Beaufort County School Board: Elizabeth Hey will focus on well-being of students, teachers
Elizabeth Hey, 36, is a business coach who is running for the Beaufort County School Board. Her priorities include “transparency, parental rights, and issues directly impacting the well-being of our students and teachers.”
Hey is in a race that also includes businessman Peter Kristian and incumbent Melvin Campbell in the Hilton Head district.
The Island Packet sent questionnaires to candidates in contested races and asked them to limit their answers to 150 words.
Here are Hey’s responses:
Do you have any current relation to Beaufort County schools? In what school district or community activities or organizations have you been involved?
Our 9--year-old is currently in the Beaufort County School system and our 3-year-old will follow. We will have school-aged children for the next 15-16 years, thus School Board decisions directly impact our family. I have always been honored to serve our community volunteering at Volunteers in Medicine, Hilton Head Humane Association, Noah’s Arks Rescue, First Presbyterian Church and Hilton Head Community Church.
Business-wise, I have worked as a mental health counselor, substance abuse counselor and support coordinator to people with disabilities. This has provided me with a deep understanding in budgets and balancing services (to include housing) provided to individuals by the state.
Why are you running for the Board of Education? If elected, what will be your priorities?
I am running for a Board of Education seat due to seeing a need for our community to be represented. Many parents and teachers in our community feel their concerns fall on deaf ears and they rarely see improvement. If elected, my priorities will be transparency, parental rights, and issues directly impacting the well-being of our students and teachers.
Some examples of issues we’re facing are: Silent 15-minute lunches for 5-year-old kindergartners, bullying, the unhealthy amount of time our children are on devices during the school day, the fact that 49% of our high school students are failing social studies (per The Island Packet), passing students to the next grade who are failing (this has a negative long-term impact), etc. I have always had a passion for children and advocating on their behalf, I have fought for my own children and am honored to advocate for others.
Scores show that students are still recovering from pre-pandemic academic test scores. What can be done to improve student achievement?
Improving student achievement is multifaceted and there are some correlating issues being overlooked. During/post covid, anxiety and depression rates rose among students and with this we see learning loss, a decrease in comprehension, and/or the inability to retain information; this will continue for affected students until it is addressed. We need to assess whether the current teaching techniques are being effective; what worked pre-covid may not be effective post-covid as our students need to reengage in learning. We need to advocate for less unnecessary testing, taking away from active instructional and learning time. Teaching our students to test is not teaching them to learn. When what we’re doing (currently) is not working, we need to return to tried-and-true methods that do produce results.
There are a couple of school construction projects in the works. Do you believe Beaufort County schools need renovation and expansion?
There are schools in our district that do not need renovation but with the growing number of families moving to call Beaufort County home, expansion is a necessity in many instances.
Schools everywhere are grappling with teacher shortages. What is your plan to make sure Beaufort County has enough teachers and quality teachers?
Most are under the false impression this issue boils down to compensation alone, however what we are hearing from teachers who are leaving or have left the profession is that it is not the main issue. Teachers are feeling disempowered, unsupported and disrespected within the schools and classrooms. Many teachers’ love of teaching dwindles when they’re directed to “teach down” to students, they’re being judged on test scores versus students’ abilities to apply knowledge effectively, etc. Our teachers are being required to be overly concerned with paperwork and procedures at the expense of effectiveness of their teaching and bringing joy to learning. To attract and retain quality teachers we need to show that we, as a community, value top-notch educators. We need to give our teachers the autonomy over their classrooms and lesson planning that they deserve.
If necessary, where would you cut the school budget? What would you consider off-limits to budget cuts?
It would be premature and presumptuous to declare a specific area to cut within a budget when every school’s needs are unique so I cannot declare one line item to be cut across the board. I can say with full confidence that any safety-related spending would be off limits for budget cuts at this point in time.
What do you believe the role of schools in teaching children about topics such as critical race theory and sex education, including the discussion of same-sex relationships?
This question jams three controversial topics into one. I do not advocate for CRT (Critical Race Theory). I believe students should be educated about sex-related topics with a professional or their parents outside of school. We send our children to school to learn reading, writing, math and science, not sex. Teaching children biology and chemistry is very different from teaching relational chemistry and no teachers we know want that burden on them; same-sex relationships or any sexual relationships fall under this umbrella. Any sexual material or conversations invite unnecessary liability for schools and teachers. In addition, I am not a believer in marketing sexual preferences, those are private.
There have recently been a number of security issues such as active shooter threats, weapons in school and fights. What is your plan for making sure schools are safe?
HALO Smart Sensors in bathrooms, wands and metal detectors can and should be used on school grounds, most schools need more SROs (resource officers); all of the above are necessary at the moment, yet all are Band-aid prevention steps for the true, root issue(s) one of which is our students’ mental health and well-being. Addressing mental health in our students is not only something to address/monitor at a school level but also within our community.
Bringing a sense of community into the schools through implementation of volunteer “hall walkers” (a fabulous example being Dads on Duty in Southwood High School in Louisiana) as we live in a loving community equipted to help, but they cannot help if we do not invite them to. This implementation would show students adults in our community who lead by example while providing beneficial mentoring relationships. The above are simply examples of our options.
