We are calling on the Pender County Board of Education to STOP unilateral decision-making that affects our children, families, educators, and taxpayers without meaningful community input. From the three-tier bell schedule and ongoing redistricting controversy to questionable school naming decisions, an inadequate calendar, and years of insufficient facility planning, a troubling pattern has emerged: major decisions are being made without adequately considering the students, families, teachers, and communities they affect. We are not asking for perfection. We are asking for common sense, transparency, accountability, and leadership that listens.

I also want to make a plea to our Western Pender County parents, families, and school staff: PLEASE GET INVOLVED. These decisions impact ALL of Pender County. We need representation from every corner of the county, and we need to hear from the families and educators who will be directly impacted. This isn't an East or West issue. It's about the future of our children and making sure decisions are made with the needs of ALL our students, family and staff in mind. We are stronger when every community has a seat at the table.

1.  SCHOOL CALENDARS AND BELL SCHEDULES

The community is facing another decision regarding instructional calendars and bell schedules that appears to prioritize the personal preferences and perceived needs of decision-makers over the overwhelming feedback from the community. Why are we asking parents, teachers, and students for input if their feedback is ultimately going to be disregarded?

Families have built childcare arrangements, work schedules, athletic and extracurricular commitments, college coursework, and other responsibilities around the existing calendar and schedules. These changes would create real-life consequences; not minor inconveniences. Children do not attend school simply to accumulate an extra year of instructional time over the course of their primary education.

Families value education, but they also value time together, opportunities outside the classroom, and childhood itself. More time in school does not automatically produce better outcomes; the quality of instruction matters more than simply extending the school day or year. If students cannot learn what they need within the existing calendar and already lengthy school days, we should examine how we are educating them rather than assuming more time is the solution.

The choices were clear:

- Families chose Option 4.
- Staff chose Option 1.
- The Board of Education chose Option 5.

Why are we pretending there is no compromise? Families overwhelmingly supported Option 4, which provides an earlier spring break, while staff favored Option 1, largely because of testing considerations. There is a way to respect both priorities: retain the current calendar structure, which accommodates families and staff, while strategically distributing teacher workdays throughout the year and accounting for testing requirements. Staff have specifically expressed a desire for workdays to be spread more evenly rather than concentrated at the beginning and end of the school year, and that feedback deserves serious consideration as well. This is what thoughtful leadership and collaboration should look like. It should not be about deciding whose preferences matter more. It should be about finding workable solutions that serve the entire school community.

The proposed changes also create significant challenges for students participating in dual enrollment at Cape Fear Community College. These students intentionally plan their academic schedules around a calendar that allows them to balance high school and college coursework. Has the Board and administration fully evaluated the academic and scheduling consequences for these students? The disruption may leave families questioning whether they should withdraw their children from CFCC and enroll them full-time at Topsail High School. If that happens, enrollment numbers should reflect the actual student population in our community, and the Board should address the consequences of making existing educational opportunities more difficult to pursue.

Other counties look to our calendar and wish they had the flexibility we have enjoyed. We had a structure that worked for many families, students, and staff. 

 Public input should not be a formality, a survey to check a box, or an exercise in making people feel heard.

2. REDISTRICTING: WE ARE FAMILIES, NOT NUMBERS ON A MAP

The current redistricting process raises serious concerns about how Pender County Schools is addressing growth, capacity, transportation, and the communities it serves.

Under Middle School Scenario 1, the upper portion of Sloop Point would be assigned to JH Lea. These families were already redistricted when Surf City Middle School opened; now they may be redistricted again-this time to a school across town. The commute would increase from approximately 7.6 miles and 12 minutes to 14 miles and 32 minutes, without traffic. That is unacceptable and unnecessary. Some students could not arrive home until around 5:30 p.m., creating an unreasonable burden for families.

North Topsail Elementary also offers something increasingly rare: a genuine community-school environment where families can safely walk or bike to school. While the district is addressing transportation challenges, it is considering decisions that could eliminate one of the very options that helps reduce them. Neighborhoods within a mile of a school should not automatically be reassigned to bus routes when walking or biking is safe and practical. We should encourage alternative transportation—not create additional transportation demands.

Feeder patterns should also be logical and consistent:

North Topsail Elementary and Surf City Elementary should feed into Surf City Middle School.
Topsail Annandale, South Topsail Elementary, and JH Lea Elementary should feed into JH Lea Middle School.

Redistricting should reflect the real lives of families and communities; not treat children as numbers on a map.

3. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: TOPSAIL HIGH SCHOOL

Pender County has added two elementary schools, JH Lea and Surf City Elementary,  and a new middle school, Surf City Middle, while failing to address the growing overcrowding at Topsail High School.

**THS is bursting at the seams and needs a genuine, long-term expansion; not more boundary changes and temporary fixes.**

Why continue moving students and redrawing attendance lines without a comprehensive high school capacity plan? Communities along Highway 210 should be seriously considered for reassignment to Heide Trask High School, which has available capacity. The district must evaluate the entire county; not continue shifting students within the same overcrowded feeder pattern.

