Greg Mills (North Carolina)

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Greg Mills

Republican Party

Cabarrus County Schools school board At-large

Tenure

2024 - Present

Term ends

2028

Years in position

0

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Personal

Religion

Southern Baptist

Profession

Marketing director

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Greg Mills (Republican Party) is an at-large member of the Cabarrus County Schools school board in North Carolina. He assumed office on December 2, 2024. His current term ends in 2028.

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

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

Biography

Greg Mills was born in Heidelberg. His career experience includes working as a marketing director.

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 Mills in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Greg Mills completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mills' 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.

I was voted “most artistic” by my senior class at Central Cabarrus. I was an art education major at UNCC for a few semesters. I recognized the huge potential of the World Wide Web in the early 90s. I dropped out of college to take digital design classes at RCCC because the university didn’t offer them. I learned to build websites by taking others apart. I spent my professional career in creative fields.

Your school board needs people from different backgrounds. You need people who are familiar with education, accounting, and construction. You also need creative thinkers. Someone who will question the way things have always been done. I’m the kind of person that will challenge the board to think differently.

I met my wife at Central Cabarrus. We have two daughters. Both graduated from Mount Pleasant High School. My youngest is currently enrolled at UNCC studying to be a teacher. My wife is a middle school teacher with 25 years of experience. Recently, I've been taking time off from work to serve as a substitute teacher.

It would be difficult to find a candidate who is more personally invested in the long-term success of Cabarrus County's schools. Our school's employees and resources are stretched thin. Political controversies have eroded the public's trust in the education system. We need a school board that sees the problems and will bring the community together to solve them.

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?

• First and foremost, we have to repair the relationship between parents and educators. Public schools were standing on the edge of catastrophe before the pandemic. Now, parents are aware that their kids are not getting the kind of education they expected. They want to know how we got here and if it can be repaired. To restore parent trust we have to be transparent about the issues, include them in the problem-solving process, and give them more opportunities to be directly involved in their children's education.
• There is a staffing crisis. Cabarrus County does not have enough licensed teachers to put one in every classroom full-time. We're asking our teachers to take on more work. We're leaning more heavily on teacher's assistants. And, we're turning to synchronous remote learning options for some of the most difficult-to-hire subject areas. We'll be more successful at attracting great teachers when we establish a regional reputation as the best culture for teachers to work in. I will ask district staff to "lighten the load" for teachers. If we can give teachers back more of their instructional time, they will be able to get better outcomes from our students.
• We have to be brave enough to address spending. The school district is asking county commissioners for one billion dollars to build new schools and improve existing ones. We would all like our children to walk into "world-class" buildings, but we have to give them the best that Cabarrus County taxpayers can afford. That means taking a hard look at the schools we've built recently to see if student performance is objectively better than similar student populations at older schools. If not, then we shouldn't use those as models for future construction without considering other cost-saving options.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I believe that public schools need to simplify. Well-intentioned or not, we're trying to provide services to students that are outside the scope of education. Even worse, some schools have tried to usurp the role of parents and driven a wedge between themselves and the families they were created to serve. I believe that public education, when it is done well, makes the American Dream accessible to every child. Our community can be united around the mission of making sure every student in Cabarrus County graduates prepared to go on to college or enter rewarding career.

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

Every elected official should be primarily motivated to serve others. Many believe that the school board is the first step to higher political office. A person motivated by personal ambition will never be effective in office. We have seen that they will either avoid controversy to maintain a wide base of support, or they'll seek controversy to build a personal brand and a narrow but enthusiastic base. A Servant leader is focused on getting positive outcomes for their community regardless of whether or not it expands their personal influence. Integrity, humility, and other positive character traits naturally align when a person's motives are correct.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I was in middle school when the space shuttle Challenger exploded.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I was a Boy Scout camp counselor Camp Barnhardt in New London, NC for two summers during high school.

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

Every school board member in Cabarrus County signs a Code of Ethics that includes the statement, "A board member's responsibility is not to run the schools, but to see that the schools are well run." The only way to meet that responsibility is through active engagement with parents, students, and educators. I have been well-positioned to observe the struggles of our school system over a long period of time, from the perspective of both a parent and a teacher. When I decided to run for the school board on 2021 I went all-in. I've been attending community meetings and school events almost every week. I even applied to be a substitute teacher, so that I could meet teachers and students going through their typical school day. You cannot know that the schools are being well run if you're not actively engaged with the people are most effected by the board's policy decisions.

Who are your constituents?

As a board member, my primary responsibility is to our students. I have to make sure they are getting an excellent education. Our schools must prepare them to be informed citizens and contribute to the workforce. I'm looking out for the best interest of every Cabarrus County resident when I'm working to insure our schools have adequate resources and our teachers are supported.

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

I believe that we're all born into different situations with different privileges and disadvantages. I also believe that an excellent public education is the greatest equalizer. "Equity" has become a politically loaded term. In my opinion, equity in the school system simply means that we try to position the district's limited resources in schools where there is the greatest potential benefit.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

In recent years, trust has been broken between the public education system and parents. Transparency and accountability are the keys to restoring that trust. District staff offers a presentation of pie charts to the school board and insists that it is a budget. The district just completed a realignment process that was repeatedly called transparent even though meetings were closed to the public and raw survey data was never released. Board members are required to make important and difficult decisions. The public is more likely to understand those decisions when the process is open and transparent.

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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