Linda McCaskill wants to be re-elected to her fourth term on the school board so she can “offer more to the children and citizens of Moore County than I have done in the past 12 years.”

Goals, she said, include more parent involvement, more community involvement, and “for us to have the best school system.”

McCaskill, a 57-year-old Hoke County native, is finishing her 12th year on the non-partisan school board. With all that board experience, she said, “I have had time to work with the schools, teachers, and parents, and to train to be a better board member.”

McCaskill feels that continuity is important on the board — particularly now, with two of the four seats up for election that are sure to bring in new board members. (Two incumbents, Mike Ritter and Ken Baer, are not seeking re-election this year.)

If re-elected, McCaskill hopes to “work on the middle school alternative program to help children earn respect and self-esteem.”

She also wants to work with other elected officials to get up-to-date technology and to work with teachers to set up a merit system for their advancement.

“We have to do something about funding, and with recruitment and retention of teachers as the community expects,” she said.

“… We’re going to have to look at redrawing attendance lines when the census information is in. When we build schools and you have them just about overcrowded by the time they are open, then is it because the county is growing so or because we can’t see far enough down the road as to what’s going to happen?”

Some of the Moore County Schools are not crowded, and some are, because of residential growth trends in different districts. McCaskill believes the issue of school board election districts and county commissioner election districts will also have to be tackled at the same time.

Acknowledging that morale is “not what it should be” among personnel in the Moore County Schools, McCaskill said Superintendent Pat Russo has been informed by the board that the issue must be addressed.

McCaskill is a payroll clerk for FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst. She and her husband, Lee, a retired state employee, have one grown son.

Asked about a feeling of distrust on the part of the county commissioners toward the board of education, McCaskill said, “I think what really perturbed the commissioners this year was when we put a $1.9 million request for technology in there. … This was part of the strategic plan with the technology dollars they approved three or four years ago.

“They said, `we’re not going to give you that money,’ and we felt betrayed because they were not going to give us (the support needed) to do what we agreed needed to be done.”

At first, the boards were going to meet “several times a year.” A mediation agreement called for more meetings between the two boards several years ago, but it never happened.

She hopes to help make the Moore County Schools “the best school system in the state” and to make it possible for “all students to be able to compete for any and all jobs, both in and out of the county.”

Moore County’s greatest assets, she believes, are “schools, education and the children of this county.” She said the county’s greatest liabilities are “not having full parental involvement and a curriculum that is not suitable for all.”

A graduate of Hoke County High School, she also has a degree from Hardbarger Business College in Raleigh.

Before being elected to the Moore County Board of Education, McCaskill worked for several years as elections supervisor for the Moore County Board of Elections office. She then went to work for the hospital in the accounting department, where she has worked for a number of years.