Before dismissing expansion as too expensive, taxpayers deserve a transparent comparison of expanding the existing THS campus versus acquiring land and constructing, staffing, and operating a new high school. Growth projections and capacity concerns are not new. The district needs a proactive, countywide facilities plan based on current and projected growth, not another Band-Aid.

Our community includes parents, teachers, administrators, former educators, transportation professionals, and taxpayers who understand local neighborhoods, traffic, capacity, transportation, and the daily realities of raising children here. That firsthand knowledge cannot be replaced by spreadsheets.

If the district is paying outside consultants, it must demonstrate that they are meaningfully incorporating the experience of the families who will live with these decisions. Taxpayer-funded recommendations should not overlook the expertise already present in our community.

 **You cannot make sound long-term decisions about schools by counting numbers while ignoring the people behind them.**

4. WHERE IS THE REPRESENTATION OUR COMMUNITY DESERVES?

Serious questions remain about leadership, representation, and accountability. Tom Reeves (who was absent during the redistricting committee meeting) now leads another major decision affecting the families in his district, which is among the communities most impacted. He has also supported naming new schools after individuals instead of using the geographical naming convention favored by parents, and voted for the widely unpopular three-tier schedule.

When do the families he represents receive a meaningful voice? The east side holds the majority of student enrollment but is represented by only two board members. Meanwhile, board members without children currently enrolled in Pender County Schools continue making decisions that directly affect thousands of students and families.

Serving on the Board of Education is a public responsibility requiring preparation, attendance, engagement, transparency, listening, and accountability. When families repeatedly feel ignored or inadequately represented, they are justified in questioning whether board members are fulfilling their obligations.

Our community needs leaders who prioritize the children, families, and taxpayers they represent. If a board member cannot or will not provide that representation, it may be time to step aside and allow someone else to serve.

KEY QUESTIONS AND COMMUNITY DEMANDS

Pender County Schools and the Board of Education must provide clear answers:

- What is the district’s long-term facilities and growth plan?
- What are the actual enrollment, capacity, staffing, and transportation projections?
- Why has Topsail High School’s overcrowding not been adequately addressed?
- What are the comparative costs of expanding the existing campus versus building a new school?
- How are transportation costs and logistical impacts being evaluated?
- How were parent, student, and teacher feedback incorporated into final decisions, and why are community preferences repeatedly disregarded?
- Who will be accountable if these decisions create unnecessary financial and logistical burdens?

Taxpayers should not continue funding short-term fixes while the district avoids the difficult decisions required for responsible long-term planning.

We are asking Pender County Schools and the Board of Education to:

1. **Make public input meaningful:** Stop treating surveys and forums as formalities. Show how feedback influenced decisions and explain publicly when and why recommendations were rejected.

2. **Reconsider calendar and bell-schedule changes:** Provide transparent justification for decisions that conflict with the needs and preferences of families, students, and staff.

3. **Protect dual-enrollment opportunities:** Evaluate and address the impact of proposed changes on students taking courses at Cape Fear Community College before disrupting their academic schedules.

4. **Reevaluate redistricting proposals:** Consider reasonable commute times, established neighborhoods, existing school communities, safe walking and biking routes, transportation demands, and logical feeder patterns.

5. **Address Topsail High School capacity:** Develop a comprehensive expansion plan and publicly compare expansion costs with the cost of acquiring land and building, staffing, and operating a new school.

6. **Create a proactive countywide growth plan:** Plan years ahead for facilities, staffing, transportation, enrollment, and capacity instead of reacting after development occurs.

7. **Respect community input on school names:** Reconsider unilateral naming decisions and honor the geographic identities and preferences of the communities schools serve.

8. **Hold elected representatives accountable:** Board members must be present, prepared, engaged, transparent, and responsive to the families they represent.

9. **Increase transparency:** Make enrollment data, capacity projections, financial comparisons, transportation analyses, consultant recommendations, and the rationale behind major decisions accessible to taxpayers.

**Our schools need long-term solutions—not short-term fixes, closed-door decisions, or public input that is ignored.**

We are asking the Board to stop making decisions FOR families and start making decisions WITH families.

Our children are not an afterthought. Our families are not an inconvenience. Our taxpayers are not an unlimited funding source.

 

SIGN THIS PETITION. SHARE IT. SHOW UP. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.

The next community redistricting meeting is:

Tuesday, November 17, 2026
6:00 PM
Topsail High School

If you cannot attend, email every member of the Board of Education and the Superintendent. Put your concerns in writing. Ask questions. Demand answers.

jennifer_hansen@pender.k12.nc.us (District 1)

jason_jordan@pender.k12.nc.us (District 2) Topsail Beach, Surf City, Hampstead, 

don_hall@pender.k12.nc.us (District 3)

jason_spivey@pender.k12.nc.us (District 4)

tom_reeves@pender.k12.nc.us (District 5) Hampstead, Scott's Hill

william_breedlove@pender.k12.nc.us (Superintendent)