While some politicians may say they will fight, Josie has actively fought for students and parents in New Hanover County. She always believes that actions speak louder than words. Here are a few of the issues that she has advocated for over the past few years.
- Advocated and developed a narrative to fight for elementary school children to be given the option to be in-person learning
- Ensured a virtual learning environment was still an option
- Fought against the rule where the school board wanted to penalize kids who did not complete assignments at the end of the school day while in virtual learning (what about all those kids who had parents that worked and couldn’t help with schoolwork until after work!)
- Advocated at the state level to allow secondary schools the option to go to school full time while also supporting a virtual learning environment
- Provided protocols and COVID data from different school districts to lobby for in-person learning (while keeping a virtual option)
- Stood up for a student with a medical mask exemption being denied an in-person learning environment and instructed all individuals to include “in-person learning” to their IEP’s since they are legally binding documents
- Stood up for teachers being reported on by ethix360 who wanted a Plan A as an option
- Supported keeping SRO officers in schools
- Organized pushback to lobby AGAINST the state history standards that allow for political activism based on race, gender, and sexual orientation to be embedded in our curriculum (Ultimately the state passed them in 2021)
- Challenged the grading system staying at a 50-100 in the name of equity at the start of this school year 2021-2022
- Challenged toolkit and NHCS protocol that nurses were allowed to have discrepancies with quarantine protocols (some 21 days!) worked with the county commissioners to gain clarity in the process and helped parents get there students, who were not sick, back in school as soon as possible
- Advocated for mask choice by families since in school COVID spread was not being tracked
- Openly questioned Sophic solution being hired and EDI chief equity officer when support staff are not paid accordingly
- Challenged the lack of accountability and direction of HOW EQUITY teams are selected and WHAT TOPICS are allowed to be talked about, after hearing from students they are not to share what is being discussed in the group
- Challenged lack of transparency with the SEL survey given to selected elementary schools, as well as how the results would be used in the district for a change
- Challenged the pre-k to 5 sex abuse prevention curriculum as well as LGBTQ support in elementary school as a result of the title ix survey for 6-12
- Advocated both the BOE and county commissioners to keep streaming board meetings along with committee meetings
- Selected from a dozen people to participate in a John Locke Foundation conversation to help talk about a “parent’s bill of rights”
- Opposed the Trans-Middle School Sports Policy
- Supported AIG Specialists.
- Supports Dr. Foust’s suggestion to stop funding the Chief EDI Officer position since that department has made changes to lower standards for education based on race