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Seven vie for empty school board seat

Burke County School Board Controversy

More articles about the Burke County School Board Controversy

By Steve Welker | The News Herald

Published: June 6, 2009

Updated: 06/06/2009 09:33 pm

Morganton - The Burke County Board of Education on Monday will interview seven applicants for David Barnard's vacant Western District seat.
The meeting starts at 5:15 p.m. in the Olive Hill Room at the Staff Development Center, 509 Concord St. The public interviews will begin after the agenda's approval.
Public comments will not be permitted at the meeting.
Barnard resigned from the board on May 2. The school board will appoint someone from the Western District to fill his seat until November when voters elect a permanent board member to serve the remaining two years in Barnard's term.
The seven announced candidates for the replacement board members' position are:
John Aulgur of 9066 N.C. 126 in Nebo.
Thomas Andrew "Andy" Brandon of 1956 N. Deerfield Drive, in Morganton.
The Rev. W. Flemon McIntosh Jr. of 1489 N.C. 126.
James O. Stamey of 2681 Piney Road in Morganton.
Justin Tate of 2362 Benjamin St. in Morganton.
David Turbeville of 114 Sherwood Drive.
Nellie Yancey, 1356 Sweetwater Drive.
Any of them, including the person chosen as replacement board member, also could run in the November election. The only requirements to serve on the school board are that a person be 21 or older, not disqualified from serving under the N.C. Constitution and is a resident in the district he or she represents.
All seven sent letters of applications and resumes to the school board. School board members are not public employees, so the information is open to the public.
What follows are summaries of the information provided by the candidates (presented alphabetically).
John F. Aulgur
John F. Aulgur is co-owner with his wife, Laura, of Farr Enterprises that operates Mountain Harbour Marina at Nebo. He lives in the Glen Alpine Elementary School District.
Aulgur has a bachelor's degree in business management from Northwood University (1998).
He is or has been a licensed property casualty adjuster in North and South Carolina and a licensed real-estate broker in Michigan. He worked in the insurance industry from 1982 to 2006, most recently as a staff claims representative for Allstate Insurance in western North Carolina from 1998 to 2006.
He and his wife have operated Farr Enterprises since 2001.
Aulgur in May resigned as chairman of the Burke County Republican Party. He also is or has been a trustee of Western Piedmont Community College and a member of Lions Clubs International in Morganton, National Rifle Association, St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the National Federation of Independent Businessmen.
Andy Brandon
Thomas Andrew "Andy" Brandon is a probation and parole officer for the N.C. Division of Community Corrections. He and his wife, Marion, live in the Oak Hill Elementary School district.
He has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Appalachian State University (1986).
Brandon has worked for the state since he graduated from college. He supervises probation cases assigned by the N.C. court system and parole cases assigned by the N.C. Post Release & Parole Commission.
He was a Burke County school board member from 1999 to 2007. His resume did not list any club memberships and other civic participation.
Flemon McIntosh Jr.
The Rev. W. Flemon McIntosh Jr. is a former school teacher, administrator and coach and a retired Presbyterian minister. He and his wife, Nettie, live in the Oak Hill Elementary School district.
McIntosh is a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University and has served on its board of trustees for 30 years.
He worked in public education from 1949 to 1990, first as a math teacher at Olive Hill Elementary and Morganton High School, then as assistant principal at Freedom High School and from 1978 to 1990 as assistant superintendent of federal programs.
He was pastor of Green Street Presbyterian Church from 1970 to 2008.
McIntosh managed public relations for the Burke County Board of Education, broadcast Freedom High football games on WMNC and continues to write a weekly column for The News Herald.
His memberships and participation in civic organizations are too numerous to list. Among them, currently or in the past: president of the Blue Ridge Community Action program, Morganton branch of the National Education Association, Burke County Council on Alcoholism, Burke County Ministers' Conference, Morganton Area Ministers Association and Northwestern Athletic Conference; moderator of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina; and chairman of the Religious Life Committee in the Burke County branch of the NAACP.
James Stamey
James O. Stamey is a maintenance worker for Burke County government. He ran for an Eastern District seat on the school board in 2005 and 2007 (his letter of application says he has run for a board seat three times). His residence is in the Chesterfield Elementary School District.
He graduated from Freedom High School in 1997. He enrolled in Western Piedmont Community College in 2008 and says his goal is to become a political science major.
He worked as a custodian for the Burke County Public Schools from 2000 until he was dismissed in 2007, according to the school board's minutes. Stamey says his duties for Burke County "include erecting county street signs for EMS addresses, mail courier for county offices and clerk of court from time to time, working with water and sewer department from time to time and maintenance of county buildings."
He lists no civic memberships or participation on his resume. He says he worked with many student athletes in various sports programs at Freedom High and "was part of six NCHSAA state championship teams."
Justin Tate
Justin Tate is sales and operations manager for Catawba Valley Brewing Co. and prior to that was deputy director of the Avery County Board of Elections (2003-05) and an election specialist for the Burke County Board of elections. He and his wife, Paula, live in the Salem Elementary School district.
He has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville (2003).
He and his wife, a social studies teacher at Draughn High School, have two sons who will enter the school system "soon."
At Catawba Valley Brewing Co., he creates and manages sales accounts, helps with operations, produces marketing tools and maintains the company's Web site.
He is an N.C. notary public. He is or has been a member of the Freemasons, Big Brothers & Big Sisters and Relay for Life and was an intern for Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., a former Republican congressman in Virginia.
David Turbeville
David Turbeville is the chaplain at Foothills Correctional Institute and a part-time teacher (Bible studies) at Western Piedmont Community College. He and his wife, Lisa, live in the Oak Hill Elementary School district.
He has a bachelor's degree in religion from Samford University (1983) and a master's of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1988).
His son graduated from Freedom High in 2006 and his daughter will graduate this month. Both plan to teach.
Tubreville was a minister to the deaf first in Irving, Texas, and then for First Baptist Church in Morganton from 1988 to 1993. He was a dorm director at N.C. School for the Deaf until 1996 when he became clinical chaplain at Foothills Correctional Institution.
He was a volunteer coach (baseball, basketball and softball) at Oak Hill Elementary for 10 years. He has helped announce games at Freedom High since 2002 and has announced Montreat College baseball games since 2007. He has taught youth at El Bethel Baptist Church and he and his wife started the Children's Church program there 17 years ago.
Nellie Yancey
Nellie Yancey was a teacher in the Burke County Public Schools from 1978 until she retired in 2008. She lives in the Oak Hill Elementary School district.
She has a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a bachelor's in academically gifted education from Lenoir-Rhyne University (1996). She is a certified K-6 elementary school teacher and a certified K-12 AG teacher.
In addition to teaching, she drove a school bus for 25 years, was chairwoman of third-grade education for five years and was a certified mentor for new teachers.
She was or has been a Women's Missionary Union director for 11 years, chair of a pastoral search committee and a Sunday School teacher for 30 years. She also manages church care ministries.