in educational policy-making throughout the state and nation. Her 11 years of experience as an English teacher, now working at Hardeeville Ridgeland Middle School in Jasper County, makes her stand out in a strong field of four candidates.
She is a native of Bluffton, a 2001 graduate of Hilton Head Island High School, and daughter of the late Oscar Frazier, a popular Bluffton Town Council member and Bluffton’s poet laureate. She is articulate, energetic and has keen insights into one of the school district’s biggest problems: teacher retention.
Two school board seats are uncontested, but these two new faces could make a big difference.
Beaufort City Council
Incumbent Mike McFee and Bay Street business owner Nan Brown Sutton are the best choices for the two seats open on Beaufort City Council.
McFee, 58, has earned a third term on the council through his institutional knowledge of city government and his feel for the issues that matter to the citizens. He is a native of Beaufort who, going back to his days in high school, is an energetic participant in civic affairs.
His strongest focus is on diversifying the economic base of the city and region, but he has learned that it is a slow process. He offers hope with the new Beaufort Digital Corridor. He also focuses on infill in downtown Beaufort and points to city-led improvements on Duke Street as a sign of success.
Sutton, 58, would bring two important perspectives to the council. She would be its only female member. And she has the outlook of a downtown merchant of the past 16 years who has served in leadership roles, including a city parking task force.
Sutton also is a native of Beaufort. She is a newcomer to politics but has watched public policy carefully for the past decade and feels protective of a city she thinks is working well.
Now, if you are less happy with how things are going in Beaufort, you might want to consider the third candidate, former Mayor David Taub. His attributes, beyond experience, include a willingness to challenge the status quo. We are not subscribing to his stated concerns but note that challenging the system can be a healthy thing.
Hilton Head Town Council
Incumbents David Ames and Marc Grant deserve re-election to the Hilton Head Island Town Council on Tuesday.
Grant, 46, is a native of Hilton Head Island and small-business operator who represented Ward 1 well in his first four-year term.
We appreciate his support for updating the Island Recreation Center, paving dirt roads and making sanitary sewer service available to all islanders. His support for the Mitchelville Preservation Project also is important, and some day it may pay off by telling a more complete history of Hilton Head in a meaningful way.
He brings to the council an important voice and has done a good job in his first term of helping to build new bridges between the newcomers and natives, and the gated and non-gated communities.
Ames, 72, is seeking his first full term after winning a special election earlier this year to fill an unexpired term in Ward 3.
Ames can continue to offer the rare perspective of an Ivy League-educated community planner who has participated in shaping Hilton Head since the 1970s.
He knows well the building blocks that made Hilton Head stand out in the competitive field of resort destinations. But, perhaps more importantly, he knows the underlying goals of the community builders and residents who made the community what it is. His concern for what it will take to keep the island as a special place that is competitive in the marketplace is important to Town Council.
Beaufort County Council
St. Helena Island native York Glover is the best choice for the open District 3 seat on Beaufort County Council.
He knows the people of the district, its history, culture, and pluses and minuses.
Glover, 65, has public-service experience as a member of the school board for 16 years. But he also served the public in his 35-year career with the Clemson University Extension Service.
He wants to address drainage issues on St. Helena, but his primary goal may be harder to achieve. He wants to turn around what he calls the “Babylonian exile” of young people reared here having to leave to find well-paying careers. He thinks the proposed port in Jasper County could help bring jobs to the area, and the county must prepare to take advantage of that.
Glover is a proven public servant who would represent his district well.
Other races
In other contested races on Tuesday’s ballot, we support:
▪ Bill Herbkersman of Bluffton for the state House of Representatives District 122 seat. Herbkersman recently received the Coastal Conservation League’s Coastal Steward of the Year Award. He served on a Blue Ribbon Commission that worked for nearly a decade to develop common-sense policies regarding development near beaches.
▪ Shannon Erickson of Beaufort for the state House of Representatives District 124 seat. She set herself apart with House and conference committee leadership in the state’s long-overdue domestic violence law reform.
▪ Michael Rivers of St. Helena Island for the state House of Representatives District 121 seat. He has been a voice of reason over the past year on the Beaufort County Board of Education.
▪ Mark Sanford for the U.S. House of Representatives.
This story was originally published November 6, 2016 at 6:53 AM with the headline "Endorsements: School board reform possible, one seat at a time."