Pitt County Board of Education District 9
Unexpired Term - Voters Choose One
(see district map)
Benjie Forrest
Your current job and title:
Retired as the NCSU Eastern Region Agricultural Education Coordinator and current manager and co-owner of B. D. Forrest Family Farms and owner and Manager of Benjie Forrest Farms.
Your highest level of education:
I attended Chicod School and graduated from D. H. Conley High School. I attended andgraduated from North Carolina State University with a BS & M.Ed in Agricultural Education. I received an Education and Supervision Certificate and Vocational Director Certification from East Carolina University.
If you are re-elected, what will be your top priority? Why?
Selecting the next strong superintendent to lead our system in instruction and future direction will be one of my top priorities so that we continue to increase student and school performance. Maintaining and increasing CTE (Career & Technical Education) opportunities are vital so that students can learn to do by doing. Strengthening polices dealing with discipline and a Parents’ Bill of Rights is vital to provide classrooms where teachers can
teach and to parents feel welcomed and involved.Other top priorities include continuing to provide school resource officers in every school to protect our students and keep them safe as well as advocating for nurse and/or nurse extenders in every school and work. I also prioritize working in harmony with the County Commission to continue to increase local supplements for teachers from 8% to a goal of 10% during the next four years. In addition to increasing local supplements for teachers, I recently asked that our superintendent make available to the board a plan and strategy to systematically increase all classified staff and bus driver salaries.
If you are re-elected, how will you involve your constituents in the process of making decisions?
Parents play a vital role inthe success of their children’s education, and they must be allowed to be fully engaged and involved. I have made it a top priority to return all emails, texts, and phone calls in a very timely manner. I have also supported and helped to pass policies reflecting a Parents’ Bill of Rights for Pitt County Schools which includes parents having a prominent role in making decisions determining the types of materials, books and resources made available for student use. I am very engaged in the community and make myself available to my constituents through a number of community memberships including Black Jack OFWB Church, Grimesland Masonic Lodge #475, Black Jack Vol. Fire Department, Southeastern Drainage Board of Directors, Pitt County Farm Bureau Board of Directors, Pitt County FFA Alumni, the Gideons, and the NERSBA Board of Directors. I hold community listening sessions when needed to get a finger on the pulse of those issues pertinent to the community as they relate to schools.
Why should voters choose you for the position you are running for?
Expanding opportunities for all Pitt County students has been the focus of my service to the citizens of District 9 as a member of the Pitt County Board of Education. It has been my honor to be a conservative voice on the board for the last 16 years. I bring a wealth of experience to the Pitt County School Board and contribute a unique expertise to the board in the areas of CTE, parliamentary procedure, business protocol and teacher classroom management challenges.
Which three things about you do you most want voters to know?
I have been an educator all my professional career, first as an Agriculture Teacher at Washington High School, and later as the Eastern Region Agricultural Education Coordinator for NC. During this time, I have learned three things:
1. I taught students; agriculture was just the subject.
2. I could never teach students anything until they first learned that I cared for them.
3. Students are motivated to learn in many different ways and you must be willing to try and embrace new teaching strategies to successfully reach them all.
I bring this mindset with me to every school board meeting I attend and use this as a guide when making decisions that impact the 23,000 students in Pitt County Schools.
Jennifer C. Matthews
Your current job and title:
Professor in the Department of Health Education & Promotion at ECU
Your highest level of education:PhD
If you’re elected or re-elected, what will be your top priority? Why?
My top priority would be engaging parents and families in a child's educational journey. In recent years, a divide has occurred between families and teachers/school administrators. This relationship should really be a partnership, and we need to find a way to get back to that. Additionally, I look forward to advocating for higher teacher pay and reinstated masters pay at the state level. It is time we address this across the state and pay teachers what they deserve.
If you’re elected or re-elected, how will you involve your constituents in the process of making decisions?
I am trained as a public health researcher where the community is the center of what you do. I would utilize these skills and apply
them to my role on the Board of Education. We can't pretend to know what it is like in schools and classrooms when we are not in there every day all year. We need to provide opportunities for school staff and families to give feedback on what they love about Pitt County Schools and what could be improved. And then we need to actually listen to them.Why should voters choose you for the position you’re running for?
I believe it is important to have a pulse on what is happening in the school system. I am married to a high school teacher, and I have three children in public school. I have served on the PTA (as president and vice president), and I volunteer in my children's classrooms weekly. I want to know what is happening in the schools by being engaged.
In addition to my personal connections with the school system, my professional work has afforded me many opportunities to partner with the schools on certain initiatives. A lot of my work revolves teaching others (adults and children) how to emotional regulate in a healthy way, and with the mental health issues we have seen in recent years, the schools can use this information to provide more productive environments and increase student success. My expertise and experience have provided me a solid foundation to provide a different perspective on the Board of Education.
Which three things about you do you most want voters to know?
1. I have led and been a part of statewide collaboratives to advocate for policies that would prevent excessive substance use and create more resilient focused communities. I can use this experience to assist with advocating for increased funding for public education at the state level.
2. I have spent years working on research that improves the lives of individuals in eastern NC. My focus is always to leave my community better than it was so my children can thrive. This will continue to be my focus if elected to the Board of Education.3. I am a Certified Community Resilience Model (CRM) trainer. In this capacity, I hold workshops at schools, faith-based organizations, workplaces and community settings to help individuals understand that adversity and stress change how our brains work, and provide individuals skills to better emotionally regulate in a healthy way. I have trained hundreds of individuals in eastern NC.
Is there anything else about you that you wish to tell voters?
I have recently taken up paddle boarding, and I am always looking for a good book!
