Phil Cordeiro (Pender County Board of Education District 5, North Carolina, candidate 2024)
Phil Cordeiro (Republican Party) ran for election to the Pender County Board of Education to represent District 5 in North Carolina. He was on the ballot in the Republican primary on March 5, 2024.[source]
Cordeiro completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Phil Cordeiro provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on February 29, 2024:
- Bachelor's: University of California at Berkeley
- Graduate: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Military service: United States Marine Corps
- Gender: Male
- Profession: Accounting
- Incumbent officeholder: Yes
- Campaign slogan: Experienced. Focused. Results.
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook
- Campaign YouTube
- Campaign YouTube video
Elections
General election
General election for Pender County Board of Education District 5
Tommy Reeves ran in the general election for Pender County Board of Education District 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Tommy Reeves (R) | ||
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Pender County Board of Education District 5
Phil Cordeiro and Tommy Reeves ran in the Republican primary for Pender County Board of Education District 5 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Phil Cordeiro | ||
| Tommy Reeves | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Cordeiro in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Phil Cordeiro completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cordeiro's responses.
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I believe in transparency, accountability, and parents' rights in education.
I am is the youngest of five sons and grew up on a small family farm -- where I learned the value of hard work.
While in college, I began my career in public service by joining the United States Marine Corps and was commissioned as a Marine officer after graduation. After various assignments around the globe — including combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan — I retired from the Marine Corps at the rank of Major. My military service includes assignments to Marine Corps Bases Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms, Quantico, and Camp Lejeune; as well as Naval Air Station Pensacola, and Recruiting Stations San Francisco and Raleigh.
After my military service, I made North Carolina home and transitioned to a career in local government. As a local government professional, I served as a Budget Analyst with the City of Wilmington, Finance Officer with the Town of Hillsborough, and as Town Manager with the Town of Youngsville.
I am a graduate of the UNC School of Government’s municipal and county administration course, and also hold the school's local government finance officer certification.
I have master's degrees in both accounting and public administration.
I'm a member of the Hampstead American Legion and volunteer in support of veterans causes year-round.- I am focused on academic achievement.
According to the state's most recent report cards, 40.6% of students in Pender County are NOT PROFICIENT in math, and 46.3% of students in Pender County are NOT PROFICIENT in reading.
I’m a results-oriented leader, so I want to increase proficiency and ensure our students are prepared for success upon graduation. To address this issue, soon after joining the board of education I met with representatives from Camp Lejeune to see if Pender County Schools could cooperate with the military to help our students.
As a result of this meeting, Pender County Schools implemented a new tutoring program that will provide UNLIMITED, FREE ONLINE TUTORING IN MATH AND READING TO ALL STUDENTS. - I will demand financial transparency and accountability. My graduate education and professional experience in governmental accounting gives me an expert ability to create, dissect, and optimize budgets. One of the primary responsibilities of the board of education is to approve the school system's annual budget (which totals ~$125 million annually, from local, state, and federal sources). As another example of my experience at work, in my first six months on the board I identified ~$750,000 in wasteful annual spending. When I brought this to the attention of my colleagues on the board they voted unanimously to cut that spending. We can now use those funds (totaling ~$3 million over a four-year term) to hire teachers and bus drivers.
- Our children need recreational opportunities. Whether its passive activities like playing in the park or active activities like youth baseball, Pender County needs a specific, measurable, and achievable plan for enhancing our sense of community through recreation. This is one of my top priorities on the board of education. Given its significant recreational facilities, the school system should be actively seeking partnerships with county government and community nonprofit organizations to leverage our resources to benefit our children in every way possible. Many, if not all, of these partnerships may be formed at no additional cost to taxpayers – as nonprofit organizations bring great resources to the table.
We cannot afford to ask the voters to approve more bonds in a few years – and ask the county commissioners to raise taxes – because we didn’t do the important work of asking the right questions now.
For example, what is a school board’s purpose? Well, first it’s important to draw a distinction between schools and the family.
-- A school should teach a child reading, writing, math, and science.
-- A school should enable a child to acquire the skills necessary to succeed in the workplace as an independent and self-supporting adult.
-- A school should provide adequate facilities needed to create a successful learning environment.
-- A school should ensure the learning environment is safe from bullying or violence, but acknowledge at the same time that conflict is a part of life – and can also be a good teacher.
-- A school should adhere to the curriculum approved by the elected representatives of its community.
-- A school should NOT teach a child that he is an oppressor or a victim, or is inherently worth more or less than his peers based solely on the color of his skin.
-- A school should NOT teach a child about sexuality. And please take note I did not write biology – I wrote sexuality.
Now for the family.
-- A family should teach a child right from wrong, and to treat others as they would like to be treated themselves.
-- A family should teach a child the value of hard work, and the importance of self-reliance.
-- A family should teach a child to take responsibility for his actions, and to seek responsibility from others.
A family should teach a child about sexuality, how to respect the opposite sex, the responsibilities of parenthood, and the value of life.
-- A family should demand its school system respect its rightful role in the upbringing of its children.Understanding these distinctions is the vital foundation needed to properly prioritize a school system's limited resources – whether those resources take the form of $178 million in school bonds, or the limited spaces on the bookshelves in a library.
However, one key opportunity for improvement is facilities. Specifically, every school in the topsail area is over-capacity and half the schools in the Pender and Heidi Trask areas will be over capacity by 2026.
The school board needs to sharply focus on solving this problem. Smartly allocating the $178 million in school bonds passed in 2022 is key, and we must prioritize projects that create new classrooms for students.
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.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
