Jackie Ray Pierce announced today (Tuesday) that she will run for Whiteville city School Board in November.
Pierce will sign up to run for the seat currently held by Kandle Rogers in District Three. Rogers stepped down as school board chair amid accusations of racism after an incident involving a Whiteville city employee during Hurricane Idalia’s flooding last fall. Rogers was found not guilty of the charges in court, but voluntarily stepped down from the board’s leadership position.
Pierce said she has a “heart for service, not politics.
“We need good decision makers on the school board. The board plays a vital role in preparing our children for the future.” The real estate agent is a member of a number of community organizations, and stays busy with missions work in her church as well as volunteering with the school system.
“My parents were educators,” Pierce said, “and my dad was also a coach. They helped me understand how important a good education is, and I tried to pass that on to my children.”
Pierce said she wants to focus on improving education for all students.
“We already have a good school system” she said. “I want it to be the best.
“When people come to my office to inquire about buying a home here, one of the first questions they ask –sometimes the very first—is how are the schools. Without good schools, we can’t have good growth.”
Pierce said she had not even considered public office until she was approached about running.
“A couple years back it was mentioned, and I started praying about it,” she said. “I sought some wise counsel, and prayed about it some more.”
The national and state trends toward focusing on social issues in schools concerns Pierce.
“I think it is the school’s mission to educate students, and at the same time, represent the values of the community,” she said. “I’m not ashamed to say I made some good decisions with my children, and it shows today now that they are grown. I think we can benefit from more of that in our schools, too.”
While the primary concern “is always the students and their education,” Pierce said, “we need to take care of our teachers.
“Teaching is the only profession that touches every profession,” she said. “We have to attract and keep quality teachers at our schools if we want to have quality schools. It’s simple.”
Filing for city school board seats in Districts Three and Four will be open July 5-19. Seats in county Districts One and Five are also on the November ballot.
