Campaign email: tracyhmcguire@comcast.net
Facebook: www.facebook.com/McGuire4BOE
Age: 59
Employment: I work at the Law Offices of Julie A. Schejbal and I am assistant to the attorney. I’m not an attorney myself.
Education: Bachelor’s of Science at George Mason University.
Why are you running for the school board?
I was on the school board in Calvert County for 12 years from 2008 to 2020. And in Calvert County, it’s a term-limited position so I couldn’t run in 2020. I decided to run again in 2022 because I’ve had a break in service, so now I’m eligible to run and I decided to run again to serve my community.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
I know how to be a school board member and If you’ve never done (it) before you don’t know how to do it. I have spent a lot of time learning how to do it and I know how to do it.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
I’m going to go with John Lewis because he’s just so brave. (The late Georgia) Congressman John Lewis. So brave and fearless, and he knew that good trouble was worthwhile.
What is the most important issue facing your school board, and what would you do about it if elected?
So there’s an outward-facing problem with the school board, which is the fomenting of anger at schools and teachers and administrators that seems to be happening in our community: allegations of grooming and pedophiles and things like that. None of it’s true, but it’s creating a lot of consternation in the community. So, I think the school board needs to address that. The information is false. This is not happening in our schools. Then I think of an inward-facing challenge is the learning for students who did not do well in distance learning or remote learning virtual learning during the COVID pandemic. We’ll need to invest lots of resources to help those students catch up.
How concerned are you about school safety, and what if anything should be done to improve it?
I’m concerned with access to guns in many communities, including ours. And so I would initiate the Be Smart initiatives to help educate adults about how if you’re a gun owner how to safely store your guns so that children can’t access them and bring them to school. And I think that one of our safety issues is student mental health. I think we should be assisting in investing in mental health services in schools that they’re very hard to find. I don’t know how it is in other counties, but in Calvert County, finding those services are very challenging if we can provide them in the schools, which we do now, but I think we need to do more of it.
Do you have any concerns about the way history is taught in your district’s schools, and if so, what are they?
I do not.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries, and if so, what kind of books should be removed?
I object to banning books. Period…I think that students should have access to the materials that they want to read. And school librarians are experts at helping children select reading materials and so I don’t have any object to banning books and I support librarians and the choices they make for public schools.
