Michelle Linster feels serving on the school board is her next calling.
A mother of three children who attended schools in Guilford County, the executive coach is now looking to give back to the community that helped raise her family.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate, so therefore it’s my job to ensure that I help other people along the way,” she said.
Linster is running as a Democrat for District 4 in the race for Guilford County Board of Education in this year’s primary election. Early voting began on Feb. 12 and runs through the end of the month. The primary election will be held March 3. She faces three other opponents in the primary.
Linster currently works as an executive coach, helping leaders in government, academia, religious settings, and in corporations. But she has years of experience in education.
For many years, she worked at Bennett College, first as a professor, then as a dean and provost. She’s also worked for Winston-Salem State University, NC A&T State University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her background is in psychology, which she said she uses as a lens to work with children and young adults.
When her kids were in school, Linster said she was a parent-teacher officer. Prior to that, she worked as a substitute teacher in the school system in the eighties. In the nineties, she worked as a contractor for Guilford County Schools as a psychologist performing testing of students with disabilities.
This is Linster’s first time running for public office. She said she was motivated to run because she’s seen firsthand the challenges students are facing.
She pointed to the achievement gaps for students of color, lower pay for teachers, and charter school expansion as challenges. If elected, Linster said she would use her system-minded thinking and data collection to craft specific policies.
“As long as you have data, accurate data,” she said, “Then we can move forward.”
She wants to focus on bolstering the district’s already existing pre-k programs and focus on recruitment and retention of teachers. She would push for more competitive pay for educators and give some teachers targeted incentives for certain jobs.
“If you’re working in a high-needs school, there should be a little more [pay] for that,” she said.
She also wants to expand professional development opportunities for teachers and provide early-career educators with mentors. She wants teachers to have a voice, she said, so they feel supported and want to stay.
“The people that will determine our future…are kids who are being taught now,” Linster said. “And they are being taught by our teachers. Don’t we want to ensure that we keep them there?”
School funding is also top of mind for Linster.
She points to the Opportunity Scholarship program—or the increased funding for charter and private schools—as hurting public schools.
“When kids go to charter schools,” she said. “They take that money for that student with them.”
To tackle that, Linster said she would work with the Guilford County Board of Commissioners as well as state representatives to advocate for public schools.
“I’m talking about working across the board,” she said. “Not just people who believe what I believe but also working and talking and meeting with politicians.”
In terms of school safety, Linster said that starts with not just physical wellbeing, but mental and emotional wellbeing. She said having school resource officers is fine, but there needs to be an effort to identify struggling students early on.
“Just think if we could go in and work with students who are having problems and identify those students and aggressively work with them in terms of counseling, coaching, monitoring, and working with the parents,” she said.
Linster also said she would hold more public forums and encourage parents to give feedback on what is working and what could be improved in the district.
She said enrichment activities and partnerships with local organizations and nonprofits can help bolster student well-being.
Guilford County is uniquely positioned, Linster said, to help jump-start career readiness for kids. Companies like HondaJet, the Toyota Battery Manufacturing Facility, and the upcoming Marshall Aerospace, all located in the area, offer opportunities for connection, she said.
“Guilford County has a strong advocacy base,” she said. “It all starts with education.”
As a board member, Linster said, she would build on the successes of the district and what makes it unique.
“I do believe I understand the entire system,” she said. “I’ve worked in the school systems, I’ve worked in academia, I’ve worked with companies that hire people. I do see the entire graph.”
Correction: The original version of this article misstated the end date for early voting. It has been updated.