Vote 2022: Lexington School District 1's Crowded Field Chases 3 Open Seats

The Chronicle has assembled a guide to what will be on ballots in Lexington County in the November election. Find the full guide at lexingtonchronicle.com.

The crowded Lexington 1 race features 11 candidates running for three open seats, with no incumbents on the ballot.

Nicholas Pizzuti told the Chronicle that his two girls motivate him to help every child reach their full potential. He also emphasized that he understands aspects like financing, infrastructure, human resources and procurement, among others, need focus as well.

On the board, he said he would work toward regaining the trust that has been lost between board members and the community during the past few years.

 “We do not need our board acting like Washington, D.C., where nothing gets done,” he said.

 To regain trust and connection, Pizzuti said parents need to know what their child is learning and issues they face at school, and teachers need access to all necessary resources .

 If elected, Pizzuti said he would play the role of the communicator and that he prides himself on being able to work with individuals regardless of their background. He said he is the only candidate who has handled finances of this size and he believes that that experience would aid him on the board.

 Mary Price said attending meetings for the last five years pushed her to want to make a change within the board. 

She told the Chronicle a major issue within the current board is that policies are not being followed, and it’s led to conflicts within the board and a loss of trust with the community. Her top priority would be restoring the trust.

 “I believe the best way to do this is to make information available on our district page,” she said.

She said her past experience as a PTA president made her aware of how important it is to understand the past, read policies, and learn to adjust as you plan budgets, programs and events. 

Price said she would bring to the board her skills for multitasking, organizing, abiding and working with a diverse group of individuals. She said she believes board members should listen to everyone, regardless of whether they agree, as it is important to gather the perspective of other members.

Rhys Sage, a special needs bus driver, told the Chronicle he has been directly affected by the board's financial choices, and these financial irregularities are his motivation for running. 

His top priority is to stamp out corruption alongside being fully transparent. Fixing this corruption will lead to more money being put into classrooms, he said.

 “Everything must be 100% transparent with no secret meetings, no secret ballots. All meetings must be live-streamed,” he said. “Without that, we have only edited transparency along the lines of something the KGB would have done.” 

 Sage said he is the sole candidate running on an anti-corruption platform.

He added that he has viewed poor financial choices when the district installed computerized tracking systems on the school buses. When the first installation wasn’t successful, the district replaced the first and threw it away. According to Sage, the second installation wasn’t successful either.

 Sage said a good board member is intelligent, adaptabie, financially prudent, honest, integrous, equal-minded, dependable, approachable and experienced with the education system in some capacity

 Beth Shealy said she sees the at-large seats as an opportunity to join the board and support the students and the district as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Her main motivation for running is her love for the schools and the community.

 If elected, Shealy’s main priority will be to get the district back on track and recovered starting with identifying and addressing instructional gaps.

 According to Shealy, members of the board are acting as individual activists rather than a group. She said they should focus their time on the problems at hand and not feed the public dissension.

 Shealy said she has worked as a leader, finance executive and contract negotiator at her local community hospital and believes these experiences would help her as a board member.

 “I see myself as one who will ask a lot of questions and actively seek input from parents, teachers, students, district employees and community members.” Shealy said “My goal would be to fully understand and sometimes challenge conventional ways of doing things with the ultimate goal of enhancing student performance and success.”

 Katie McCown has children at Lexington 1 schools Midway Elementary, Meadow Glen Middle and River Bluff High and said this makes her top priority being an advocate for parent voices.

 “They are the ones that put us in our positions as board members,“ she said.

 Issues that McCown said she sees within the board are that they are divided and don’t work well together, not everyone has an equal voice or receives information at the same time. She also said the board needs a simplified agenda process, better financial transparency and autonomy from outside entities.

 McCown said she would be a team player, a communicator and an advocate for the constituents that vote for her. She believes that a good board member should communicate in a timely and respectful way. 

 She said her experience in the realty business has led her to succeed under pressure and become skilled in communication and compromise, and owning her own business has led to understanding finances.

 McCown said she believes she stands out from other candidates because her actions match her words, mentioning the group of parents she organized to push back against mask and quarantine mandates.

 “I will always push for what is best for our students and for their parents to have autonomy over their child.” she said.

 Chris Rice said his goal is to help students and the district recover from the pandemic and regain the community’s trust.

 Being a good board member, Rice said, is marked by demonstrating strong leadership and being willing to listen to feedback from students, parents, teachers, staff, administrators and community leaders and responding appropriately when making decisions.  

 The major issues that Rice brought up are the lack of trust, lack of transparency in financial decisions and a shortage of bus drivers.

