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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one of a two-part story about the candidate forum on Tuesday, which included the candidates for two local races in the upcoming election. An upcoming edition will cover the superintendent candidates.

Candidates for the two contested county races gathered at the Alfa Insurance building in LaFayette for a live-streamed forum hosted by Gator Media and BeeTV.

CCSD District 1 Democratic candidate Reco Newton, and Republican candidate Carolyn Danyel Peters were the first to speak.

Peters, a Valley native, is a law attorney based in the county. Newton, also from Valley, has worked as a coach and educator for 22 years. He currently works at the LC2 in the Lee County School System.

The election will take place on November 5.

Five questions were provided for the four candidates ahead of the forum. Each prepared a response to the questions. The complete interview and answers can be found on Gator Media Facebook page. The five questions were as follows:

Where do you see the Chambers County School System in the next four years?

Peters said she hopes to see the county’s test scores increase, adding, “The way that we can do this is by hiring more certified teachers focusing on education and increasing that community involvement throughout Chambers County. The teachers will need resources, more resources than they already have, and so do those students in Chambers County.”

“We need to be sure that we are setting our standards to be one of the best school systems in the state,” Newton said. “But for this to happen, we must make sure that we are teachers and students in the classroom with the latest technology and making sure our teachers are getting the most accurate professional development that can be used to help move forward our school system.”

What’s your vision of the consolidated high school and thoughts on the site?

Though she hopes to find a balance that benefits both sides of the county, Peters said she cannot answer fully until she gets into office.

“If elected, that is something that I would look at, focus on, do the research and reach out to our citizens,” She added. “That’s faculty, that’s teachers, students, everybody involved, their voice needs to be heard, and so if elected, that is what I would do.”

Newton, a proud Valley Ram, said that there is pride on both sides of the county, adding, “But the thing today is that pride must come together. We must find a way to make a future for our kids.”

Newton continued, “Our thoughts can’t be about what’s good for Valley or what’s good for LaFayette, but what’s good for Chambers County, what’s good for the entire Chambers County?”

Thoughts on the 2025 private school in-home school reimbursement and how that could affect the school district?

Peters said she thinks the CHOOSE Act could be detrimental to all public schools, including Chambers County.

“Which is why our focus really needs to be on retaining the children that we have and providing higher quality education. Of course, this can be done by, again, hiring qualified teachers, providing more resources for those teachers and students, providing safe learning environments for those students as well, and engaging our community so students and parents are proud to be a part of the changes coming.”

“I think it’s only fair for the state to provide this option to parents, because parents want the best for their kids,” Newton said. “So it’s up to us to show parents that our public school system is just as great as any private school education, and in doing that, we have to have self-accountability, that we have issues in our school.”

What is your vision of unifying both LaFayette High School and Valley High School?

“Unifying any school system could be extremely challenging, but of course, it’s not impossible,” Peters said. She said school district can arrange afterschool activities, events and programs to encourage students from both high schools to spend more time together and work together.

“I know in recent years Inspire Academy has actually done this where they put both Valley and LaFayette students in the classroom, and it has worked out just fine,” Peters said.

Newton said that the stakeholders of the county are the citizens who the board should turn to. He added, “These are the people we must rely on to help us make LaFayette High School and Valley High School into one Chambers County.  This job is not going to be about one person. This job not going to be about one group of people to make us successful. It’s going to be about one county. Chambers County.”

How would you address state test scores and plan to bring them up?

The Board of Education’s focus, Peters said, should be to ensure that all children in that county receive quality education.

“That can be accomplished again by hiring those more qualified teachers, providing more resources to both students and teachers and then also allowing teachers to have more meaningful professional development opportunities that are more tailored to their individual needs,” Peters said.

Looking through the lowest state scores, Newton suggested several ways of addressing low-performing students, including, “ ACT Prep before and after school, ACT Bootcamp on Saturdays.”

“And also, we can add an auxiliary period,” he added. “… Some things that I feel that can help our academic goals is to offer free tutoring after school from teachers and student peers. Student peers can receive a stipend for their assistance with this.”