Four candidates vie for two seats

By Jonathan Starkey
Staff Reporter

Incumbents Charles Bireley — the current school board president and a board member of 29 years — and recent appointee Randall Hughes will vie for the District 4 and District 3 seats against longtime educator Jackie Wilson and former federal official Wilbert Laird.

District 4 residents can vote from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the new Indian River High School in Dagsboro or at the Millville Volunteer Fire Hall. District 3 residents can vote at the same time on Tuesday at Sussex Central Middle School or at Long Neck Elementary School.

Those residents will be taking to the polls about two months after the board rejected a settlement offer in the Dobrich/“Doe” prayer suit that included a six-figure money settlement and what board members and attorneys close to the case called unacceptable conditions.

The election comes less than one month after the district’s insurer — Utica Insurance — also filed suit against the board, reportedly because the board denied that settlement after its appointed attorneys suggested the settlement’s approval. Utica is requesting payment of legal fees accumulated since the board denied the offer on Feb. 27.

District 4
For 29 years, through many changes, current School Board President Charles Bireley has made decisions as a part of Indian River School District’s Board of Education. He said he filed for the three-year term set to go to a vote on Tuesday, in part, because he wants to see building projects completed before leaving that post.

“That’s the most important thing we have going in the district,” Bireley said. “I really would like to continue with that.”

Although Bireley’s challenger, Jackie Wilson, has never served on a school board, she has done pretty much everything else in the education realm. From 1976 to 1992, Wilson served as a teacher and a reading specialist in the Indian River School District before entering various administrative roles.

In 1992, Wilson took a job as the assistant principal at Georgetown Elementary School, a position in which she worked until 1996, when she accepted the assistant principal’s job at Lord Baltimore Elementary School in Ocean View. After serving in that position for only a year, she took the principal job at the school. In her last year at Lord Baltimore, in 2002, Wilson and the school received national awards.

Upon retirement from the district, she went on to work for the Secretary of Education Valerie Woodruff and to stints at the University of Delaware and Wilmington College. With Tuesday’s election, she is trying to fill the one void in her education career and provide some “direction” for the district.

“I love public education,” Wilson said. “I love this community and I believe I will be an asset to the board. Mr. Bireley has had his 30 years to provide direction.”

District 3
Randall Hughes — the District 3 incumbent in Tuesday’s election — was appointed to his seat in January of 2006 after Greg Hastings left his post for a similar one with the state. The 1980 graduate of Sussex Central High School said his background in public education prompted him to file for this year’s District 3 election, which carries a one-year term.

“There’s still a lot I need to learn but I think there’s a lot I can offer to the school district,” said Hughes, specifically mentioning organizational skills learned through his state police job.

Hughes is the Delaware State Police field operations officer for Kent and Sussex counties. He is responsible for all state police field operations in those counties, and for four troop stations and about 300 troopers.

Challenger Wilbert Laird has a similar organizational background but in a different field of government work. The Millsboro resident retired in 2003 after working for almost 35 years in the federal government.

In his final years with the government, Laird served as the manager of operations in the budget and accounting office of the Federal Aviation Administration. Before retirement, he taught various technology courses at the University of Maryland’s night school and other community colleges in Maryland.

Laird said he is running for school board in part because he has been continually disappointed by what he called the board’s lack of accountability. Specifically, he said, board member’s misunderstanding of the building process has caused delays and budget shortfalls in renovation projects. And the board continues to procrastinate when it comes to submitting a calendar, he said.