Position/philosophy statement
My educational philosophy is grounded in faith, hope, and resilience. As an African-American man raised by a single mother, my mother instilled in me faith, hope, and resilience. I believe everyone can learn and experience success.
Current Occupation
Pastor
Age (optional)
60
Campaign Phone
3363996374
I have an educational background. I received a Bachelors in Education from WSSU in 1988 and Masters in Education from Wake Forest University in 1999, I taught 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade. I also worked as a curriculum coordinator. I served on the school board from 2014-2018 and rejoin the board in 2022. My wife is a retired teacher and both of my kids who are now young adults graduated from the WSFSC-Schools. My son is a college graduate and completed his Masters degree. My daughter is a Junior in college and will be graduating soon. Education and a program called Upward Bound have been the tools that helped me move from government housing to where I am today.
The school board member's key responsibilities revolve around setting a vision for the district. They approve policies, oversee budgets, and hire or evaluate the superintendent. They represent the community's values while ensuring student achievement stays at the forefront. School board members are all about leadership, accountability, and making decisions align with long-term goals.
The critical needs for the district is ensuring financial stability while prioritizing staff, essential programs, and facility maintenance within state and local funding. Plus, restoring trust in our district.
Continue and strengthen teacher residency program and continue partnering with local universities.
Pre-k is a crucial foundation. It is an investment in the future that could help ensure academic success. It will help all children start school ready to learn, reinforce family involvement, and support long-term educational outcomes. It is a strategic start.
My dream of serving on the school board is to empower children who share life experiences similar to mine through thoughtful policies, strategic budgeting, and decisions that create opportunities.
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Position/philosophy statement
I'm a 20 year veteran EC ( Special Ed) Teacher who decided to enter to begin to rebuild trust after a very difficult last school year, where many of my colleagues lost their jobs and kids lost valuable role models. We need to heal our district.
Current Occupation
EC (Special Education) Teacher
Age (optional)
44
As a 20 year educator, I have seen first hand the issues facing our public schools. We must be attuned to what the employees who work with our students on a daily basis are saying. We need to have input from them as well as students, families and the community before big decisions are made. I am an educator but also a strong advocate for our public schools. I have also served on various boards including an educator board for many years. We must be good stewards of the public dollars given, while also advocating to the general assembly for a stronger education budget.
Hiring a superintendent, voting to enact a budget, voting to create a budget to ask our county commissioners for each spring, and voting on policies for our students and staff are the most important duties.
This year has been a very difficult one. We have lost over 1000 staff from August 2025 to August 2026. Many of these losses were within the Exceptional Children's (EC) Department and with Assistant Principals. I think it is crucial we revisit the decisions made, and look within our budget, to see if corrections can be made. We also need to work extremely hard to not cut any additional staff, especially in our schools, as many folks that are remaining are having a challenging time to properly supervise kids, with so much less support because of the loss of so many staff. We also must look at our current code of conduct and its implementation. I think we should reevaluate it, because it's clear to me it's not working for all educators.
We must first begin to change how our district is viewed to recruit new folks. No one wants to work in a district that is laying folks off and and not providing support. As an employee, form September 2006 to July 2026, I can guarantee you, the morale has never been lower. Each month, we continue to lose quality and dedicated educators. We have to start listening to our educators and give them a real voice and seat at the table about decisions being made. This would boost morale and give them a level of investment to begin to trust again and help with recruitment.
My son was in PreK last year. He had an amazing experience, with wonder teachers. Even though I was an employee while he was in kindergarten, I didn't get him in a program until September, because of cuts to PreK. But research shows students who can get early interventions and access to PreK have better outcomes in school, so while we have to be vigilant of the budget, I support this important initiative.
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Position/philosophy statement
My leadership philosophy as a school board member is rooted in being student-centered, accountable, and transparent. Every decision should be guided by what best supports student learning, safety, and long-term success.
Current Occupation
Stylist for Cabi clothing
Age (optional)
54
Campaign Phone
3367936171
I'm the mom of 2 students, and have been heavily involved in the PTA. I've served 4 times as PTA President and currently hold that position at Mt. Tabor. My volunteerism extends to my neighborhood HOA board where I was a director for 15 years. I was a member of the finance committee and helped develop long-term and annual budgets. One of the more rewarding experiences came as a reading tutor with ReadWS. Sitting across from a struggling reader will change the way you view everything. This fueled my passion for early literacy.
School boards should create policies and procedures that are student-centered and foster safe school environments. They are charged with being good stewards of the taxpayers' funds and making sound financial decisions. They work with the superintendent and CFO to establish a balanced budget. The board should be an advocate for the district- working with county commissioners and local and state officials to secure sufficient funding.
I believe first and foremost we must retain our teachers. This means prioritizing pay increases and protecting planning time. The code of conduct needs to be revised so teachers feel more supported in the classroom. We need targeted support for elementary students who are struggling with reading and math.
