Inside the School Board Race: Keith Byrd on Teacher Morale, Discipline, and Education Reform

Peter Pappas: Welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas, in studio with Mr. Keith Byrd. Welcome, sir. Thank you. So, Mr. Byrd, you've decided I'm a run for school board. But let's start a little bit earlier. where are you from and let's talk about what you do every day and go ahead. Well, I'm right here, native of Fayetteville Okay. grew up here in Fedville, went to Spring Lake Junior, hi, that tells you kind of. Spring Lake Junior. Okay, okay. And graduate from the seventy first. Okay, Spring Lake Spring Lake and then back to seven Westover Seventy first, right? Went to West Lake for one year and and we moved to seventy first district and to transfer. Okay. Actually we transferred removed before I was in Part of my is he made me go. He le he made me leave. West of the principal. Because I was going to stay in it. Okay. Okay. So I left him. Well, he was gonna make you leave because you're a bad kid or just 'cause you needed to go. 'Cause you're out of district. Okay, all right. Fair enough, fair enough. Well, you sometimes the principals they've spoken to and they're like, No, don't come back. Well, you know, it's all right. okay, so Fayetteville born and bred and then career wise, what where did that take you? Career wise, in the army. Okay. Twenty years in the army. Before going to college I went to basic training, I joined the reserves and so I was in reserves all four years and got my commission graduation. I got my first assignment in Korea and I've been pretty much you know, going around the globe since then. So for twenty years. First assignment was actually here at Fayetteville, I mean at Fort Bright. And then my last assignment was right here at Fort Bright. Okay. So when did you get out? How long ago? See, it's been two thousand ten. So you gotta get fifteen, sixteen years out. We got enough to get the stank off of you a little bit. But see, by the time you got out, you couldn't grow grow your hair out, could you? It's okay. I I was at Favel Tech FBLA panel earlier this week, and they took really good pictures of us up there, and then one mean little SOB student took a picture from the back. Absolutely. I didn't realize how thin I'm getting back there. So that's the only part of me getting thin. So I realized a long time ago, so I said you never do that. Just let it go I don't know if I'm ready to embrace that look yet, but I think we're all heading to a certain destination there when it comes to that. So definitely I would say you're familiar with Fayetteville and now you teach at Cumberland County Schools. Yep. So if you win, you're gonna have to resign. Absolutely. Okay. Think Swan's like January. Yeah. Yeah. So I got a little trying to make a difference. Okay. So I mean that's pretty telling. You're a you're an inside man running. So something must have gotten into your craw a little bit. Yeah. To say 'cause I mean, look, not for nothing. Y'all need a damn primary. I mean, sixteen of you guys running for three at large seats, which people that don't understand at large seats are I tell it's like the mayor. They get elected like the mayor. Everybody in the county will have you on the ballot. So what was your what was your initial why? Why I'm running for school board. Well I gotta start with why I'm teaching. Okay. we we lived in Kerry for little bit and came back here and put my kid in school. It was half semester, it was like December. Mm-hmm. And it was a pretty awful experience. It was really. He said, Dad The teacher spent all day yelling at kids. Kids were trying to get me to do their own thing. Lay down in chairs and run around the room. And he said with tears in his eyes, he said, Dad, I would not want to go on a field trip with those kids. It sounds like a bad holiday vacation. I don't want to go with those kids. So I'm like How old was your son at that point? Second grade. Okay. All right. They're still telling you the truth. Absolutely. Okay. All right. And so I had to use something with that. And so I'm like, okay, w we'll find another school for you but school of choice was closed at that time. Right. So I did the one thing that I said I would never ever ever do. That was home school. 'Cause I wanna be the parent that dropped the kid off at school and be like, Yeah see ya Okay, now you cannot leave maladjusted Johnny at seven o'clock and expect him to be well adjusted Johnny at three. I don't think that's quite what you were thinking, but I just want somebody else to watch it. Yeah, yeah, you watch for yeah. Yeah. So I did that homeschooling thing and I fell in love with it. And I said, Hey, I think I got something to offer. 'Cause I I I homeschooled him and my niece who was in second grade also. And it was a great experience, it really was. And so I said, I got something to offer. Let me get into public school. Okay. So that's what got me to public school. And like most people I think, I did not know what I was getting into. Because I did not know what teacher you go through. I have no clue. I thought I did. Okay. I think everybody teaches is the point. I I think as a running for office that's kinda that describes a lot of people running for office. Not you necessarily, but a lot of people run their mouths about, I'ma do this. I'm a really? 