Macon County School Board District 4 candidates Jim Breedlove and John deVille participated in an event on Sunday, Aug. 25 answering questions about math, science, and their campaigns. The event inspired by the popular gameshow ‘Are you Smarter than a 5th grader?’ was hosted by the Macon County Young Progressive Voters (MCYPV) and held at Franklin High School.
The two candidates will be competing at the polls this November, but on Sunday they worked together in a trivia game against two retired teachers, Marcia Doty and Sue Feldkamp. The show was in part MC-ed by special guest Mo Green, who is currently running for North Carolina Super Intendent of Public Instruction. Green spoke on the importance of positive language when talking about public schools. He said that he believes North Carolina schools can exceed expectations despite the system’s financial struggles.
While the teachers had the candidates beaten by the end of the night, they had some extra credit in the form of campaign questions. Both candidates were given a series of questions about their plans for the school board, their opinions on its duties, and more.
Breedlove and deVille used these questions, and the additional time allotted to them to promote themselves. The election is a nonpartisan race for District 4 of Macon County.
Breedlove is the current board chairman for the board of education and has been on the board for 16 years. He has strongly pushed for a new high school facility in Macon county, which was officially approved in a 3-2 vote in August of this year. His campaign slogan is “Experience counts.”
He praised the current board members and superintendent Josh Lynch. His goals as a board member are to oversee the projects started in his previous term and ensure that students are prepared for whatever career path they are seeking. This includes early college classes and trade skills.
DeVille has been a teacher at Franklin High School for 30 years and has previously sued and won the state of North Carolina over teachers’ rights. In his campaign, he is promoting a sense of ‘urgency’ to prepare children across all levels of education for the future. He said that he wants to focus on hearing the concerns of students, teachers, and administration to then balance those concerns with the budget.
According to deVille, he was the first to bring up the issue of charter school vouchers to Macon County Schoolboard. Green also expressed concern over vouchers sapping funding from public schools. This is deVille’s first time running for the board of education.
A third candidate, Danny Reitmeier, was not present at the event. He has previously run for the District 2 seat on the Macon Board of Elections and was on the ballot for the Republican primary in 2022.
