Swain Board of Education candidates talk issues ahead of primary
Three candidates will compete in the Republican primaries for Swain School Board.
File photo
On March 3, incumbent Lisa Loftis and Republican challengers Jason Lambert and Josh Oliver will compete in the Republican primaries for the Swain County Board of Education. The candidates who receive the most votes will advance to the General Election, where they’ll face Democrats Brandy Monteith and Dannie Shuler in a bid for two seats currently held by Loftis and Republican Robert Taylor, who is not seeking reelection.
The Smoky Mountain News spoke to Loftis and Lambert about issues relevant to voters casting a March ballot. Oliver did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Meet the candidates
Incumbent Lisa Loftis moved to the county as a teenager and briefly attended Swain High School. She is the director of State of Franklin, a private nonprofit health planning agency, and describes herself as “a mom of five with a heart to be involved, serve the families of Swain County and allow Christ to guide me” on her Facebook campaign page.
She said she’s running for another term because she feels “deeply committed to our community and the future of our school.”
“And as a parent and a board member,” Loftis added, “I’m dedicated to just continuing to build on the progress that we’ve made — and to serve the community and just bridge the gap between families and the district.”
She told SMN that during her time in this capacity, she’s most proud of “when the board was able to pass the [Community Eligibility Provision] child nutrition, which gave the ability for all of Swain County schools to have free breakfast and lunch for every student, regardless of income or situation.”
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Republican challenger Jason Lambert grew up in the Qualla Boundary community of Birdtown and came up through Swain County schools. His two sons — one, a sophomore at Western Carolina University, and the other, a sophomore in high school — are products of SCS as well. Though Lambert’s mother, a recently retired SCS administrative assistant, was the educational trendsetter. She’s also an alumna of the high school.
“So really, just being from the community and feeling that I have a background — with my professional experience and education and knowledge base — to contribute. That’s really the intention behind me running. The opportunity presented itself. I felt like, where I’m at in my life, that it made sense,” said Lambert.
While his background is in the public sector, not education, it has encompassed economic development, grants, project planning and capital project administration. He’s worked for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ tribal government and as dean of workforce, innovation and economic development for Southwestern Community College.
Lambert said these days, he works for himself, “doing professional consulting with focus on tribal governments and tribal communities across the country.”
SMN: What are the most pressing needs of Swain County schools? What would be your top priorities as a school board member?
Loftis: I think just continuing to build strong communication, bridging the gap from the district to the parents. Just making sure that people know how to be involved and just feeling connected and that every voice matters.
Lambert: We will have selected a new superintendent [before the school board election], and so the new board is going to have the opportunity to come in during that honeymoon phase and really set the tone and the strategy and the expectations for that.
I think that additionally, the planning and the upcoming construction of the new middle school will be something that the next board will be tasked with … I think funding — that’s a challenge. We are a rural community. If you look at the tax base for Swain County, I think it’s like 13% of the land is taxable. And so even though that’s not under the purview of the board of education, it has implications from student funding to potentially supplemental pay for teachers, recruitment and housing of staff.
SMN: What are your views on teacher pay in Swain County? How should the school system balance livable wages for educators with a limited budget?
Loftis: I feel that our teachers are very valued, and there is always room for growth when it comes to compensation. I know that we have restrictions on a district level, but I would love to see opportunities expand on a local level to supplement teachers … I think just finding practical ways to invest in our teachers that aids in recruitment but also in retention … That’s kind of a hard one to answer, because so much can be out of our hands.
Lambert: It’s my understanding that the local board of education can do some things, but there’s other things that are set from the state level. There’s some things that are in conjunction with the county commissioners and the county leadership.
You support and you want people to make good money and living wages and be able to not just survive but succeed in life. But there’s always that flip side of that coin, of ‘Where is the revenue going to come from?’ And I think that’s a challenge in some of these smaller areas.
SMN: What is your view of school choice — the increasing popularity and support of schools operating outside the county public system? Why?
Loftis: I stand by a parent’s choice for sure. I think that obviously should be in the hands of a parent to decide where their student goes. I think sometimes what works in larger areas, bigger cities with private versus charter versus public, doesn’t necessarily always work in a smaller community … However, I do support anybody’s decision to go to any other school … And I think that there’s always room to bridge gaps and to work together with the charter school, or any other school, for that matter.