'Cause you don't know what the hell you don't know. So I appreciate that you actually put put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. What was your educational background? Had you already had your college degree at that point? absolutely because again I military, I retired from the military, so I had my college degree proudly born in the so I took the alternate route. got what they call it now, speed licensing, alternative licensing, schoolized goes by another day. Lateral entry, I thought so that was my entry. Okay. What was your degree in? Criminal justice. Okay. Okay. So You so you lateral entry folks are being blamed for a lot of the problem. and just bear with me, I'm not, you know, pointing the finger at you, but I've heard that come up quite a bit that you know, you get a lateral entry teacher and they don't know classroom management, they don't know, you know, and it's like, Well, I look at you, mature adult, twenty two years old. I'm I'm I mean twenty two years military. Yeah. I would take that twenty two year old. You would take. I think with in your case it would be a little different because you had a disciplined career. You know, you're not just some young buck kid coming right out of college. So I don't think you are the problem, but I've heard that they've gone to that a lot out there. Right. And and again, like I said, folks on the outside don't necessarily I they think they do get a have a good feel for it, but until you talk to someone on the inside or actually you're on the inside, you don't really understand. what we're going through. I mean teachers are in the trenches every day. I mean it's it it's like a war. I mean I don't wanna characterize it something that I just don't seem to kick to me. But it is a battle every single day. They're overwhelmed. And it's a battle for behavior or w what's the top one or two things. Yeah behaves behavior is like the top issue. Okay. I I've never people always want to say, you know, pay teachers more. Pay teach absolutely pay teachers more. I'm not gonna, you know, turn down a another dollar, absolutely. But the real issue is the morale. Morale right now is low. It's true a lot because of all the pressure that's put on teachers. conduct is a big thing in the classroom. Basically. Well, I I've got the the mark on my shin right now from being kicked by a student. Yeah, this is fifth grade and he was fourth grade at the time. but this is real stuff. This is real stuff and and what happened when the kid acts out and sent to the you know administrator's office, you know, sit there for a while, you know, get a you know, pat on the back, maybe a pop sickle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No consequence, yeah. Yeah, I mean and well I've already told you I hate that whole, you know, throwback to w back when we were, but I was afraid to go to the principal's office. I was afraid of the consequence that would be visited upon me. And it doesn't seem like nobody can do anything. Yeah, we have a a different standard nowadays. Back then, you know, we we feared the paddle. Yeah, because we corporate punishment back. See, I never had that. So I'm not see that's not my days don't go back that far. So Well I had that. I a couple of times. There was a how shoe at home, for sure. For sure. Or a fly swatter. But you did not want to come home and let your folks know that you have given your teacher a hard time. Yeah. Yeah, that's kinda not the the era we live in now. So it's totally different. But nevertheless kids need consequences. Yeah. If we don't give them consequences, what are we saying? We're saying it's okay to do what you're doing. Feel your feelings. Yeah, and it's not you know, if we love the kids and we do, okay, we've got to discipline because we don't want them growing up, continuing these behaviors as adults. Okay, that would be setting up for failure. I think that's almost a biblical thing. If you love you're gonna the Lord loves those whom He disciplines those whom He loves. Absolutely. Absolutely. We love our children, we discipline Okay. All right. Well, we're not gonna turn it into Sunday morning, but I do believe in that stuff. I mean, you there's there's There's a reason why it stuck around for so long, the good old Bible of ours. So You decided to run because you're the morale is low. The the pay's always gonna suck. We're just I I mean, as much as I can talk to state legislature and I can't remember who I spoke to the other day about the teacher raises being eight percent, which was the average above the first year, but the first year got like seventeen or something. Except the five year teacher is helping the new teacher and getting paid as much or less. It's ridiculous I mean Go ahead. Well, you mentioned lateral entries and and we're getting a lot of pushback from the Later Entry thing. I I'm not gonna say necessarily that well, for first of all, that's not the problem. It's not the Later Ranchy guys because again, we're feeling avoid. And to not fill avoid, what are we gonna do? Let schools go unmanned? Yeah, that that's crazy talk right there. Okay. It's the same thing with the international teachers. A lot of folks feel, we got all these international teachers that's causing the problems. Let me tell you, I work with international teachers and they're top notch. Not only are they top notch, but they love what they do. They