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Elizabeth McDuffie
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Elizabeth McDuffie ran for election to the Wake County Public School System to represent District 8 in North Carolina. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
McDuffie completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Elizabeth McDuffie was born in Virginia. She earned a high school diploma from Thornton Friends School, a bachelor's degree from Temple University in 2003, and a graduate degree from American University in 2008. Her career experience includes working as an educator and business owner.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Wake County Public School System, North Carolina, elections (2024)
General election
General election for Wake County Public School System, District 8
Incumbent Lindsay Mahaffey defeated Elizabeth McDuffie in the general election for Wake County Public School System, District 8 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Lindsay Mahaffey (Nonpartisan)  | 58.9 | 36,872 |
 | Elizabeth McDuffie (Nonpartisan) | 40.5 | 25,346 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 427 | ||
| Total votes: 62,645 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for McDuffie in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Elizabeth McDuffie completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McDuffie's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My name is Elizabeth McDuffie and I am a career Professional Educator of nearly 20 years, 10 of which I taught in Wake County Public Schools. While at WCPSS, I have taught elementary, middle, and high school as a K-12 English as a Second Language Teacher. My passion is life is helping students of all backgrounds academically achieve and gain a quality education that prepares them for life beyond the classroom. I believe public schools should be the most competitive option for parents. Likewise, I believe that I can best serve students, teachers and our greater community in a leadership role as I have first hand knowledge of the reality our schools are facing. In fact, I think it’s time we had a teacher on the Board!
- Schools are educational institutions and we need to get back to basics when it comes to reading, writing, and arithmetic. There is no excuse that 1 in 3 students are not proficient in Math or ELA. That statistic is simply too high! I believe all students are capable of excellence. We need to meet the learners where they are and provide the scaffolding necessary for success. It does long term disservice to our youth when standards are dropped and expectations are lowered. Instead, let’s improve our programs such as a trade and technical career diploma pathway. Similarly, students and teachers need quality resources in their classrooms, math textbooks created by reputable educational companies, and a return to paper and pencil learning.
- Our teachers need support. Besides fair compensation for employment, they need to be supported in the classroom with a higher expectation of student behavior and conduct. Failing to address this issue by underreporting or removing the disciplinary infractions rubric is driving teachers away. I can speak from my own experience, that teachers feel disempowered and can’t do their job effectively. Likewise, it is failing our students as they cannot focus on their studies and don’t feel safe. When roughly 60% of teachers report on the Teacher Working Conditions Survey that there is disorder in the common areas, we need to listen! Let’s support our brilliant, caring, and talented teachers by listening to them and addressing their concerns.
- We need to address our budget and spending so that the allocation funds is going to where it is needed most; directly helping our students with scholastic success and ensuring that our infrastructure is maintained. We need less department over site from downtown and more teachers! We need budgets for programs like the Arts and CTE. Some of our older school buildings need cosmetic updates and system upgrades and replacements (ex. smoke alarms and HVAC units). We must ensure that when we approve student school assignments that bus routes are reasonable for families so that students can participate in extracurriculars. Failing to do so creates unnecessary strain on families, the drivers, the busses, traffic, and our school funds.
Ensuring excellence for all WCPSS students by quantifiable metrics.
I look up to so many wonderful people, but I would like to name Thomas Sewell. I think reading his books could help us all a great deal in this day and age.
1984 by George Orwell
I believe that integrity and selflessness are critical. I believe that the motive must be to serve the public, not your own self interests. Humility is therefore also important.
I believe you are the best qualified to help a person who is now in a position you were formerly in life. I was a struggling learner as a child. I went to a lot of different schools with varying success. I was a teacher. I loved it but struggled needlessly at times because of poor policies. I never wanted to hold a public office, but I feel a deep sense of duty to innocent children that need our help and guidance. I feel a duty to teachers who give their heart and soul to teaching for little financial reward. Also, I am a parent and I know what it is to have to have faith that your child’s school is working for their behalf.
The responsibility of a school board member is to uphold the interest of the communities they represent by adapting and reviewing sound policy and planning for budgetary needs. They must establish district goals, build effective leadership, and set forth improvement mechanisms; not only the schools, but for the board itself. They must approve curricular materials, facility plans, and school assignments which keep the students, teachers and families at the heart and center of their decisions.
That I was a resilient woman that took all opportunities and lived a fulfilling life!
I remember watching the space shuttle Challenger launch when Christa Corrigan McAuliffe a teacher that was to be the first private citizen sadly died. I remember that being quite disturbing. I was 6 years old.
I worked at Animal Crackers Cafe in Washington DC across the street from the National Zoo from age 16 to 18. I also worked in a Montessori Day School in the summers as teenager and babysat!
School! I was a struggling student until I was much older. Also, keeping up with the median income for the area where I live when I was a teacher.
I believe that the school board members must be committed to the core business of education; academic excellence and supporting young people in creating productive and fulfilling lives for themselves beyond high school. That includes preparation for a successful career, obtaining a higher educational degree, and being and informed member of our society. School board members ought to ensure that they keep such politics out of the classroom and that they are committed to scholastics. This commitment must be demonstrated in policy, strong leadership, improvement plans, and budgetary spending.
Both the people of District 8 and the parents of students that must send their students from other parts of the county to District 8 schools.
As an ESL Teacher, I have a proven track record of doing just that!
I make myself available for speaking engagements and town hall meetings.
Good teachers know who their students are as individuals, what they need academically, and have a strategy to get them there. This principle applies to students that are on level, behind, and above level. This can be measured by holistic data collected by the teacher and learning portfolios.
We must expand several things. In elementary, we need more writing and handwriting. In secondary, we need more World History and Geography. We also need a technical and skilled trade pathway diploma program.
I would use a Zero Based Budget where each year, the budget is based at $0.00 and each item to be funded must be justified. That way, it will be better ensured that money is going to the right places.
My own experiences feeling unsafe in WCPSS!
The first thing to do to address mental health problems with young people would be to prevent in the first place. The data is in about the negative effects of social media and cell phones on youth. While it is ultimately up to the parents to decide how to address the issue in their own homes, schools can at least enforce more restrictive rules about cell phones in schools and get back to paper and pencil activities in the classroom.
I would like to return to enforcing the policies we have such as the dress code and student code of conduct. Education is education. We had a recipe for success and moved away from it. Now it’s time to move back.
An ideal learning environment looks like happy and relaxed students that know what they are learning and why they are learning it. Classrooms don’t have to be silent, as learning can be communicative, but they must be orderly. Students must feel safe and cared for. All students should be engaged in learning and met with challenge at their individual learning level. High expectations of excellence are critical!
Initially, we did the best we could with the information we had at the time. It is easy for hind sight to be 20/20. In the end, however, we still had students and teachers in cloth masks even though it had been demonstrated that only K95 masks help stop the spread of Covid. Therefore, I would have moved away from the cloth masks sooner. Instead of politicizing Covid, I believe it would have been advantageous to move on more quickly as the scientific research came out!
I will speak with them regularly in the form of town hall meetings, emails and phone calls.
The preferred strategy for me is to retain our greatest talent before they leave. To recruit new talent, I believe we need a merit based approach that recruits candidates that can demonstrate effectiveness and aptitude for the job at hand.
Finances need to be transparent because it’s not the government’s money. It’s your money- the taxpayer! The government is accountable for how it spends and what it spends money on. The money must be spent with frugality and must improve the lives of all citizens.
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
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Candidate Wake County Public School System, District 8 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 11, 2024
