Who is Bill Fountain, District 1 CMS Board of Education candidate?
Name: Bill Fountain
School board seat you’re seeking: District 1, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Age as of Nov. 8, 2022: 79
Campaign website: www.electbillfountain.com
Email: billfountainofnc@gmail.com
Occupation: Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, retired business manager and retired school teacher.
Education: MA in business management and supervision; BA in math, Teacher’s License from UNC Charlotte, Industrial War College graduate, Command & Staff School graduate, and Squadron Officer School graduate.
Have you run for elected office before? (Please list previous offices sought): No
Please list your highlights of civic involvement: For over a year, I’ve spoken at CMS school board meetings about the invasion of woke culture. Additionally, I’ve spoken to the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners about woke culture. I volunteered as a search and rescue pilot and as a cadet orientation pilot for the NC Civil Air Patrol. I served my country as an Air Force fighter pilot with two tours in combat.
What qualities, skills and experiences do you think would make a good superintendent for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools?
A good candidate for superintendent should have a proven track record in managing large organizations and not be a proponent of woke culture. I’d like the candidate to have experience as a teacher. The candidate should have a high moral character. The process for hiring a new superintendent should be transparent.
CMS, along with other districts across the country and state, has lost a lot of teachers. What are your ideas to keep teachers in CMS classrooms?
The lack of support from administrators for discipline in the classroom is a key reason for many teachers leaving CMS. We see within CMS that disruptive behavior goes unpunished often based on the argument that the troublemaker experienced a difficult childhood. This policy doesn’t support the teacher trying to maintain an orderly learning environment. The remedy is principals must set behavior standards and enforce them. Too many times it’s the same children causing the disorder.
What solutions would you offer to improve student and employee safety on CMS school campuses?
The woke mindset of freeing society of social norms strangely shows pity not to the mugged, but to the mugger. We see this in schools where disruptive behavior goes unpunished. This policy certainly doesn’t support teachers trying to maintain an orderly classroom. Remember, loving parents discipline their children. The lack of discipline reinforces bad behavior in the troublemakers and places fear in the orderly students, maybe motivating them to skip school.
How do you define CMS’ achievement gap? How can CMS bridge the achievement gap, raise test scores and get the 50 district schools off of the low-performing list?
In reviewing data in low performing schools, one sees high absentee rates and a high percentage of Black and brown students. This means a lack of motivation and, possibly, a lack of parental involvement. The low motivation can be attributed to CMS setting no behavior standard, degrading children’s self-worth by telling them they are victims of past racial prejudice, and confusing the sexuality of a child’s personhood by requiring pornographic books for reading and gender identity surveys.
Why should voters choose you over your opponents?
I’m the only candidate challenging the woke culture in our schools. Woke is the reason for low performing and unsafe schools. It’s robbing students of self-esteem and purpose. I’ve also managed $100 million programs, taught high school for 10 years, and been a team leader at the Pentagon. I also have demonstrated my concern for CMS’ failures by speaking at the school board meetings for over a year.
This story was originally published October 3, 2022 at 8:23 AM.