love the kids. So if you don't know them, again, you might want to get to know them before you start casting stones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. and it's the same with Well, you brought up the international. I'm just gonna tell you I've identified and I've spoken to people about a gap that Cumberland County Schools It's not really their responsibility, but it's kind of their responsibility when you pull somebody from another country and you leave it on them to get their own housing and furniture. And that's a little bit kind of it's kind of crappy on the school system's part. I mean, you're asking for help. Yeah. We should have a better I think it was a few teachers trying to cobble something together instead of, well, here's the lady to help you with this. I I was taken aback by that. Right now they have the little they have to be a little networking, yeah. people in the community kind of help out, find them apartments, finding place to stay together so they can support each other. But absolutely, we're bringing them to the countries. We should have a better network in order to support them. Now are they on a pat path to citizenship, those guys, or we're just asking for their health temporarily? Five years. They do five years and then they have to go back to their home countries for a couple of years and buy to come back. Really? Yeah. And they can go to other places, other countries. But they gotta go back to their home countries. Wh wherever they get their visa. So they gotta take a break and then come back. That's just again, that's another I I'm sorry if that's just doesn't make yeah. We need them. Absolutely. Absolutely. And like I said, they do a phenomenal job. but there are a lot of things that go into this morale piece that's just it's sucking teachers' eye. Yeah. We can do a lot better. Well, and you mentioned morale. the school board's job is to hire the superintendent. So we're gonna have to point the finger at We're gonna have to we're gonna have to point the finger at at the superintendent right now. That's Mr. Bracey. Dr. Bracey. Dr. Bracey, okay. you know it's bad. I've met him so many times. Yeah, there you go. Dr. Bracey. But he's got a nice, yeah. He but when he came to us from Sampson County, I believe. We s we stole him from there and he did good work out there. And I'm looking forward to him doing well here. there was one metric we had on the show a few weeks ago. The schools went from fifty to fifty five percent. some metric that of passing grades which still yeah it's a ten percent kick but it's still fifty five percent. Yeah. Like we have work to do. But so you told us why you're running. now what are your top three priorities should you take the seat? What's some things you want to work on right out the gate. Well you mentioned superintendent again my first priority is morale. I'll speak to that all day long because that feeds into everything we do. We're here for the children. But if teachers' morale is low, that carries over that translates to the students. Yeah. They feel that. And that translates to their academic performance. Because if a teacher and I and I talk to teachers all the time, just today of listening to teachers, I more listening than talking. But I was listening to the teacher tell me about a veteran teacher having to take work home. That's where you get your work done at home. So she's sitting ten o'clock at night or falling asleep at the computer. And what kind of work? Mm. And we'll get back to your top three, but what kind of work needs to be done outside of the four walls of the school? well you gotta understand what you would like for teachers to be doing is all the lesson planning, those kind of things, getting ready to teach the kids. Right. But you gotta understand during the day there's a lot more things going on. For example, we have a planning period. There's not really a planning period. You think of planning periods teachers got It sounds like the planning period, yeah. But during that planning period you got other things going on, you got meetings. So it's necessary for you to utilize that block of time for time for those things. So you guys can sign at home screen work. I I don't know of any teacher who would not screen taking work hard with them. Okay. They're not getting paid to take work hard with them, but have you discovered the way to do it or you still gotta take stuff home too? No. trust me, I'm thinking something over. I gotcha, I gotcha. Okay. So my top again, morale. We gotta we gotta fix the morale and there's so many things that goes into that. But board, you know, we got superintendent, he provides that leadership for the schools. Okay, we we've hired him to do that. Right. So our job was one to support the the superintendent. We've got to support him. That means give him the resources, you know, approve the budget, you know, but did not writing a blank check. Yeah. Or commissioners right to check. So we're not approving that budget unless he can justify what's going on. So we have to take a good look at that, what's going on with the budget. What is he's what is he recommending? What is he proposing? All right. I'm gonna come back to you on the budget because I I have an angle on that one. So what's next? So we we've got to do it. Okay. And the second thing is we appraise the superintendent, you know, at