All the Issues

There are A LOT of reasons to Vote Out the Witches! Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart need to vanish from the New Hanover County Board of Education. Here is a list of all reasons we came up, even though we are sure there are many more.

Depending on your political viewpoints you may or may not agree with every single reason listed. However, we think that every voter will find enoguh reasons to show Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart the door!

Square crop of Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart as spooky witches beside a boiling green cauldron

Supported AI Surveillance in our Schools

In 2025, at the behest of State Senator Michael Lee, Pat & Josie led the charge to introduce an intrusive AI Surveillance System into New Hanover County schools. This system had the capability to perform facial recognition and could track our students’ every movement throughout the day. All of this without requiring parental permission.

Thankfully, a bipartisan coalition formed that narrowly defeated the introduction of this Big Brother system 4-3. However, the NC General Assembly and Michael Lee are in love with this idea, and it is likely that they will try and push it to NHCS again in the future.

We must remain vigilant and be sure to elect school board members who are committed to the 4th Amendment and to our families’ privacy rights. Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart promised that they would stand up for parents rights. They have not, and they must be voted out!

Book Bans, the "Display Policy," and the Suppression of Free Speech

Book Bans Local Democratic leaders and anti-censorship advocates in New Hanover County argue that Republican school board members Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart are leading a hypocritical, politically motivated assault on public education and free speech.

Their effort started with book bans. While there has always been a procedure for parents to challenge books at their child's individual school, Pat and Josie led the effort to charge that procedure so any book challenge now has districtwide implications. That's why the books Stamped and Blended now have very limited availability at all of the district's schools. These book bans have nothing to do with age-appropriate reading materials. It is simply the censorship of the ideas contained in those books.

Pat and Josie didn't stop with book bans. By May of 2024, Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart were busy getting the "Display Policy" adopted. This now bans any display of flags or posters on the walls of any school classroom or hallway unless it is a federal, state, local, or military flag, or is an annoucement of school activities. Teachers are no longer able to put up motivational posters, and students can't freely express their political beliefs. It took a July 2024 amendment to the Policy before teachers were allowed to place family photos on their desks and schools were allowed to display student artwork again. The "Display Policy" is a major infringment on the Free Speech of our teachers and our students.

Supported Superintendent Foust

Dr. Charles Foust Former Superintendent Foust was a disaster for New Hanover County Schools during his tenure. He often went behind the prior School Board's back and didn't provide them with the critical information necessary to make decsions. In addition, his dictatorial management style alienated our teachers and other school staff; so much so that by 2022 over 1000 teachers had signed a petition demanding his removal!

If Pat and Josie really care about employee morale then they would have fired Dr. Foust as soon as they were sworn on to the School Board in December of 2022. Not only did they not do that, but they actually voted for and granted him a 4-year contract extension in August of 2023. As explained below, their loyal allegiance to the whims of State Senator Michael Lee was probably a motivating factor in their decision.

It wasn't until the public revelation (and blowback by the local GOP base) that Dr. Foust had made secret plans to close the Mosely Academy and turn it into a "Newcomers School" and the results of a Climate Survey conducted by UNCW showed that teachers and staff were still completely dissatisified with Dr. Foust, that the Board finally decided to fire Dr. Foust in July of 2024. However, since Dr. Foust already had a signed contract extension, NHCS was forced to pay him over $250,000. Had Dr. Foust not attempted to secretly close the Mosely Academy, he would likely still be our Superintendent.

Apathy towards DEI and Gender Ideology

DEI & Gender Ideology During their 2022 campaigns, Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart promised Republican voters that they would eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, along with Gender Ideology, from the school district. The facts demonstrate that they were negligently slow to even partially fulfill that promise.

It took them a full year of being on the School Board before they finally eliminated the EDI (DEI) Board Committee in December of 2023. It took them until July of 2024 to finally eliminate the Chief Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer position from the school district. However, it wasn't until the Trump Administration issued its January 2025 Title IX Enforcement Directive DCL and its February 2025 "Dear Colleague" letter regarding DEI, did Pat and Josie vote to do anything substantive in this area. At that point they did vote to remove DEI from the NHCS Strategic Plan and did vote to task the Policy Committee to remove references to DEI and gender ideology from school district policy.

Over the next few months the Policy Committee did bring forward those relevant amendments to Policies, and Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart did vote for most of the recommended changes. However, they failed to approve proposed language changes to Title IX policies that would have replaced references to "sex" with references to "biological sex."

Replacing Teachers With Technology

An AI Robot teaching young children You would think that Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart would have learned from the experience that NHCS had when they closed schools during the COVID-19 Crisis and went to remote computer-based learning. The vast majority of students simply do not learn nearly as effectively this way. NHCS students fell well behind in their academic studies and we are still seeing the long-term consequences in reduced acaemic competency scores.

Multiple scientific studies have all proven that children learn better with actual teachers, printed books, and by writing on paper then they do within a digital classroom. And yet Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart still approved the intial pilot of Spark NC labs (Another pet project of Michael Lee) within NHCS and have voted for its expansion. They continue to approve the Technology Department's ever-expanding requests to provide 1:1 laptops for all NHCS students. Meanwhile they have publicly criticized the idea of returning to printed textbooks because it might cost too much.

Technology can and should supplement a good education, and our students do need to learn to use it in pursuit of their career dreams. But, AI and technology will never replace a teacher!

In the Pocket of Michael Lee

Perhaps you like most of what State Senator Michael Lee has done, and perhaps you don't. However, even if you do appreciate his overall work you need to realize that Senator Lee has a disturbing pattern of "cozying" up to the wishes of his campaign donors and for exchanging political favors. In addition, he most definitely proposes and supports statewide legislation that attempts to micromanage how our public schools are operated that detracts from the power of the New Hanover County Board of Education to do what is right for our school district.

