Election day is less than a month away and three seats for the Board of Education in Macon County are on the ballot.
The board of education plays an important role in public education. They manage facilities and faculty in the county and approve the use of the budget granted by the general assembly and county commissioners. Macon County’s board has five seats and oversees three school districts in the county.
Sitting board members Hilary Wilkes and Melissa Evans are running unopposed for their districts, but the District 4 race has become the most contested position in Macon County this year.
The three candidates running for district four are Jim Breedlove, John deVille, and Danny Reitmeier.
This race is significant to the board because of Breedlove’s position as board chairman.
John DeVille
DeVille is starting his 30th year teaching at Franklin High School this year. This is his first time running for school board, but he has been politically active for his entire career. He has participated in several protests and sued the state of North Carolina in defense of teacher and student rights. In 2015 he and other teachers sued the NC General Assembly over the revocation of career status for veteran teachers, and in 2019 he authored a resolution for Medicaid expansion. DeVille provides more information about his career on his website.
His goal for office is to address the issue of communication between the school board and the county commissioners.
“Every spring there is a series of usually very contentious budget meetings, and somebody pounds their fist on the table and says ‘we need to meet more often’ and then that desire, that intention, is never executed, ” deVille said. He wants to meet quarterly with the county commissioners and “tear down the wall” between the school board and the community.
For transparency, he wants to make the school board budget and spending publicly available online. DeVille also plans to push for an early mentorship program for students starting in K-12. A similar program that had seniors connect with professional mentors in the community was done at Franklin High School in the past but was discontinued after 2016.
When asked what set him apart from his opponents in the race, deVille referred to his history as a teacher working within the Macon County School system for the past three decades.
“I’m the only one running who has classroom experience. I know what questions to ask that they don’t know how to ask,” DeVille said. He added that he will ask hard questions about policies and wants every dollar spent to have a significant measurable impact on the classroom.
Danny Reitmeier
Danny Reitmeier is an Air Force veteran who served in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. He is from Macon County. He said he had a desire to become a teacher but chose the military due to his family’s financial struggles. After retiring from the Air Force he returned to Macon County and has since been involved in the school system as coaching staff and a bus driver. As a graduate of Franklin High School, he said he was involved in student government and athletics during his time attending.
Reitmeier is running for the second time. He ran in 2022 for both the board of education and the Republican primary for county commissioner.
As a board member, Reitmeier wants to be directly involved with school activities. He believes that members of the school board should have a more active role and attend school events like graduations or award ceremonies. He wants to be “Hand to hand face to face not just sitting in a boardroom.”
Reitmeier strongly supports the current plan to build a new Franklin High School but believes it can be implemented more efficiently. Other issues he wants to address as a board member are mental health, student grades, bus driver shortages, and separating sports teams by birth sex.
During the interview, Reitmeier encouraged Macon County voters to “turn over the ballot” and vote for their local offices rather than just the state and national elections.
More information about Reitmeier and his campaign can be found on his Facebook page.
Jim Breedlove
Jim Breedlove is the current chairman of the Macon School Board and running for re-election this year. He has served 16 years on the board, all four terms as chairman of the board. We were unable to contact him for an interview, but he provides information about his campaign on his Facebook page.
He is a retired school counselor, a banker, and a long-time public servant in various positions from PTO, the Franklin Chamber of Commerce, president of the Franklin Jaycees, the Macon Program for Progress, the Economic Development Commission Board, and multiple local sports leagues.
His campaign slogan is “Experience Matters.” Breedlove plans to continue to support the projects and staff appointed during his previous terms. This includes overseeing the construction of a new Franklin High School, renovation of the sewage treatment facility at Nantahala School, and securing improvements for the track at Macon Middle School.
Breedlove is the only candidate that did not respond to our request for an interview. We hope we get a chance to talk with him before the elections.
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