the end of that period. Sure. Okay. So we need to say what he's doing, what he's done well, what he still needs to work on. But again, raised it back. Well, let's talk about his appraisal. one of the mistakes I think we made twenty-five years ago was no child left behind because then we converted everybody into a sausage factory of learning the test and forgetting to teach the kids how to study or how to how to learn. but the only defense I have over no child left behind is we needed we were looking for some metric, some grade to give the performance. We had nothing really. so it was not crazy conceived, it just didn't work out in practice. How would you rate the superintendent? I mean, are we gonna be looking at test score improvement? Are we gonna look at maybe teacher retention? Like what would be your metric to apply to like I said, morale is gonna be the front and center of everything because that feeds into every single thing we do. We want to increase test scores every absolutely. No, we want to first make sure though our teachers are taken care of because they take care of the students. If they're not taking care of it, it's kinda hard but take care of the students. They're gonna do the best they can. They're gonna do what they need to do. How many pizza parties can you possibly have for morale? What would boost morale right now? And I I hate to say, but without money. What what would what would help move it ten percent right now? First of all, we gotta get the conduct under control. Our conduct in the classroom is out of control. Okay. And I'm talking D B schools from B schools to D schools. Okay. It's the same. I'm talking from Cumberland County to Lenore County where I work. Absolutely. it is the same. So until we get that under control, teachers are going to be swamp. I've never ever experienced a teacher or witnessed a teacher breaking down because they weren't getting paid enough money. Okay. You know, the pain is always an issue, but never teacher breaks down because they weren't getting paid enough money. Teachers are always breaking down. Okay. I hate to see teachers actually break down and cry. But this happens because of what's going on in the classroom. Mm-hmm. So until we get a hand a good handle on that, that's gonna be an issue. Where's the handle? What what what are we gonna do? Okay. And and it's a cultural thing. Okay. Because again, my kids, one thing I treat them a certain way, I raise them a certain way. other parents raise their kids a certain way. And no parent is gonna tell me, Well, my way is wrong, you know, versus their way. Right. So nobody wants to be told that their way is wrong. Okay. We're not here to do that. But we have to have accountability. There have there has to be significant consequences. Consequences that matter to the student. Consequences that matter to the parents. So until we put those consequences in place as a routine matter, and that's where the board comes in, to as a routine matter, then there's always going to be those con those conduct issues. So we've got to get a handle on a routine, something that the board can do in formal policies that's going to get the attention of the students and more so of the parents. So I spoke to Justice Earls earlier today and she reminded me what's in the Constitution of North Carolina that every child is afforded or is to have the right to a sound, basic education. Does that prevent expulsion? I don't Not that that's a should be it the immediate option, but I mean does that prevent Absolutely. I'm glad you say that that shouldn't be the option right away. Well it shouldn't be the first one. It should be an option. If Johnny keeps bringing a gun to class, I think we need to, you that should be sufficient. That's good. Yeah, you're gone. Yeah. Okay. Okay. but yeah, there are things that we can do and it doesn't necessarily cost much. We just have to put things into place that says this is what's going to happen. parents do not want their kids to be suspended. Because what happened when they're suspended? all those behaviors now they have to deal with them at home versus the kid being at school. But we need to make that understood that yeah this is kind of a real option. This is a realistic option. And we need to, yeah, say put our money where our mouth is. When we say something matters, it shouldn't really matter. For example, when we say that riding a bus is a privilege, not a right, we shouldn't then allow all these behaviors on the bus. I mean we have cameras on the bus, they see everything. They see everything, but yet kids are still riding bus. Yeah. Because I think there's an inversion Well, because they don't want to interrupt the parents' life with trying to but people are look, people are struggling always. That's not a new construct. They're trying to put food on the table. And that's another reason why I do what I do here, because they're also taking care of their family, trying to pay the mortgage. They don't have time to dig into the political jargon and all this crap that you're running now. So you kind of are learning this stuff like a fire hose. but how, you know, so those parents would be adversely impacted by Little Johnny having to sit home. But is that not kind of what we need? That's what I mean, I'm sorry to do it to the parents, but hey. That's exactly what we need because that's