Rob Cerulo

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Rob Cerulo

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Dunlap High School

Bachelor's

Butler University, 2007

Personal

Profession

Recruiter

Contact

Campaign Instagram

Personal Twitter

Personal LinkedIn

Rob Cerulo (Democratic Party) ran for election for an at-large seat of the Cabarrus County Schools school board in North Carolina. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Cerulo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Rob Cerulo earned a high school diploma from Dunlap High School and a bachelor's degree from Butler University in 2007. His career experience includes working as a recruiter.

Elections

2024

See also: Cabarrus County Schools, North Carolina, elections (2024)

General election

General election for Cabarrus County Schools school board At-large (4 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Cabarrus County Schools school board At-large on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Melanie Freeman (R)	14.7	53,248
✔		Greg Mills (R)	14.0	50,544
✔	Submit photo	Catherine Bonds Moore (R)	13.6	49,137
✔		Rob Walter (R)	13.6	49,053
		Keshia Sandidge (D)	11.4	41,224
		Mishell Williams (D)	11.2	40,464
		Namu Kachroo (D)	11.2	40,310
		Rob Cerulo (D)	10.3	37,046

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 361,026
= 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.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Keshia Sandidge, Rob Cerulo, Namu Kachroo, and Mishell Williams advanced from the Democratic primary for Cabarrus County Schools school board At-large.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Cabarrus County Schools school board At-large (4 seats)

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Cabarrus County Schools school board At-large on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Greg Mills	21.5	13,448
✔	Submit photo	Melanie Freeman	19.7	12,346
✔	Submit photo	Catherine Bonds Moore	19.0	11,910
✔		Rob Walter	18.2	11,405
	Submit photo	Bubba Hartsell	11.2	6,985
	Submit photo	Amanda Wortman	10.4	6,544

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 62,638
= 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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Cerulo in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Rob Cerulo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cerulo's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

As a father of a student with special needs, I'm running as a voice for those who need us most. All children, and especially are vulnerable populations, are unjustly impacted when our school districts are restricted by inadequate resources being provided at the state level. Further, I'll advocate for teachers as retention issues will always be an issue if NC doesn't increase teacher pay, currently 46th Nationally for a 1st year educator.

As the coach of my 2nd child's youth sports teams, I'm engaged in the community and passionate about creating positive environments that facilitates growth for all team members. My coaching philosophy has always been to uniquely encourage every kid by celebrating a recent success based on each players skill level. Our children all develop at different rates.

As a Recruiter (IT, Finance, Accounting) and former professional sports Sales Executive, I've spent my career building relationships and relating to people of all backgrounds. Our School Board serves students and parents from wide-ranging socioeconomic classes making relatability a necessary trait for all its members.

Overall, I feel our School Boards should be a healthy mix of parents, with students in the school system, and career teaching professionals. If you'd like to learn more about what I stand for, please use the hashtag #YouknowCerulo on social media. I look forward to earning your vote!

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?

• I bring IEP experience and understand, firsthand, the added challenges our current school environments place on atypical students, parents and teachers.
• I will always focus on the realities in our current school district environments while effectively working to improve, both, recently successful and struggling areas. Cabarrus County Schools just received top 20 (out of 117) Statewide report card scores. All with per pupil funding levels, well below the $10,791 Statewide average which ranks 48th Nationally. Think about the heights our students could reach if CCS schools were fully funded!
• I've always played a very active role in both my children's educational experiences. Our counties School Administrators have done an excellent job of creating events and platforms for parents to engage with their student/s' educators. I plan to increase awareness around all these opportunities as creating an administrator/teacher/parent/student team environment fosters the best possible outcomes for our kids. Further, as a coach of youth sports I'm especially well-suited to push Dad's towards becoming more involved.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'd like to implement free meal programs for all students. We've seen this is possible as it was incorporated a few years back. Moreso, while I feel our schools' menus have recently improved, nutrition and variance based, there's more we can do to assure each child receives the necessary nutrients throughout the day.

As our student/teacher ratio's grow we need to hire additional mental health professionals. No parent or student should have to worry about safety issues, especially gun violence, in our schools and we must make sure extensive professional resources are in place as prevention measures.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Fairness, compassion and accountability.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Advocate for students and parents in ways that ensure we're creating the best possible educational experience and future for today's youth. Transparency, through constant communication, is instrumental in keeping all parties aware of hurdles and progress to build on in shaping this result for our students while creating a vision and goals for our school district.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I'd like to be remembered as someone who always fought for what was unequivocally right and stood up for those who needed our voice most.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

To be a voice for parents and students alike by ensuring our schools practices, policies and expectations are aligned with providing a fair education for all.

Who are your constituents?

