Pete Gordon and Beth Michael will be on the May 10 ballot for Morgan County School Board from District 2. John Rowland is also running, but he’s running unopposed in District 1.
Gordon is a popular former math teacher at Berkeley Springs High School. Michael is a housewife and was head of the PTA at the now closed Greenwood School.
Michael said she made a decision at the last minute to run for school board.
“The closing of Greenwood pushed me into action,” Michael told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber. “The community surrounding the school wanted to keep the school open. It’s been there for a long time. They feel strongly about smaller schools. We have been told there is no money to keep it open. And that was the driving force behind closing it.”
“Yes, funds are short,” Michael said. “But I don’t necessarily believe that closing the school will solve the problem. You make cuts across the board. You don’t just pick one community or one school and say — we are going to cut you entirely and merge you in with another one. You make even cuts across the board so that everyone is feeling the burn — not just one community.”
Will she be campaigning to re-open Greenwood?
“Once the state board approves the closing of Greenwood, it’s finished,” Michael said.
“There is not much else we can do.”
Michael said that during the debate over the closing of Greenwood, the school board “gave us these broad numbers, they never broke it down.”
“They never said — this amount goes for x, this amount goes for y, this amount goes to z,” Michael said. “If you are going to close a community school, you need to get down to specifics. You need to get down to the nitty gritty and account for each and every dollar. It didn’t seem like it was adding up.”
Why is she running for school board?
“I bring a diverse background,” Michael said. “Pete Gordon is a very nice man, but he’s a retired teacher. That will make three retired teachers on the school board. Success to any board is diversity — people of different backgrounds working together to make our schools successful.”
Michael said she supported the school levy both times it came up. The Greenwood community overwhelmingly voted against the levy the first time and voted it against it the second time — by not as large a margin.
“I have kids in school so I will probably always vote for a levy,” Michael said. “Any levy is better than nothing. By closing Greenwood school, I thought they had made people angry and turned them against the levy.”
“I was with a group of people who worked really hard to get people to vote for it the second time,” Michael said. “People thought — they are going to close Greenwood anyway, why vote for the levy?”
“When the levy came up and it lost the first time, we lost a lot of really good teachers. There were a lot of changes within the school and that discouraged people. That was the biggest reason the levy failed in Greenwood.”
Does she believe this election is a referendum on Greenwood?
“Maybe,” Michael said. “I can’t speak for other people. Some people will think that. I don’t know that everyone will think that. I hope that they think I’m running because I have the best interest of the kids and every child at heart. That’s why I’m running.”
How is she doing in the campaign?
“Some days I think — I’m doing really well. Other days I think I’m not making an impact at all.”
“I figured I will put my message out there and people will vote how they feel. You can’t sense what the outcome might be.”
What’s it like to be be running for office the first time?
“It’s terrifying,” Michael said.
“I like Pete. He’s a great guy. We have the same interests at heart — the kids come first we will do what we can to make our schools better for the kids.”
Asked to explain his popularity among students and parents alike, Gordon said “it has to do with respect and dignity.”
“I was passionate about my teaching and about my students,” Gordon said. “I respected them. I never got angry in the classroom. If I had to talk with somebody, I would talk with them some other place. I would call students out of the classroom to commend them, or talk to them about behavior issues. But I respected my students. I treated them with dignity. And I think they respected me in return.”
How can we attract more quality teachers to Morgan County.
“I want the best for our young people. That involves attracting and keeping quality teachers,” Gordon said. “But salaries in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia are $10,000 or more higher than here.”
Gordon said that tax money collected in Morgan County goes to the state.
“I don’t think we get as much back from the state as we send to the state,” Gordon said.“One hundred percent of the levy stays here.”
“You need good teachers, good schools and you also need families that feed those children, instill values in children,” Gordon said. “Generally speaking, what families did in the past is now being done more and more by the schools. We are giving free breakfasts and lunches to our children so they can learn. How can you learn on an empty stomach.”
“Poverty level is 70 percent. We send home 350 backpacks every weekend with food. We feed our students during the week, but we send them home with food for the weekends. A lot of students don’t see their parents that often and don’t get fed.”
Despite all the problems, Gordon said that Morgan County has a strong educational system.
“We send students to some of the best trade schools, we send them to some of the best community colleges. Our class of 2012 was a star class. In my one calculus classroom that year, we had students that went to Cornell, Virginia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth and West Point.”
“Could we be better? Yes. Can we point to faults in our school system? Yes. But we are generally preparing students for life and work after high school.”
As for Greenwood, Gordon said the school board was in a tough spot.
“We all see the advantages of small schools,” Gordon said. “Greenwood is a wonderful school. It’s an advantage for students to go to a school where they know everybody, they get extra care — it is like a family. I’m afraid we got to a point where it was inevitable. People say — there are other things that could have been cut. But what are those other things that might have been cut? Free after school program, free lunches and breakfasts, and the alternative school at the high school.”