Christopher Wheedleton
Running for school board in Dorchester County District 5
How old will you be on Election Day (Nov. 5)?
54
Are you currently employed? If so, where, and what is your job title?
Business consultant, Rivers & Roads LLC.
What is the highest level of education that you completed, and where did you get that degree?
Master’s of business administration, Johns Hopkins University.
Why are you running for the school board?
In 2023, I had the honor of being appointed by the Dorchester County Council to complete the remainder of an open term, which runs through December 2024. I have enjoyed the work of the board and earned accolades from parents, teachers and students for organized, empathetic leadership, and thoughtful questions to each issue that comes before the board for consideration and action.
After one year of service and learning lots of what it takes to add value as a board member, and with the encouragement of family and friends, I decided to submit my name for election by the voters of District 5 to continue my service for a full term.
Throughout my career I have been able to stay close to education through direct work with national education innovators, as well as volunteering with Junior Achievement. I was able to work to gain philanthropic support totaling over $2 million for them nationally and served on the board for the Eastern Shore from 2019-23. I was also able to raise over $20,000 for charities supporting young people with special needs, led the conversion of Moving Dorchester Forward to one of the leading nonprofit entities in the area, as well as served as the co-lead for the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading for Dorchester County. I also led the Education Committee of the Dorchester Chamber from 2020-23 to help connect our business community to the educational system in ways that make real impact for our community.
Some of the key impacts that I have been able to add to the Board as the appointed member representing District 5 include collaboration and development of: A monthly publicly available Data Dashboard capturing what is most important to the board and community in a clear and actionable way; Clearer connections to the business community and elevation of the new supports and resources associated with the Blueprint Career and College Readiness priority area; and a reinstated Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) agricultural program at Dorchester Career & Technology Center to ensure that exposure to pathways to success in agriculture remain a viable part of the educational experience for students in our community.
I am committed to collaboration with all members of our community, educational excellence for our students and helping to create the conditions for growth in our community. My experience, skills, passion and transformative impact make me a compelling Board of Education candidate, poised to continue to meaningfully contribute to Dorchester County.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
I have had a career intersecting business and education. I spent 15 years in the consumer products industry with Nabisco, Kraft and Pepsi in sales, management and national leadership positions. In the second half of my career, I was able to leverage the training and experience I gained at those international corporations to get back to education as an executive at Edison Schools and Sylvan Learning, leading their online division nationally. I also led Corporate and Community Partnerships for University of Maryland as well as Purdue University in the startup of Purdue Global. All of those experiences led to a number of consulting opportunities that I turned into a full-time business in 2016. I have worked since then with a variety of organizations across the country to help them build foundations and improve processes leading to positive growth and impact.
This has kept me close to education innovations, as well as in collaborations to help education, business and the community working together toward common goals. I have found opportunities to help all stakeholders find common ground towards collective action.
I have also learned that the role of the board is to help bring together the 'what' and the 'why' of the district, while empowering the district leadership and educators to lead the 'how', without getting in their way.
What is the most important issue facing your school board and what would you do about it if elected?
I believe that there are three key priorities for us as a school board to help the community navigate. They include:
Put students first
There is a lot that goes into this. This includes making sure our students are safe, the culture and conditions for learning are the continuous goal, and the well-being of our students is paramount. The board and district leadership have worked to implement a comprehensive strategy of collaboration with law enforcement, staff and community stakeholders. We regularly work together to address and mitigate potential threats, creating a secure learning environment where students can thrive without compromise.
Give educators the tools they need.
While there are real budgetary constraints that school districts regularly are challenged to balance, there are opportunities for us to engage and listen to educators share what they need to be able to thrive in their important roles of helping create the conditions for our students to grow. Professional support and compensation, continued education and development, and the best resources that we can supply for them to do their jobs are basic foundations that our educators should be able to expect. Real and consistent collaboration that enables them to share and be heard, and more importantly, see action and outcomes are critical to giving educators what they need. Educators include teachers AND every trusted adult in our community that are part of the pathways to success for our students – we need ALL who want to be part of that to get involved.
Get the entire community involved.