what's happening to the teachers right now. Yeah. Teachers are being adversely affected by it. I mean, there is not a teacher that I know of who's not being affected by conduct in the classroom. So that's the number one thing again. That's the number one thing that I think affects me now. Two, making sure they have support. Mm-hmm. from the administrators, you know, from the board, they need to know that they've got that support. And right now I can say they're not filling out. We're not filling that. Okay. Okay. So we we need to fill that out. So we need to put some measures in place that make sure that we understand yeah that support is there. Now we understand that the the system can only do so many things. Right so much. Right, right. But we're not doing well. Okay. and we can do more and it's not a budget issue. There are things that we can put into place. Okay, so we got the budget. we got supporting the superintendent. What what else is you want to chew on? Morale, supporting that superintendent, praising that superintendent, anything that can make our other employees' lives better. We are here for the students. We want to increase that academic performance. So the big thing is I know we don't want to say, Well, back when I was in school but you know what? Sorry. without all the technology that we have today. Okay. So there are a lot of things that we did back in the day that worked. But now we're changing curriculums like every three years. The reading curriculum changes like every three years. You know, we got this curriculum now wonders. Okay. That's the ELA curriculum, the reading curriculum. Well we got teachers, including myself, right now still wondering how to teach students. So we're wondering about that. We're ready now to roll into a new reading curriculum. Okay, we can't wait for that. So and then three years we will be in a level. So we can go back to what actually works is like multiplication facts. Those don't change. Never have no they won't. Yeah. but when kids are coming into fifth grade, not knowing multiplication facts, there's an issue there. We have not when we talk about going back to the basics. Well, yeah, I guess we need to still talk about going back to the basics and we actually need to go back to the basics. Well, I think people discount what you're teaching a kid when you teach them cursive. It's not the pretty letter. Yeah. It's motor control. Motor control. I mean go ahead, you know more than me. And it trains the brain. Yeah. Okay. It's like writing left hand. You're a left-handed writer. Well you've got double the work to do because most people will teach you how to write right hand. So you've got to learn extra. Well person writing is the same thing. You've got to learn extra. Okay. Not only is it quicker though, okay, but it's teaching you, it's training your brain to work a little differently. Well, it certainly helps them take notes when they get older. you know, multiplication tables and cursive, those things, the rote memorization I think in the second, third grade, that's gotta help the brain grow a little bit. It's got to. It's the foundation for everything else. They don't get that foundation. What do we get we get them in fifth grade? and again it's not the fault of the fourth grade teacher. Well, you saw my reaction when you said fifth grade. I was like, Well what? Yeah. Like now I talked to an educator recently over the summer, who taught eighth grade at handpoint and he told me, Yeah, we still have to teach dad in eighth grade. It there's another county. But yeah, we have to teach dad still in eighth grade. But who moves that stuff around? Like who's responsible for moving it from okay, now I went to private school. I probably did it in first for the second grade probably. Okay. Is that where you would expect it in a public curriculum or I mean Where should it be? Well, like I said, I started off homeschooling second graders and we were doing multiplication second grade. We were doing fractions in second grade. Okay. All that stuff on the fifth grade curriculum, we were doing it during second grade. Okay. Okay. Which kind of explains why the the kids that are homeschooling are now more advanced. Mm-hmm. So we could do those things a bunch earlier, but again, we've got requirements, we've got restrictions, we've got so many restrictions, and it's all about well, we want to make sure that and we should Everybody's got a fair and equal education. But you know what? We can still and and we we park on diversity, differentiation, I should say. but we can do a better job with the program, with the curriculum earlier. We need to stop with the div celebrating the diversity and saying if we're unified what we can accomplish. I mean, Yeah. This kills me, this stuff with the second graders and We're losing so much ground, it feels like. so let's talk about military families. So what do you think 'cause Bragg kids, they move every two or three years. Where does what do you think the Cumberland County schools get wrong or get right about the military and connected students? Well, one, I think we do a fairly good job with the military students. I think we care for those students and we show them that we care. We make I don't wanna say sessions, we make accommodations for the military. So I think we do a pretty good job in that area. I'm not in our can't bad mouth