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Martin Page
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Martin Page holds the District 5 seat on the Iredell-Statesville school board in North Carolina. He won election to the board on May 6, 2014. District 5 includes Troutman Elementary School, Troutman Middle School, Lakeshore Elementary School, Lakeshore Middle School, Career Academy and Technical School, South Iredell High School, Lake Norman Elementary School and Brawley Middle School.[1]
Biography
Page is a graduate of Wilson Technical Community College. After graduation, he worked in the automotive industry for several years before going into teaching. He obtained his teaching certificate hours from North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University and Appalachian State University. He worked for seven years in Nash County Schools, where he taught Auto Mechanics at Northern Nash High School. During that time, he began an intramural vocational education basketball program which involved hundreds of Northern Nash High School students. He also was an assistant varsity boys’ basketball coach. While living in Red Oak, he became a charter member of the Red Oak Jaycees. In 1982, Page moved to Statesville to teach Auto Mechanics and coach cross country, tennis and basketball at Statesville High School. He retired from high school coaching in 1992 and began an Automotive Program at North Iredell High School in 1993. In 1995, Page helped develop Iredell-Statesville School’s first county-wide educational program, the Auto Tech Center. He accepted the Governor’s Entrepreneurial School of the Year Award in 1997 for the program. Page taught Auto Mechanics at South Iredell High School, Lake Norman High School and the Auto Tech Center at Statesville High School until 2006. Since 2007 he has worked as a contract employee for Iredell-Statesville Schools.
After retiring from high school coaching, Page became active in youth sports in Iredell County. He coached youth soccer, baseball and football. He was a member of the Troutman Youth Athletic Association and the North Piedmont Babe Ruth Association. In 2003, Page was part of the new Lakeshore Youth Athletic Association and served as its president for the first two years. He also helped start the Stumpy Creek Babe Ruth Association and served as its president. Page is a member of Rocky Mount Methodist Church with his wife and two sons.[2]
Elections
2014
Martin Page challenged Victoria Sawyer for the District 5 seat in the general election on May 6, 2014.
Results
Page won election to the board in 2014.
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan |  Martin Page |
60.1% | 1,265 | |
| Nonpartisan | Victoria Sawyer | 39.2% | 825 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in | 0.7% | 14 | |
| Total Votes | 2,104 | |||
| Source: North Carolina Board of Elections, "05/06/2014 UNOFFICIAL PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS - IREDELL," accessed June 2, 2014 | ||||
Funding
Page reported $2,100.00 in contributions and $1,774.60 in expenditures to the Iredell County Board of Elections, which left his campaign with $325.40 on hand.[3]
Endorsements
Page did not receive any official endorsements for his campaign.
Campaign themes
2014
Page's campaign website listed his themes for 2014:
| “ | One of my first priorities, if elected, is to find out where our money is going and let the tax payers know. It is time for accountability and transparency with our tax dollars. How many people in Iredell County know the system has recently purchased land on Parkertown Road for $800,000? How many people know the board purchased new automobiles for some of the administrators? These may be perfectly good investments, but it is taxpayer money, and the public should know which board members voted for or against these expenditures.
I want to be open to parents and taxpayers. I want to answer their questions as timely and factually as possible. As a board member, there are certainly issues that cannot be discussed in open meetings, and the public needs to understand that. However, too many decisions are made with no public debate and discussion. I plan to set up a schedule to spend at least one day every semester at every school in my district. I would be there to talk with students, parents, and teachers. I also would try to visit every classroom in these schools once a semester. I really think this should be a requirement of all board members so that our decisions are rooted at the classroom level with a clear sense of real, urgent needs. In a recent school board meeting, one of the board members actually asked where a particular school was located. Unbelievably, it was in his district, and he did not even know it! I also want to establish a board committee so parents, teachers and principals could file complaints and address concerns without fear of repercussions. I also want to require that every administrator, both at school and central office level, to spend at least one day a quarter in a classroom actually teaching, not just “visiting.” They need to be on the front lines sometimes to appreciate the teachers’ daily struggles to effectively educate a diverse student population with a variety of specific needs. I also think every board member needs to be in a classroom on a regular basis so they can see firsthand what is really going on. One of the most important things I would like to accomplish is establish a close and productive working relationship with our county commissioners. They provide the money, so the system needs to work with them, not try to work around them. Most importantly, the school board needs to truly make the students’ education the main thing, and keep the “main thing” the main thing! |
” |
| —Martin Page's campaign website, (2014) | ||
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Martin + Page + Iredell-Statesville + Schools"
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Iredell-Statesville Schools, "Board of Education," accessed March 12, 2014
- ↑ Martin Page for I-SS School Board, "Biography," accessed March 13, 2014
- ↑ Iredell County Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports, 2014," accessed March 12, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Martin Page for I-SS School Board, "Platform," accessed March 13, 2014
| 2014 Iredell-Statesville Schools Elections | |
| Iredell County, North Carolina | |
| Election date: | May 6, 2014 |
| Candidates: | District 1: • Robert Clontz • Max James, Jr. • David Johnson
District 3: • John Donnelly • Cynthia Haynes • Roger Morrow • John Rogers, Jr. • Kevin Ross |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