ALthough Michael Lee has not donated directly to the campaigns of Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart, it is intersting to note that there is a significant overlap in contributions from mega donors, like the Logans, Rountrees, and Hiatts. These mega donors usually don't make large donations to school board campaigns because they have no financial incentive to do so. Yet Pat and Josie were able to receive signficant contributions from them and perhaps all it took was a call from Michael Lee. It should come as no shock that they voted to give Dr. Foust a contract extension because Michael Lee wanted him to remain as Superintendent because he had recommended Senator Lee for the UNCW Razor Walker Award in Education. It should come as no shock that they led the charge on AI Surveillance in our schools because this was Michael Lee's pet project. It should come as no shock that they continue to vote for the expansion of technology and AI in our classrooms because Michael Lee is a true believer in the idea that technology will revolutionize education.

We need people on the school board who can think for themselves and not simply follow the "marching orders" of influential politicians.

Erasing Black History

Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart signaled a deep disregard for inclusive education by leading the vote to reject an official district proclamation recognizing Black History Month.

Barnhart aggressively opposed the proclamation by dismissing it as an empty statement without tangible administrative direction, subsequently introducing a substitute motion that progressive critics slammed as a tactic to dilute and bypass the official month-long designation. Bradford supported the override and further claimed the resolution felt like a "political maneuver" that implied the district wasn't teaching history correctly—a stance local public school advocates heavily condemned as documented in the report by Port City Daily.

Local NAACP leadership fiercely rebuked the vote, warning that refusing to sign a symbolic vow celebrating the historical contributions of Black students actively alienates minority families and compromises historical accuracy within the district.

Curtailed Transparency & Public Participation

Shadow Government Good government is transparent and is responsive to the input of the people it serves. That is not only a good principle, but one that is supported the NC Open Meetings law. It is quite apparent from their actions that Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart don't agree.

They both voted to end the live-streaming and recording of many important Board committee meetings. Except for the monthly Regular Board Meeting, they schedule all their other board and committee meetings to take place during the working day, when most of the public are unable to attend. They both have publicly expressed opposition to the idea of allowing a short Call to Audience segment at other board and committee meetings. Finally, they both voted to change our policies regarding Call to Audience so they can shut down speakers they don't care for.

In summary, it is fairly apparent that Pat and Josie would rather have all their meetings in a private, dark, and smoke-filled room.

Continue to Approve a Bloated Technology Budget

Bloated Technology Budget While employee salaries constitute the largest portion of the NHCS budget, Technology expenditures are still a MAJOR expense. Any fiscally conservative Republican serving on the Board of Education should be constantly examining these expenditures to determine if they are truly necessary and provide value at the best price possible for the taxpayers.

And the fact is that there is A LOT of waste! The Technology Department is always seeking funding so that they can possess the "latest and greatest" hardware and software that has all the "bells and whistles." They sell off perfectly well functioning computers (that are sometimes only 3-4 years old) as surplus, and constantly want money for "shiny" and brand new ones. Instead of buying software that can be used for years without needing to be replaced, they buy expensive software subscriptions that cost more.

Pat and Josie hardly ever question these expenditures when they come up for approval. Even when other board members question those expenditures, they always vote to approve them.

Promoting Christian Nationalism

Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart are always falsely accusing NHCS educators of trying to indoctrinate students with a leftist agenda. In fact, the opposite is true. Pat and Josie are the ones trying to indoctrinate NHCS students by promoting the goals of Christian Nationalism within our schools. This dangerous political movement (led by the likes of the Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, and local groups like NC Tide Turners) want to turn our country into something that resembles the fascist Gilead (from The Handmaids Tale) rather than the land of liberty and religous freedom that our Founders formed.

This became quite apparent in February of 2024 when Pat and Josie led the charge to add "Section Z" to Policy 7205: Standards of Professional Conduct. This lauudry list of 13 of forbidden topics, prohibits teachers from talking to students about racial discrimination, sexism, sexual orientation, and more. The language is almost a direct copy of Republican authored HB 187 (which thankfully failed in the NC Senate) and the Heritage Foundation's legislative templates on the subject. As previosuly mentioned, Pat and Josie are behind book bans, and another goal of the Heritage Foundation is to adopt anti LGBTQIA policies in our schools by banning books. Finally, the efforts of Ms. Bradford and Ms. Barnhart this year to get LifeWise into our elementary schools (at the expense of other religous studies and character building programs) also proves they are following the Christian Nationalist playbook. LifeWise is a spin-off of Turning Point USA and is more akin to the "Hitler Youth" then to any actual religous education program.

We need board members who respect the separation of church and state, and who will concentrate on serving the needs of students from all religous and non-religous backgrounds.

And don't forget that they are...

Vindictive Witches

Vindictive Witches Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart are constantly brewing up strife and turmoil on the Board of Education in their attempt to constantly punish other board members that simply won't capitulate to them. This was evident during their first two years on the Board by the manner in which they treated Board Member Melissa Mason. During their second two years they have switched to persecuting board members Tim Merrick and David Perry.

Pat and Josie are always advocating for the addition of new and vague restrictions on board member conduct to Policy 2120 : Code of Ethics for School Board Members, so they can use them as pretextual justification for punishing board members they don't like. In addition, they will often selectively utilize Roberts Rules of Order to stop or undermine the proposals of the board memebers they persecute. It doesn't matter whether they agree with the proposal or not. It's all about vindictive payback.

The NHCS Board is wasting far too much time and effort holding censure and disciplinary hearings, so that these two can continue their personal vendettas. We need School Board members who will respectfully listen to all individual board members, even when there is disagreement.

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