community and schools for what we do with multiple kids. We can always do more. Well, and sometimes I expect you guys to come on and say what we're doing right. You know, it can't all be chicken little sky's fallen. We have to at least admit. and I have learned by doing this and running and learning and talking to educators and stuff, we'd have some pretty cool stuff going on in our Cumberland County schools. We do. Now we have some stuff that I'm wondering, okay, are w when are we gonna get to the gender studies of Irish leprechauns or something? You know, some things I don't think belong, but th I think we're all gonna have something to complain about. anyway, I I know there's good going on in in our county. And I hate talk speaking about the school in any kind of negative way because I don't want any teachers thinking that it's like now screw your teachers. It's not. It's I think we can just do better. Teachers want work with you. That's the thing. They want to and that's the thing about with teaching. We care so much. We want to be here. No one comes to work saying, you know, I'm gonna be a lousy employee. I really want to suck at my job today. Mm-hmm. No one does that. Dr. Dim Demmings, Edward Demings, the architect. he was an educator and a statistician. He was the architect of post World War Two Japan coming out of their despair because you know there's a little thing, you know, called a Actually, a couple of them. but he was responsible for them coming out of their despair and becoming the a global leader in the automotive industry. Right. You know, everybody knows Japanese cars, you know, you got the Honda Girl, my favorite the RX 7. but he was responsible for and his thing was if you're not getting the results that you want, don't look at the people as the problem. Right. Look to the system. What's the problem with the system? So we've got to stop looking at the teachers, they're not the problem. Okay. The custodians, the cafeteria workers, the bus drivers, they're not the problem. We've got a problem with the system of how we're employing those people, how we're using those people, how we're treating those people. And like I said, teachers right now and I and I speak a lot on teachers' stuff again, it's kind of what I know, right? they're expected to be a lot of things, wear a lot of hats, you know, counselors, you know. All kind of counselors. marriage counselors. you know, you need to call my husband before you call me about Johnny. No ma'am, I kinda need to call the first person on the list. That's right, right. Yeah, don't get me involved with your baby mama bullshit. Yeah. We got so many hats to wear. Yeah. but we're gonna focus on actually just teaching. You do still have counselors in the schools, don't you? In some shape or form. Some shape or form in some schools. Okay, you know, like we got one counselor, again, we ain't counting anymore. Yeah, social workers sometimes sometimes you're absolutely pretty long useful. but again, we need more. 'Cause there is so much going on, so many issues with the kids. Well that they can't you guys are on the front line. I mean, if there's a kid that's you know, coming to school, you know, unwashed or unkempt or whatever, you're gonna be the first one to notice that behavior. And that's that kid certainly can't learn. Yeah. If he's hungry, and you're the ones that would have to refer it to social services or whatever. I mean so So we take on that that role. so we think on a lot of roles. When teachers join this profession, they have no idea what they're getting into, how much they're having to do, they're gonna have to do. Yeah. And so and it's just more and more that gets powered up all the time, all the time. Recently I I thought I was gonna participate in a study that was kind of help with the conduct and then I found out it was actually more reporting and documenting. more more busy work. Yeah. Okay, now when am I gonna have time to do I don't think you guys have enough of that. I think you should take on another yeah, another another Saturday worth at least. Yeah. So let's move on to something that's a little more recent. Spring Lake fought to keep Manchester Elementary open. The board closed it anyway. So you're a board member. Now say I'm gonna I'm just gonna say you're a board member. What do you say to those families that lost their school? Okay, well, first of all, because I'm not on the board yet. Okay, I don't have all the intake intel that the board went through to make that decision. But I would hope, I would want the board as a parent in that community to be transparent with it. Why do we really need to close this school? Okay. I understand the school's old, we got maintenance issues, but can we work around those? So as a parent, I would want to know. I want them to be transparent. Ma'am, we cannot do that. Sure, we cannot do that because of these reasons. Make it plain. You have to make it plain. Okay. Don't get me bogged down and all the jargon and don't go talk and talk to me plain. So I'm gonna argue back with you on this one because everybody seems to have this clarion call of transparency, transparency. And I'm like, okay, first of all, I I asked people so so this is more about the city. We'll stick with that. They'll bitch about whatever we the building on Bragg Boulevard that we gotta tear down because some jackass didn't