Lambert: I support a parent’s right to choose what is best for their child. I am also a product of public school, and we have Mountain Discovery Charter School … So, there is an aspect of school choice in our county. You’ve got Cherokee Central Schools that’s technically located in — the campus is in Swain County. There’s choices within the tribal community of, do you send your kid to Cherokee Central Schools, to Swain County Schools, to Jackson County Schools, or the Kituwah Academy for the language immersion program? Sometimes I don’t know that we think of it in that perspective.
SMN: What is your opinion of the 2023 Parents’ Bill of Rights passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and how those policies have been implemented by the Swain County school system?
Loftis: I support the Parents’ Bill of Rights. I think as parents, they should be really involved in what’s happening with their students, with their kids in school. I never, as a parent myself of five kids, feel like I should be hands off on anything.
I feel confident in the adjustments that we’ve made with some of our policies. When the Parents’ Bill of Rights came out, we worked really closely with administration, also with our lawyers, just making sure that what adjustments needed to be made in policies were made … Obviously, there’s always that openness for ebb and flow. Things can change, and we may have to revisit certain things, but I think that the place we’re in right now is really good.
Lambert: I think my take and my approach would probably draw upon some of the work that I’ve done with policies in general, which is, find which ones are working well, and let’s keep those or expand those. Find which ones are not working well, and determine, ‘How can we make those better?’ Or ‘How can we amend those or include those?’ … But in general, I would hope that my focus would be really on the students, and parents are an extension of those students.
SMN: Are Swain County Schools safe? Are the disciplinary policies generally effective? How should schools balance security measures with students’ right to privacy?
Loftis: I feel like we have a great team that works on safety. That is something that we talk about quite a bit on a board level. Just getting updates on things, but also always just keeping that conversation open about, ‘What we can do better? How can we learn from this experience?’
Lambert: I do feel that our schools are relatively safe … I think our resource officers, the ones that I’ve interacted with, they have really good relationships with the students and understand what their job is. There’s been an incident or two at East Elementary in which not only was it Swain County Sheriff’s Department, but it was also the Cherokee Indian Police Department, and there was great collaboration around that response.
SMN: Swain county has a chronic absenteeism rate of 41%, far above the average in North Carolina. What is your approach to addressing that?
Loftis: That’s definitely something that has been brought up in conversation. I hate to always throw things back on COVID and pandemic, but I think that just shifted a lot of people’s mindset for all different reasons, on all different fronts … And so, I think it might be time that we start to get a little more creative — have some roundtable meetings and just be creative on how we address absenteeism.
Lambert: I think that you’ve got to approach that one looking at the whole child and the whole experience of the children … There’s a lot of students in our area that have grandparents as parents … And so, understanding what services may be needed there, again, understanding what that child is walking through your door with, and what they have faced. And then — “What are they going back to when they walk out the door?” — is really important.
I think [encouraging] afterschool enrichment programs — that’s not necessarily on the front end of the day, but definitely on the back end of the day. Swain County has been fairly successful with getting grant funding for that.
SMN: How might you gauge student success beyond test scores?
Loftis: We obviously just look at proficiency in reading and in math — just how they’re doing on benchmarks — checking in with our own kind of software that we use. But also, to that, I think our [Career and Technical Education] program is absolutely fantastic, and it’s really giving students, starting even at the middle school level, a chance to discover career paths.
Lambert: Part of me, with an economic development background, wants to look at it from an outcome basis, rather than an output basis, and say, “Okay, are we moving the needle? That’s great that we’re graduating kids, but then what? ... Can that individual student be successful in their terms and live the life that they want to live?” For some, that’s going to be, “Are you preparing them for college?” For some, it’s, “Are you providing them the skills to enter a trade school or something of that nature?”
SMN: Is there anything you’d like to add that I haven’t asked about, or that hasn’t been mentioned during this interview?
Loftis: I’m really excited for the next few years, because we’re going to be building this new middle school … And so, the groundbreaking is coming hopefully sometime later this year, and also just seeing that constructed, and just the excitement that’s going to be built around that.
Right after Hurricane Helene hit, I didn’t have cell phone service for a few days, and the first call that I got — knowing that my cell phone service had been restored — was from superintendent Mr. Sale, saying that we had got the grant for the [new] middle school. It was a cool little bright moment of Helene … Something good to hear after that.
Lambert: I feel that I have a good perspective of what the what an appropriate role of a board is. You’re going to get pushed for things that are outside the responsibility of the board, or that legally the board isn’t responsible for ... I think that there’s oppor tunity for some transparency around that. You have to say not just “We can’t do that,” but “Here’s why we can’t do that — because North Carolina General statute says that.”