Everyone residing in Cabarrus County!

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

Pushing to attain staffing metrics representative of our counties ethnic makeup is vital. As our community continues its growth trajectory and becomes more diversified, we need to make sure we're recognizing the extensive benefits that a culturally diverse educational system possess in our student's growth and development process.

How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?

I will continue to be an engaged member of my community through coaching and being an active participant at all my children's school related and extracurricular activities. This will also include regular attendance at meetings and support groups within the special needs' community.

What constitutes good teaching? How will you measure this? How will you support advanced teaching approaches?

Communication is key! Our teachers overwhelmingly do an excellent job using “Parent Square” to keep parents and guardians well informed. I treat a students educational process as a team effort that starts everyone being on the same page. While this is tough to measure, I feel atleast a weekly update for all students is realistic. Further, the best objective measure is comparing year-over-year standardized testing scores to create a measure for each teacher’s impact. Goals should be set for overall class performance scores prior to the start of every school year. If a teacher’s classroom exceeds these goals they should receive a bonus based on pre-determined stretch goal brackets. Ultimately, this will help push our educators to teach students beyond grade level comprehension.

In what areas would you like to expand curriculum? For example, do you see a need for advanced technical training or apprenticeships? What sort of innovative programming would you advance if given the opportunity?

I'd like to expand curriculum so that it best facilitates to all student's learning styles. There's not a one size fits all model for how our kids grow and develop in the classroom. Some strive in structured, assigned seats settings. While others perform better when innovate, less restrictive classrooms are created. The latter is also more aligned with the direction our workforce is moving. In utilizing both classroom structures and evaluating student's performance in each environment we could set each child up for success by facilitating workspace setups most conducive to every child's learning style.

What strategies or plans would you advance to ensure the schools are properly funded?

I would advocate at the State level as it's inexcusable for NC to be ranked 48th Nationally in this criterion. Not to mention, Cabarrus County Schools receive the least Per Pupil Expenditure amongst all counties in the state. Providing all students the best opportunity to grow starts with supplying adequate resources, a major issue across all NC and especially Cabarrus County!

How might you support the mental health needs of students/faculty/staff?

Societally, there's a stigma that its weak to speak with mental health professionals. This couldn't be more wrong. Nobody's life is perfect and thus everyone has a reason to meet with school therapists and counselors. The best way to reshape the mental health conversation is to make it common practice and I'd like to see a system where each student/faculty/staff member speaks to a trained professional at least once a month. In doing so our school's administrative team would be more knowledgeable regarding potential issues that could help alleviate safety concerns.

Describe your ideal learning environment for students.

There is no one size fits all approach and it’s most important to train teachers to work with all types of students. Some need the regimen and structure that comes with traditional assigned seating desk setups.

Creating interactive classrooms is also beneficial as socialization skills have naturally declined from Covid and social media distractions. Today’s work environments have also shifted to “select your own setup” for the day type models so this begins preparing the next generation for working in such environments.

How do you feel like your school district handled the coronavirus pandemic? What, if anything, would you do differently in the future?

We often lose sight of the reality Covid presented. It was an unknown health pandemic. Thus, obviously, our schools had to adjust on the fly in making the best decisions for kids overall well-being. Yes, there were expected trials and tribulations but CCS ultimately did well as objectively measured by recent PBI testing scores in which our performance marks are back to pre-Covid level. The same can’t be said for most school districts within the state.

What will you do to build a relationship with parents in the district?

Commit to being responsive and intentional, within a 24-hour period, when corresponding to any communication. I'm also fortunate to have a flexible work arrangement allowing me the opportunity to meet face-to-face and host regular coffee meetings, in larger groups, for those interested in transparency from their elected officials.

What are your preferred strategies for faculty, staff, and administration recruitment?

I feel we need to utilize a more targeted, analytical approach in the recruitment process. As our latest School Report Cards provide us all this information, what's stopping us from understanding how to most effectively reach our lofty districtwide classroom performance goals by redistributing resources accordingly?

Overwhelmingly, I feel our bus driver shortage is one we need to address as both parents and students benefit from a structured regimen. It also creates burnout and furthers the problem when our bus drivers are asked to run double routes regularly. While a salary raise is necessary for headcount, we must think creatively as well in finding ways to reduce the quantity of bus stops.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

Taxpayers should be fully aware of where their money is being spent. We need to do a better job of educating the general public about the private voucher system in NC. These schools are unregulated, in fact more so than any Nationwide, and don't have to accept all students. Thus, often times, discriminating against those with special needs and other vulnerable populations. Further, many voucher schools in NC have well documented mission statements revolved around pushing religious beliefs. Public funds belong in public schools, and we need to be more transparent as to where our taxpayer dollars are going.

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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