inspect it, whatever. I say, have you ever gone the city website and just given the city manager your email address? You'll get a weekly email. Or in the county, same type of thing. D does our school system not have ways for people to fight so I'm kind of putting some of the blame on the parents a little bit for not and you have to knowing. I think they need to be responsible and involved in their education, at least to I don't think anybody should be forced to go to a school board meeting. I've been to a couple I y'all, Jesus Christ. But Do you think that there's a lack of avenues of communication to the board? I I don't think there's a lack of avenues. Okay. I think there's a lack of ownership on the folks that are saying we're not doing enough. Because there are plenty of avenues out there to find the information. But what people want, because you asked me as a parent, what I want in that community is I just want somebody to tell me and plainly. I don't want to have to go look for it. You know, first of all, I don't like the decision. Separately behind one is my school. I don't like this even right away. Regardless of what you say. I don't that's how I'm going to feel as a parent. but with that said, again, you need to talk to me plain language that I can understand. 'cause some of us have some real challenges, you know, with wanting to go out and find information, search for information, even though it's got you right there on the coming website. Yeah. again, I I feel like the parents, you mentioned behavior a lot. That is definitely in the parents' four walls. but also being involved. But see, this thing about closing schools was not pulled out of thin air. It was I mean, I think it was I feel like it was a very well thought out analytical, 'cause it started with I can't remember the consultant's name, but the one that came out with the deficiency of eight hundred million dollars capital stuff. Then the same consultant was the one that went and looked at, okay, what do we need to close? How do we consolidate? And have you seen the list of schools that are moving and shaking? And that holy crap, that reminds me of one of those games like the shell game on the road, you know, where guess where the beans at? they worked very hard at that. My concern with the school board was they lost their nerve and listened to emotional pressure and not sticking to the facts because Those kids are only going to be in that school from zero to twelve or twelve years, as a s you know, first through twelve. But there's gonna be other generations coming behind. Yeah. So if we can't afford to maintain that school or it's prohibitively expensive to maintain that school, why are we why can't we make the decision and stick by it? That was my problem. They made a decision and then they backpedaled. Yeah. And we're either gonna use the consulting we paid for. The recommendations we paid to tell them to tell us what to do. Why why bother with the consultant then? If we're just gonna I'm not saying don't listen to parents, but at what point did I elect you to make the decision that you're supposed to be the subject matter expert? Yeah. So I would really like to know what caused them to go back on their original plans. but again, that comes against we need to be open, we need to be informed, we need to counterpressure. That's again what I'm here for, to be a voice. Okay, for the citizens, for the parents, for the teachers. I need to be a voice. In order to be a voice, I need to be informed on what's going on and I need to get that input. What are you guys feeling? What is it that you want? so that we make the wise decisions. Now was it a wise decision to to go forward with closing out of the schools or was it a wise decision to go forward with what we thought originally? Can't answer that. Right. Well, outside looking in, I just feel like that they It's an election season and people wanted to go back. But that would just be me, being me. what else we got here? Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think some of the closures were conditioned from maybe commission when they gave them the budget or when the school board asked for their budget, commission fully funded them if they followed X, Y, and they finally put some stipulations there. because usually when the county commission writes a check, that's it's out, it's done. But this time I think they put some strings on it that required them to find efficiencies. You know, which again, that's the requirement. Your standard of behavior, this and that. Why do we have the standard if we're not gonna stick to it? Right. Well, they say only and we say the best late plan is only good until first contact. First shots fired. Right. Okay. All right. After that, everything's subject to change. Okay. It's like, whoa, we did not think of that. So I don't know what the aha moment was. I don't I apparently there was an aha moment. I would I would like to know what solid aha moment they had. Yes. I'm just afraid it was just and again, this is not to ignore the plight of the parents. But Jesus Chr I eight hundred million, you know what, that's almost a billion dollars, man. What can we do without that? Holy crap. Well, okay. County Commission gave everybody a full budget this year. Gave school they were all proud of that. And that's cool. But you got like less students. Why the