Jeff Cochran

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Jeff Cochran

Nonpartisan

Greenville County School District school board, Area 28

Tenure

2022 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

2

Predecessor

Lisa Hannah Wells

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 8, 2022

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Jeff Cochran is a member of the Greenville County School District school board in South Carolina, representing Area 28. He assumed office on November 29, 2022. His current term ends in 2026.

Cochran ran for election to the Greenville County School District school board to represent Area 28 in South Carolina. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Cochran completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2022

See also: Greenville County School District, South Carolina, elections (2022)

General election

General election for Greenville County School District school board, Area 28

Jeff Cochran defeated Brittany Hilbert and Steven Watterson in the general election for Greenville County School District school board, Area 28 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jeff Cochran (Nonpartisan)	47.1	4,977
	Submit photo	Brittany Hilbert (Nonpartisan)	40.7	4,304
	Submit photo	Steven Watterson (Nonpartisan)	11.2	1,189
		Other/Write-in votes	1.0	107

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,577
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Janice Curtis (Nonpartisan)

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jeff Cochran completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cochran's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Jeff Cochran. I am a born-again Bible believing Christian. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and a wonderful son. I have lived in the Simpsonville area now for 16 years, after having lived in Beaufort County, South Carolina for almost 18 years. I was a South Carolina public school teacher for 31 years. The first 18 years I taught at Battery Creek High School in Beaufort County where I was selected as Battery Creek High School's Teacher of the Year in 2000. I was also heavily involved in coaching sports during my first 18 years as an educator. The last 13 years I taught at Wade Hampton High School here in Greenville County. I am recently retired. I graduated from what is now the University of Virginia's College at Wise, and I have a Degree in Secondary Educational Leadership from Clemson University. I have been highly involved at my church where I have served as a Deacon, a Sunday School Teacher, and also on several other church committees including the finance committee.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• We should be promoting unity and love of country in our public schools. We cannot afford to continue down this current path of divisiveness. We should not be teaching sexual content to young children. There should be no place in our public schools for pornographic books or other pornographic materials. Biological males should use the boys’ restroom, and biological females should use the girls’ restroom. Biological males should play boys’ sports, and biological females should play girls’ sports. I believe there should be no place in our public schools for the teaching of Critical Race theory. Critical Race Theory is racism, and you do not end racism by teaching racism.
• I am running for Greenville County School Board because I care deeply about our children, and I care deeply about the future of our country. Our public schools have a tremendous impact on the lives of so many of our children, and what our children are taught in the public schools will have a tremendous impact on the future of our country. Our school board members are the gatekeepers who decide what to allow and what not to allow into our public schools, and at this point what we choose to allow and what we choose not to allow will make a vital difference. So, I believe it is critically important to have the right people in these positions making the right decisions.
• We are living in a dangerous time in our country where many groups are vying for the hearts and minds of our children. I believe we need to stop taking so many of our educational cues from Washington DC and other entities within our government’s centralized educational bureaucracy. Children belong to their parents not the government. We the people of Greenville County know a lot more about the educational needs of our own sons and daughters than some government bureaucrat in Washington DC. We need to make sure our public schools are safe, and we need to make sure the focus of our public schools stays on providing high quality academics and on teaching the life skills our students need to be successful.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Along with the issues I have previously discussed there are several other issues related to our public schools that I am deeply concerned about. In order for our teachers to be able to teach effectively and our students to learn effectively it is very important that the discipline code in our schools be enforced consistently and fairly. Students cannot learn in an environment filled with interruptions. Also, if the smaller level offenses are handled effectively, then there is less likelihood of larger problems developing. It is critical that our administrators have our teachers’ backs when it comes to discipline issues. We also need to protect the planning time of our teachers, and we need to do what we can to reduce the stifling amount of paperwork they are required to do. Another area I am very concerned about is school safety. It is good that we have a school resource officer in each of our middle and high schools, but we need to partner with our local law enforcement agencies to increase the number of our elementary schools that also have full-time resource officers. We also need to monitor the effectiveness of the two new weapons detection systems our county has purchased and consider buying more of them if they are deemed to be effective, and as always in school safety our students play a vital role. We need to encourage them that if they see or hear a threat, it is vital that they report that threat to school personnel.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Candidate

Greenville County School District school board, Area 28

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