Board of Education Candidate Profile

Bio

My name is Jean Hayhurst and I am a retired teacher from Federalsburg, Maryland and I am running for Caroline County BOE. Twenty-seven years ago, my husband Tom and I purchased a property here that we turned into a nice little horse farm. Tom is gone, but I still enjoy our “Little Peace of Heaven.”

It was a labor of love for both of us. I was raised in Garrett County, Maryland and graduated from Southern Garrett High School. I completed my undergraduate work at Missouri State University and my graduate work at Frostburg State University. Over 35 years, I taught both Biology and Chemistry to high school students as well as working with parents, administration and staff to help students succeed. I began my career at a K-12 school in Sparta, Missouri. I was the entire science department.

I moved back to Maryland in 1992 to take care of my mother and began teaching at my alma mater Southern High in Garrett County. I eventually moved to the Eastern Shore and set up house in Federalsburg in 1998. I taught at Easton High School and then finished my career in Fairfax County, VA, retiring in 2022. Since then, I have been adjusting to retirement, pursuing volunteer opportunities, caring for three adopted pups from Caroline County Humane Society and 11 chickens on my farm. My daughter is a special education teacher at Maces Lane Middle School in Cambridge. My grandson Warren is training in plumbing, and my granddaughter is figuring out middle school.

As a member of the Caroline County Board of Education, I would like to use my years of education service and commitment to help the students of Caroline County reach their full potential in the community that I have come to love and wish to serve. Students require access since almost all classwork is online. State grants (may be) available for funding to school districts that apply. I have grant writing experience and would be thrilled to make an application for these grants to provide funding for Mi-Fi’s -or whatever the device may be- for all students to have internet access at home during the school year. This would be my first focus as a school board member.

What should the Board and its partners, chiefly Caroline County government, do to prepare in the event of an operational funding crisis in the next five years?
I understand from my conversation with the superintendent that funding has been cut. Not to mention that my big push, if I get on the board, will be to find funds for all students in this county to have internet access since we've been doing school on computers for years now, and that's where they do their homework, etc.

So where should the funding come from? My plan is to apply for all state grants that are available and applicable to Caroline County and make them fit where we can in this budget crisis that is definitely looming. I know it can't come from the County taxpayers. We can't get blood from a turnip. So, we've got to look at other resources. And so that's my first plan of attack. Once I get on the board and I can see things a little more clearly, I may come up with some other avenues. But my first avenue of attack to find funding is to apply for state grants. Now, whether the state has the money available, I do not know, but that would be my first step.

What is the greatest challenge facing: administration, teachers, students, families?
“The greatest challenge affecting teachers is pay. To attract and retain qualified teachers, you have to pay them and treat them as professionals. That's not happening. So that all comes down to money, and where that's going to come from, I don't know, because under [our] current situation, and it's going to get progressively worse, the department, the Federal Department of Education, has been gutted, so we're not getting any of those dollars anymore. So that's one of the greatest challenges I see for teachers. Again, acquiring them, and then retaining them.

Administrators, that's a big problem for them, is retention. Now, I did speak with Mr. Angeloni, who is the principal of Preston Elementary. He's in a sweet spot down there because of his situation. His school has very little turnover, just because it's easy for an elementary school and school in general. I have taught in smaller school systems than Caroline County, and I taught in very large systems like Fairfax County, and seen all kinds of setups. And Mr. Angeloni is in a really nice spot there. He's got a great setup with the elementary kids. Easy way to go, very little turnover.

High school, middle school, different situation, different ball game. You got all kinds of issues there. So, the [administration’s challenge] is turnover with educators. And then, of course, following the Blueprint, to make sure that they're going to be able to jump through all of the hoops for the Blueprint that has been put out by the state. I've heard good things and bad things about the Blueprint, pros and cons. Mostly, again, it comes down to the funding. Where's the money going to come from?

Parents. In speaking with my neighbor, Mr. Wiley, it's just time to have to help their kids through school. I mean, just making themselves available. And them being heard. Parents want to be heard. They want to have their voices heard. And there I've already heard, just on my Facebook posts about lacrosse fields, and…there are a couple of other things that have come across the radar. I don't have the details to address that specifically. But I do know parents want to be heard. They just want you to listen to what they have to say and give them some idea if you can address the issue. So, I would do my best to listen wholeheartedly and be able to effectively address what they have concerns about.

Students, we have to keep them focused on the ball and then give them every opportunity to be successful. When I found out that there [is not] internet access to every student in this county…They've been doing school on computers for a whole bunch of years now. How can they do school on computers if they don't have internet? What a liability is that? And that's just one little thing, without even putting my toe in the big pie yet, I see that that is a huge limitation.”

What State education policies impact Caroline County Public Schools the most?
“I know we're getting ready to build a new middle school. So that's going to be a huge impact on the county [and bring about] direct state policies that we will have to follow whatever they want them to be.

I know where this is going, and I'm just not even going to bring it up here. If it comes out, I will address it. But whatever the state wants us to do with that building, we’ll have to do it, because they're providing 86% of the funding period. So I know there's been concerns about how that building might be set up, or this or that or the other. Well, the bottom line is, they're footing the bill.

And the other big issue with that is it's only partially funded right now. There's not total allocation of state funds for that building yet, only to get it started. So you know the timeline on that might not be accurate either. So I would suggest that that's going to be a pretty big impact in the next few years.”