The board should advocate for more funding for raises and bonuses. Teachers should be given protected planning time so they are not spending time outside of work hours. There should be a system in place to compensate teachers for working beyond the required workday. We need input from teachers about the code of conduct, so they feel empowered to handle behavior issues.
So many of our students enter kindergarten already behind their peers and this makes it difficult to catch up. A pre-K program would introduce kids to a structured classroom setting and early literacy instruction. Universal pre-K would help to level the playing field for our most vulnerable students.
I believe all residents of Forsyth county should care about all kids receiving a quality education. Our students deserve to have the necessary skills to produce the best possible outcomes. We need to partner with community organizations to help fill critical gaps in resources and support. I'll look for creative ways to engage families and stakeholders. I'll ask hard questions, listen carefully, and make decisions rooted in data, not politics. Every child. Every classroom. Everyday.
Position/philosophy statement
I believe in transparency, accountability, integrity and excellence. I believe every student is capable of achieving that, and that every employee should do all they can to instill those values in our students.
Current Occupation
Retired
Age (optional)
70
Campaign Phone
336-314-1314
I have thirty-six years of experience in local government accounting software, including budgeting, purchasing, payables and payroll. That is the same fund accounting used by school districts in NC.
During that time, I served one local government customer as their contract accountant and created their annual budget for 2012-13.
In 2015, I stepped away from IT and served a one-year internship to become a middle or high school math teacher. I taught high school math for one year, then served as a sub, a tutor, and a before- and after-school worker in several Title 1 schools in the district.
I have attended most of the board meetings since 2017, and have kept abreast of the issues facing the district.
The most important responsibility of a board member is their fiduciary responsibility. It is the responsibility of the board to establish the budget, then to keep a watchful eye on the finances of the district throughout the year to make sure that spending stays within that budget.
Another responsibility is the oversight of contracts. The board should be aware of every contract in effect in the district, whether or not the amount of the contract requires board approval. The board should also be aware of the terms of those contracts and whether they are set to automatically renew.
Another important role of the board is to establish the culture of the district through policy. This includes curriculum, attendance and behavior policy.
The most important needs in WSFCS are transparency and accountability. The board needs to prioritize establishing realistic goals, making every transaction toward those goals easily available to the public, and holding all stakeholders accountable for achieving those goals.
We need to examine current staffing, following a year of devastating cuts, and establish a level of staffing that serves the needs of all our students, while remaining fiscally responsible.
We need to examine programs and contracts and make sure they are beneficial toward achieving the district's goals.
We need to stop making excuses for students not being at grade level proficiency and do what ever it takes to hold every students and teacher accountable to that end.
I believe there are two primary impediments to recruiting and retaining qualified teachers.
First is the low employee morale following the cutting of 350 jobs just after the 2025-26 school year started. Teachers and support staff were shifted around to fill vacancies and asked to take on new roles with no time to prepare.
Second is the longstanding tolerance of unacceptable behavior. Teachers are expected to deal with much of the daily behavior issues within their classroom, with no support from administration. That is unreasonable and unacceptable. Teachers and students should not feel unsafe in their classroom, or be traumatized, on a daily basis, by disruptive behavior. Admin should remove disruptive students and call parents.
Pre-K is very important, especially given the number of chronically low-performing schools in WSFCS. We have more D and F schools than any district in NC, including districts with three times as many schools. We have students who enter kindergarten having never been read to. They do not know their letters or their numbers. It is impossible to expect K-2 teachers to have those students at grade level by third grade without giving them some support before they enter kindergarten.
We need to find the funding and staffing to provide Pre-K for every child in Forsyth Co. It is the only way to begin to close that gap.
I am a strong believer in transparency and accountability.
Every piece of data in the district needs to be easily accessible to the public. In that way the public can hold the district accountable. Without data, there is no way to know whether the district is spending appropriately and succeeding in educating our children, which is, after all, our only job.
Every person in the district from the youngest pre-k to the superintendent and the board members need to be held accountable for their behavior and for doing their job.
For students, their job is to achieve the very highest level of education possible for them. For staff, their job is to do their very best to help every student achieve that.
We need to establish a culture of excellence, wherein everyone gives their best, to be their best, every day.
Position/philosophy statement
To make Winston-Salem / Forsyth County Schools the premier educational setting for all students in the area
Current Occupation
Business Executive
Age (optional)
41
Curtis Fentress is a husband, a father of three young children attending public school, and business professional running to bring his financial and management background to the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Board of Education.
Curtis attended elementary, middle, and high school in the WS/FCS system graduating from Mt. Tabor High School in 2003. Curtis graduated from Haverford College in 2007 and UNC - Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, receiving his MBA in 2012.
For the last fourteen years, Curtis has been employed by Ecolab, Inc. (NYSE: ECL, Fortune 500 global sustainability leader) where he has held a series of business management roles and is currently Marketing Director, Global QSR.