 Rice said he has done volunteer work like being a Career Day speaker, DJing end-of-year events, volunteering for the PTO and more. He currently serves as chair of the Board of Directors for Mission Lexington and the chair of the Board of Directors for Lexington 1 Educational Foundation.

 When it comes to disagreements on the board, Rice said he plans to approach them with the concept “Seek first to understand, then be understood,” a quote from Stephen Covey, encouraging the board to express their opinions in a respectful and civil manner.

 Dana Homesley said she started following the board when her daughter started school, and after attending her first board meeting, she left with more questions than answers.

 Over the past year and a half, she said she has attended 34 out of 36 board meetings (as of Oct. 4) and has familiarized herself with how the board operates; she believes this makes her stand out.

 According to Homesley, a good board member is accessible and hears the questions and concerns of its citizens and then follows up with action. The major issues that she has noticed are that the board does not operate as one, not all members are privy to information, accountability is lacking, and that the lack of communication has led to mistrust in the board.

 She said her priorities are fixing issues with academic learning loss and achievement gaps and financial concerns regarding the budget and installing real checks and balances to be sure the district maximizes tax dollars. 

 Homesley said she is already active in informing the public, operating a Facebook page called Informed Citizens of Lexington County School District One to inform citizens through unbiased, factual updates. 

 On the board, she said she plans to be present, accessible, informed, fair and an active voice for students, teachers, parents and staff. 

Andrea Nazarenkorenko said that since college, she has wanted to improve the education system, and now having three small children fuels her motivation.

“I recall telling a professor my goals to ‘improve public education’; she looked at me and said, ‘Andrea, you know you can't change a system you are employed by, right?’ I took this to heart,” she said. 

She and her husband own a chiropractic and family wellness center. She said this has led her to recognize that when it comes to education there is no “one size fits all.”

Nazarenko said one of the major issues right now is that the current board has a broken relationship and are unwilling to work together. She said that change happens when people stop being divisive and join together; this starts with building communication and trust.

Her top three priorities are establishing a student advisory group at all middle and high schools, along with teacher advisory panels and parent/community town halls.

Nazarenko said she sees a good board member as someone who has a desire to improve public education for the sake of the children; they should also be caring, improvement-focused and unbiased.

On the board, she said she sees herself as a listener, a uniter and an accountability person, and that her extensive understanding of the complex issues facing modern education.

Richard Gehling said that if elected, he wants to push education back into the direction of the basics with students focusing on reading, writing and math. His priority is fixing the lack of transparency and accountability.

“A board member's actions need to be transparent and accountable to the parents and community! This builds trust which we highly need,” he said.

 Other issues he brought up are the lack of communication/miscommunication, decisiveness, unity and consensus, and financial transparency.

 Gehling said he brings knowledge of consulting, facilitating and mediating large groups; he believes that these skills will shape his role within the board.

 Aaron Granade said that before the pandemic he wasn’t as aware of the happenings of the board, but he subsequently became aware of drastic flaws and began researching so that he could run and give his children the highest quality education.

 According to Granade, a good board member understands how to stand up for what is right, even if they are in the minority; they should encourage community feedback and provide opportunities to hear from the community regardless of whether it’s parents, students, tax payers, teachers, bus drivers, custodians or administrators.

 Granade said major issues on the current board include that the board chair seems more dictatorial and controlling than a board member is supposed to be and no board member has more authority than another. Transparency and accountability are major issues that he points out. He said it is pathetic that the board has requested insight from the attorney general on keeping information from becoming public record.

 Being one of the earliest candidates to announce their campaign for this election is one of the reasons Granade believes that he stands out.

 "I have no problem calling out (and actually have a number of times) inappropriate behavior on the part of the school board members and other elected officials,” he said. 

Harriet Coker said that she was motivated to run because she believes all children matter, and it is our duty to help each and every one of them reach their highest potential.

According to Coker, a good board member must know their role, follow the policy set by the state and district, and they should make students their first and most important priority; board members should be able to think critically and be team players and effective communicators.

Her major issue within the board is the lack of communication and trust. If elected, her priority would be to make requesting educational assistance easier for parents. Coker told the Chronicle that she hopes to be a voice of reason and an instrument for positive growth.

Being a substitute teacher, she said she has interacted and built relationships with office staff, administration, custodians, housekeepers, cafeteria staff, counselors, nurses, support staff and teachers; she prides herself on this experience and believes it will aid her on the board.

Within the community, Coker said she has been active in a multitude of organizations and schools. She serves as PTO president for Centerville Elementary and on the superintendent’s Parent Advisory Council.