hell do we give you a hund I mean, look, it why do we give you all the money as if you had all eleven hundred students or eleven or twelve hundred I think we're missing this year, year over year? Not that you guys don't deserve the money, but what are we doing? We gotta take a look at why are we losing students? What's going on with students? a lot of folks are going private. okay. why they're going to prior and I think the number one reason is safety. Parents want their kids to be in an environment that they feel safe. And I can tell you as Proverb Marshal as a former military police officer, safety makes a difference. Whether it's perceived or actual, if you have a safety issue, people are going to think it's going to affect their decisions. And people want their kids safe. So I think a lot of folks are going, parents I've talked to and so many teachers have talked to because we have teachers sending their kids to private school. We have principals sending their kids to private school. So obviously there's a real concern for safety. So we've got to address that. Yeah, I don't think it's curriculum. See, that's that's the part about our schools that I think we we kinda look our nose down like, it's public school. There's good programs. Excellent. But if the kids are acting like little I'm I'm still a school teacher. Yeah, don't say that. I'll I'll say it for you, don't worry. But you know, I you can't teach people that don't want to be taught. And it's not that these kids don't want to be taught, they don't know. They don't know. They want to be led, the kids, but they they've never been done it. Yeah. Nobody's ever led them. Yeah. And again, that's one of those rules that the teacher has to say. I've got to be a salad parent. I've got to teach this kid proper behavior. That is not something you really sign up for. But that's something that you have to take on because if you don't take on, you're not gonna get anything done in the classroom so you're gonna be costly doing that. Yeah, you can't it it's well, my poor mother. I tell her all the time if we're in the office together, I said, Stop interrupting me because every time interrupt, you know, that there's a study. Like every time you get a if you're on a roll and you get interrupted, it takes like five, ten minutes, twenty minutes to get back to your kind of your your flow. And I've I've given her the study. She's not appreciative of that. She's still told me she's gonna do what the hell she wants. But you know, but again, that goes back to the teacher. If you're being interrupted with this, how can you you can't get through an hour? You know, so if you want to get through the hour, then how effective that hour is gonna be, that's an outstood. Yeah. So well, definitely is an issue that hopefully you can help us with. so the last one, Usually I say if somebody's watching agrees with me on pretty much everything and then they just don't think they think you're wrong on everything too. what's the one thing you'd want them to take out of the last half hour we spent together? Morale, morale, yes. Because it affects everything you do. It affects your kids. Mm-hmm. Okay? Because it translates to whether or not your kids are getting the best education they can be. Teachers unhappy, teachers frustrated, teachers overwhelmed. The ke teacher cannot fully focus on what your kid needs to know. Two, we need to get back to some basic stuff. It kids should not be coming into fifth grade, not knowing how to much work. They should not. I mean that's lack of basics. So we gotta get back to those basics. The reading thing, we've got like three tests to find out if the kid can read. Well things like if you put a book in front of them and they can't pronounce the words, that's a pretty good indicator they can't read. Okay. So we don't need all these tests. So we spend a lot of money on tests, a lot of money on different curriculums that we reach that we go through year after year, always change, always change. Why are we always changing curriculum? I can go back to when I was in elementary school, pull back a book that I use for science. It's the same stuff. It is the same stuff. So why are we having to reinvent the wheel every turn? And that's what's going on. A lot of reinventing the wheel, wasting a lot of time. So we we need to stop. Well, Mr. Byrd I appreciate you being here. you know, this is the kind of conversation people keep telling me it doesn't happen anymore and we definitely had a good one. so where do people find you? Because my co-host, as she would say, campaigns run on people and money. So where would people find you and find out about the campaign? Bert Keith Bird four number four B O E dot com. Okay, simple enough. donate link on there, hopefully. There's a donating link on there. Excellent. Okay. It's not active right now. The link is not active, but we need to get on that one. Yeah, you've I I know this business in town is called the candidate resource center. that might can help you with some of that, but we'll get to that outfind. Yeah, okay. Well, folks, go look it up yourself. That's the point. Just Google the man. I think you figured out enough about him. So Mr. Bird, the door's always open. Come back after your first board meeting in December, win or lose, and tell us what you would do next. Got a deal. Thank you for being here. Thank you.