Students need to know what is available to them outside of school. Whether they want to choose a career right out of school or additional education, it is an important part of our role as educators and members of the community surrounding them to help students find the pathways to success for them. This requires engagement, collaboration, and clear communication with all members of our community including businesses, organizations, and supports that are available to our students. Apprenticeships are finally being seen as the solutions that they can be for young people to explore and learn what sparks them and helps them to figure out their best path. This also helps develop the talent pipeline for our local businesses to thrive.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
I personally think that we put too much emphasis on specific individuals that we admire and then unfortunately draw conclusions about an individual based on who they list and their various opinions about them. I am more comfortable naming leadership qualities that I admire and that I aspire to in my work on the school board. I admire and appreciate leaders who listen, take in all facts that they can gather, engage with all stakeholders possible and then make decisions that bring all the best thoughts and solutions possible together.
In my opinion, none of the work that we do on the school board should come down to individuals and specific agendas and biases that they may have. It is a collective effort of the individuals that comprise the board with a full sharing of information, collaborative discussion and conclusions that represent the individuals as well as those they represent.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the General Assembly in 2021, is a 10-year plan that includes increased education funding to support early childhood education, increased teacher starting pay, college/career-readiness standards for high school graduates, and expanded services to multilingual and impoverished families, among other goals. Please tell us your views on the Blueprint and how it will affect your school district.
I believe in all the premises and intended outcomes for the Blueprint for Maryland's Future. To have a clear direction toward a vision and mission that will get us to breakthrough results in these key areas is a good and strong expectation to set, and there clearly were a lot of research-based priorities that were set forth in the Blueprint.
The challenges now are in the practical application of seeing those goals and objectives implemented. There are significant obstacles that exist in the way that it is structured for stakeholders who want to participate, to be able to engage and support the plans. Partners in early childhood education that have the best practices and the means to support are confused and see requirements of the plan that impede their ability to participate. Likewise, the funding models and expectations for funding collaboration at the county level have actually pitted agencies against each other in ways that they do not wish to be opposed, but the expectations put them at odds without guidance and clarity as to the original intent and with solutions to how to move forward.
I would like to see collaborative solutions that enable us to collectively move forward toward actionable plans and am committed to doing my part as a board member to helping that happen.
Some school districts nationwide are placing new limits on the use of cellphones in middle and high schools. What do you think should be the policy on student use of cellphones in your district, and why do you support that policy?
I fully support the current approach of our school district which is to take all the latest best practices and pilot them during this school year to see the various impacts of multiple approaches. This will enable all stakeholders to educate ourselves, have collaborative discussions throughout the year and culminate in a recommendation from the superintendent and the district leadership team in the spring of 2025, which the board will be able to discuss, question and find the best solutions for our community.
I will support the policy that best supports the academic environment of learning for our students. Our job is to help create the conditions for all students to learn and thrive.
Are you satisfied with your school district's efforts to ensure the safety of its students? What, if anything, should be done to improve school safety in your district?
I am satisfied with our efforts. We have developed over the course of the last year a districtwide School Safety Plan, elevated a key leader with a strong background in that area, invested in technologies aligned to the needs of different school levels and personalities and instituted a system focused on data-driven decision making and continuous review and improvement.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries? If so, what kind of books should be removed, and who should make those decisions?
I believe that students should have access to age-appropriate peer and community reviewed books in our libraries. The district has policies and processes in place to ensure that there is regular review and approval from a cross-section of our school communities for all curricula, books and learning materials. With each approval that is asked of us as a board, my main questions (if not already answered) are 1) Have we followed our policy and procedures for this recommendation to make it to the board?, and 2) Who was on the group that completed the review?
I support any parent or community stakeholder being able to raise questions or concerns that they may have, and that our policies and procedures are consistently followed with any review. The only time circumstances that I would support is if a recommendation came to us to make a change that has gone through that comprehensive process.
Some school districts enact policies allowing transgender and gender nonconforming students to use their preferred pronouns while at the same time not informing those students' parents about that decision. What is your opinion of such policies?
I believe school districts and school boards have a responsibility to work together to create the best conditions for all students to thrive. That means a lot of different things to different students and their communities. I am personally most focused on ensuring as a board member that we are clear and consistent with both our policies and the application of them. I have not seen any specific examples that match what you describe in your question and have not developed a full opinion of such policies as a result.
I believe in continuous growth and learning, and this drives a curiosity to learn more and develop more of an informed opinion about it. At the same time, there have been no questions that have come before me with this question and I would need to consider all the variables in front of me in order to develop an opinion or come to a conclusion on a question before us as a board.
