Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

Carolyn B. Carpenter 57, married 40 years to James Stan Carpenter. 2 children Ericka, Brad and 1 grandson Jacob Paul.

Served 12 years on Cabarrus County Board of Commissions, I was first woman chairman in history of county commissions in Cabarrus County. 2006 to Current Cabarrus Board of Education I'm up for re-election this year.

I have served on other community boards in the last 20 years.  Cabarrus Health Board/ Health Alliance 16 years, Cabarrus Social Service 2 years.

I'm currently serving on the following boards: Cabarrus County Fair board, Salvation Army Woman's Auxiliary 2nd Vice Pres., Metropolitan Planning Organization, Head Start Cabarrus County and Permanency Planning Action Team (DSS).

I also volunteer at our schools and libraries reading and doing programs with some of our community groups when I'm needed.

One of my highest priorities is to keep working on lowering our drop out rate. Cabarrus County has been working on this with programs like our Early College and Performance Learning Center. These are helping, but we must do more to help keep our students in school.

The next issue that needs to be addressed would be good communication with teachers, parents, and families. We need more of an open door policy with teachers so that they will feel more comfortable speaking with administration staff. I feel this area could be addressed with open quarterly forums.

We need to work on decreasing policies/ procedures which I feel are impeding the efficiency of teachers being able to properly serve their students and families. I feel a group built of teachers, parents, and students could be established to reduce some of these unnecessary policies.

Discipline is paramount in our teaching environments, not only for the safety of our students, but also our staff. Too often, the teachers/principals are restricted with discipline regarding administrative policies that are currently in place. Teachers/principals should have the say so regarding the discipline of disruptive children which will provide a safe environment for learning.

Lastly, I feel that our students are being tested too much. There needs to be a reduction of student's testing so teachers can actually "teach." Some of the money we would save could maybe give teachers pay raises, since most have not had any in two years. I feel this could be addressed by communicating with our Federal and State legislative branches.