- Advocating for support at the state and local level
- Advocating for public schools as the premier education setting for students
- Managing, hiring and overseeing district administrative staff and policy
The most critical needs we have in our district is a lack of trust in the school board and in the leadership running the school district. The lack of trust emanates from all constituencies and has a negative impact on the district in myriad ways: reduced enrollment from students and families opting for charter and private schools, reduced investment combined with a general hand's off approach from the state of North Carolina who can assign blame to the local leadership for any ill effect that befalls our district. In order to build back trust in our district, it's essential that we elect new leadership that can turn the page and usher in a new atmosphere.
Educators have certain reasonable expectations of their employer. We expect out employers to be fair. We expect our employers to provide us the resources we need to be successful. We expect our employers to pay us a competitive wage. We expect our employers to have some level of stability of decision-making and policy setting. In the recent past, we have fallen short of this goal in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County and it is time for the community to elect new leadership to build back the trust of all stakeholders.
Universal Pre-K is of critical importance to our education system. Head Start made North Carolina a model for the nation by introducing the concept of publicly funded preschool to meet the emotional, social, and psychological needs of our youngest. We need to understand the compound effects that early intervention can have as we enter school-aged years. We are asking too much of our educators who must teach to a wider and wider swath of need as children progress through elementary school. With Pre-K, we can help to level the playing field and get our youngest kids on the right path to learn and absorb at a young age.
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Position/philosophy statement
Proven, strong leadership must lead the WSFCS back to relevancy. Experience in finance, logistics, real transparency, logistics and board service is critical in restoring confidence in the system.
Current Occupation
US Army retired, senior corporate management retired
Campaign Phone
813-892-7301
I am a West Point graduate with more than 25 years of Army leadership experience. I have led soldiers at all levels of commands, I was responsible for the lives of these men and women as well as the maintenance and control of tens millions of dollars worth of taxpayer equipment. The Army taught me fund accounting and finance, which is the same as used in the school system. My second carreer was in the coporate world as a senior executive in CEO/COO/CFO roles. I have worked with budgets similar to the WSFCS and understand the nuances of dealing with multi-divisional organizations. I have had the honor of being a member of public company boards as well as charity boards of directors. I have NO plan ro seek higher office.
The Board must provide strong leadership to the system to restore confidence in system also it must ensure 1) the safety of the students, 2) provide academic facilities, teachers and all necessary assistants to help our students flourish, 3) advocate with the county, state, and legislators to provide sufficient funding to the schools. Currently, North Carolina schools ranks as the 50th state in the nation in per student 4) institute a curriculum that will raise our graduation rate from the bottom to the top of our peers, including Vocational and Technical program curriculum 5) must have a seat at the table of planning, and economic development, since the WSFCS is integral to attracting businesses, 6) must protect the taxpayers
The immediate need for the Board to tackle is 1) clearing the remainder of the $60+ million deficit and implement controls to ensure this never recurs 2) if the electorate does not vote in a board with leadership, finance, accounting, technology, logistics & building maintenance experience, it must recruit committees with that expertise must be recruited to assist the board 3) an independent, outside auditor which reports to the board should be hired immediately, 4) since the financial mismanagement began around 2017, an auditor should begin a forensic audit that identifies: when and why a problem occurred and the responsible person must be held accountable and ongoing procedural audits should begin.
Teaching is challenging but extraordinarily rewarding. To recruit and retain excellent teachers, WSFCS must become a place where talented educators want to build their careers. We should offer competitive compensation, provide teachers with the tools, technology, safe classrooms, and supportive leadership they need to succeed, and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens that take time away from teaching. We must also strengthen the use of teaching assistants and qualified volunteers to support our classrooms. Most importantly, teachers should know that their expertise is respected and their concerns are heard. Creating that environment will help us attract great teachers, retain them, and restore confidence in our schools.
As a grandfather of a five year old granddaughter and a three year old grandson, I see first hand how critical the pre-K programs are in the system. Not only do they give the students the needed learning skills but of greater importance pre-K and Kindergarten teach th children how to socialize and act in a group environment. Manners, social skills, working with others learned in pre-K make the integration into the larger classes easier for the kids and the teachers.
WSFCS has a truancy rate that is one of the worst in the state. Studies show that many kids are bored with traditional courses. They also feel that when they go to school that they are ridiculed by others because of their grades. The result is they don't go to school. A robust "VoTech" program will be part of the solution this problem. Forsyth Tech continues to grow by having programs that offer AA and/or certificate programs in vocations and technical careers that are desperately needed in the USA. The schools that were recently closed could be altered to become centers for "VoTech". Our system should coordinate with Forsyth Tech and industry to build a program that prepare students as for the workforce.
Additionally, summer programs should be offered to help kids who are struggling. Athletes could benefit by reducing course work during during the school year. Also, ESL classes could be offered for adults and kids
